Sep 2016
36 / 60
Sep 2016
Sep 2016
Kaykeactual fraggle
Sep '16

You might not have said pathetic but I could see "the desperation is sad and hilarious" being interpreted as such.

It can be a problem if people are spamming links to their comics in every thread without engaging with the community, but it's healthy for people to want to share the thing they worked hard on. I know when I was in college I always felt awkward about sharing links to my comic because I thought it seemed needy, but I'm so glad I've gotten over that because it helped me gain readers and make friends in the comic community. Spam is bad, but talking about your comic on a comic forum is normal.

KSlinger
Sep '16

I dunno, it's a webcomic forum. Kind of feels like they should be able to do that here. ¯_(ツ)_/¯

sarrowsmith10
Sep '16
SpavVy

I should have posted in the previous post where I quoted you, that I was agreeing with you btw. wink (sorry about that)

VermillionWorks
Sep '16

I don't usually mind this unless, yeah, they do it in a spammy fashion in every other topic or something. Otherwise meh.

Sometimes if the topic is about making comics, I might mention my comic in passing and link it...unless I'm too lazy too. XP

miseryhunting
Sep '16

Interestingly enough, this topic reminds me of a previous one on how creators influence the perception of their comic. It is especially true in webcomics, that people follow not only the story but the creator – we want the nice people to progress! We get invested in their journey!
It’s alright to be unhappy with things or to criticize when you feel there is necessity, but this feels like pointless dashing directed to the people, not well-versed into marketing their work (which is also part of their learning experience).
I don't mind people "subtly" mentioning their comic as long as they are not rude or aggressive about it.
However, would I sub to a person who always whines? Would I even feel the urge to check their work? I’m not so sure.
Funnily enough, that’s also a very bad way to advertise your work.

shazzbaa
Sep '16

I agree with feeling uncomfortable making jokes at others' expense here, and I definitely agree with @elixiadragmire that laughing at people for misstepping isn't as harmless as it might've been intended.

But at the same time, I feel like this general sentiment of "hey, people who want their comics to sustain them have to promote" is well-meaning but perhaps misplaced? Knowing how to promote EFFECTIVELY is what gets you more readers and more people who are invested enough in you to support your work.
If a creator has been thinking that trying to link to their comic in every single reply is necessary to promote their comic, because they need it to do well, then learning that this can turn people off from their work should be something they eagerly jot down in their notes! I don't wanna make fun of someone who's contriving a link to their comic into every single post, but I also don't wanna be like "nah, keep doing that!" when it really is a thing that I believe can hurt you in the long run.

This isn't about promotion in general, or linking to your work as often as possible (those things are good!!), it's about unnaturally cramming a promotion into a conversation where it feels off-topic. That can hurt your ability to promote your work -- if you come across as rude and self-serving, people are less likely to want to check out your comic!

Fair point! though I think there's still a time and place. One off-putting example I saw a while ago was a thread asking "does anyone else feel discouraged about their art sometimes" and kind of explaining their personal struggle and looking for advice and sympathy, and one response was essentially "nope I never get discouraged about [LINK: MY COMIC]!"
Like, yeah, you can do that..... but you're not really doing your comic any favours if you do.

Mharz
Sep '16

I don't mean to offend but it feels to me that you're making fun and putting yourself above people even though you're not pointing at anyone. Frankly, it's making me uneasy. Sorry about that. -_-

There's nothing wrong with people talking about what they're passionate about. Sure there are some who goes over the line. If it ticks you off, just ignore it or give them advice and help them how to promote the right way. Don't make fun or laugh at it. It's not like they are shaming or harming you in anyway.

As a fellow comic creator, I understand that we as creators want people to read what we have worked so hard for so what give you the right to make fun of people who are doing the best they can?

Again, I don't mean to offend you, I just want to share my two cents about this so I'm gonna hide on my cave now.

VermillionWorks
Sep '16

Hmmmm....we got some good food for thought out of this topic, but maybe we should quit while we're ahead now. XP

Isky
Sep '16

Oh yeah. I see it all the time. If I were to take a shot for every casual mention of someone's comic, I'd probably wake up the next morning naked in an unfamiliar area. Doesn't really bother me, but I know exactly what you mean. However, you should probably be more tactful.

storytimebiondi
Sep '16

A rick roll here would have been appropriate.

Also: love for everyone smile

JessJackdaw
Sep '16

Actually to help you understand why people do this, webcomics are... kind of like children. People promoting like crazy are like very proud parents that love bragging on their kids. A lot of care and patience goes into making a comic and it's a long investment. So I understand where they're coming from.

A little promotion is fine, but let's strive not to be a honors-student-soccer-mom-level promoter. XD

Drawnicula
Sep '16
1

Most people who do this style of promoting are rather new and don't yet know what's okay and what isn't.
They know that their comic isn't doing as well as they think it should do (and they probably put a lot of work into it, which makes it very personal to them) and want people to see their work.
I'm sure everyone knows the feeling of being new and unexperienced and just wanting to do your very best.
This of course doesn't excuse poor behaviour on their part, but it also doesn't mean we should hate on them.
If it's too much and a nice discussion topic gets undermined by these hit and run mycomicisamazeballs posts, I don't see why it wouldn't be appropriate to just adress it. "Hey [user], it's nice that you want to share your comic, but this topic is about XY" or something similar should do the trick. star

Remember that unlike other comic forums, tapastic doesn't give one the ability to put a link to their comic together with a picture in a signature, so the only way to know about a user's comic is to either click on their profile and hope they linked to it, or to manually search for their name on tapastic. That might very well be part of the reason why people spam the links so much.

Michelle
Sep '16

This, definitely this. Of course we wanna talk about comics! It'd be weird to go into a forum of comic creators all pretending like they don't have a comic. :u Can you imagine how awkward that party would be

When I think of annoying, spammy promotion, I think of posts where the person is barely contributing to the conversation other than a link to their comic (unless the topic is asking for you to promote/link to your comic.)
If you make a habit of doing that constantly, people are going to start to tune you out and it's going to get harder to promote. Maybe a topic on effective self-promotion techniques would be good? There's many ways to promote, but no doubt some are way better than others.

Herofeeder
Sep '16
1
MissMagicGirl

lol i was just writting about that

Btw wouldnt it be a good solution to this problem if lets say my name is shown when i post"Herofeeder" and then next to it LINK OF MY COMIC ...that way every time you post something your comic will always be seen .and there would be no reason to be sneaky about it and you wont need to feel guilty or ashamed for promoting your comics bcs HEY-the page itself gives you the option of having it up there .