TWCL

[afterthedream]

Webcomic ranking site http://comichovel.com/ is apparently no more. It hasn't been updated in quite a while, and the last post on their Facebook page is from March of 2012.
_________________

[ewomack]

When I went to the site I saw this at the top: "NOTICE: This domain name expired on 01/23/2013 and is pending renewal or deletion."

That definitely sounds like an end... they seem to be dropping fast.
_________________
Ed Womack

[Jeroen Willemse]

I've always sort-of wondered how relevant those websites really were. At least, in my head to readers it doesn't matter so much and it's mostly creators who use them. But perhaps I'm wrong about that.
I suppose the same thing sort-of goes for TWLC, except there's a social element. Look, I'm socialising! All in all, though, I feel like webcomic communities in general do seem to be dying out, and I can't put my finger on why exactly.

[afterthedream]

Jeroen Willemse wrote:

I've always sort-of wondered how relevant those websites really were. At least, in my head to readers it doesn't matter so much and it's mostly creators who use them. But perhaps I'm wrong about that. I suppose the same thing sort-of goes for TWLC, except there's a social element. Look, I'm socialising! All in all, though, I feel like webcomic communities in general do seem to be dying out, and I can't put my finger on why exactly.

I've actually found a number of my favorite webcomics through ranking sites. This site and topwebcomics.com are pretty much the main ones I look at. There have been a number of imitators over the years, and I've never really seen the point. And, yeah... they've been dying out, probably largely due to being redundant and irrelevant.
_________________

[katastrophe]

I had a site listing there. On the sixteenth I got this email:

Quote:

Hello members of ComicHovel.com We have decided to discontinue support of ComicHovel.com. It would be a good idea to remove vote buttons and anything else linked to comichovel.com in order to avoid having broken links on your page. Thanks for the support you guys have given and in the future we will produce a system much more advanced than comicHovel.com Have a nice year!

So yes, they're gone, though they were nice enough to formalize it at least. I don't think they ever got the traffic/attention they were hoping for; at least, I was usually on the second page of the rankings (#20 or so) but I rarely got more than a click or two every other week from them, whereas on the second page of TWC (#150ish) I'm getting dozens of clickthroughs per week. It's a shame, though. Their site design was much prettier.
_________________

[wendyw]

I think the problem with listing sites is that there are just too many of them. They're useful, but how many competing services do you need? The more there are the less traffic any individual site gets and the more likely the people running them are going to chuck it all in because it's not worthwhile.

There's a few listing sites that do pretty well, either because they were established long before most of the current pack (this site, Top Webcomics, Belfry) or because they've managed to drum up a lot of interest when they've launched (Ink Outbreak), but for the most part there just aren't enough users to sustain the amount of sites that have popped up.
_________________

Blog

[vulpeslibertas]

How many phonebooks do you really need?
_________________

[ewomack]

At least it looks like Comic Hovel notified those with accounts that they're going down, which was incredibly considerate. They could have just disappeared.

I agree with those who find comic ranking sites a little uninspiring. I once had 3-4 of their graphics on my homepage and it really started to look junky and cluttered. Not to mention it really only benefits comics that rank in the upper 100s. What message does it send if you post a graphic that ranks your site at #10,012 on a list? Or if your site keeps plummeting? At one point my site hits were increasing while my ranking on some of the list sites actually decreased. What's the point? But of course if your site ranks #1 or even #10 that looks great. Not to mention that those sites are easily gamed by having 100 friends log on and vote in your favor - which I'm sure never happens. In the end, it's really hard to know what such sites measure.
_________________
Ed Womack

[afterthedream]

Hm, I had a listing on the front page of Comic Hovel, and I never got an e-mail about them shutting down. Who'd I piss off?
_________________

[Eve Z.]

So, I noticed this site is dead. I need to remind myself to remove their broken link off my site. :/

My comic was burried deep into their archives and haven't got any clicks from there in months. I was rather frustrated with it, because they never reset the votes with every once in a while like other sites do and so, never had the chance to raise in their rank and pimp my comic a lil bit this way.

Comic rank was a pretty cool site though. I could keep track of how many people were actually reading my comic.
I miss OnlineComics too. Got lots of traffic from that site on my old SL days.

What do we have left now, i wonder.

I know Belfry, Piperka, TWC, TWCL, TTWCL, Taversia, Tomgeeks(exclusivist to female cartoonists) and other T-names I can't remember.

Yeah, we have lots left.
_________________

[smbhax.com]

ewomack wrote:

Not to mention that those sites are easily gamed by having 100 friends log on and vote in your favor - which I'm sure never happens.

Pretty sure that *does* happen; the TWC model for instance is pretty much constructed to *be* gamed; quite recently for instance I've seen a site whose PW ad info showed only double-digit daily visitors, but whose TWC rank was in the 100s.

Eve Z. wrote:

I know Belfry, Piperka, TWC, TWCL, TTWCL, Taversia, Tomgeeks(exclusivist to female cartoonists) and other T-names I can't remember. :roll:

Ink Outbreak has been mentioned, and I also want to mention Comic Rocket, which does a smartframe-based-reader thing similar to Ink Outbreak, but in a bit more streamlined fashion.
_________________

[ttallan]

The Jan 24th update on the Tomgeeks site says that it's closing too, sort of...
_________________

[ewomack]

smbhax.com wrote:

ewomack wrote: Not to mention that those sites are easily gamed by having 100 friends log on and vote in your favor - which I'm sure never happens. Pretty sure that *does* happen; the TWC model for instance is pretty much constructed to *be* gamed; quite recently for instance I've seen a site whose PW ad info showed only double-digit daily visitors, but whose TWC rank was in the 100s.

Sorry, I forgot to use sarcasm indicators around "which I'm sure never happens." I should have put a wink or a razz there...

I'm completely positive that this does happen and probably very often. And I'm sadly speaking from experience, but only from one experience. A few years back I had a bunch of friends, some who read my comic and many who didn't, vote for my site on a ranking site that no longer exists (I don't even remember its name). Not too surprisingly, my rank skyrocketed. I soon realized that this gaming didn't benefit me at all because it gave me no idea how many people were actually voting for my site, not to mention that my friends probably weren't willing to repeat this kindness over and over again. It didn't end up doing much for me anyway since the site wasn't all that popular anyway.
_________________
Ed Womack

[Eve Z.]

Tomgeeks will disappear also? Poopie.

Yeah, I know Ink Outbreak and looks like my site is also on Comic Nation, which is funny because I don't remember ever submitting my comic in there.
_________________

[JohnK]

Does onlinecomics.net still take new comics? I submitted mine a week ago and it has not been activated. I always thought that was a good site.
_________________
Coffee Time Comics