Why do you think BL is so popular?

[ToonDoctor]

Because these comics answer a need that many people have and question the boundary of what is considered soft porn or porn and x-rated contents.

[GoldenPlume]

Simply choosing viral and popular stuff a majority of the time leads to a homogenous kind of userbase

That is a definite concern, that Tapastic is slowly becoming genre specific and not even realizing it. The cost of that is a loss of diversity of the reader base. For example, if Tapastic becomes known as a romance comic site, readers of non-romance are likely to not come by and take a look. Creators of non-romance, feeling that they have no chance to be seen on Tapastic because they are not of a particular genre won't upload to the site. Readers are only willing to have so many reading apps downloaded or comic websites bookmarked. If Tapastic becomes too genre specific, they risk losing everyone outside that genre.

Staff may want to consider reassessing how the homepage is constructed. Currently "Popular" is dominated by the same titles from the same genre. Since there's only room for 10, less popular genres often go unseen. A possible solution would be to limit it to 2 per genre, so five different genre are always represented all the time, rather than 2 or 3. Another possible solution would be to have each day of the week be a different genre, so Mondays are Romance and 5 or 10 trending series are listed, Tuesdays are Action so 5 or 10 trending series are listed, etc.

The homepage is where many readers discover a new series and possibly one that hooks them for the long term. We agree with you. It may be time for a reassessment on how to balance it out. This thread itself is a sign that some are developing the perception (whether correct or incorrect) that Tapastic is becoming too focused on one particular genre.

[joannekwan]

A possible solution would be to limit it to 2 per genre, so five different genre are always represented all the time, rather than 2 or 3.

An issue with this is some series in question update every day or every other day, so they'll always stay up on the popular section anyway.

[cleo_san]

On antother page I uploaded there was s selection of 6 best-of-comics, which stayed pinned for ~2 weeks, afterwards these placed were circled with older featured comics again so everytime you looked on the start page there was a different comic, from today or from the past =)
I kinda liked that because the old festured stories were awesome as well

[FixerTheWise]

I make an Adventure-Fantasy comic, and I stopped mirroring my comic on Tapastic. There are no readers here to update for.

[AffectedMind]

Well, since Tapastic App launched my series is pretty dead. No one reads my comic anymore, from 30 comments to 3. My statistics went downhill, I'm set on Webtoons, but I liked readers I had here. I keep getting subs on Tapastic but they are all empty, can't even get those 25 bucks in one month with 12 thousand subscribers. If nothing will change I will just leave like many others before me.

[GoldenPlume]

Well, since Tapastic App launched my series is pretty dead

While the app is great for tipping, it doesn't seem to vary much on what content it promotes. For example, the tipping section portion is the same 12 or so comics since day one. The issue with it never varying is that people stop paying it any attention.

As far as getting the $25 a month, you'd need around 150,000 views a month on Tapastic. The mobile app ads pay very little.

[AffectedMind]

I don't even get tips lol XD (well I do, but only when I update, because I remind people about it)
150k views a month only the biggest, most popular series on Tapastic can achieve. Smaller creators don't stand the chance. I have a feeling people don't even visit fresh section at all here.

[joannekwan]

Actually I was about to say I was wondering why I hadn't seen your series in a while even in the Fresh section (and I look at the Fresh section probably once each in the morning, afternoon, and evening, except weekends when I'm out). Perhaps try uploading on a different day to see if you can't find new eyes? At least here on Tap.

I won't continue on about this any further since it's getting off topic and would be better suited for something like the Super Science Club thread.

[AffectedMind]

All I can say about that, I had a schedule that worked and it stopped.

[KaiJu]

Oh, stumbled upon this thread. There are a couple really good articles that explore the complicated relationship between gay Japanese men and fujyoshi (rotten women) and the BL genre and how they perceive it. If you're interested in this subject, give it a good read.

Do Japanese Gay Men Read “Boy’s Love” Comics, Dislike “Rotten Women”?

Evolved Boy’s Love: How Rotten Women’s Gloom Could Eliminate Prejudice

[u2f3f4371eb604a6]

Um... I think I'm into BL and GL and everything because it breaks gender stereotypes. I feel like I'm living in a world where women are different than men and are expected to behave differently, and that really makes relationships extremely strained, since it is impossible, in my terms, to have a loving relationship when the couple isn't on equal footing. How can you love someone when you don't respect or understand them? Women need to wear makeup. Women need to flirt. Men can't be needy. Men can't act like girls. Stereotypes contain the relationship and stifle it to death. When I read books with straight relationships, I guess it makes me feel uncomfortable in the sense that the couple doesn't see face to face. They aren't real enough. Besides, who doesn't ship BL? Shakespeare wrote fanfics on Patroklos and Achilles. Plato liked Patroklos and Achilles. Everyone loves Patroklos and Achilles. They were the birth of shipping... On the other hand, Achilles and that slave he has? It's not a good relationship because they don't have the same rank in society. They don't understand each other. Achilles treats her as property, because that's what she is. On the other hand, he respects Patroklos and loves him, as a comrade as well as... a lover? I hope? Anyhow, I feel like this doesn't make sense, but I tend to like BL and GL because the characters aren't confined by their gender and actually are able to respect and love their partners.

[Rueleer]

(I haven't really gone through the rest of this thread - actually scratch that I'd read this before but didn't realise it X"DD)

(But I just wanted to thank you for the links~ I'm quite fascinated by the more social and psychological side of the 'BL and Fujoshi' phenomenon [being involved myself hehe] so I always like more research-type findings on it~)

[Sleepyowl]

In what universe can straight couples not respect or understand each other?! I know many straight people that would disagree with you. Men and women aren't completely different species that cannot ever hope to relate to each other. There are masculine women and feminine men crawling all over the place. Men and women are already on pretty equal footing (With men being a little bit lower in terms of which sex society favours.)

It seems the only person perpetuation stereotypes is you. ..

[GesuGesu]

I realize I actually have some scholarly articles on BL manga in Japan from an old class on gender studies in anime/manga

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B72bVobZVTVMeWZyZE9rRUw1Zk0

Please take a read through.

• "DO HETEROSEXUAL MEN DREAM OF HOMOSEXUAL MEN? : BL Fudanshi and
  Discourse on Male Feminization" by KAZUMI NAGAIKE
• "FUJOSHI EMERGENT: Shifting Popular Representations of Yaoi/BL Fandom in Japan" by JEFFRY T. HESTER
• "WHAT CAN WE LEARN FROM JAPANESE PROFESSIONAL BL WRITERS?: A Sociological Analysis of Yaoi/BL Terminology and Classifications" by KAZUKO SUZUKI

Bonus:
- "REGULATION OF MANGA CONTENT IN JAPAN: What Is the Future for BL?" by MARK McLELLAND

These four articles are in my google drive folder.

[joescottmojo]

I'm getting sick of all the bl on here, I'm a writing and creator of a webcomic called Zack and sam. Even though I actually love reading bl. I'm sick of how much their is on here now, their needs to be more genres and more types of comics on here, instead of it just being mostly bl, because lets be honest their gets a point where it just not fair to the people who post on here with great stories and art but get no recognition because it's so bl based. Imagine if someone started posting a story just as good as one punch man but everyone ignored it because it wasn't a bl. It's stupid, I'm not saying get rid of bl, just want abit more variety.

[joescottmojo]

Like many people have said this site is getting very genre specific and that isn't good. Also getting very audience specific to.

[LindseyLeeMiller]

This thread has been amazing for me, because the appeal of BL or GL has been lost on me for years.
I only consistently read one current BL webcomic from one particular artist that I've been following for a while. I've never really been able to understand the appeal of it but I've read some -- I think its because as a heterosexual female when I want to read a romance comic I want it between a heterosexual couple because I obviously relate to it more. I also want to read more heterosexual smut comics rather then BL smut for basically the same reason. I don't mind that BL exists or that its so widely accessible on the internet to readers, just as much as heterosexual focused comics are. I still get my favorites haha.

I think the proliferation of BL webcomics on webcomic sites is due to the average age demographics BUT -- I don't think its the end all be all. Because their are lots of popular comics from all different genres. My favorite part about Tapas is that it offers a wide variety of different art styles too. I agree with most of the suggestions by @joannekwan as well.

[LordVincent]

Gay people are excluded from media and exposure for years upon years? No problem, man, it's just not something that sells so it makes sense that there's little to no movies, series and books containing them!!

Gay media finally finds a platform where it flourishes and gets a chance to be normalized? GOD DAMN IT I AM SO TIRED OF THIS, THIS IS SO UNFAIR TO ALL OTHER TYPES OF CONTENT!! WHY IS IT THAT STRAIGHT WHITE PEOPLE DOING STRAIGHT WHITE THINGS DON'T GET AAAAAANY RECOGNITION?!?!?

cough
Slightly exaggerated example, but my point stands. Webcomic sites are a small bunch of places where LGBT people actually get a goddamned chance.
We have smaller chances and opportunities when it comes to traditional media, and out in the job market in general. There may be regulations against this, but fact of the matter is that we get discriminated against on a regular basis even in the most well developed of countries. And when we do get jobs, we stand higher risk of recieving threats and ill treatment in the workplace.

And then when we finally find the ONE PLACE where WE have a slight advantage... someone comes along and calls it UNFAIR. Are you kidding me?

Wanna trade places? You can take the death threats, dysphoria and discrimination. I'll take a slightly lower chance of getting popular on a random website that can easily be dealt with through hard work and regular updates.
Because you CAN still get popular even if you make other content. Tons of creators on the site are doing it.

[silencelibrarian]

I don't mind BL when I came across it without knowing it, but I also wasn't particularly looking for it, so slapping that BL on the thumbnail doesn't do anything to attract reader like me.
I click on a series if the artwork looks pretty, and alot of BL does have alot of pretty boys, so
I agree with the double hotness analogy of why BL is popular to young girls.

The reason why I don't like alot of BL here are because most of them looks so tacky and I have not came across that many that is well written.
They seems to be very self indulgent, and give me the same impression as why junk like 50 shades of grey is so popular.

A straight female friend of mine who is super into BL said she likes BL better than hetero romance because she doesnt like reading/watching another girl with a hot guy, while if it's a hot guy paired up with a hot guy, then it's okay, because it's not a girl, LOL

I guess it's because some girls have that jealousy for another girl getting a hot guy?? lol
I dunno, I personally prefer hetero romance cos I can relate to the girl's point of view, while I can't relate to BL because it's all dudes.
Not into yuri on the same reason why straight dudes (who's not homophobe) don't really care for watching dude on dude but loves girl on girl action

But if I like both characters and I think they have good chemistry together, it does not matter whether they are gay or straight, then I will ship them