TWCL

[dracony]

Hey, we lauched webcomicbox.com a while ago, which is a webcomic reader/aggregator.

I received a lot of emails from comic owners and am currently changing the site to fit better with their views.

I was hoping to also get some input from comic readers on usability and missing features that you guys would like. Please leave some suggestions here if you have a while to spare =) I promise I'll try to tailer to everyones' needs =)

[Marscaleb]

Yes, I would like you to put my comic on there and promote it to a top spot so I can get a thousand readers.
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My webcomic: Mischief in Maytia
http://maytiacomic.com/

[vaslittlecrow]

I would jump on it, but I don't like that users have an option to strip my ads and under the comic blog entries -- the life blood of my business. I charge for that option on my own site, so why would I undermine myself. If there were a way to disable the comic only option for, then I might consider. How about creating a paid option where users can get the comic-only on page option, and the comic artist gets a royalty fee? That way instead of your site coming across as a bandwidth waster for creators, it becomes a win-win opportunity for everyone.
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[dracony]

Well for one it is really much much work, and actually a lot more legal fuss to accept payment for users and pay the authors. What I though was allowing authors to specify a single banner that would be shown on all 'comic view' pages. this way an artist gets something no matter which view the user is using. Also even in the comic view the site doesnt use up the bandwiidth of the original site, because the image gets cached on our server.

The prime reason why this site was created is because a lot of webcomic sites are slow, load up too much unneeded stuff (and I don't mean ads by this, I mean like fullscreen high definition backgrounds, user comments, header artwork etc). I don't have any issue with artists getting revenue for their work, what I wanted to do was a place that you can visit from any device and read your comics.

[vaslittlecrow]

Quote:

Well for one it is really much much work, and actually a lot more legal fuss to accept payment for users and pay the authors.

It's a lot of work to create a webcomic and we have to navigate through a lot of legal fuss too when we post our work online. We face constant issues of sites that undermine our monetization efforts and how we want our content to be presented. As a former stage performer dealing with music, DJ and assistant promotions manager at a radio station, I know what an expensive and convoluted pain in the ass dealing with intellectual property rights, licenses royalties and individual artists or distributors. I also was threatened by a software company with legal action because my drawing program was purchased with an incorrect license for what I was using it for. Because of this, I have a keen understanding that all of these annoyances were simply my responsibilities within these industry and the cost of doing business.

If you aren't ready to deal with this kind of potentially expensive and annoying situation, then you will definitely not be ready to deal with potentially expensive legal action and bad publicity that dealing with unhappy of creative people might bring. For example, if you publish content from a comic artist who is flouting intellectual property laws, you may be liable. So, whether you use subscriptions, or an ad-supported monetization model, you definitely want to be aware that this is one of the risks you are taking, especially since unlike your competitors or private RSS reader software, the comics can actually by posted on your site in a way that can legally be construed as publishing for public viewing.

Nonetheless, I am glad that you are making your site opt-in. There are some comic creators and content providers do invest considerable time and money for the creation of mobile versions to completement their high-res sites, so undermining those efforts might be looked at with hostility. And even for smaller sites like mine, there are services that create stripped down mobile-friendly sites very easily: http://m.barxotka.com

Good luck with your efforts, and I am not trying to knock them. I am just sharing what I know as someone who has been involved in a variety of creative industries for over thirty years.
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