Website updates and collecting feedback

[CodeMonkeyArts]

I will add this to say that...I don't blame the Devs.

They are the ones who will have to put in the time, the hours into fixing this. They are not responsible for what happened to Tapas, nor for the blatant missteps in the deployment process.

I firmly lay this on the feet of the powers that be ABOVE the developers.

Mismanagement, as usual, is to blame.

sigh...I just hope that things will stabilize soon and our voices, and the voices of the devs, I'm sure, can be heard.

[vothnthorvaldson]

Yes, it was important to remind that.
I feel bad for any employee who did not want that, but have their hands tied.
The way we all complain may be very disheartening to some.
So, yes, I hold no grudges against whoever had to be part of that mess against their initial intentions.

[CodeMonkeyArts]

Yeah after my rant, I started to feel bad cause...man I can empathize. I really can.

But damn, this was just...not a good look and while I can empathize, Dev to Dev, a lot of readers and creators can't.

Nor should they.

There is a service to provide and that service has been changed so drastically. I won't say that it has been brought down. However, there was disruption that was not disclosed and will not be disclosed at this time. I don't blame the forums at all for being angry. I am disappointed too.

[TAMAnnoying]

Being someone who works in retail this is one of the major reasons why I prefer to just have someone at the top to send my complaints to, too often are they saturated with numbers and graphs and not attached to the actual people who are their employees and their costomers-

So many times I’ve had to see people get outraged that their favorite food on the menu not longer exists for the employees to only be able to say “sorry this is how it is” until people start enough of a riot over it that the company has to apologize and give them back their menu.

[Birbmagadon]

Well that was one big wall of text Jokes aside, though, I agree with most of what you said here.

If they want a more discerning eye and the mirror server is significantly smaller than the main production server (typically the case), they can send out a form for their users to apply to be beta testers.

I believe beta testers are a thing, around here on Tapas. However, I'm not sure how they work and I don't know if they were asked to review this update before it went live. I doubt it, else we wouldn't have to deal with so many bugs.
You're right it's essential to run some tests before the big dive. As others suggested, this sounds quite rushed - which makes me think tight deadlines were a deal-breaker at some point, during the enterprise, for whatever reason.

At the very least, if there is a crunch, then an explicit notification to readers and creators detailing a good deal of the major changes coming to the site from both a reader and creator perspective should be sent.

Agreed. From what I could gather, Tapas has always been quite good at communicating with users, so this sudden lack of information makes little sense. Then again, it might be deadline-induced. I think they realized it when a bunch of people complained about it and launched a feedback campaign in order to deal with the matter. It's not ideal at all, especially since it triggered some great panic along the way, but you gotta give them that, at least.

I brought this up before, but DeviantArt did a recent update and allowed for the option for the users to test the new 'Eclipse' but go back to the old layout.

Deviantart is tossing journals and forms all across the website, but doesn't listen to its users Easy to brag about being open to some feedback when most of the input they got on Eclipse (and before) has been ignored because prompted by little accounts who had little power in the community. But sure, looks real good on paper.

I admit they do have a button to switch back to the old site, that's true. However, I believe this button is solely here because some features demand it: groups or forums, for example, aren't available in Eclipse mode and they don't want to straight up delete these parts, I guess.

And if they have to tell the other devs to roll back changes...oh well that sucks, but that also is not new. If they can bring back the old site, then have a mirror url for the new one so we can see how things progress, with minimal impact to our current workflow, a trust would be built between us, the users, and the dev team.

Yep, agreed. Reddit did that too, having a button to switch back to the old site. But then again, it might be because all pages and features aren't yet handled by the new design. Here, everything seems implemented, so why bother with a "go back" button? You see what I mean? I agree this would be better, but they might not feel the need.

In the end, I don't think it's the dev's fault either. We could go with "capitalism bad, prompting people to follow trends... Bad!" but I don't think it's so simple either. It might be a mistake on the head's part, or they were bought, or head changed, or whatever else. They won't let us know why they can't roll back - for good or bad reasons.

Does it matter? I don't think so. We don't need their reasons to judge the website's quality. We don't like it? Let's move out. They improve it? Let's stay. Simple as that. You don't need holy reasons to judge a product's quality, ultimately. ...Which is why my eyes are locked on their future handling of the update.

Look at me tossing my own wall of text your way, now. >.>

[CodeMonkeyArts]

Well that was one big wall of text Jokes aside, though, I agree with most of what you said here.

WALL OF TEXT VS WALL OF TEXT MORTAL KOMBAT!!!!!!

FIGHT!!

J/k. I'm such a 90s kid...

I believe beta testers are a thing, around here on Tapas. However, I'm not sure how they work and I don't know if they were asked to review this update before it went live. I doubt it, else we wouldn't have to deal with so many bugs.
You're right it's essential to run some tests before the big dive. As others suggested, this sounds quite rushed - which makes me think tight deadlines were a deal-breaker at some point, during the enterprise, for whatever reason.

I definitely think this was rushed. The more I think about, the more I see the response to our feedback, this definitely feels like a decision from the top.

...Sorry, sorry, I'll take off the tinfoil hat now.

Agreed. From what I could gather, Tapas has always been quite good at communicating with users, so this sudden lack of information makes little sense. Then again, it might be deadline-induced. I think they realized it when a bunch of people complained about it and launched a feedback campaign in order to deal with the matter. It's not ideal at all, especially since it triggered some great panic along the way, but you gotta give them that, at least.

Oh yeah I totally give them that and honestly, even from looking at the main Tapas site, I can see usability returning bit by bit already. They are listening and working hard. It doesn't change the fact that so much could be mitigated earlier. This is reactionary unfortunately.

Deviantart is tossing journals and forms all across the website, but doesn't listen to its users Easy to brag about being open to some feedback when most of the input they got on Eclipse (and before) has been ignored because prompted by little accounts who had little power in the community. But sure, looks real good on paper.

I admit they do have a button to switch back to the old site, that's true. However, I believe this button is solely here because some features demand it: groups or forums, for example, aren't available in Eclipse mode and they don't want to straight up delete these parts, I guess.

You have a point there. I will add that DeviantArt had A LOT of issues that would not be fixed via a layout. Those issues are not as forefront with Eclipse (from what I can see) but I agree that people were mad and leaving DA WAY before the Eclipse and that may have been the straw. Yet, they gave notice still.

Tapas, a site that does not have the same issues and had a usable, well-received UI on Mobile and On Web, suddenly changed drastically with little notice. If things had gone the DA route, I feel that the user base, or at least the forums, would've reacted more calmly.

Yep, agreed. Reddit did that too, having a button to switch back to the old site. But then again, it might be because all pages and features aren't yet handled by the new design. Here, everything seems implemented, so why bother with a "go back" button? You see what I mean? I agree this would be better, but they might not feel the need.

Well it's not that there is missing functionality, but that the workflow, and location of the functionality has drastically changed. That's a big adjustment. It's not as easily accessible, especially for the creators. It's jarring and when it first deployed there were several bugs that required fixing and freaked the novelist (which I am a part of) out because they came out of nowhere.

Maybe a rollback is a bit much...but I still think it's not a bad idea to do it now while it's still in a buggy, transitional state. Though maybe not now...but turn back the clock and yesterday would've been good. I dunno.

Does it matter? I don't think so. We don't need their reasons to judge the website's quality. We don't like it? Let's move out. They improve it? Let's stay. Simple as that. You don't need holy reasons to judge a product's quality, ultimately. ...Which is why my eyes are locked on their future handling of the update.

Look at me tossing my own wall of text your way, now. >.>

Fair enough. I can moan about what should've been done, but hindsight is 20/20, and I'm not behind the scenes. I think so many people are wondering on the what should've been done because no one except for the staff know the why.

That does bother me. We may not need the reason, but it does change perspective when we know what it is.

Granted, the tapas folks are improving things and fixing things. So I'll see what happens. I'm still here

[Awesomeness_Studios]

Oh I forgot to add this to my response in the form, but I have a BIG problem with the support button. It's so hidden away now, I barely even notice its there, and now I don't really feel like supporting. Many times, the reason why I support is because I see the big black button and I'm like "Oh maybe I should just randomly toss some inks there." Now it's hiding in a tiny menu on the bottom, RIGHT NEXT TO THE UNSUBSCRIBE BUTTON! This is crazy. I don't want to remember that I can unsub someone right when I'm about to support.

[carloswebcomic]

Yep, I know what you mean.
I pretty much drilled into Michaelson, venting my frustration at the ever shrinking visibility of non-premium comics.

His answer was not fully satisfying and did not address what I see as the core of the issue, but it's not his fault. Decisions are made way above him and he's expected to make a cake out of cow droppings.

[TSSL]

Ah, I've noticed another change.

Comments on comics now always display the date posted. Recent ones no longer display something like "20 minutes ago," or however it was formatted. That was a pretty normal way to display recent comment times, and it's weird that that's gone.

[amberberry]

I don't know if anyone has noticed or mentioned it yet (there were a lot of posts to scroll through), but the italics issue on novels has been fixed. Also now you can see which updates you've read on the series, they're slightly greyed out

[kaetana]

This feels maybe minor to mention in the face of some of the other issues, but it appears the criteria for appearing on Fresh in any given genre has been changed to only show comics that have updated very recently (within 24 hours it seems) rather than going back a full five pages of the most recently updated comics. So in the past depending on genre one could be visible on Fresh for several days at least after an update, but now... This only further hurts visibility for smaller creators, really.

[DarkChibiShadow]

Hi there! I've only been using Tapas for about a year, and had started to really enjoy the old format, especially the scrolling through episodes feature that the comic was unique for. I thought it helped me get a good idea of a comic before I started reading it, I loved that feature and would love to see it back.

I think generally the problem with the new layout is that it looks almost entirely like Webtoons now, it's very, very obvious.

There's some nice changes, like being able to view a comics tags, but things like, removing the custom banner I had, making it so people can't see the summary of my comic without clicking through, me not being able to jump to a reply someone has made to me from my notifications (it now just takes me to all the comments I have, instead of the reply) and in general hiding replies people have made seem to have lost some of the features I felt were best about Tapas.

If I had to pick priorities I wanted to see back, over anything else:
-Please let me have a banner again!
-Please bring back endless scrolling.
-Please put comic summaries on the front page of a comic.

I think that the front page featuring more comics, having larger icons in the future, and some other smaller things are really nice, and in general I understand that you MUST change a site to keep it alive, but some stuff can be tweaked for sure.

Also, I felt like I wasn't properly warned this change was coming? That was a huge thing.

And is there an ETA for when users can submit to the Mature category? Or is that just something we'll never get to do?

Thanks a bunch for your time. I hope this helps.

[BobbyjoeX]

you know you've fucked up when pretty much every single person has said "this update hurts us" and "your update rips off the competitor" maybe focus on those....

[vothnthorvaldson]

Ohhh! I just saw 2 very problematic things I had missed. If someone knows a way to do, please tell me, but in any case, it's bad because at best, it's more difficult to do.

1. No more access to full site from mobile
2. No more possibility to read a comic on the mobile website without being redirected to the app (even by doing 'open in new tab')

Now it's pretty clear, they don't give a damn about the website. Everything is done to make the website unusable and force people to use the app. Extremely upsetting.

[joannekwan]

I think farther up Michael said that they they were deliberately removing the full site on mobile feature.

I could never access the full site on mobile myself; my ipad always led to the app regardless if I was on an internet browser or not. : /

[vothnthorvaldson]

Does that mean no more way to use Tapas on mobile other than the app? If so, this is terrible. A big big issue for me, actually a dealbreaker.
That could be enough to make me leave as a creator and a reader.

[BobbyjoeX]

rip ppl that used the mobile site to reach the forums...

[OBC]

Well...shit.

Smackjeeves...congratulations. You're now only the 2nd worst webcomic website redesign.

[jensrichard77]

No more access to full site from mobile
No more possibility to read a comic on the mobile website without being redirected to the app (even by doing 'open in new tab')

I think I saw Michael said something about that full site on mobile was removed.

But I’m on mobile web and reading stuff. Not forced to app. (iPhone safari)

[Azifri]

Same, I can access the full site on my Android phone (chrome browser) and no attempts of redirecting me to the app so far. Sucks if this will be the case at some point D: