I'm sure it'll come around again soon.

Yeah, as I've said before, losing the customizations and other features that ComicFury (and even Smack Jeeves back in the day) had to offer and accept the limitations of DD was perhaps the biggest sacrifice I ended up having to make . . . but after a while, I was able to sort of work around DD's limitations and built a presentable site to host my comic on.

The funny thing is that DD used to have a lot more customization back in the day.

I'd completely forgotten about that. If you knew your html you could go in and do more or less whatever you wanted. Some creators really went to town with it.

I took Web Design for a year in middle school, back when the internet was still relatively small compared to now, and almost every website had to be built from scratch with HTML coding, so I knew a thing or two about the very basics, but over the years, I did have to teach myself some of the more advanced stuff. I had built and maintained a couple of fansites in the mid and late 2000s through the mid-2010s when the host that I used for my sites decided they didn't want to offer their services for free anymore, and you had to pay for a subscription to continue to host your sites, so I let mine die since they both had fallen pretty dormant anyway.

But yes indeed, while I was on Smack Jeeves and ComicFury, I really did go to town with VAMPIRE GIRL's site; obviously, I wanted it to look as visually interesting as possible to garner potential readers' attention . . . didn't really work on SJ, because as I've said before, you had to fall into their zeitgeist to get any notice over there, and I never did (people tended to only read Westernized Manga, stolen video game sprites, or LGBTQ+ comics over there), but I did garner quite a bit of readership and subs on CF during the very brief time I was there - and VG was only in reruns at the time, I sometimes still wonder what the traffic would've been like if I was able to publish the second season there.

I had an experience with comicfury, now I don't.
I felt relief when it ended

At least DD has history and reputation. I've looked into alternatives, and so many of them like Tapas, Webtoons, and other have the same problem that Smack Jeeves had after they were bought out and revamped: they're so cold and impersonal with this industrial, streamlined layout and appearance they have; you can't even customize your own comic's site, and that has always been one of the big selling points with me with services like Drunk Duck, ComicFury, Smack Jeeves, Keenspace/ComicGenesis, and others that have been around for ages.

I did use Webcomicsfeed as a backup archive, but it's basically nothing: you can't comment, you can't like, and you can't even see your stats! It's more-or-less just a straight-up archive . . . they claim you can monetize with them, but I've looked into the pay service they use, and it's sketchy AF.

Ironscarf wrote:
I'd completely forgotten about that. If you knew your html you could go in and do more or less whatever you wanted. Some creators really went to town with it.

To tell the truth it pissed us off when Wowio decided to get rid of HTML editing.
They had a valid argument in that it was to protect the site from hackers, spammers etc. But I didn't like the other rationale which was to make the site have a streamlined appearance and so it would be more appealing to advertisers- F**K advertisers, they come second, the members come first!

But they introduced editability so you can get a pretty decent look if you experiment.

Unfortunately the world has moved on and in 2024 we can't go back to the old HTML editing because we have WAY more to fear from hackers and spammers now, and the whole HTML thing has drastically changed, it's a lot harder for people to manually edit now. Bloody standards people and programmers ruined it. Back in the day it was easy and you could do amazing stuff, now you need to be trained in order to understand it.

Ozoneocean wrote:

Unfortunately the world has moved on and in 2024 we can't go back to the old HTML editing because we have WAY more to fear from hackers and spammers now, and the whole HTML thing has drastically changed, it's a lot harder for people to manually edit now. Bloody standards people and programmers ruined it. Back in the day it was easy and you could do amazing stuff, now you need to be trained in order to understand it.

It's a bit like the early days of aviation when if you wanted to fly, you built a plane. Now you save up, buy a ticket and take what you get.

That said, we were so used to elaborate site designs back then it was almost expected and in some cases, they overwhelmed the comics. I remember the first time I stumbled on the (now defunct) ACT-I-VATE site, which was a collective of comic pros. There was nothing there but comic pages. I looked at the plain white background and thought ‘this is amazing!’.

Ironscarf wrote:


That said, we were so used to elaborate site designs back then it was almost expected and in some cases, they overwhelmed the comics. I remember the first time I stumbled on the (now defunct) ACT-I-VATE site, which was a collective of comic pros. There was nothing there but comic pages. I looked at the plain white background and thought ‘this is amazing!’.

So you're saying that the actual comic is somehow more important than all the internet site magic one can create around it?
It's like that super fancy, beautifully wrapped gift box and inside is just a pair of socks and not even top of the line Gold Toe but normal socks like you could get anywhere.
A lot of those hyper programmed pages hid some really lackluster comics.
If the comic is truly good it doesn't need the window dressing and can stand on its own.
It's lingering with some comics where it was this huge banner and great background and you had to scroll past that to get to a tiny little comic that was usually on hiatus.

Thing about the aviation analogy– it was really hard for the DIY guy to take passengers. That required lots of people working together to assemble an airplane capable of carrying that kind of payload. Look at Igor Sikorsky's pioneering work. You needed someone to build something everyone could use and afford. That took two world wars. Just remember that nearly every WW2 bomber was either developed from or had a passenger plane counterpart.

As someone who's been intensively reading hundreds of webcomics for maybe 16 years now (because I've been doing featured comics forever), as far as I'm concerned plain what pages around comics are acid to me eyes. I hate them.

Plain black is THE best default but generally any colour that's darker than the page is good.

I really like the customization options on CF but honestly it's a hivemind of politically left leaning people who show zero tolerance for anything but “the message”. There are a few users who are decent but the majority of the site is unpleasant to engage with. If your comic isn't Pokemon/furry you're going to struggle to get and maintain an active audience.

I don't hate the people there but I've just decided to stop using it since it clearly doesn't work for me.

So… I found this thread by accident, but it was a worthwhile read.

No, really. For whatever reason, instead of using a bookmark to check out ComicFury today, I typed the address in manually and did it wrong. So this thread came up as part of the search results.

I'll avoid being longwinded, but say I got the general “vibe” about their politics/religion on ComicFury, or maybe I didn't but it makes sense in hindsight. Sounds like I dodged a bullet by commenting under comics and not in the forums.

Also

bravo1102 wrote:
In cancel culture one human's wisdom is another's microaggression.

That really is a good one, thanks. :)

Since it's coming up around the time two years ago that I ended up getting booted off of CF, I find that the whole incident has been on my mind again lately, but I've actually come to realize something: despite the fact that I did find a number of comics there that I genuinely enjoyed and was subscribed to, on the whole, I don't believe I was ever legitimately, genuinely, or sincerely happy there, and that I may have even been fooling myself into thinking I was. In hindsight, I think my brief time with CF was nothing more than a coping mechanism: I had recently parted ways with another unrelated online community I had been an active part of for much of my internet life, my dad had just died several months earlier, so I think all things considered, CF really did nothing but fill a void I now had. I still, obviously, looked forward to hosting VAMPIRE GIRL on their site when the second season was slated to launch October 2022, but I almost feel like that after the comic wrapped last year, I probably may not have even been all that interested in being a part of the CF community any longer . . . heck, I even find that now, I haven't read or followed any of the comics that I subscribed to while I was in a loooong time (at least some are cross-posted here on DD, so that's a plus) . . . and I can't even remember any of the people I may have interacted with with some regularity on their forum. That's a whole different story here, thankfully. I think that's why I've grown to really like it here with you guys: we're small, but we're insular.

J_Scarbrough wrote:
we're small, but we're insular.

Hahaha! We are ^_^

I like to think we're tolerant and open in our views though.
I'm left wing but a bit old fashioned, I come from a time when we didn't tend to hate the people who thought differently or come up with ways to explain how everyone but the groups we like are actually super super evil and every thought they have, what they wear, the music they listen to every expression in every selfie is actually a an obvious signal to their monstrous true characters.
-Both the right and the left have a lot of people who're basically nothing more that conspiracy theorists addicted to confirmation bias.

- I don't think that sort of thing represents the Comic Fury community (I don't know anything about them these days). This is just a general comment talking about who our own community is in contrast to to an intolerant straw-man I constructed LOL!

It'd be interesting to have a thread where we all post out alignments on different “culture” issues though, but probably a bit problematic haha!

Insular isn’t a virtue…

Do you mean like tight knit or something? I just keep looking at the definition and idk I can’t find a positive connotation for the word I’m just trying to guess by context. o.o

Narrow-minded and not willing to listen to other points of view? Somehow, I think someone must have used it wrong. This community is very nearly the opposite.

Now if you mean Drunk Duck is its own little island in the vast sea of the internet than the term is appropriate. But with the most popular comics being pornography this place is hardly narrow minded. Stubborn and at times down right ornery, yes, Narrow-minded. No.

Emma_Xross wrote:
Do you mean like tight knit or something?

Indeed.

The CF community feels more like high school at times: you either fit in with them or you don't. I tried a little too hard to fit in, and they didn't care for it.

Ahhh okay, that makes more sense!

As for CF I’m fairly active there and I’ve met some really nice people. My comic is doing pretty well there too so I can’t complain too much. The community is pretty active and there’s a fair number of interesting topics. I’m pretty thankful it exists cause there need to be more places like it and DD out there, I just don’t like how the other hosts are run y’know? Too corporate and the cynic in me can’t help but notice the structure of places like Webtoons being weighted towards comics they personally own over indie comics like ours.

Yeah, Genejoke said “insular” and I agreed, thinking of the meaning in terms of a small group rather than an insulated, close-minded group XD
But I'm sure there are people who think of us that way LOL!

Every time I think this place truly is insular there's always someone new to shake things up a bit. I'm talking comics. That's where our real differences lie, thus hobby, profession, obsession we all share.
That's the great diversity in this community and the more fellow creators I've met the more diverse I've discovered us to be.

We certainly have a variety of comics here, that's for sure. CF did too, as I said, I had quite an extensive reading list over there as I do here. Smack Jeeves back in the day, not so much; I'm not saying algorithms were the problem (because I'm not so sure SJ even operated that way), but as I said before, if yours wasn't a Westernized Manga, stolen video game sprite, or LGBTQ+ comic, then the chances are it wasn't going to be noticed at SJ - that seemed to be what their zeitgeist was when I was there.

I like the comics and I like mirroring there, but I recommend staying out of the forums. If you so much as mention the wrong name or use the wrong thing even by mistake or while meaning to talk about something completely harmless, you will get in big trouble. It's not a good place for open discussion. Just stay out of the forums and keep to yourself.

As a follow up, my conclusion on CF is that it's got a lot of lovely hidden gems in terms of good people and good comics, but it is not worth the toxicity of the community. When I finish my current project Psychoborg, I'm going to stop using it as a mirror even and officially “close” my place there.

I'll give notice to my followers and leave what I've got there for people to read, but that's it. Whatever is there is all its getting from me. I'm done.

Never experienced any such toxicity, people there have been really kind and welcoming.

mks_monsters wrote:
When I finish my current project Psychoborg, I'm going to stop using it as a mirror even and officially “close” my place there.

I'll give notice to my followers and leave what I've got there for people to read, but that's it. Whatever is there is all its getting from me. I'm done.

That's big o_o

I'd say that ANY active community has an element of toxicity. How pervasive it is has to do with those in control and what they dictate or tolerate. -We have definitely had that sort of issue in the past here and as one of the main people in charge of the place I bear a responsibility for that, but I'd like to think we worked past stuff long ago! ^_^

Does CF seriously still have that going?
I don't like to talk bad about them because they're a fellow independent comic host and I haven't been there in years so I have no direct knowledge.

I'm surprised to hear that. I tried to contact Kyo recently and he ghosted me, so I naturally assumed he'd put the ghosts of the past behind him.

Ironscarf wrote:
I'm surprised to hear that. I tried to contact Kyo recently and he ghosted me, so I naturally assumed he'd put the ghosts of the past behind him.

WooooooooOOOOOOOooohhoooooWeeeeee XD

As I already said upthread, I post on CF and never had serious problems. They have a very active forum with many opinionated people, and in that situation I think it is natural that the mods have to be a bit draconian (sometimes too much, perhaps) and that some people will feel left out.

I'm not using the site, can only guess, but maybe the creator community is generally younger there…? I noticed with people around and below 20-ish that they are more vocal about being socially conscious and sometimes are more opinionated in general. It's not uncommon that in a community people who are the most vocal draw the lines of what's appropriate and what's not, what's safe and what's not and the leaders of such community cater to their needs, while most just accept it and some find themselves to be unwanted elements. I guess it's good that there's a variety of spaces for people to use and create in. If every community would be governed like the Duck, obviously those who prefer CF would not feel very welcomed and if every community would be governed as CF, many who prefer the Duck would be just forced to give up creating in an online community (or their works and opinions shared would not be authentic).