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Apr 2017

It's at the very bottom of the website's front page, just past all the indie goodness.

oh God, i just found it. Why is it pushed way down like this? i schemed through the comments and clearly i wasn't the only one lost here : (
thanks for the response all the same.

For now, yes, I think that people would calm down, but honestly, this reaction from creators seems to be a symptom of a much deeper problem

I agree with @devika s response that

even before the app was created, creators seemed to still have a fair amount of difficulty promoting their comic on the site. It may have been frustrating and all, but I feel that creator apprehensions really ramped up with the release of the app. the app primarily consist of A) paid comics or B) extremely popular content (maybe 20ish series). With all of that relegated to the front, and trending and browse all (the main ways the majority of creators get seen) being not really easy to access (you have to click through at least one or 2 pages to get to them) nor having any flashier colors to incentivize clicking on it (like the trending tab looks similar to all the other tabs in browse all, no more importance is brought to it through design or color unlike banners present on the front page), promoting a comic on a platform that was already tricky to promote on just became a lot harder.

Even after the app came out though, at least there was the website which remained relatively unchanged, but after the new update, I think the reaction that came out of trending/popular being moved to the bottom of the front page was a result of seeing a trend where promotion is becoming an increasingly difficult task and for fear that this trend will continue in the future.

Honestly, I don't think too many creators have a problem with the paid for content being part of taptastic, but to me, the ratio of paid/popular content to everything else is a little alarming. There's tons of categories for paid for content including top books and tons of collections, but rather few for the majority of creators (pretty much trending and browse all are it). I don't know if it's the same for others, but I can't help but see it as "there's pretty much 2 categories that help promote the majority of comics and yet all of them are buried under other content. How hard can it be to promote just 2 categories?" If you bury those two underneath everything else no one will see it, yet if you promote those two they take up a pretty small space, they're just 2 after all, and anyone that looks at the app for more than 5 seconds is still going to see all the other promoted content. I mean, i'm not an app designer so i'm sure there's more complexities to making a website or app than I think, but i'd be lying to myself if I denied the sentiments I expressed previously.

This sounds brutal but i think many of us need to emotionally walk away from the platform. Countless of dodgy updates have shown were not a priority here, were they're feeder comics as Plume put it, were doing their marketing. That's why since they're company statement didn't match my own i stopped promoting the site as the main place to read and started to push my own site and other mirrors. I'll stay for my readers as long as my readers are still around but I'm not comfortable pushing new readers to THIS SITE when i feel it's not a good place to read. I mean i will still let people know, along with other mirrors incase they're already using the site but i no longer push it as my MAIN site.
It's heartbreaking when your invested but at the end of the day, they're a business, and Thier investors are more powerful than us. It's best if we steal our shelves as a community, support each to create outside of host sites since like partners, they come and goes but friends remain wink

For me it's difficult to bite the hand that feeds as my readership on Tap trumps my tumblr mirrors.
I'm not opposed to trying out other sites but at this point in time I don't really want to start afresh again. Having my own site sounds nice too, however I really don't have the time to maintain a domain as well as work on updates for multiple series. Unless Tap does something egregious (claiming rights to our work, shutting down completely, etc.), I'll stay here and still continue to support them.

I'm just glad the staff, especially Michael Son, are here to listen and are open to suggestions.

Same. I'm thankful that Tap exists and brought me the readership I have, but what has motivated me most to draw my comics is ...Tapastic itself. The website, the community, the thrill to be part of it as it all grows... It has really fueled me a lot. But since the end of Support Program and the ongoing panics about every new update my feelings have been seriously shaken. I only wish for this platform to grow strong and nice for everybody, but I recognize myself less and less in it. I'm getting alienated and the thrill of submitting pages is dying.

Putting Trending/Popular to the bottom was a massive faux pas and terrible signal sent to the entire community. It's not something we're going to forget so easily, I'm afraid. And I say this as a person who has a hard time holding grudges or remembering traumatic and negative things.

I myself don't have a self hosted site, i have my tumblr page with a custom domain and a comic theme. And i do hold on to negative feelings (broken home on the bread line, it becomes a point of survival to remember)
I won't be high tailing it out of here as some of my friends have done in the past but it's important for self preservation to understand they're a business. This is free hosting, a nice thing to offer but it's not guaranteed to remain that way forever for as and when the companies strategy changes or Thier overheads become too large. Self preservation is crucial.
I will admit my sub number is highest here, chased closely by WT and thirdly by tumblr, but another thing I've become aware of is that not all my readers will want to use a certain site or will primarily remain on a different site. Using mirrors and promoting my comic over promoting only one host is a better in my opinion.

First of all, I want to thank the admins that they listened to us and made some changes regarding the main issue (the placing of "dynamic trending indie content" vs "static paid content") rather quickly.
Yes, it did send a wrong signal in the first place. But you were willing to listen to us and changed it. And let's face it: This is something you don't see on every website.
That being said, I hope that the font will fixed soon as well, so I can express my love properly again <3

PS: The untitled section that seems to offer tshirts and a bunch of series also confuses me ^^

PPS: And also hoping that the forum link will be put on the top again as well ^^

That being said, I hope that the font will fixed soon as well, so I can express my love properly again <3

Can you tell me what exactly the font issue is (+ o/s and browser information)? If I can recognize the font issue you talked, I can fix it.
Thank you!

PS: I updated font files (we're using google webfonts instead of hosting one; before we were hosting ourselves but I changed it yesterday.)
FYI: We're always trying to listen to you guys.. but sometimes it's hard to react right after hearing you guys voices!

I think the new font is absolutely lovely!
(And thank you so, so much for listening to our thoughts<3)

where did the forum tab went to? how can i easily access it again?

We added the "Forums" menu on the profile dropdown menu, next to "dashboard", "settings", etc yesterday. It's also in the footer!

I think a lot of the font issues is that it's too bubbly and can be hard to read for some, another issue was that some of the emojis are a bit messed up with this font. Particularly the "<3" and ":3" The 3 in this font has a straight flat top which warps the shape of the heart and cat mouth.

Why not in the top bar as well? It still feels a bit hidden in the drop down menu and it could go missed and overlooked there.

However, thank you so much for the changes you guys are making, thank you for listening to the community.

Is it still bubbly? Right there was some issues with new font rendering but I hope it was fixed last night. If not, please let me know. Oh.. I never think about the heart and cat mouth issues but I'll try to fix that issue. Just to be clear, we'll keep the quicksand font but some special characters and numbers will be rendered with different fonts!

Well.. now tap bar is too busy. I know we add the "Book" menu instead of "Forums" but we need to keep our business (or our roadmap). Because if not, we can't keep our lovely tapas(tic) to be alive in the world. We're really a small startup company we don't have any mother company as LINE. That means, we have to make a money to pay bills ourselves. But I'd love to make the great Comic platform where anyone can public comics and meet/make fans, even making small money(to purchase the Wacom Cintiq!) (Sorry I'm not a CEO so I can't guarantee about this but I'll try my best to do this.).

Thank you for reading this.

PS: I'm not good at English writing skill. Please understand any wrong sentences. (But I'm good at coding so I can fix most issues!)

Genuinely curious, what's the purpose of the Creators link? Does anyone actually use it? I can't imagine anyone using it to find new titles to read, so...

Keep up the hard work! :heart:

I have a desire to respond to the passive-aggressive signs in the ad spaces, shaming me for having ad-block turned on, that I didn't have ad-block on the old URL. You guys are the ones who changed the website's whole name, for some reason. This is what happens when you do that.

I see improvements font-wise elsewhere, but my biggest issue is how thin the font is on the series stats (the little grey bar with your icon + subs/views/comments/etc), coupled with the shade of grey you used on top of the grey box.

Thank you guys again for fixing things up so quickly! It means a lot.

YO BOY! Add FRESH on the top of the website, new comics had problems with the old layout already and add more than 5 pages MY NAME A JEFF

I think it may be a problem that is says "add to library" on comics instead of "subscribe". A lot of my readers that come from Facebook / tumblr who is not familiar with tapastic has asked me where the subscribe button is...

I guess that's a bug. We'll take a look at it. Thank you!

I just hate how they put all the new/fresh comics under the carpet. They say it's because spam series and inapriopriate thumbnails, while popular section is filled with family friendly BL, showing pretty boys giving each other head lol
I check fresh section from time to time, so far didn't see any spam series, just really great comics pushed away for the sake of the premium content.
If they are so scared of spam series and other breaking their guidelines they should work on report button, you know, something that every website ever have instead of trying to control everything.

From the visual side it's pretty okay I guess.