@Chopythes Oh my god so it's like REALLY hard to tell but there's a place to type it near the episode number. Where the word "Title" is grayed out.
OMG THANK YOU!
I'm so used to it looking like before, I didn't even think about clicking that!
Thank you for letting me know!
Forums is at the very bottom of the page. Inconvenient as all hell but it's there. I mentioned it in my wall of text.
No, I know that, but using that link I just get the error of the site not responding. I had to download firefox just to be able to open the forums now because chrome wouldn't do it. And yes, I did clean my cache first to check. Didn't help.
OK Guys. in light of the recent events, I wanted to see some of the interviews that was conducted in Tapas/tic's name and head of the company, Mr. Chang Kim.
According to several articles, Tapas/tic is trying to incorporate the Korean Webtoon system in the western market. As Mr. Chang Kim who was working in Google came across Korean webtoon and wanted to do something in it. This is a fact that was in several articles in the past.
As for where the Site is heading now, I thought it would help for me to analyze and share the directions and what was said regarding it
http://platum.kr/archives/721192
This 2016 December articles states how bringing in the Korean content from Korean sites (namely 'They say I was born as a king's Daughter, Adonis, etc contracted with Podotree, a subsidiary to the Korean company Kakao) has increased their monetization amount of 48% per month since its implementation in May of 2016. In November, it tripled that of Octorber.
The Article also suggests that its transformation from comic to text book app has given them a huge boost in the app store (ranking among 3~10) which they plan to do more of and has.
Tl;dr - So from this, we could tell that the platform's change was warranted to go towards monetizing contents and going towards book than comic's direction. which is further proven by the most recent interview
In this article which came out in april of 2017 (so a couple of weeks ago), which is titled "On the opposite ground of Marvel; aiming towards female targetted romance webtoon"
This one goes a little more detail in the CEO's plan where he prefers 'Contents with possibilities of adaptations such as movies' for growth of the site. The article also suggests that he hopes to create a 'webtoon' like 'Iron man' who are adapted from comics to games, movies and other mediums
-The article suggests that his primary goal of 'spreading webtoon in the US market' has met success. It says that he spent the first year in explaining the concept of webtoon and finding creators capable of making webtoons.
It goes on to say how much tapas/tic has grown as a platform, obtaining over 21K professionals and non-professional creators with 500K chapters published, With average monthly visitor of 1.3Million
CEO Kim goes on to explains the secret behind its growth as 'going the opposite direction from Marvel and DC' While the two companies make male targeted contents like Avengers, Batman and other hero contents, Tapas focuses on female targeted contents like romance and fantasy. It's also easier to adapt it into other forms which allows the content to have various gates in growth. He also states that there has been increased talks from Hollywood, netflix, amazon and other platforms in regards to finding original materials for adaptations.
He ends the interview by saying that finding out about Korean webtoon allowed me to venture into this directions. The sparkling fresh ideas of Korea can meet a market hundred times bigger when it's brought to US
Tl;dr - Tapas/tic's main goal was to work with and from the Korean webtoon system. Focusing Female targeted contents to generate more opportunities. Wishes to create or own a big IP that is like the Iron man
In conclusion, Tapas/tic's changes and directions do seem pretty clear once you read these interviews (Although not in English). While I feel that this could've been communicated with the creators here, it does seem like the starting point and the future of the site was set from a while ago.
I really hope they're not gonna put their focus on premium content. Most members are here under the assumption that it's a free content website for individual creators firsthand, and premium content second. Or third. Or tenth.
I have faith in tapastic, but IF this turns out to be their intentions it will ruin every single thing that's good about the site.
THAT BEING SAID, MICHAELSON ALREADY SAID THEY WERE GOING TO SURFACE THE NON PREMIUM CONTENT COMICS.
THIS ISN'T EVEN A DISCUSSION. THEY'VE ALREADY CLEARLY STATED THEY WILL DO THIS AND THAT THEY ARE ONLY EXPANDING INTO MORE PREMIUM CONTENT. NOT FOCUSING ON IT.
Tapastic aren't some terrorists out to get us. They're business partners o_o
I felt like I already addressed this within my original post:
Please note that there are a couple more changes to come to the front page, including surfacing more non-premium series, and making up our minds on which one to keep (staff picks vs new & noteworthy, they're the same thing...ish). Please bare with us while we listen to feedback and try our best to apply them to the site in pragmatic ways.
We're working on debugging this issue - it might be related to chrome. Can you try using a different browser and seeing if it persists?
As for concerns about the clutter, we are working on figuring out how to find the right balance. A balance between bringing more exposure to newer creators, pushing new readers to already proven comics, showcasing comics that have engaged readerships, and the balance between community driven and economically driven decisions.
There are some logistical reasons for the mirroring of the app to the desktop but we are working on resolving this issue to help diversify the offerings.
It is related to chrome, because it works on firefox and my iPhone!
And yayyyyy I look forward to seeing the site once it is done! ヾ（〃＾∇＾）ﾉ♪
My suggestion is this order:
POPULAR
TRENDING
TOP 10 COMICS
FRESH or NEW AND NOTEWORTHY
NEW PREMIUM COMICS
TOP 10 BOOKS
My suggestion is to ditch the larger banner advertisements entirely (yes, I know I benefit from these since my comic is in one of them but that's irrelevant because if the main page is messy, noone benefits). They work for the app, but not so much on desktop!
I feel like the combo I suggested will feed the reader's eyes with the largest possible variety of comics, in the neatest fashion possible for desktop, and it will balance well with pay to read vs free to read. Pay to read should be lower because they update less frequently and people are more likely to check them out once they've explored the site a little. Putting free well selling comics that updated within the last 24 hours (popular) will work the best to pull in new members and visitors. and putting trending up high will motivate more creators to join and suggest the site to people they know. It will also give small creators a chance.
...I also realize it sounds a little like I hate premium comics and I should mention firmly that I really don't. I think they are a GREAT thing that are a good financial choice for tapastic, and when things bring money to tapastic as a company, that means they have more that they can invest in awesome features that we can all benefit from. Hell, if I got the chance I would like to create a premium comic myself, not gonna lie.
I just think that tapastic's spirit is supposed to be an awesome community where everyone gets a chance to be seen and there's not some exclusivity game going on. The premium comics do well here because they are an additional service tapastic provides to those that CAN pay, while tapastic still gains that audience through free comics to begin with. Part of what makes this site so awesome is that they have faith in the little guy that hasn't made it big yet too.
I'm going to second this order! ^
(But I wish the Staff pick could be instead of New and Noteworthy because, it feels fancier to say your comic has gotten a staff pick 8D I know, I'm silly but it feels like you've accomplished something when the comic has gotten a staff pick! And there's some bragging rights to it as well ;D)
The front page... It really is too much, too much premium, too much top, too much banners.
I know you guys must have a lot of pressure from inside and outside factors, and you need to make money. That's how it's always been, and I don't think it will ever change, is it a bad thing?, not really. The thing is how one goes around it.
If it was hard for a new cat starting a comic, now the sky seems a little greyer. The new and noteworthy section seems filled with previous staff picks, and then you have staff picks with the same comics, why have 2 sections of the same titles?. I'm hoping we need a little more time for the algorithm to catch up.
The trending section was like the heaven for new peeps to get noticed, now it's basically at the bottom of the page.. The amount of scrolling down you have to do to get there is a lot, and if you mage to scroll all the way down, coz I will guess peeps would have clicked a premium comic just before reaching the bottom.
Why have huge banners inbetween the sections?, it's like you're advertising the same comics twice. Maybe adding some new comics to those banners, not from the staff picks obviously. It will be hard to motivate peeps to update (spending time and effort to create a new episode) or to even publish, only to appear (if the made it to trend) at the bottom of a page...
Finally why is the forum back at the bottom of the front page?, I know you'll always cater more to the readers, but I think the forum is such a vital part of this website, here peeps interact, ask for advice, ask for feedback, promote their comics, chat, tapastic staff advertise their stuff, etc.
It seems like all the changes where made to attract more readers and make more money, and not so much on caring for the content creators (aside for the premium and big cats who'll get more readership). I know that your priority is to get more readers, but think about this a little, attracting new creators is also really important, if there are no creators they'll be no readers, one can't live without the other.
The changes you have implemented to get new creators are always "money based", now we have ads, now we have tips, come and earn money. Why not try to have other incentives, like equal chance of exposure, the option of adding multiple creators to one comic, folders for the episodes, getting rid of bugs. I know peeps like money, but the thing is, it's not everything to keep a "worker" happy.
Having one part of the equation (the reader) and the other sad (the creator), it's not that productive, having a balance would be essential. Maybe adding a few changes to attract and keep new creators?, giving them an equal chance to be seen?, and at the end of the day the reader is the one who chooses out of all the options what they would want to read.
The front page layout is really inefficient now. Narrow, vertical layouts are fine for mobile, but on desktop it's just wasting space, especially now that there are so many different things on the front page. Who even uses a monitor that narrow any more? I don't expect pages to fill the full width of my screen, but I'd like something better than this:
3
Also agreeing with the disappointment that all of the user-generated content has been shoved to the bottom, beneath premium comics that you can't even actually read on the desktop site at the moment. It seems very premature to launch this new front page before enabling premium purchases on the desktop site. On top of that, I don't really like any of the premium content, and there seem to be almost no LGBT stories in there, compared the the popular and trending user-submitted comics which are full of them (even excluding the stuff labelled BL).
If it makes you feel better, it does seem like tapas staff intends to raise the Popular and Trending section. If they weren't intending to before, they probably are now considering the feedback. Michaelson himself stated that they would surface the non premium comics, and that the current look is still a work in progress (:
Maybe not premature, but I do agree that enabling purchases will be an urgent matter that needs to be handled soon if this is the way we're going.
I actually have a girlslove comic (with some transgender issues involved along the line too) that I'm planning and have started working on but not yet published. I've been curious about the keys-to-unlock-episodes system for a while, but haven't dared to approach staff about it. Does anyone know if it's open to medium size creators?
Oh my gosh... so much to read... O.O
Honestly, almost everyone here comes off as really upset about the promotion of premium content on the desktop site. I won't say it makes me super happy (being an indie creator myself), but I understand the reasoning for promoting them, and truthfully, I love a lot of the premium comics and books. I do agree that the site looks cluttered as it is now, and the font is a little hard to get used to right now, but I think unifying the app and desktop site is a great idea, (because I'm sooooo sick of having to refer to the site and the app by separate names every time I tell people about my comic).
I do wish that the Fresh Comics was one of the promoted categories on the front page. That's probably what has been keeping a lot of new creators (like me, haha) from being discovered. Also, the categories "Top 10 Comics" and "Top 10 Books" kind of seems... dishonest? Mainly because they are only premium series, and some of the most popular comics on the site are free comics (just saying, lol). And there really are way too many categories promoting premium content. Like, almost all of the categories on the front page are premium. It's fine to put premium content first on the front page, but please minimize the number of categories showcasing them.
As whole, I enjoy the cohesiveness of the site in conjunction with the app, but yes, please keep our concerns in mind (as I'm sure you and the rest of the staff are).
AFAIK, im pretty sure the keys-to-unlock system is only for the creators they approach/made deals with. Its possible that it's the same with books that you can pitch your idea to them, but I'm pretty sure it's restricted to content creators they've made deals with atm.
I'm sure in due time they'll open it up to more people however.
Ah okay, I was just a little curious on it. I'm always on a hunt for new things to try haha xD Oh well.
Actually I think it's open for anyone to apply to, you'd have to contact Michael Son about it.
A downside that I saw was that it has to be a completely new series and can't be a series already published on the site. However if you're wanting to do something new anyways you might be able to figure something out with them. Doesn't hurt to ask 