I actually like the new design to me it seems more organized. My only complaint is the lack of banners.
Most everyone else here is complaining (not everyone.) I am, too. Mostly rehashes of what's been said, and this will be lost in the sea of other comments...but....
I also dislike this layout. What these platforms are forgetting is that carbon copies are not necessarily what people want. I mean, if I wanted a webtoon-like website, I'd be on Webtoon.
Oh wait, I am!
Or Smack Jeeves.
Oh wait, I am!
I have the most interaction with my readers here and on on ComicFury. And I loved the frame option which allowed me to easily pick a page and go back to look at it if I thought I missed something. The site had personality! It had its own unique branding. It was mostly pleasant, and I liked the banner at the top, and the tasteful placement of the ads (which, by the way, I don't benefit from, they just weren't annoying and intrusive.)
It was well designed, and most of all--NOT BROKEN! If it's not broke, don't "fix" it, because all they've achieved is alienating a lot of people, much like Smack Jeeves. But, this is the problem when a website is driven solely by making money (not necessarily the creators, the platform itself.) Like Smack Jeeves, our complaining will lead to nothing, because it's mostly smaller creators like me who aren't bringing in the big bucks complaining. They don't care. We don't matter, because we're not making them money.
I've seen a lot of nasty things said about ComicFury (mostly our community over there,) but you know what? The creator of the site is not driven by money. He does the site as a side project, and when we ask or complain (or geez, he often asks US what we want, God forbid!) He listens and weighs his options and asks what we think about the changes. This is the difference between a money driven platform, and a passion-driven platform.
It's sad, because I really love this site. And like with Smack Jeeves, I'll just keep my f*ckin' head down and keep uploading and stop getting readers because I have no idea how to get seen there (particularly now that there's no forum...not that I was on theirs much.) I just want to get this angry rant out more to make myself feel better than to actually attain any goals, I suppose.
I want to also impress I am able to accept change in format when it's for the better. I'm not necessarily adverse to change. This isn't a "oh it's different, I hate it thing!" Just looking at my site today, since I upload on Wednesdays, it was the same hassle I have on Smack Jeeves and Webtoon trying to view my other pages and make sure everything is in order and posted well. I also intensely dislike that stupid floating menu bar that hides itself. I'm on a desktop/laptop--I don't need it to hide. I don't see why they can't just have a mobile version and a desktop version?
Anyway, I guess I'm done bitching. If any of us think the people in charge of Tapas is going to listen, please don't hold out too much hope. I watched as the same thing happened on Smack Jeeves. People signed petitions, wrote letters (e-mails/DMs, you know what I mean.) It most likely won't change anything (not to say we shouldn't try, but I guess I'm just a pessimist.)
Sorry you guys for this rant. I figure most people won't read it anyway, which is probably for the better. I'm not really going anywhere--I love the people who read and comment on my comic--I feel a connection with them, even if they don't with me (but I won't sell them short, maybe they do :D). I don't want to leave because I like the community I feel I was just starting to become a part of. But I am very disappointed in Tapas.
How boring, how cliched. Just do what you think is going to make you popular, I guess.
To the admins, if you actually are reading:
Nobody ever took the lead by following their competitor.
Gonna play a little devil's advocate here: even if that is the motivation behind all of this, it could have been done better, imo.
There are plenty of ways to make a website look "SHINY AND NEW!!!1!!" to someone who has no idea what's actually going on that wouldn't destroy functionality.
It's like making food for kids: you could try to make them eat chicken by smothering it in a sugar glaze and decorating it with ketchup and food coloring...or you could just bread it and cut it into a dinosaur shape. =/ Both are drastic changes, but one is much more elegant and universally appealing. Plenty of adults will eat dinosaur chicken nuggets.
Instead, we've basically had a decent meal taken away and replaced with a slab of grilled chicken covered in nonsense, and the best excuse we've gotten is "well, we had to do something new for the kiddies (investors)". And I'm just like "okay...so this is the best you could come up with??"
I wonder what kind of calamity would be necessary to make webtoons design even worse. Things are always so poor there... but well, human creativity is limitless! xD
If we go by other social media, they'd add WebStories - episodes that vanish after 24 hours. Fear of missing out is not high enough as is, of course.
And probably put ads in the middle of real comics, just so people click them thinking it's part of the search.
not yet for the desktop version, i go on, click a comic and it loads... the moment i attempt to scroll down it completely crashed my internet browser 
Ok so like, now that it's been 2 days, I'm kind of getting used to it. Although I miss the old design, I think this one will do just fine. But I really hate how it makes it harder for new creators to get started. The page layout while actually reading is terrible.
