Okay - that kinda sucks. But recently (back in octoberish?) there was a similar sittuation where a new website was doing the same thing and lifting comics from tapastic/other places and staff played a pretty big role in taking that place down.
Actions speak louder than words I guess? I dunno,that might not be relevant. Thanks for bringing this to my attention.
I would like to hear about Comic Panda's transgressions from the current staff. Did it come under new management who changed it to the Tapastic/Tapas brand and how we know them today?
I'll tag @michaelson for this, sorry if I'm bothering you Michael!
currently it seems like the Comic Panda thing is a big piece of evidence for the "TOS is trying to screw us over" theory. Thanks for asking 
Bonus question: has Tapastic done anything directly for the creators they hurt with the Comic Panda thing, or made any sort of public statements about it in the past?
I remember that other site lifting our comics. They took mine too. And Tapastic acted fast to stop them. I would like to hope the company has learned from their past mistakes. I would love to believe that they truly want to make a safe place for creators. But they also tried putting language in their TOS that conflicted with contracts I already had. Are people unreasonably scared about this? It really all depends on what people are trying to do with their comics. Letting a company use legalese to play around with creators' rights is a slippery slope and people absolutely have the right to be alarmed by it.
Creators are probably fine here, but the industry as a whole is very... well, prone to IP issues. People can stay or go as they please and shaming them for their reasons one way or another is really unfair. Tap claims this clause was meant to help creators but there was nothing stopping them from offering that option from the start rather than making it a barrier between a creator and an outside contract. In fact, I'm rather interested in as to how Tapastic has any idea what their creators were signing contracts for considering Tapastic would not have been involved in any way with said contracts. It would have been none of their business.
[side note] Mods are unpaid volunteers from the community. We aren't staffers, nor are we attached to Tapas in anyway. We have our own thoughts and opinions of situations and are allowed to voice them like everyone else in the community.
I honestly don't see anything mean spirited in Uzuki's comment, other than being frankly blunt honest. Leaving is a good option if you're unhappy with a site. Staying somewhere that makes you mad at each turn doesn't make much sense. It's healthy and empowering for us creators to keep in mind that we have this ability. Sites like Tapas are merely platform sites and it's possible for creators to build and grow a readership on any alternative site, collective, group, and/or your own personal site.
Right, so the good news is that the clause is gone. For some people that's not enough, but some people can never be pleased, yeah?
So here's the deal breaker. Obviously the narrative driven by the dev team is that they want to give creators options, and I am down with options. I think everybody is, and empowering creators is something I'd love to see, especially with future publishing/sales opportunities. But of course it has to be optional. Tapas, we WANT more tools, but of course we're gonna defend the rights to our content. We're hoping to see a very, very clairvoyant clause that would more accurately accomplish what you say you wanted, no shady business.
C'mon dude, Uzuki's comment was dripping with condescending attitude. Volunteer or not, some professional behavior would be appreciated from anybody who wants to keep the community clean/positive. Uzuki wasn't even responding to me and I felt offended, hahaha! Real appreciation for volunteer work, but please don't talk down to anybody. You're language was blunt, Cindy, but Uzuki's was much more than just blunt.
Look, I get that nerves are pretty frazzled at this point after all of the discussion and misunderstanding today, but this is not doing Tapas any favors to keep creators around or to keep a good image.
Uzuki's reply, right now, is being passed around on the comics Twitter as just another reason that Tapas doesn't give a shit about creators, because of the attitude that comes off in their reply. You realize right now, the mods that answer these are seen as, whether you like it or not, the acting PR for the Tapas community, right?
It sucks to have that on your shoulders, but god, if you don't want to cement in people's minds how shitty this ordeal was, reread before you post and really think about what you say and how it'll come off.
Oh for crying out loud. You know, from READER POV, you all who getting selfish and didn't care about your reader here on Tapas and don't want to hear what the staff said can just leave.
Good riddance.
And I can assure you, I am not the only one who think that way. There are many app only reader and do you think they won't get angry when you, the selfish arrogant author who didn't even want to hear what the staff say, just removing all your stuff without even giving a chance for the reader to react?
Who the heck you think you are? Sure, Tapas is build upon a creator, but you aren't the only creator in the universe you know. You want to get out from Tapas and host your own web site? Go ahead. Maybe then you will see what it means to running a comic website.
Is it that hard to just wait ONE freaking day before you decided 'oh I will have my own comic website and be king/queen' there! HUH!?
But of course, why you guys even bother care about your reader right? It's your comic. you can just take it out and don't give a shit about your reader.
And you want the mod bow down to you and do all your bidding. Wow. See the trend here?
Uzuki's "just leave" comments seemed rather... aggressive and immature. I did not realize they were a mod. And yes, people CAN leave. The issue is that many people don't want to. They love Tapastic and want to stay, they just don't want to be afraid for their rights as creators. This kind of 'just leave' attitude will only drive away people that wanted to stay. And it will keep away others who were thinking about joining. This is exactly the kind of attitude that was shown to longform comic creators years ago, when it was made clear that Tapastic was only interested in mobile-ready comics. There's nothing wrong with having a niche, and there is nothing wrong with defending your right as a site to cater to whatever market works for you, but the attitude is highly unwelcoming. You yourself are rather graceful about it and that's how mods should be handling such things.
And this is why I stay away from Twitter. Text on the internet can be so bare bones that without hearing the inflections of a person's voice you can't really get the full picture of what they're saying. And another issue I have is twitter is so to-the-minute it's hard for people to be patient there to wait for complete and definitive answers on topics such as this. One snarky quip to the wrong person who takes offense and your reputation is ruined. It doesn't help that if you type one thing there it gets cast to the wind immediately. Like this clause had been in the ToS for TWO weeks before it blew up today.
This is just a mess... so pretty much stay if you wanna, leave if you gotta hahaha
I do agree with @Alli (I'm so sad to see TQ leave btw) it isn't Tapas' business on what contracts are being signed out there by creators. I thought it was very... monopolizing of them. How would they even know when a creator signs somewhere else? Comics leave Tapas all the time to other host websites, I don't know why now it has become an issue worth addressing.
Anyway, this whole mess has just driven me to really make a website for my comic and use Tapas as a mirror site. It was bound to happen but this has just moved things to a tighter schedule.
Oof, I should have expected some backlash from that post. Ah well, here we go.
Please, don't judge the rest of the mod staff - who are here by volunteering, not paid or affiliated with Tapas media in any way - based on one salty egg. That's unfair to the other wonderful people that have dedicated and continue to dedicate their time to this community. Judge me all you want, but leave the others alone. Thank you.
I'd like to stress again, none of the moderators here work for Tapas. We are volunteer members of the community, period. So no, I'm not trying to put a noose around anyone's neck, and I am not creating these clauses that you're all so upset about.
The mod team are creators just like you. And just like you, the members of the mod team get concerned with new updates, design changes, and ToS updates just like everyone else. We email the staff like crazy with questions and concerns, we tag Michael in the forums whenever we need him to answer a staff-related question, we also get angry and upset when we're left wondering what the literal hell is going on. Even I have considered leaving Tapas during rough periods like this. Maybe not this one specifically, but plenty of times in the past where it seemed unclear where Tapas is going. The key is not to jump ship the moment you see an iceberg - it might just be a hunk of snow.
Whoof. I'm more concerned that people are taking these as reputable sources at face value. Because the unpaid volunteer mod team of the forums are not a very official good source if you're looking for the company's morals straight from the company's mouth. See above.
Also, are people mentioning me on Twitter? Because that's awesome. I've finally made it in the world, ma! /s
But we really can't answer your questions more than anyone else here. Even the mod team have been waiting for an official statement from Tapas on this whole ToS dispute. We can answer your questions as best we can, but that's as good as it gets - as best we can. We haven't been told much else from what staff has already told you.
So in that regard, you're all just as much PR representatives as the mod team.
TL ; DR: I am not sorry for what I said, as it is my opinion just like everyone else's opinion here, whether you agree, disagree, or agree to disagree. I am sorry if it offended some of you personally, but please know that was not my intention.
Now that that's done, I'm going to switch from Tapas user mode to mod mode:
This thread isn't about me. My 15 minutes of fame is up lol Let's get back on topic please <3
I really like what the clause was offering, even if it was a complete misnomer. I'd love to monetize Time Gate to the point of being financially stable in the future - being able to leverage offers between comic platforms would be dope af if it ever became an offer/option. I mean, why take $1000 when another place is offering $3000? Imagine if that other place was Tapas - you get to keep posting to the place you love, and you get paid three times the amount you were originally going to get paid for posting somewhere else. I just hope that the removal of the clause in the ToS doesn't mean these options are completely off the table. That would suck for those who could have benefited from it 
Honestly, tons of people on twitter think the ROFR clause is still in the TOS even though it was removed a couple of hours ago. Then the extreme exaggeration of the clause itself that make it seem like Tapas is out to steal your IP, your family, your house, and your life. Especially some people saying that they just snuck it into the TOS like...no...they made announcements of changes to the TOS. Not to mention, companies change their TOS all the time.
I definitely understand professionals who've dealt with that sort of behavior from publishing companies (akin to how you apparently can't develop anything while working under any animation studio because it becomes their IP) and the paranoia makes sense, but some people are definitely blowing things out of proportion.
I care about my readers. Especially the ones who pay to read what I create or (at least) don't act entitled to my hard work. So, in that way, I guess I care about most of my readers.
Please refer to above re: Entitlement. You are not entitled to enjoy the hard work of others for free. However, creators should be entitled to retain the intellectual property rights for their creations unless they choose to sell those rights.
That said, I'm glad to see that Tapas has removed the clause. I'm still disturbed by the fact that it was inserted to begin with. I just can't wrap my head around the idea that it was done on my behalf without my consent -- even if that is somehow the case, it's still sorta like, shame on you for thinking that you somehow know what's in my best interest and acting on that? You're not my Dad, Tapastic.
Not fair to the readers? What about the people who work hard to make this shit? What do you expect? People panicked and left because of Tapastic's poor wording, they feared their intellectual property was in danger. I agree that they should have at least waited until Tapastic's response before leaving the site completely, but I wouldn't say this is unfair to readers because it's very easy to just go read the comic they enjoy on a different platform.
I think what @ahhvecadoes meant was that the mods are seen as PR for the Tapas community in sense of how you treat the users, even if you don't have the answers. What's being commented the most on Twitter is that people expect more professionalism from a moderator, volunteer or not. It's less about the content and more about the tone of the posts.
I know everyone has their own opinions, but someone labeled as a moderator is seen as having some kind of endorsement from Tapastic, so there's some responsibility there.
So this, basically.
Today has been a mess and a lot of people are stressed out, but I think we can keep the discussion respectful! (this goes to everyone, there are people being rude and/or mean on both sides of the issue, that's not going to get us anywhere)
