Episode 381 - site upgrades and messing with creators
Jul 2, 2018
We talk about all the new upgrades that DD has just gotten: the new comment notification and reply features (a huge thank you to all who donated and helped out with that!!!), our new notification icons, getting HTTPS on the site, moving to the new ad system after the fall of Project wonderful, maybe starting a Patreon for DD, and Tantz's Sunday Twitter features. We also chat about Tantz's latest newspost and Mks Monster's thread that it was based on: basically the idea of forcing creators into boxes. The idea that women should create certain kinds of work and men should create others. Gunwallace gave us a lovely theme to Sky Commander. This is a very futuristic sounding track, at first glance it’s a little modern for the 1940s set comic but I like to think of it as the flight theme of the Sky Commander as he zooms through the clouds in his shiny metal Streamline Moderne gear, producing an expanding vapour trail behind him, crisp and white against the eggshell blue sky.
Topics and Show Notes
Topics and shownotes
Featured comic:
Bob and Rob - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2018/jun/26/featured-comic-bob-and-rob/
Links:
Site upgrades! - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2018/jun/28/upgrades/
Tantz's Twitter Features - https://twitter.com/DrunkDuck/status/1013540066390667264
Proving your Progressiveness (Tantz newspost) - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2018/jun/29/proving-your-progressiveness/
Messing with creators (thread) - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/forum/topic/177940/?page=1#latest
Special thanks to:
Gunwallace - http://www.virtuallycomics.com
Tantz Aerine - http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Tantz_Aerine/
Banes - http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Banes/
Pitface - http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/PIT_FACE/
Ozoneocean - http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/ozoneocean
Featured music:
Sky Commander - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Sky_Commander/, by Coydog, rated T.
Ozoneocean at 6:22PM, July 3, 2018
Having money injected into the site was an amazing thing and it's how other sites like Webtoons and Tapastic have made it big and taken over from us as the main webcomic sites- but YES, it wasn't handled well. Our management did not know about webcomics at all... Webcomics were a poorly understood side issue. :(
Ozoneocean at 6:19PM, July 3, 2018
Good comments! Yes, there are bad ways to handle diversity, but diversity IS a good thing.
Amelius at 10:14AM, July 3, 2018
Also, I felt my teeth clench at the mention of Platinum and C&A, everything they did for our site was indeed in service of that movie being made. I'm thankful every day that I didn't sell my comic rights to them when they approached me about CTV, I'm thankful I had a project on the backburner I could offer up as sacrifice if they were genuinely interested in working with me as a creator, but gods DANG to I get angry about what happened with Night School. We had a great story planned and poured a lot of effort into it, that just never reached its potential because Plat didn't know what they hell they were doing with it. It was mishandled at every level.
Amelius at 10:12AM, July 3, 2018
Disingenuous "performative" diversity makes it hard for writers who want to genuinely explore these things too. A reader once asked why I (allegedly)had no lgbta+ characters (not rudely!)I reply "who says there aren't?" and in the midst of discussion, someone felt the need to intercede and "defend" me by saying adding these characters is "forcing it down throats". I disagree, as said characters existed long before the conversation, nobody was pressuring me simply by asking if they exist. lgbta characters existing in my world isn't forcing an "opinion" on anyone. But I get where they are coming from at the same time-- I've seen several writers sloppily retcon fundamental things about characters midstream not because it made narrative sense, or they were inspired, but because they wanted in on that list on Tumblr about webcomics with trans/gay/lesbian main characters. Cynical, self-interested table scraps for the marginalized.