They probably still have it stored somewhere and not completely deleted. You might be able to email their support and ask if they can find it for you. If, y'know, it would take too long to just remake it.
I've had time to collect my thoughts on this more. Here are my main three concerns with the new site:
-No banner
-No scrolling
-Nav bar disappearing/reappearing
Obviously, scrolling has been addressed and will supposedly be available again soon. But the other two issues have yet to be addressed (from what I could see. Too many posts ;_;)
There are some benefits to the new site. I do like how the comic is centered on the page now. I also like that it hasn't been resized poorly and is the same as before (this was the main reason I left SJ after the update. They squished pages down into a really tiny width). I do like the options available ON the nav bar. I just hate the functionality of it.
Fourthly, but more minor, I really don't like all the extra clicking, like when I click an update in my notifications it should bring me TO THE UPDATE and the continue button shouldn't bring me to episodes I have already read. I also shouldn't have to click around to find a description of my comic. It should be right there for some to read and see what the comic is about. Especially since I have a content warning in my description and people can now easily miss it.
If all these things are fixed, then I think I would be satisfied with the new site.
I'm going to speak frank here again. This new layout was rolled out extremely prematurely and it's obvious from all the bugs and loss of features that it was rushed. From these things, plus the "I can't comment on why I can't roll it back", it really does not help anyone have faith in Tapas's future. There's some other deadline... someone else that this update was for. It was not for the users because there's no way they would have rolled out something riddled with so many bugs.
And if that is the case (where it was for the users), then I am extremely worried about the competency of Tapas staff. I'm sorry, but it's true.
Like when I worked at a job before, I wasn't supposed to write three exclamation marks in an email for fear the customer might interpret it as "yelling". But Tapas thinks it's okay to roll out a whole new, drastically different layout without fear of community lashback?
Sorry but I am simply not buying that. Unless if you're really stupid. I mean like... flat Earth level stupid.
This is not a new thing in the business world. And I have seen this so many times before. Over and over again.
Like when you are selling a house and make some fancy looking changes that gives no functional meanings. Just to make it look good for the sale.
But let’s not conspire on this. We can’t control stuff like that. But what we can do is make the new fancy stuff functional again.
Going to play the devil's advocate here, but the main reason might be (not saying it is, but it might be) that the dev team worked on it for, say, 4-6 months (random number, I don't know how long these things take), were paid accordingly, etc. You don't cancel 6 months of global efforts from a whole team because the website is a bit glitchy. You work to improve on what you've built.
Imagine the message sent to their dev team if they just rolled back to the old version asap: "sorry guys, 50 users complained on the forum so we have to cancel 6 months of efforts on your part, as well as toss all the funds we put into this to the trashcan." It'd be a social, professional, and economical suicide, in a sense. They wouldn't go bankrupt but would lose trust of funders and workers, I guess.
Again, I don't know what the true reasons are. But if it falls close to this, then it makes sense they did not want to expand on it for it has no bearing in regards to the "getting feedback" discussion. "Saving a team's efforts" is no argument in the face of "it's not really working!" and would probably trigger more tension. Do you see what I mean?
We won't get the old version back, 99% sure of that. However, they seem okay with getting feedback and improving from there, so this version surely is going to improve toward something functioning imo. We should just keep on sending suggestions and wait for them to do their magic, I guess.
Fair, but here the car has wheels. Technically, it functions for the most part, and one may argue that italics, paragraph layout, glitchy popup menu, and all that are but minor adjustments that need to be made.
Your car has wheels. Perhaps it has no light. All is fine while you're still driving during daytime, but as night cripples in your driving will have to slow down and down and down until you stop by the side of the road, waiting for the sun to go up again. That will happen when most people leave, if the "minor" adjustments don't get solved.
It is no harsh exodus that will leave tapas blank and livid all of sudden. If anything happens, it'll come gradually, much like Deviantart when the porn (among other blatant issues) started to grow bold, and all they did to solve it was to color the car blue and call it a brand new name. It'll die slowly, super slowly, and when people notice the damage, it'll be too late.
Someone need to write a book about this.
@michaelson
I also dont want to be the start of rumours, but this whole thing is bugging me and leads me to one big question.
It's almost the start of a new tax year and suddenly tapas turns into a webtoons clone? and when asked by 80% of us why it cannot be scrolled back the answer cannot be given???
I might be totally wrong here but my conclusion is one company has bought the other?
if this is so how secure is our comics as i dont want to waste more time on something that might be scrapped at the whim's of others.
Exactly, exactly. you used to be able to get to the new pages in a recently updated comic in a single click; now it takes three--and the last two are one at the top and one at the bottom of the screen. I follow a lot of comics and it all add up to a lot of tedium very fast. . . .
Edit: Just wanted to add that this is just as much bad design for mobile as it is for web. . . .
Some people are saying that they did not learn the lesson of Smackjeeves.. well, I'm starting to wonder if they did not actually learnt it very well!
It's indeed possible that something similar is happening, but they hope that by not doing an annoucement and changing relatively gradually, people won't leave massively.
I think it's time to start looking seriously for alternatives, although if I'm wrong and Tapas keeps its identity and principles, I will stay, because Tapas is home for me.
@michaelson please just put the Subscribe button and support button right next to that giant heart they have.
The user then can easily do all three at the end of each episode!