Why so much salt?

Kura 2017-03-01 21:32:21 UTC #63

I think it's more of an issue cause the easily terrible ones still manage to hit trending and popular. I mean. I'm not gonna throw names out there, but yeah. There are some really trashy ones that pop up in popular that I don't understand why the hell they are there (I'm sorry I enjoy reading BL here and there, I mean I'm actually pretty happy to get it because before you had to settle with fanfics to find not hetero pairings, and I agree that there are also a lot of good ones and I have nothing against those ones being there, but oyyyyy craaaaaappp re the bad ones bad...)

Yeah, me and my friends also have a game, if the BL on the front page (popular and trending) is less than 50% we get a treat.

UzukiCheverie 2017-03-01 23:14:48 UTC #64

I agree with you that it's not just BL that has this problem. But it's the BL comics that (again) pander to the least common denominator and still manage to make it to the front page over and over again. If it were any other genre I'd still be pissed, but it's a lot harder to hit that with any other genre because other genres tend to require more thought and work be put into them in order to become popular (ESPECIALLY fantasy/adventure.... comedy's a little easier to swing, but BL so far takes the cake for how easy it is to get it on the front page despite its plot/characters/etc. So much that the thumbnail can and often IS enough to get readers to hit Subscribe).

I swear I feel like I'm suffering from delusions because of it because I can never tell if the same BL comic has hit the Pop/Trending section more than once/on a regular basis - because with the content material and style of thumbnails (label and all) I literally can't tell them apart from each other. Call it an exaggeration but it's seriously what's going through my head and it's bugging the shit out me.

Caelestie 2017-03-01 23:53:49 UTC #65

a got gl on my icon but people still expect my comic to be bl for some reason

GoldenPlume 2017-03-02 00:58:46 UTC #66

A lot of creators are starting to just bypass the homepage all together. We type "dash" in our URL browser and it shortcuts us right to the Tapastic Dashboard. We've been doing this for the last two weeks and its been a real breath of fresh air. Sure we miss the "Spotlight" and the "Staff Picks" but you have to give up/trade away something for the convenience of a shortcut.

However, since doing so a lot of our own frustrations towards genre dominance and staff selections has dissipated, leaving us feeling more optimistic and hopeful that one day our series may be successful.

Maybe everyone just short-cutting the homepage will make everyone more happy as a whole. It seems like the forums have been a bit more negative lately and the forums are rarely negative.

UzukiCheverie 2017-03-02 03:15:18 UTC #67

haha that's sorta weird?? GL is definitely in the minority compared to BL (although one of my FAVORITE Tapastic comics - Monster Pop - has GL in it, though it's not really advertised with GL labels and stuff).

Maybe everyone just short-cutting the homepage will make everyone more happy as a whole.

Man, that just seems like such a skeevy thing to do IMO I mean, I've been with Tapastic since they had their Prime program, way back when comics like Owl Turd, HJ Story, and Dane Men were just getting started. Back then the front page was just where you would always be. Skipping it would make me feel like I'm "cheating" lol But maybe that's weird xD Definitely don't blame people for doing this when the front page just isn't what it used to be :/

Erena 2017-03-02 05:07:00 UTC #68

Hm, interesting conversation. My stories tend to have BL undertones, but I've never advertised it as BL, and there's no sexual content either. I feel like it often puts me into a situation where people either think my stories aren't gay enough, or too gay to their liking
Anyway, I think being too judgmental of BL will make you miss out on some of the great stories that are out there that focus on way more than just romance, while being too defensive prevents there from being real development in the genre (eh, I'm not sure if genre is the right word, but that's for another discussion)

heraclus 2017-03-02 09:31:43 UTC #69

I'm waiting for the days of ''animal love'' genre to come out XD
only disney have stuff like this

Lisha 2017-03-02 10:53:27 UTC #70

This is just an educated guess but I think it's your comic profile/icon that has two men? I might be wrong, though.

Mari 2017-03-02 11:56:39 UTC #71

I feel like this topic is an echo chamber of some people going "But the algorithm favours BL so I cannot be succesful and thus I resent all BL and I know for a fact that there are thousands of comics tagged with BL and you can rest assured I've read through them all and confirmed that yes they are indeed trash" and some people going "deal with it and also that is true for every other genre" and then just rinse and repeat. A mod should imho just lock this thread up :x

joannekwan 2017-03-02 17:54:50 UTC #72

They're women (or at least individuals who use feminine pronouns -20chars-)

Caelestie 2017-03-02 20:52:36 UTC #73

wow thanks for calling two masculine women men!

nessiefynn 2017-03-02 21:00:07 UTC #74

@Caelestie I think that's part of it, some people just misread your characters as male so they expect BL rather than GL.

Caelestie 2017-03-02 21:03:51 UTC #75

that is why I put gl to begin with!

KoreanTacos 2017-03-02 21:12:05 UTC #76

Yeah, but who's even reading stuff on a website in which reading might be beneficial?

JKNNKL 2017-03-02 21:28:32 UTC #77

jijninjjnni drdeeded okokookm hbhn

TheHerald 2017-03-03 00:55:55 UTC #78

To be honest, I do not really care whether or not whatever is trending on the popular tab. There will be those who love it and those who hate it, just like what is seen trending on Youtube. It is the same thing no matter what form of media it is. Futhermore, it is really just part of the whole business aspect. Remember how books like Twilight and Fifty Shades of Grey were dominating in the sales for the longest time? It is just the same as we see with the BL comics. If anything, that is just the natural way business competitions work. Creators by nature are always going to have to combat with one another for attention and profit. If anything, when I see certain comics dominating the popularity (BL and not BL), I see it as a challenge to up the quality of my work and learn from the popular artists. There will always be a mix of what we define as good and bad works getting popular.

So if someone asked me what side I am on, I would be in the "I don't care, let me get back to working on my comic," camp.

Lisha 2017-03-03 05:33:33 UTC #79

You asked me why they kept expecting BL even with the GL tag, because they saw the icon and thought they were supposed to be males, I was mistaken for that too, since I judged it at first glance and thought it might be the case, so apologies, I didn't intend to be rude. Just pointing out what the cause of the problem might be.

Thank you!

Yes, I believe we're derailing. I am not going to discuss about this one further.

If there are more people like this, we an certainly dismiss the salt.

TheHerald 2017-03-03 06:13:53 UTC #80

Honestly I think a majority of people like that. But of course, the loudest voice in the room is the one that is heard. So the vocal minority on both sides are causing other people to notice. I mean, I haven't seen really any complaints from people until it is mentioned in a forum topic. Not to mention a majority of users do not really go on the website and just stick to the mobile app.

HVOICE 2017-03-04 21:04:11 UTC #81

I wasn't in that forum, but I will admit I've said some shitty stuff before in other forum topics. Some artists get frustrated when it feels like the website is favoring other genres more than others.
If I ever said anything shitty about other comics, it was all sour grapes on my end, and I apologize if I ever offended anyone.

nolongerusetheforum 2017-03-11 02:25:29 UTC #82

First, I don't make any comic with romance on it, I hardly a comic maker. This is my POV as a reader.

I think, again, this is my sole opinion I apologize beforehand if this seems wrong to some people, but BL do sell and you can't blame people for it.

I want to add my experience on using 'reading app' like Tapastic. I have install and use 1 or 2 or more reading app and while I have to say some clearly use BL as their main selling point [I am not joking when I say that as soon as I open this app, there is a huge cover of BL that cover half of my screen and when I scroll down there is a banner, read there is 'Looking for a BL? We have a huge collection for you'], there is some who didn't even have any BL at all (their top comic is straight romance and comedy and no this isn't LINE before people start assuming and I have search anywhere looking for a good horror -it's really rare to find this genre on that app too btw I only manage to find 1 from the entire collection- but this app is BL-free lol) but on another one, I see a mix of comedy, sci-fi etc and there is BL too but they aren't dominating that much.

So well, when I first meet Tapastic, desktop version, I am not really surprised to see a BL there on front. But as I have say before on my other post, what attracted me to Tapastic is their mobile version where they put a book there.
So again, as a reader, I think it's safe to say that BL sell and from the reader perspective: some wouldn't have any problems hoarding them [aka there is never enough BL, moar lol] while for some people they didn't want to touch it at all and the other just have 'yeah there is that BL comic but I am not going to read it anyway so why should I care?'

So yeah, I think Tapastic have a balanced genre here and it's pretty cool. Out of many reading app that I have installed, only 2 stay and one of them is Tapastic.

So, my point is, from the reader POV, BL or no BL, there is still plenty other genre anyway to read. And if it seems more people are attracted to BL, maybe it's because it's hard to find them anywhere else?

So yeah, just my 2 cent.