What Makes You Subscribe and Unsubscribe?

I'm not on twitter so maybe that's why I never though of it that way. But what I don't get is that you seem to condemn these people who follow you just to be followed back (ahah, I just imagined this situation literally) but by supporting them just because they supported you, you're actually encouraging this kind of behaviour... (I might have misunderstood though... do you sub to your subscribers' comics or just like and comment their stuff ?)

Something else I'd like to say about the quick sub/unsub here on tapastic is that the readers don't have a "read later" option (like filing the comic somewhere to read when you have the time, without actually subscribing). That means some of them will subscribe just because they like your thumbnail and description but WITHOUT having read your comic. And then they might unsubscribe because it wasn't to their taste or because it's been like, a month and they realize they still didn't have the motivation to read it or something.
But they might not be lost forever ! (I've had subscribers that left and came back later !)

Personally, I check all of my subscribers' comics but I don't subscribe if it doesn't meet my criterias. To know if what you're doing is right, always imagine what it would be like if everyone did the same.
In this particular case, if everyone subbed back, the subscription system would loose his meaning, everyone would be at the same number and no one would be happy to get a new subscriber because you wouldn't even know if they're reading your comic (except for the ones that comment).

Like @keii4ii said :

And one last thing before I shut up :

The thing is, here on Tapastic, this is true. I think there is a problem with the way the comics are promoted. The more popular you get, the more visibility you have and the more popular you get etc. In a way, that's normal and fair, and I agree with the "popular" section on the frontpage.

BUT I think we (as readers) are a bit too dependent on that system and there should be an alternative system to browse through stories and find old stuff, very new stuff, completed stuff, stuff that don't update often... I have a bunch of ideas about that (like filter with subcategories, improve and promote the tag system, make it possible for creators to promote a particular comic at the end of theirs - like choosing the comics that are advertised when you get to the bottom - stuff like that.) but I digress !

The fact that it's mostly popularity that will give you visibility encourages people to think of their amount of sub as a mere number that has to increase to put them on the front, rather than individual readers. And I find it very sad.

Art is easily the quickest thing that makes me want to subscribe. But even if the artist is decent, the actual comic can be a little lazy. I can think of two particular comics, one which is quite popular that had really cute art and friendships/romance. Turns out they didn't have a lot of backgrounds and relied a lot on coloured close-ups of the characters. The emotions seemed stiff and the dialogue seemed really bland. I wonder if I should've asked if the artists wanted a criticism before I left. From what I've read here so far, I think it would've been nice to give them the option.

Other comics I just couldn't get into because the story wasn't what I thought it was. I think some people understimate that there might not be anything really wrong with the comic, but it's just not their style. What I thought would be a comedy comic turned out to be more of a slice of life drama and I honest to god cannot stand that genre. That's not to say it was bad, in fact the art was gorgeous and the story pacing amazing. I'm sure someone else would've love it. I'm sure I've unsubscribed to at least 5 comics because the story went in a direction I didn't find that exciting.

I tend to subscribe while I'm browsing the site, if I see something I like to look of I'll subscribe and then come back to it later. I'll read through some of it and if it's not my cup of tea I'll unsubscribe which I feel pretty bad about because when I lose a subscriber on my own comic it's a pretty sad feeling!

I try not to keep an exact count of the number of subscribers, but check it every now and again. I think it helps reduce the anxiety if I don't know how much it's fluctuating lol

That's a good tactic!

I tend to subscribe spontaneously if I see really good art or a unique synopsis. I read the synopsis first and then a random page and in a matter of seconds I'll decide if it's worthwhile then I'll subscribe. Art is a major factor to be frank, I cannot keep up with a series if the art is messy because I don't like having to analyze the settings and characters midway through reading. I also won't subscribe if the story is too complex and I have to keep remembering strange terms while reading. I want a story I can read without pausing so I can really immerse myself in it and feel the moment.

I don't have a lot of patience when it comes to reading so I do tend to unsubscribe if I feel like the story feels dragging. I also hate cliches or predictable storylines so no to that. I also really hate it when everything feels too convenient. I also can't take it if the character is unlikable, in worse case a character I can't even sympathize . Although, there are moments when these things can work, it depends how well everything is used in context.

I would subscribe to a story if the art and plot are interesting. I know from personal experience making a comic is general is hard work especially if you want to make a comic that grabs people's attention. So if I do see the artist is putting effort in their comic I will stick around.

What would make me unsubscribe is if the plot becomes boring or the story starts to drags. If the creator isn't active that is also and un-subscription from me, unless the story and art are top notch I won't stick around if they are net responding to their fans. This is why I make it a habit to comment on all my comments because I don't want that as an excuse for someone to unsubscribe from my comic.

Decent art and a decent plot are enough to make me subscribe. I surprisingly haven't unsubscribed from any comics I follow...yet. I can think of a few good reasons why I might unsubscribe from a comic however.

Lack of updates

I no longer find the story amusing or engaging

Art degrades instead of improving over time.

I subscribe mainly for the summary and art , most of the comic I've been reading so far have just stop updating since last year,which will cause me to unsubscribe. I'm still searching around for more comics to read, I'm more for sci fi and fantasy.

I will subscribe if I like the story and characters. Art tends to be a lot less important to me, and I'm more than willing to stick it through some rough art if it has characters I enjoy. I also tend to subscribe to a lot of comics made by friendly artists... I'm one of those people who always reads the notes at the bottom of the page, and if I like what you say in your notes and comments I am very inclined to sub, even if I'm not sure about the comic yet.

As far as unsubscribing goes... I unsub when the story just isn't interesting to me. If I don't look forward to a new page coming out, it isn't really helpful for anyone for me to stick around. It honestly just makes me annoyed at the creator, which I think is very unhelpful.

Think I only subscribe when something truly interests me or I believe I can learn something from what I'm reading, hate to sound harsh but I rarely have time to read anything and it'd better be damn worth it in some way if I am reading it, either the story is crazy good or the comic better be really funny, art is secondary to writing I'd have to admit too hahah

As a creator, my own reasons for subbing and unsubbing might differ from the typical consumer.
But here they are!

I subscribe when

• The creator is really skilled in their craft. Their art is too good for this world (NOTICE ME JANDRUFF SEMPAI ;__; )
• The creator loves what they do so much that I start to love it too
• The comic is unique in it's genre. It's something different
• The creator can write their comic as well as they draw it (harrodeleted's shit is REAL GOOD MAN. GOOD SHIT.)

I unsubscribe when:

• The artist churns out the same thing/joke month after month
• The comic/creator is losing it's genuineness
• I feel detached from the creator (This is a whole other thing in itself but I gotta include it)

Ugh, this, more than ever actually. I know two creators who have fallen into this rut lately (one who's on Tapastic, the other who hosts from their own site). They're both well known comic artists, and their content is otherwise gold, but for the past few months it's just been the same shit over and over again.

One of these creators (the one who posts on Tapastic) also posts elsewhere on other platforms (including Tumblr, reddit, etc.) and while no one's really talking about it here, elsewhere people are speaking up about it and are getting pissed off and are choosing not to read any more comics from this creator because they've been the same for the past few months.

People notice that shit, man. Even if they don't speak up about it, they'll notice pretty damn fast.

I rarely unsubscribe because I try to read as much as possible first to know whether or not it is something for me in the long run. Of course, sometimes a few pages can already convince me if the humor is exactly what I like and/ or if the art is just extremely good.

Sometimes I unsubscribe when a comic has a lot of jokes I have read somewhere else. Uniqueness or at least unique spins of common tropes are usually an advantage to keep me reading.

In general, I do have some standards for art because if the art just doesn't appeal to me at all, why read a comic that is full of images typically. (Same for visual novels and animations)
Ah, that doesn't really apply to Tapastic comics so far gladly but hardly readable or plain bad fonts are a no-go for me. I'm more skeptical about handwritten texts.

This was a pretty long thread to read :o but I want to add my two cents here (it it's worth anything)

First:
The most important thing I subscribe to is the story and the close second is the art. I generally take a moment to think about it before I subscribe, so I generally don't sub to anything that has a plot I've seen before.
I generally don't unsubscribe (since I'm so picky to begin with) but when I do the number one reason most of the time is that I can't actually follow the story. So that might be that I don't know what's going on anymore or the creator likes to throw in unrelated pages (thus killing the flow).
I do have pet peeves thou. I usually won't unsub because of them but it might be good for people to know?
a) posting art and no comic pages for ages
b) really hard to read text.
c) things that go on forever and ever and ever and ever and ever...

Secondly, I'm so glad I found this forum. Sorry that this will be kind of long, but I really need to get this out. As a creator, I've always focused on the story and art because I've always figured that followers will always follow good art/stories. So I honestly didn't mind not having as many subs because I'm trying to make a good story, not be popular. However, earlier this year, my comic Halfsoul2 got on the front page and suddenly gained a lot of subs. It was so nice to see that I wasn't just drawing into the void, so I can see why just having a psychical number is so important for lots of people. For me, it was a confidence boast that I was doing something right. But when the sub number started dropping more than I was gaining, I started to doubt myself. Was it because my story was bad? confusing? boring?... In a way it hurt because I didn't know why and there was no way for me to figure it out.
So it was good to see that sometimes people unsub because it isn't their cup of tea. Cool.
In addition, seeing the sub number drop is hard and depressing but if anything, it makes me look more critically at my story. So I wouldn't want pity subs. I think if the end goal is to make the best story you possibility can, I think the honest brutal truth is better.

c:

I always look for an engaging story, and even if you grab my eye with the art, you will quickly lose favor if you cannot give me a reason to continue (dressing a skeleton doesn't make the skeleton any less undesirable). There needs to be something intriguing or otherwise unknown, if I feel like an halfbaked idea is being presented, I'm typically not going to bother, as I would feel at that point someone just didn't try. It can even be a matter of relevance/interest in the topic.

The best way to lose my attention is inactivity, incredibly offensive behavior as a person or within a comic to such an extreme that I feel attacked as a person, or shoving your views mindlessly down my throat. (I appreciate @kurapikasuki 's work on No Future for such reasons, the interactions are respectable and two way street open minded, it's very welcoming in my experience). In short, if you don't respect your audience or even people of opposing views to you (I'm a fan of devil's advocate), or simply drop off the face of the earth, that may be cause for me to withdraw my support, but thankfully I have yet to meet any toxic people in Tapas, and thanks to how I instinctively avoid groups prone to toxicity, I hope not to start having bad experiences here.

Then again, I have had bad instances of long hiatus', and no doubt that contributed to this month's slow start. Thankfully my persistent activity seems to have been rewarded, as I'm enjoy new record highs on my comic as the month comes to its end. shrug that's just my thoughts on it.

I've accidentally subscribed to series when using my phone when scrolling through the comic feed. In those instances I would unsubscribe if it wasn't something I would continue reading, but in one case I ended up keeping the sub. Normally, I sub series that appeal to me, but that doesn't mean they have museum quality artwork or oscar level writing. They just have something special that 'clicks' for me and I don't want to miss updates. I don't tend to unsub, even if the creator hasn't updated in a long time.