Well, my bet is that Tapas is in a period of quick cash. That's why.
Just give it some time and they will open for a new period of fantastic creative work again when Tapastry gets in full play.

Most of the artists on this site are still learning the ropes. Rather than saying they are bad, supporting them is better in my opinion. If you want "good" comics, there are always the premium ones.

Bad is kind of a subjective descriptor. A lot of artists here are beginners, and a lot of comics explore popular themes at the time which seems to be romance?

and backgrounds are a pain to draw lmao.

It's most likely that Tapas is aiming to please the major demographic who just so happen to like those comics. That way they can make the most money.

But I get where you are coming from. If someone is not into those kinds of comics, they are super stale and overshadow other types of comics that are underrated as a consequence of Tapas boosting those premium comics.

It can feel like the trends are pushing everything else to the sidelines...

I mean, I get that Tapastic is a growing company and needs to follow the money to stay afloat to support the smaller creators and projects, but I do wish their premiums had more of a variety than just "The Hit WebManga Adaptation of the Hit Fantasy-Romanace-Slice of Life light novel "I just tripped over a pebble and died but also got sent to a fantasy world where I'm the chosen one due to wearing nice jeans and also the bad guy isn't so bad and is also really hot and also maybe in love with me!!!!?!??"" Candy's good, but you can't live off of candy alone. It's boring after a while and not good for your growth in the long run.

Some premium comics are fun tho, but those are usually the smaller ones that don't get as much exposure as the big ones do due to one reason or another.

Given Tapas is still a for profit company and comics like that are what earn them the most revenue that's what's become their focus. Which isn't to say that obviously a good portion of the community isn't tired or seeing them much less made some complaint or another about their over saturation but there's a few factors worth taking into account.

To name a few Tapas has to make money to maintain the site and keep things running, and by extension there's more going on behind the scenes that a regular user may be aware of. Obviously we're not gonna know the full reasoning behind the company's decisions but they're gonna do what they're gonna do. Input from the community has been taken into account now and then but at the end of the day Tapas gets the final say. There's also the fact that Tapas likely has to compensate for the fact that they're not taking fees from certain parts of creator revenue (i forget which but browsing through the forum threads might turn something up).

The point is that many many many people have made complaints as to what saturates the front page, a lot of us who've been here more than a few years knows this for a fact. BL, translated titles and other "generic" comics/webtoons have been the subject of a lot of ire but all you can do is ride it out till something changes or just try another platform

Every business follows whatever gives them money, and if more of those comics mean more money, hell yeah, they're gonna get all of 'em.
Unfortunately it all comes down to the cash and not just how good the story actually is. Then again, I might be wrong.

It reads like somebody never heard of Sturgeon's Law.

Are you talking about the premium ones?

I do find some of them a little repetitive, perhaps the same author is making them?

I guess my opinion is- to each their own? Like I feel like anyone, whether new or experienced, can make what they want and if they receive a lot of recognition- then great for them!

What does everyone else think?

You mean "comics you don't like" and there are so many of them because lots of people do like them and like them enough to pay money to read them :P.

I love a gorgeous background as much as the next person but the reality is that most readers do not notice or care so long as the story they enjoy is getting delivered at a good pace and the overall impression is there.

So readers know what they are getting and end up reading the stories that are a good fit for what they want.

Stories don't have to have a super unique premise to be appealing, meaningful or entertaining.

The artists and writers on the front page work very hard and bring a bit of happiness/escape/fantasy to a lot of people. It's cool to not have the same taste or hope that there could be more diversity in what Tapas ends up showcasing but... I dunno, being bitter about it isn't the best look.

I wouldn't say any comic is "bad" or "unimaginative", that's p rude to your fellow creators. Most of them share similar art styles because they're in style (ha). And the backgrounds are mostly 3D because they're time consuming, and most of these series don't have background artists. These series have to pump out a ton of complete art in just a week. Time>Quality for any published work like this (which most premium comics are published by Tapas themselves, I'd imagine) , which is def okay since you read comics for their story anyways. And the title thing is probably remnants of the Isekai trend

I know this is totally subjective, but I dislike this sort of mentality. Just,,, feel like you should be nice to your fellow creators esp since y'all share the same platform. You may dislike their work but they're doing their best, whether they're a team or an individual creator,,,,

oof ngl its threads like this that make it clear to me why more premium folks don’t hang out in the forums

If you're pumping out 30-60-90 panels a week (a WEEK) then yes, something has to give. the cracks will show. TBH, that is a fault that should be on Tapas for setting that sort of standard--it makes it so front page stuff that represents this site can't spend as much time on backgrounds, and other quality things. The ire with comics is it is so backbreaking to do over and over that you do see our greatest faults on display.

And thousands? If you're saying thousands then you're not talking about the front page stuff, because there's not that many of those. Our front page is extremely small (it should be waaay bigger, IMO) TBH I thought you were referring to the free-to-read everyman comics until I read farther down in the thread.

One thing that also hasn't been pointed out yet - a lot of those comics are translated. They're not getting all thrown in because staff mandated Isekai With Weird Power needs a dozen comics by a deadline, some are made from Tapas and a lot of them are from other sites/apps that aren't in English. And well, they were picked up for being sucessful elsewhere - they didn't have to be artistic masterpieces to get read and bought by people who really just wanted that one type of plot.
(and thank god, because as Rajillustration pointed out, their production time is crazy)

Why are we here? Just to suffer... Every day I feel my..

Those 'trendy' villainess and isekai comics are currently extremely popular with the main demographic of Tapas, which is why the front page is so over saturated with them. Tapas is following what currently makes them money. I don't think it's a brilliant long-term strategy - following trends rarely is, you want to have enough diversity to set them - but Tapas is still small, and it's a safe strategy for the time being. So long as they have their finger on the pulse and know when to switch gears, it'll help them grow.

I don't much care for Tapas premuim offerings either - I don't follow any at all - but those artists work at a backbreaking pace to achieve the quality and quantity they have to meet each week. While I'm happy to criticise the lack of variety, and the same-y, shallow quality of many premium stories, I'm less willing to rag on the art.

If you want variety, look to the community comics. There's incredible work being made, some of which is extremely high-quality. Also, look to WEBTOON. Their Originals have more variety than the Premuim comics on Tapas, as they're a larger company with more money to pour into experimenting with what could potentially be trendy in the future, rather than just what's trendy now. And their CANVAS side, similar to the community comics on Tapas, is enormously diverse, with some absolute gold star work.

Oh god, here we go again with this. The old "these/this comic(s) doesn't deserve to be popular" chant.
It's been going on since the beginning of the internet.

Welcome to the webcomic community.
.

It's totally like they find something people like and milk it to death. How many stories have I seen in the last 2 weeks about a guy trapped in a virtual reality game who needs to level up or beat the game to escape it again? Way too many. And all of them get popular, which means more clones of that one story that people liked originally, and it just ruins the whole thing. But they're not bad, just repetitive.

They're what's popular, so they're what's going on the front page. It's just the way sites that create this type of content work. Besides, what's bad and what's good is dependent on who's judging as far as art goes. There's plenty of people who like those comics anyway.

Personally, I'd rather focus on what I'm doing than how Tapas is running their business. Besides, those "bad" comics still require time and hard work. You're judging on a surface level--covers and summaries--because I know you're not paying to read the story and properly judge. The artists and writers are just like the rest of us, their hard work just paid off and they had a bit of luck (wrote the right story at the right time, or got read by the right people who spread the word about it).

Do I plan to read the premium stories? Probably not. At least, not most of them, but I'm happy for their success. And here's the thing: success isn't a finite resource so really, what is there to get mad about? How is it affecting you? Your chance at success isn't jeopardized by those comics.

It's not worth being salty over. Whatever you think of those comics, people worked hard making them. Good for those artists and writers for getting to a place where they can be paid. Their existence isn't keeping these "actually good" comics from getting views.

We'd all like to live in a world where Tapas found every deserving hidden gem and rose them to the top, but reality is harder then that. But you do yourself no favors if you blame one comics failure on the success of another.

If you're talking about regular, non-Tapas Originals webcomics, then yes. Many of the people there are still learning.

If you're talking about Tapas Originals however, then that's what gets popular nowadays. Tapas IS a business, and their priority is profit, so they WILL greenlight webcomics that pay well. Even I'm kind of burnt out by them. Artistically they all look different but it looks like they all have the same plotlines (sometimes theyre even kind of problematic?). But honestly that's just me.

Well, I guess if people are into that stuff, whatever, you know? As long as the comic itself isn't inherently gross and problematic, then we have no right to shame people reading those comics. Read the isekai that captures your heart. I always get kind of iffy whenever someone complains about "bad comics" with very little to no constructive criticism on a comic-hosting site, especially if they're a reader-only type of person, comes across as very entitled to me.

This implies that those comics are good in their own right.

Again implying that those comics don't have their own merits. And if reader truly want to read comics outside of what commonly shown on the front page they can go and look for them. And I realize there is a struggle front page space for community creators, but that does all of a sudden negate the other avenue to find non premium comics on the site that are of different genres.

Degrading to who? Community comic creators? I doubt it if you're putting you energy into things that matter.

We can go on and on about how Tapas chooses to advertise comics on this site. There's a lot to criticize. I'm not surprised that people are bothered or frustrated or irritated with the state of affairs on Tapas. But who are you helping by making statements like these or even condoning them? Why condemn these comics and subsequently the effort of the people behind them. If you want to call them repetitive, trite, overrated, or boring, those are all fair criticisms. But to outright call them bad with nothing to justify or explain as to why you think that, while it's an opinion you can have, I don't think it's a mindset you should carry.

Is it so hard to talk about the inequities of the front page and advertising on Tapas without trying to bring down other comics (and possibly creators)? If someone made a thread insinuating community comics were "bad", "all looked the same", "had terrible background art", "were unimaginative and basic" while actual "good comics" (which would be premium comics in this example) don't need to share website space with the rest of them, would that be fair?

Call it what you want, punching up or picking on the big guy, it's just kind of telling, a bit juvenile, and pretty mean. but that's just my opinion

They look very similiar and the style is not my taste but there must be a large audience who digs them otherwise they wouldn´t put them there.
I wouldn´t call them bad though, just not my taste, they look technically very well done

I agree that to me, personally, the front page comics don't look or sound that appealing, and I would find it cool if there was a bit more diversity in how stylized they are and what stories they tell.... But they do get traffic and generate money that the rest of the site also profits from!
Having a website like tapas also costs money. There's staff etc too.

If you want community comics to be more popular, then be the change you want to see and support the ones, you personally, find worthy.
Leave comments, like, share it and recommend it to other people on other platforms, maybe give ink.

If tapas can make more money off its community content, it'll also boost it more

If those comics are what drive people to the website and keep it running then Tapas would be mad to stop promoting those. Otherwise they won’t make monkey and go the way of Smack Jeeves.

Some of the readers (who like the premium content) might go on to read and sub to smaller comics eventually too.

Just realised I wrote ‘monkey’.

Gotta earn those monkeys.