What exactly happened on the TGComics forum?

[Brianxavier]

Hmm... Well I think there are about three moderators there... but when it came to the drama threads, I tend to leave well enough alone. Mostly not to cause a wild fire within the forums. Since I've seen mods get into it on other forums and it can get worse.

As for this last lock down, not sure what happen to cause Femur to do this again. One moment forums were fine, next day everyone was locked out in the cold. I haven't been told anything more than anyone else... so its just a matter of time.

*hands Vengeance his "Damm" Torpedoes back* Think we need something stronger...

--Xavier

PS: This has happen before, things get crazy between a few and the torpedoes fly. But it always tends to help cool heads and fingers.

[Lassitude]

Off-topic for a moment:

I've been meaning to say how much I love your avatar, olddude12... what's it from?

Also, I agree with your head-shaking over those who stridently take that point of view at what is more-often-than-not a fantasy TG porn site. Seems like sort of an odd battlefield to choose to fight that on.

[Vengeance1701]

As for the business angle being the incorrect one.... my reasoning is this: I imagine part of Femur's job description is to help sell the comics as best he can. Part of that has been (I would assume, anyway) providing the forum to facilitate communication between the artists and the prospective customers.

If I were an artist there, I'd be upset that a method of communication between myself and someone who wants to give me money has been closed off for no real reason.

[olddude12]

Originally Posted by Lassitude

Off-topic for a moment:

I've been meaning to say how much I love your avatar, olddude12... what's it from?

Mako's "She Blinded Me with Science" Dexter Lab parody.

Problem with those forums is that not many people consistently post on them from what I see. So it's awful when writer's/artists get bashed because the fetishes in their content don't appeal to everyone, giving a vocal minority more clout than it needs. An easy fix would be Femur tagging stories with stuff like Fem dom, male dom, BDSM, mind break, bimbo etc.

Of course, they throw the term bimbo around really loosely on those forums. As in "any female who really likes sex with varying partners"

[TFGuy]

I have no idea what the circumstances were of the thread(s) involved, nor do I know how severe this "problem" was, but the last thing I would ever do as a site owner is shut an entire part of my site down. Because, inevitably, threads just like this one will pop up on other sites and people will be left scratching their heads. You're also punishing the innocent people who had nothing to do with the discrepancy and now don't get to use the forums anymore for no reason at all.

What a shame. I hope he brings them back online, and I hope nothing got lost.

[catfish27]

Originally Posted by Vengeance1701

He's also another one who doesn't let anybody help put up content.

The fact that I've been proofreading Keshara's "Butterfly Salon" chapters (following a "call for proofreaders/editors" Femur put out some time back) means this isn't entirely true.

(But I have no involvement with the forums other than posting there occasionally, nor am I in contact with Femur on anything resembling a regular basis -- only when there's "Butterfly Salon" work to be done.)

[Weirdoid]

Originally Posted by olddude12

Any mention of bimbo always insights mass shitflinging from the forum goers. They even mention how much they hate bimbo when there's no mention of it all in the thread. "Bimbo" should just be a filtered phrase at this point.


I will never understand people taking this opinion when they're on a porn site.

I tried to ignore the arguments but it was tough (one of them kept replying to me as offensive as she did the others). One of them had the stance that "since their is a sub forum dedicated to real life transgender issues this is not just a sex or comic site."

Uhm. It is a subforum to help with regulars gender issues, it does not change the focus of the main site itself, which is TG comics of all kinds. this includes fetishy/sexual/unrealistic ones.

[Damn_Lucky]

Originally Posted by vincent_richter

The same applies to real life; if you close your store every time someone talks shit about you, you'll soon go bankrupt, and deservedly so.

It's not closing the store thow. you can still buy the comics that are being sold.

It's more like shutting down your marketing campaign because something isn't going your way.

Originally Posted by Vengeance1701

As for the business angle being the incorrect one.... my reasoning is this: I imagine part of Femur's job description is to help sell the comics as best he can. Part of that has been (I would assume, anyway) providing the forum to facilitate communication between the artists and the prospective customers.

If I were an artist there, I'd be upset that a method of communication between myself and someone who wants to give me money has been closed off for no real reason.

You are getting hung up on the idea that the method of communication is part of the service being offered.

What the Fourm is, is a kind of marketing. It is not a product, but a free service being offered to try and encourage people to spend more money on the website. By having a area to talk and build a community you create word of mouth advertising. This can be a effective strategy if done right.

As things stand that forum is not being used to it's potential. She other needs to sort out the issues, and begin using the forums to their full potential. Or she need to shut down the forums permanently if she can not handle them properly. Put her efforts into other areas of the website and devise a new marketing strategy.

What Femur's job is, is to sell as many copies of the comics as possible. That is her job description. Creating a platform for artiest and fans to talk to each other is not actually a priority here. Selling comics to keep her artists happy and paided so they can continue to create exclusive content is her priority.


Now IMHO the forum is not a situation were you need to throw the baby out with the bath water. The forums CAN be fixed with minimum effort. But if Femur continues on this path no fourms will be better then what is being ran right now.

Originally Posted by TFGuy

You're also punishing the innocent people who had nothing to do with the discrepancy and now don't get to use the forums anymore for no reason at all.

What a shame. I hope he brings them back online, and I hope nothing got lost.

Every time a event like this happens, it guts a community. I've seen a pretty vibrant community destroyed because the owner did what Femur is doing right now. I really hope Femur recognizes this if she wants her forums to still be relevant.

[vincent_richter]

Originally Posted by Damn_Lucky

Creating a platform for artiest and fans to talk to each other is not actually a priority here. Selling comics to keep her artists happy and paided so they can continue to create exclusive content is her priority.

Yeah, sorry, bullshit. We're living in the digital age, and if you're not providing directed marketing to connect content creators with content consumers - and, more importantly, content investors - they are perfectly capable of hitting each other up on GMail, dA, FA... take your pick. If you're not connecting investors to artists, get the hell out of their way.

The last thing we need is another Eisner locking down content so that indie investors and indie artists go through hell to find one another, and - as it stands right now - Femur is perilously close to that cliff.

[danielsangeo]

As an artist, I thrive on responses to my work. I am starting on paid commissions now but it's the responses to my work that I really desire. I don't know what it is, but if I put something out there and receiving nothing but stone-dead silence, it really is a demotivating factor for me.

In the olden days, I ran a website known as the IC/B2E which was a body inflation website with inflatable clothing elements mixed in. I had an email address plastered on every page. I received precisely ONE email about my work over two years. It was comprised of a single sentence.

I felt like my work was unappreciated and, I'm sad to say, unwanted.

To me, responses to my work are almost a lifeblood. I don't like that avenue of contact being cut off. I hope it's only temporary; I don't have any paid work on TGComics. I do have some free stuff on there, though.

[Damn_Lucky]

Originally Posted by vincent_richter

Yeah, sorry, bullshit. We're living in the digital age, and if you're not providing directed marketing to connect content creators with content consumers - and, more importantly, content investors - they are perfectly capable of hitting each other up on GMail, dA, FA... take your pick. If you're not connecting investors to artists, get the hell out of their way.

The last thing we need is another Eisner locking down content so that indie investors and indie artists go through hell to find one another, and - as it stands right now - Femur is perilously close to that cliff.

TG Comics is a business, and has a bottom line.

I still stand by my statement that Femur other needs to sort out her forums, or not bother. Because right now is not a ideal situation, and is not properly achieving any marketing goals.

If she can't commit to running a forum, she should be exploring other methods to achieve her goals. You can still promote communication and social marketing threw methods other then a message board.

Currently I do feel it's safe to say a good chunk of TG comic's success can be attributed to their message board. It keeps traffic on the website pretty high and helps give what is a bassicly a niche fetish site pretty high exposure. It's not like a website like TG comics can buy into Google ads. SapphireFoxx's work is much more PG and Google ads won't touch him with a 10 foot pole for example. Locking down a whole forum due to a few bad apples is pure insanity. Even more so when the message board is the bread and butter of her website's marketing.

As Vengeance1701 pointed out, the issues with the message board ATM are easy ones to fix. It just involves having even handed moderators doing their job.

[Vengeance1701]

I think we're largely in agreement then, Lucky.

Although trust me, I do sympathize with his desires to just close everything down for awhile. However, his concerns as a person sorta get pushed to the back in the business world. It sucks that you can't let personal feelings guide you but to me (as a small business owner myself), I always regard my feelings as largely secondary to what the clients desire. I'm sure his clients (the artists) do not desire this.... I could be totally wrong, of course. I will always be the first to admit I'm wrong.