Yo why does it seem like everyone on the internet hate tapastic?

[LordVincent]

People have been complaining about smackjeeves, calling it a haven of gay porn and such.

LINE webtoon, however, often gets TONS of praise from people that hate tapas or well, the web in general.

And guess what? Webtoon is more mainstream, and more targeted towards straight romance.

I've gotten many more comments on webtoons where the readers COMPLAIN that it's "sadly" gay love, or asking which of them is the girl, etc.

So yeah. Tapas being progressive is probably a reason it gets hate and a reason that people are so quick to abuse any reason they can find to drag them through the mud.
But continuing to be progressive is worth the fight and extra effort that requires.

[PotooGryphon]

For example, from what I understand tapastic is automatically flagged as spam on most subreddits.

Yeah, that's still a thing last I heard.

I am trying to fix something that is broken. I need your help. Go to reddit NOW: read , comment , upvote http://www.reddit.com/r/webcomics/comments/2wvfsb/blocked_websites_hurt_artists_please_comment/

That's why it's recommended to upload the comic to imgur and then link it to reddit. Imgur and Reddit seems to pretty much go together throughout all the subreddits.

The story with Reddits/Tapastic, as I understand it from friends that moderate subreddits is, there was a group of creators that spammed links to their Tapastic series in several subreddits to the point the Reddit site labeled Tapastic as a spam site. :shrug:

As for the main topic, yeah, Tapas/tic has a bit of a history. Pretty much all their site updates since starting have been rocky roads (putting it lightly). It makes sense that people remember these instances and hold some resentment. Some creators were legitly wronged by Tapastic. And there's cases of creators not liking the direction they're moving towards. All valid cases for not liking the site and choosing to post elsewhere.

Tapastic has been needing a public relations staffer for a while now. These Tapas growing pains are rough.

[joannekwan]

Yeah, from what I've heard Line is much more a home for het romances. And how I see it is SJ is a much smaller site compared to Line and Tap so it's just brushed off as an off-beat corner of the net, like FurAffinity.

[isaacfriedman]

I definitely don't deny the value of a safe place for people to express themselves, I just wish the trending categories on the main page were separated by genre by default rather than having that as a separate page. I personally don't like romance comics or novels in general, and I know a lot of people who love webcomics who actively avoid sites that push romance to the forefront. BL is just the most prolific and in-your-face version of the romance comic genre that I have seen. I LOVE to see comics with LGBTQ representation as an afterthought rather than as the focus. I adore adventure comics or science fiction comics that just say "hey, her wife did this thing" and then move on with the story. Sorry for the block of text, but I feel the need to further elaborate my point of view.

That said, there is also the issue of quality that I have seen brought up, and honestly I think that that plays a role as well since deviantArt is also the laughing stock of the internet because there is zero quality control. The site and app are also not as intuitive as I think the administrators want it to be.

[TapasJosh]

They shouldn't hate Tapas. They should love us. 100%.

But yeah, I've seen outright lies too. It's kinda sad and I don't understand it.

[indagold]

Pretty sure every comic site is full of Yaoi so it isn't really much of a complaint lol. Most sites i've seen people giving shit to are older more established sites though. Maybe it's because webcomics is not something really anyone I follow talks about because it's still pretty niche?

[UzukiCheverie]

Man, that ROFR thing really brought out the worst in some people. There are artists out there that seemed like decent folk, but the literal moment that ROFR issue dropped (weeks after it was even enacted) they turned and became just... such vicious mirrors of themselves (and I know that's ironic and sorta hypocritical, coming from me lol)

A lot of the stuff on Twitter, to me, is just an attempt at creating a pitiful echo chamber of hate, to somehow "serve justice" in a situation that really wasn't threatening for 99% of the Tapas population anyway. People just enjoy agreeing with themselves, I suppose... and in turn, people who weren't affected or even involved are being fed actual straight up lies without making any effort to hear the truth, because they become sucked into that echo chamber and hear the same hateful BS over and over and over and over again (to the point that it becomes "Well, I've heard it so many times, so it has to be true right????" which is hella dangerous thinking). At its best, it's just saddening to watch.

[thoughtfulboxful]

Okay so, I can't really elaborate on this like you guys can (as I'm not familiar with any of these hate claims) but let me ask a question that probably will digress from the topic: Speaking of LGBTQ comics and having a progressive atmosphere, how come, from what I've seen, these comics are usually romance comics? Like why do LGBTQ comics (from what I've seen) mostly go into the romantic/sexual aspect of being gay and not just tell a dang story with gay (and those of other orientations) characters in it? Would that be so bad, I wonder?

Please don't get hostle; I'm just really curious about this.

[YangKoete]

My main issue with it is that it seems...pushy. I'd really not like to see half of the comics put up here be all one genre regardless of what it'd be. Even if it was a genre I liked, I'd still not want to see half of the Fresh comics be BL or whatever.

[joannekwan]

Probably because it's the most obvious? Like if it's an adventure story, it might take a while to learn that the characters are gay, but with a romance comic, bam it's right there in the thumbnail.

EDIT: I mean this is why people are attracted to them and why they always show up on trending/popular.

EDIT2: I also think romance is popular because the mainstream media is still hesitant to show gay relationships. Like there are gay characters but they are never given meaningful romantic relationships.

[thoughtfulboxful]

I guess so, but I feel like there are more ways to be progressive than just using romance. For example, in the Disney sitcom Good Luck Charlie, there was an episode that featured a lesbian couple and their daughter. That was defineately progressive, yet not outrightly romantic. But you have a point.

TBH I'm just tired of people using their artistic talents to draw sex. I can't understand why it's so appealing, gay or straight.

EDIT: I just saw your edits

[joannekwan]

Haha, yeah, sorry for all the edits, it's like I write something, post it, and immediately another point comes to mind.

As for why people like drawing sex; aside from the obvious "because it's sexy" reason, I also see it as a challenge to draw full nude bodies in sometimes awkward positions and it's a real testament to how well an artist has grasped anatomy and proportions.

[thoughtfulboxful]

I also see it as a challenge to draw full nude bodies in sometimes awkward positions and it's a real testament to how well an artist has grasped anatomy and proportions.

Well, this is news to me Never saw it that way. Still I don't think art that "turns you on" as they say is that... fantastic. For the artist or the viewer. (I'm probably referring to extreme pornography now; not really an expert on this.)

EDIT: But hey, people have preferences. Thanks for discussing!

[UzukiCheverie]

This. It's sorta fun in a challenging sort of way.

but also why dig through the dark alleyways of the internet to find porn when you could just draw your own amirite

[NickRowler]

I think it is because they feel like Tapastic is losing its steam. They focus a lot on what is popular and it is sort of difficult for those who are not BL, anime, or slice of life to get a footing on this site.

I also feel some people might be intimidated by the BL comics all over the main page. But Smackjeeves also has a lot of BL comics...so eh. I think the site in general is open to different types of people regardless of gender, orientation, religion, race, etc. There are people who on the web who see this as "leftist ideals" and tend to dislike sites that embrace diversity.

On a personal note. pushing BL comics might not be the best for pulling new viewers into the site. Some of the stories come off more as niche fangirl stuff than something that most casual readers can approach. I like gay characters but these stories feel like they are designed for fans of BL/Yaoi, so I always had trouble getting invested in them.

[NanettesClouds]

So - probably an unpopular opinion here, but I think a lot of the complaints about BL tend to be overblown, while the trending tab does tend to have a lot of BL it's far from being all that's there or even half of what's there most of the time. they're usually an acceptable level of quality, even if it is a "generic" anime sort-of style, and typically the stories are usually more than just a pornographic self-indulgent romp lead by an obvious self-insert character.

I think the people that make BL's are very aware of the criticism surrounding the genre and make at least some attempt of avoiding those issues. And I think that the people making those criticisms aren't giving the genre a second look (or even a first look and are just echoing the same things)

I'm not a huge fan of the genre, I just feel like it's treated unfairly and in general, the average BL is not of a lower/higher quality than the average comic on tapastic.

Sorry if that's off-topic? (or is it kosher for the OP to derail their own thread?)

EDIT: I may as well make a new thread called "Yo why does it seem like everyone on the internet hates BL"

[GoldenPlume]

I think it is because they feel like Tapastic is losing its steam.

Meanwhile if anyone actually, you know, looked at the numbers, Tapas.io is continuously setting new traffic records. Total desktop visits for May was 9.7M, a 65.8% increase in 12 months. (And because someone is going to ask, Webtoons is 24.5M for May.) These numbers are pretty freakin' amazing considering that Tapas does very little advertising/marketing whereas LINE pumped $3.6M alone into the Patreon partnership.

We have no explanation for all the hate though. Maybe its former Tapas creators who felt like they were ignored by staff and if they create enough noise that staff will come out and answer them? It's been incredibly quiet from HQ.

[revisionstudios]

Honestly, aside from what's already been said, I think it's just the price of growth. The more people know about a thing, the more people there are that don't like it and are vocal about it. It comes with popularity of any kind, whether you're a comic artist, a website, or a celeb. I've even seen people hate on moderately famous people who donate to charities regularly and are genuine, good people that use their influence to help others. It boggles my mind but people just find things to be mad about sometimes or twist it so they can get mad. 8/;

[NanettesClouds]

LGBT stories that aren't romance/are just a story that have some/all LGBT characters exist, it's just that they usually don't advertise that they're LGBT stories (probably partially because of the undeserved criticisms that LGBT media seems to get cough) Awhile ago I made a thread asking if it was worth it to tag my current comic as a BL, seeing as it does revolve around 2 gay characters, and there is a romance element to the story (although that's not the focus), and the majority of the responses I got boiled down to:

"No don't throw yourself under that bus"

[punkarsenic]

i feel like its because unless the story is talking abt being lgbt head on (which usually involves romance at the forefront bc like.. yknow.. duh) its not an 'lgbt comic'

theres lots of comics on here where the lgbt identity of the characters doesnt take up the forefront of the story - theyre just not labelled as lgbt comics

also, a lot of these comics are written by young lgbt people, probably just blossoming romantically (although i know a few who are already married lmao) and thats what theyre thinking about, so its what they want to write about. the void of positive lgbt romance is definitely something to fill.