TWCL

[n9uxu]

Forum bugs yes, please.

Honestly, the only reason I don't come around here as often as in the past is that the tube which connects this portion of the internet to ANYWHERE IN ANN ARBOR is painfully congested and doing anything on this forum is slooooooooooowwwww... I have to work up the fortitude to dig through things.

Of course, the new shiny is always calling people away, and a lot of the talk that was here is on G+ and what not.

Dave
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Also be sure to read ttallan's

[mcmasters]

Yeah I think a lot of the reasons given so far are valid. Forums meet different needs for different people. I'm looking for a good community as much as a source of information forum. This forum seems to me to be...let's see, not unfriendly but far far from the feeling of walking into a bar, seeing some buddies and feeling comfortable. More like walking into a store with shelves and shelves of expensive glass items lining very narrow aisles. But I'm new so that's to be expected from my perspective. Yet the place still seems kind of serious and business-like. Maybe it had a strong sense of community in the past and that has soured? It happens to forums. And I guess nowadays of lot of social community type needs are being met by the relatively new social media stuff.

Perhaps we could have a two or three person Welcoming Committee? When we get a first-poster we could jump in and make them feel wel- OKAY I SEE YOU ROLLING YOUR EYES THERE MISTER. YES YOU. SEE THAT'S JUST WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT!!!

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www.mcmasterscomics.com

[nsanelilmunky]

I can't say much because I'm new, but I don't come here as often as other forums I frequent because most of the posts are either "look at my comic," "help me find this comic that I lost," or stuff dealing with ads. For any question about script writing or 'favourite comics', there's already a thread/FAQ that one can read without actually being a member.

Then there's also my personal feelings with the bugs and layout. The bugs are annoying and this forum is very bright. All the other forums I frequent are grey to dark grey/black. Coming here from there tends to burn my eyes a little.

[Marscaleb]

Here's something really simple:
Change the look of the forum.
Not so much with the color scheme, but in the corner you got this big 'ol logo for the site that made the forum software. Then in the middle you have a bland piece of text that says "TWCL"
It just makes the forum seem low-budget and unprofessional. People drop in here, look around, and decide not to stay. You want something more polished so it doesn't feel like a forum someone's running in their garage.
You really ought to put up a graphic with the site's logo.
For that matter you might want to have a real logo for the site.

And if you wanna REALLY get some people involved, make that a contest. Just open up a contest to let people design a new logo for the site, and let people submit their designs. Perhaps even let the community vote on the designs. Then update the header for the forum so it looks more polished and professional, instead of out-of-the-box.

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Idea number two:
It also looks bad for the site when people can't customize their profile. When they have no capacity to edit their own signature and so forth, it really makes the site feel broken. Newcomers see that and lode interest.
Enable people to edit their own profile.
If there was a restriction that said "you must be a community member for X-duration" or the like that was displayed if they tried to change such things, at least that would be understandable.

I also think it would be great if in the box on the side what shows your avatar also had webcomic-specific info their. In particular, let people specify if they are a webcomic creator, former creator, or just an avid fan. let people click this declaration to take them to their comic's entry on the list, or a list of the comics they read.
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My webcomic: Mischief in Maytia
http://maytiacomic.com/

[mcmasters]

Marscaleb wrote:

It also looks bad for the site when people can't customize their profile. When they have no capacity to edit their own signature and so forth, it really makes the site feel broken.

Totally agree.

www.mcmasterscomics.com

[JohnK]

If we want a more vibrant and active webcomic community of readers and artists here, we could always mention this forum a little more often on our own sites, even if just in blog posts. It doesn't have to be a big advertising campaign.

Just tell people to come by and hang out.
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Coffee Time Comics

[mcmasters]

What is all this buggy something I'm hearing about? For me, forum loads up, goes quickly to where I click.

[hipopotamo]

Let me share my two cents, from a quasi-newbie perspective.

I walked into TWCL as most novel creators, looking for a site to promote my comic. We all know our comic is going to be lost in the literally thousand other comics promoted here, same as in all other web-comic aggregators. We still do it because the back links will definitely help with Google positioning. Then the forums comes as an extra perk: you might discover a community of like interests, and a good reason to stay past the mandatory first post. that of course depends on the forum's dynamics.

I believe this forum has interesting people, and that is what has kept me here. I for example, like TWC better than TWCL as an aggregator, and the forum over there looks "nicer", but conversation is dead there.

Here instead I have found new comics to read, interesting people, critiques to my work and even a couple of regular readers.

I for one would support the re-organization of topics but would encourage the loose format that allows people to express themselves and create this sense of community. I would also suggest we eventually pitch in and pay a good php guy to fix the issues (which honestly I can live with, Wendy and the mods do a great job in keeping the site together)

Of my soapbox now

Cheers from the Hippo

[Lavenderbard]

Mostly I haven't been around because I got really, really busy for a bit there, and stopped being anywheere on the internet.

But also, a bit the 'how many times do we need to mention Scott McCloud?' thing.

It just feels like everyone has already heard what everyone else has to say sometimes, and so why say anything? I haven't been back to what used to be my favorite writers' group yet for pretty much the same reason. Conversation was lagging something serious.

It's not that I've found a better place. I haven't.
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[Metruis]

I basically stopped posting everywhere on the internet. I kind of miss it now that I'm getting out of the cloud of depression hanging over my face.

Also the broken site kind of irks me.
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[ewomack]

Almost every forum I've visited regularly over the past 5-7 years has seen a sharp decline in the past 1 or 2 years. I'm not sure if former forum posters have migrated to social networking (which would be really sad) or if forums have become passé, or what. But it seems widespread. All forums I still visit have a thread similar to this one: how can we get the "golden era" back? So far none of these forums have come up with a solution or really even diagnosed the problem. Some have sadly dissolved completely. There just seems to be a mass migration away from internet forums in general, likely for various reasons, all of which may play a part.
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Ed Womack

[narwhalknight]

ewomack wrote:

Almost every forum I've visited regularly over the past 5-7 years has seen a sharp decline in the past 1 or 2 years. I'm not sure if former forum posters have migrated to social networking (which would be really sad) or if forums have become passé, or what. But it seems widespread. All forums I still visit have a thread similar to this one: how can we get the "golden era" back? So far none of these forums have come up with a solution or really even diagnosed the problem. Some have sadly dissolved completely. There just seems to be a mass migration away from internet forums in general, likely for various reasons, all of which may play a part.

I agree whole heartedly, forums are not what they used to be. I am new to this forum, so I hope this one is different, but in recent years when I join a forum I get 2 things, negitive/sarcastic comments from senior members, or total indifference to anything I post. Many forums nowadays are a negitive place, filled with hostile people making fun of each other, and outsiders see this and just don't want anything to do with it. I'd like (and I hope this forum could be it) a positive group of users, doesn't have to be a big group, who are close and help each other out. I assume most users here have the common interests of either creating or reading webcomics. I think that is a huge jumping off point where a group can be supportive, help each other, and make each other's works better for it.

[Marscaleb]

Hey can we get a multiquote button on here, so we can quote multiple earlier posts properly?
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My webcomic: Mischief in Maytia
http://maytiacomic.com/

[Varethane]

Lavenderbard wrote:

Mostly I haven't been around because I got really, really busy for a bit there, and stopped being anywheere on the internet. But also, a bit the 'how many times do we need to mention Scott McCloud?' thing. It just feels like everyone has already heard what everyone else has to say sometimes, and so why say anything?

These two factors are what led to me disappearing for awhile. A lot of the topics that I was really interested in when I first joined have already gotten a lot of discussion, sometimes in multiple threads when the first one got pushed back due to age and someone made a new thread out of not knowing the older ones were there or out of just wanting a fresh start. I've already said whatever I wanted to say about those topics, so when I see new threads that are variants on the old ones I don't feel as much of an urge to contribute again.

I have a feeling this is relatively common after a forum reaches a certain age; I'm not sure what can be done to prevent it from happening on a wide scale, other than making an effort to keep the community open to new members so that new conversations can show up.

But anyway. Making it so that newer members can customize their profiles would be a definite improvement.
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[QueenAmanda]

I've had an account for forever, which is how long a year is now, I guess,, but I didn't start posting until I actually had a webcomic. It just doesn't feel like a forum for readers, you know?

I don't know what I'm saying. Something something more friendly to webcomic readers. I need more coffee.