I don't think there are too many people who have energy making comments everywhere if they are not interested. :> (They do, right? That's why you said "Someone say that they like your comics", right? :D)
People are lazy. Most of them don't make comments, even if they like the comic. Just read silently. What is sad because I love reading comments. :'D
I know there are people who make more comments than others(mostly creators... This is my guess. We know the value of comments). But still I think the number of those who has spare energy for commenting on almost anyone's comic is low.
About some of them keep "rubbish" comics in their library: Eeeek... Hm. I don't knooow. Actually I know I'm really picky about comics. It always a surprise for me other users have hundreds or thousands of comics in their library. And I have... Twelve. So I think we are just different. And our thinking is subjective. :> What is "rubbish" for you is not necessary rubbish for someone else.
Honestly, my tastes have zero definition. I know I like trash, or stuff that a lot of other people say is trash. But I also like "quality" stuff too. Another thing to note, someone could just have something in their library to have it in their library. But just because someone has tastes that argue with yours doesn't mean that it's an indicator they don't really like your comic or novel. I like to try a lot of different things instead of keeping myself in a box. So even if i hear something is bad i'm going to read it anyway. There could be different situations like that where it's not necessarily a bad thing about your comic.
Yes, sometimes I forget about this too. In America, where I live, the internet culture is all about brutal honesty, but this is definitely different in other countries. I usually try to stay polite online, because I get some level of anxiety when commenting -- yes, I censor my comments. But it all depends on where you're from and what cultural values you have.
Actually, I have the opposite experience: I'm born and grew up in France, then moved to North America 14 years ago (Canada, but I don't see a whole lot of difference between Canada and the US on that aspect, even if Canada is more outwardly polite).
In France, what I was considering friendly honest is considered extremely rude in NA (eg. Telling people about their flaws, unprompted). 14 years later I still struggle a lot, still am considered as a super rude person, and I don't think I could keep a job (I'm self employed). Amusingly, I must have somewhat integrated the behaviour a bit though, because I now find French people super rude sometimes . I must be midway now!
But I'm sure that for other cultures, NA is rude. There's a whole range.
That's an interesting perspective. I have heard that people here tend to think French people are generally more rude (depending on what your definition of "rude" is). I'm half Asian, and asian culture generally tends to be more polite, at least online. But they can be more rude to foreigners and more blunt in person, so sometimes it's really hard to tell.
I think the 'rudeness' part comes from mutual misunderstanding of how the cultures of France (Europe in general, but Europe is too varied culturally to discuss all at once) and NA are actually very different on many aspects.
When I came to Canada I found Canadians unbelievably rude, which is not something I expected at all! It's just that rudeness is not the same for everyone, as politeness is not the same for everyone. As a French person, I found rude that people refused to tell me what they think of me, and found that rude and cowardly. Not polite at all. But then I understood.
I found that the big difference is that in NA, you show interest or affection by complimenting people, or generally, by making it look like everything is okay, great and must go on like that. In France, you show interest/affection by helping people get better (which means criticizing, sometimes in a tough way).
One example that came the day I arrived in Canada: I came for a PhD degree, and the university had accepted me knowing that I was the top student for the practical part of my previous degree, at a good uni in France. Then they saw my grades.. I had the lowest passing grades for an undergrad degree! 20% too little to even think of a PhD. So I had to explain that 70% was pretty much the highest I could get in France, as I was just a student, and that on the French grading system, no one could have 100% because it's impossible to be 100% certain in science, and that the 90% they were requiring was making it look like I was supposed to be the world top specialist in the field. Good I knew about grading differences, because it would have been stressing.
Anyway, yep, for most of my studies, I was not rewarded for knowing, but reminded that I knew close to nothing. A very different mindset.
Oh I had the exact same issue but it happened to me when I moved to Chile, and after soome time tried to explain to my family in Switzerland, that my school and uni in Chile were old school and getting max grade was nearly impossible (it has changed since then, not you can actually get high scores). The grading goes from 1 to 7, you need at least a 4 to pass, and a professor once ominously said, that the 7 is for god, the 6 for the top student, and the 5 for the good students (I got a 6.1 final grade, sorry, had to brag :P). Luckily, when I then went to school in the US they also required a ranking and an explanation of the meaning of the grades from the university.
I dunno, maybe because I grew up always feeling like I never really understood why a lot of things were so popular that I just learned that sometimes people just like stuff you don't and that is OK. And similarly, I am pretty sure I like stuff that other people think is rubbish or trash.
If someone likes your work, you should be proud. And well, "don't look a gift horse in the mouth".
Ahh necro thread is necro, but interesting topic and it looks like I missed it first time around so:
That's completely not a problem for me lol. People like what they like and I don't judge fans of my work regardless of what else they read. For example, I myself enjoy a number of series that are generally considered not very good and would hope that other authors wouldn't think less of their series for someone like me reading it
I don't think it means anything. I like some great content, but I also like content which is lacking according to other people. For example, I liked The Hunchback of Notre Dame, which is acclaimed for it's artful direction and more mature tone. But I also liked The Princess and the Frog, which many regard as the worst Disney princess movie.
There's no reason to assume that they can't also like "bad" content. You might not know the reason they like it. Maybe they are encouraging a friend ^w^
It's very simple. It's not YOUR job to police the things people like. Nor is it your job to draw conclusions based on your own tastes and preferences. People can lie to protect your feelings, man I've had it happen that my novel wasn't in fact my buddy's cup of tea but they sure as heck didn't tell me that. They praised in into the world even.
But do I feel deceived by her? I did for a moment and then I dusted myself off and went back to making my stuff awesome. Because THAT is my job as a creator. It's nice if you enjoy my work, but I gotta be the one to lick it to glory first.
Making your own content is hard work, but it will pay off as you build your audience. And I seriously don't care about my readers' tastes, I'm just glad to be amongst their tastes, mwahaha.
I agree it's not our job to police that (and I stand with what I said earlier: I don't think that the other comics a reader reads means much about one's own comic).
But I thought of it recently again for my own comic, and I guess, that there is kind of a blur sometimes between knowing your readership for legitimate reasons (knowing who you write for, who's your readership), and worrying unnecessarily about what else your readership reads.
I think it would be easier if one could entirely ignore what kind of readers one has, but it's not really possible.
Eg: recently, I asked advice about two different mature themes in my -generally pretty harmless- comic. Both times, I was reminded by forum users that my readership was 'mature' (mature for comic readers that is ), so it should not be too much of a problem. I knew that, but did not really think of it, because I'm not used yet to assess my readers like that. I didn't think, 'what's the proportion of younger readers' etc, but it is a valid question, and if I actually had a lot of young readers, I would not be upset, but that would be a problem.
Here, no blur: if I had younger readers, I would have the 'wrong' kind of readers, I may have had to adapt, but I would not be upset at them, nor wonder what else they read or if it means my comic is too juvenile etc. Nope. I would just think, my comic happens to also have an appeal to younger persons (it's a coming of age story, but with a bit of a nostalgic feeling, so it would make sense if it was having an appeal to both generations).
Now, other eg: in a few months, I'm going to start publishing a side comic with a m/m relationship.
I'm absolutely terrified to get the wrong readership, and I may be very, very tempted to check the subscription list of new readers and get completely paranoid.
That's because I saw so many comments on m/m relationships similar to mine where readers bring horrible BL tropes in, sometimes paired with the awkward, upset answer of the comic author. I don't know how I'm going to deal with that (bad, for sure..) if it happens to me, and here, there is a huge blur between legitimate concern (will I have the readership that correspond to my story) and overreaction (suspecting people to possibly write distasteful comments based on their subscription list etc). I will do my best to not check people's list, but I know that means I'm going to be worried at each update.
Suggested Topics
Topic | Category | Replies | Views | Activity |
---|---|---|---|---|
OMG I Got BANNED! | Off Topic | 13 | 390 | Oct '24 |
Do promotion threads really work? | Off Topic | 10 | 464 | Jun '24 |
Tell me a random fun fact about your characters! | Off Topic | 20 | 521 | Aug '24 |
DeviantArt Pay for art chats | Off Topic | 2 | 221 | Jun '24 |
Any single-player video game recommendations? | Off Topic | 21 | 579 | Dec '24 |