Pushing the forum

Keeeng

So, as you can see.... there is a NEW forum, this time its tied into ink.

This makes things amazingly easier for me, I can now have my friend working with support emails to help people when they have issues.

BUT the main reason I am starting this thread is I want to get this forum populated, and try and create more of a community from it.

Now for incentives, there are KARMA points I have put some things into the works where you would be able to buy exposure with ads on ink, jackpots, banner exchange exposure power.... and some new exposure tools coming up.

Now if you are just a reader it does not mean you will not be able to help out.

Lets say I am a fan of a certain comic, but I dont have my own.... you can give that comic exposure power with your KARMA. The user that runs the comic will see what you did for them when they log in.

I know forums are not the ideal thing in the world, but I am sure we can turn it into something useful for readers and creators....

There will be a "supporters" section of the forum, where only people who subscribe to ink will be allowed to babble. This also allows you to get issues resolved a lot faster and the ability to take part in BETAS.

Please pepper this post with things you would like in the forum, and even incentives that you would like as well.

talkinghead

How do I give comics exposure?

chrcontagious

Cool, sounds like you have some great ideas. Any chance we can we get nested replies? They're much easier to follow IMO.

Are our forum profiles going to get beefed up at all? It would be nice to have some more fields to fill out - bio, website, etc.

chrcontagious

Oh, and maybe in the subforums under "Comics", could we have somewhere to discuss the inner workings of comics, topics about art or writing for example, or debates about the medium as a whole, just basically a "general" webcomic discussion that isn't as specific as promotions or reviews?

chrcontagious

@talkinghead there is no option right now. I will be making these steps as we move ahead.

@chrcontagious bios will get some big beef soon :P I also wanna do achievements / badges but we will see how much activity there is first

As for subcategories I would love to get a list together of what to add, if you wanna put a structure together I would go by it.

Keeeng

Reply to @chrcontagious:Nested comments are now in place :D

Babyberry

Just a few questions, but I'm not sure if you've hammered out these details yet:

1) How much were you thinking for the pay-wall for the "Subscribed" forums?
2) If we're a subscriber, would that translate to a Karma allowance every month?
3) Would the monthly donations to Ink also be figured into this, or would those be considered extra?

Keeeng

1 ) 5$ per month or 30 a year
2 ) Not sure, crunching numbers to see what exposures will cost. If I have people supporting ink I want to make sure they get a good boost every month by helping.
3 ) it would take over the support system that we currently ( dont have )

Karma is gonna take me a bit to see how much people post, and how things will flow......

I kinda need to find some help to manage the forum, gonna start asking around :)

Babyberry

That makes a lot of sense. Thanks for the quick response!

talkinghead

5$ a month? Why are you charging now?

Keeeng

Just for a Supporters section

djsprockets

I was wondering why your support system wasn't working...

chrcontagious

@Keeeng
"As for subcategories I would love to get a list together of what to add, if you wanna put a structure together I would go by it."

I'm not sure what all categories you would need, hopefully someone else chips in with some ideas... a standard one would be entertainment (music/games/movies etc., ... good for ice-breaking topics where people can find common ground), and like I said a place for creators to talk comics in a general sense, a tip workshop and such.

As for charging for a supporter's section, I see what you're going for, but I've already advertised on your site through Project Wonderful a few times. For me personally, the benefits of being a supporter would have to outweigh the ad visibility I would get from the PW ads for me to go for it.

Anyways, thanks for being open to the community's ideas, that's very cool.

Faye

I have to admit the reason I haven't posted on this forum (Where I had on all the previous ones) is it's a little off putting to have the data wiped so frequently, and all of a sudden previous conversation threads are lost. I know in some cases it can't be helped, but I do wish there had been a way to make changes without clearing the forum database again.

I do worry about the idea of Jackpots being bought with Karma points. Especially if readers can send them to a creator. Please don't get me wrong, I love Ink (Donated $50 total last year, and plan to again when I'm back to work) but I do find the Daily Jackpot is already somewhat repetitive when it comes to a select few comics. I worry that the 'Daily Jackpot' will become more of a popularity contest, rather than featuring a variety of artists.

Keeeng

Reply to @Savannah_McIntyre: That Jackpot is something I need to work on tho...... Ill see what I can do

Michael_Grills

I love what you are doing for the site.

I would like to make a suggestion. I would like to see a link exchange section in the forum. A Place where people can offer to make exchanges and promote each others work.

I don't really know how the best way to do that would be but It would be a way for creators to join forces for ad campaigns and joint sponsorship. Too many of us are working by ourselves in the marketing side and sites like this offer opportunity to help each other get exposure.

PaveTheTigt

Would receiving likes also power karma, like how giving them does? That may encourage quality posts. On the other hand, it may give rise to fishing for likes, which would require moderation.

Keeeng

From time to time I drop Karma to people who create good threads.

Michael_Grills

Michael_Grills
I agree. Like yourself, it's just me making/promoting what I do. A place to come together and do this would be great.

rocketpig

Maybe it's just me but I'm not crazy about link exchanges. Most of the time, it seems like link-farming to me. If I see a comic I enjoy, I just promote it in a blog or on Twitter because I, you know, like the comic. If I strike up a friendship with the creator, they usually do the same for me at some point down the road.

Then again, this boils down to my opinion that most webcomics have too much stuff on their sites.... Adding a link exchange is just another superfluous addition that doesn't do much for the reader, in my opinion. If you already have an ink banner, you can request it to display comics you like, which serves the identical purpose (usually in a much more graphically-friendly manner).

observetoexist

Idk, I just put my link exchanges on a separate page so its available but not overbearing. Also, I'm of the school of thought that says as long as your comic is in a place where people will see it right away, and that the layout of your site is clean and efficient, it doesn't really matter how much stuff you have on your site. (well there probably is a limit before it gets ridiculous) Most people have trained themselves to ignore it anyway. Its there for the 1 percent that happen to scroll their eyes across whatever thing you put up on your site and say, hmmm, maybe I will click on that INK exchange box this time...

Also, no audio or pop up ads. Thats just a given.

EDIT: Although... thinking about it, this might be a skewed opinion since I OWN a site. Thinking back to the days before the comic, I definitely did appreciate a clean and simple site. So theres more food for thought I guess...

rocketpig

But if 99% of your readers are ignoring the additional content, shouldn't you question whether that content should be there in the first place?

It's my opinion that if you can reduce the clutter and, hypothetically speaking, get 5% or more of your readers to notice that additional content, isn't that a much better route to go with your site design than to throw everything and the kitchen sink on the page and hope that 1% look at some of it?

Of course, that's also ignoring the fact that the more clutter there is on a site, the more likely your readers are to miss the content you actually want them to see that involves your comic and site-related content (blogs, character information, social network links, upcoming news and appearances, etc.).

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