Just how much can I push the envelope with my comic?

Scyze · Post by **Scyze** » Sat Sep 01, 2007 4:43 pm

Hey folks, I'm thinking of signing up with Comic Genesis--truth be told, I haven't actually started the comic, but it's in a major design stage in my mind. But the thing is, my comic is going to be extremely intellectual and serious, so I'm wondering, just how much can I push and push in my comic's content? It would possibly have any of the following, or more:

Blatant Sexual Themes/Nudity (no explicit images)
Racism/Bigotry/Discrimination
Religion/Belief Bashing in General
Violence (not just wanton cartoon violence)

Those are the only things I can think of right now, but I just want to know, is it safe or okay to even try and host my comic on ComicGenesis? While it might seem like a complete slash/gratifying sex comic, it's really not. Those are just possible themes that would PROBABLY occur sometime during its course.

Also, can I sign up without having any comics done--get all the web-design and such started, etcetera? I'd really appreciate some advice.

NakedElf · Post by **NakedElf** » Sat Sep 01, 2007 5:57 pm

So long as the content isn't illegal--promoting assassination of public figures, infringing copyright, child pornography, etc--you should be fine.

Lady Yate-xel · Post by **Lady Yate-xel** » Sat Sep 01, 2007 9:47 pm

You can't sign up with out a sample comic, though. You'll need at least one page for the signup process.

NakedElf · Post by **NakedElf** » Sat Sep 01, 2007 9:53 pm

Lady Yate-xel wrote:You can't sign up with out a sample comic, though. You'll need at least one page for the signup process.

Very true. And I recommend having more than just one comic up your sleeve.

Rkolter · Post by **Rkolter** » Sun Sep 02, 2007 5:09 am

What everyone's said is true - it's cool to have just about any kind of comic here except those that are for one reason or another illegal.

Now, your comic certainly sounds like it should be rated MA - and that will be something you will want to do early on. There's an entry for your comic's rating that you will be able to set from siteadmin.

That entry will determine the kinds of ads that are hosted on your account, what searches produce your comic, and also if you should produce a newsbox (one of the options available to you - basically advertising comics from CG comic to CG comic) what comics your newsbox will display on.

Mobi · Post by **Mobi** » Mon Sep 03, 2007 12:15 am

Another thing you'd have to keep in mind is warning people about the content before linking your site. It's happened before that very graphic sites haven't left an MA rating beside the link, and it's not entirely pleasant to stumble upon without warning.

But that's a problem for the future. For now, good luck with it.

JessicaRaven · Post by **JessicaRaven** » Mon Sep 03, 2007 1:05 pm

well lets see here my comic contains

Blatant Sexual Themes/Nudity shown plenty of nudity (albiet barbie doll type) and a few pages ago showed a graphic rape
Racism/Bigotry/Discrimination (not against any real races but a fictional race withing my series' universe)
Religion/Belief Bashing in General (ok that one not so much, but I do have a skewed view of religion portrayed in my comic that has gotten me some angry letters by some extreme right wingers)
Violence (let's see I've depicted people being eviscerated, eaten. torn limb from limb, throats slit, decapitated, crucified, and blood painting the walls)

so yeah what the others said as long as it's nothing real world illegal ("hey there readers! lets all try to assasinate GWB!" or drawing explicit lolicon tenticle rape) I think you're fine

Post by **Kisai** » Tue Sep 04, 2007 11:21 am

Don't read too much into this...

There is nothing in the TOS that states what you can post, rather it's the agreements with the advertisers. If you DO NOT rate your comic appropriately, or tamper with the advertisement system, then it gets removed.

An example, just to explain why this is. Ghastly had the ads pulled on his site, because a reader took offence to the comic, who in turn contacted the advertisor and basically bighoohaaha.

So just because YOU don't think it's offensive, doesn't mean it isn't.

Likewise, I think the only secondary fallout from that was a shota/loli comic removing itself.

From a technical point of view, the adult stuff should at least require a 'you must be 18 to enter' gateway page, or pad out the top of the front page so that the comic is not the first thing seen. You can pretty much get away with between 1000 and 2000 pixels of space.

As for other comics... it is frowned upon to put up anything that may be seen as illegal in the US or other countries, but by law we aren't required to remove anything unless someone actually complains about it. As far as I know. We also don't have to authenticate the claim, that's why DMCA takedowns on sites like youtube simple result in the content being removed without being checked. If Nintendo says 'take down all the pokemon material -now-', we would, but Nintendo would have to say which sites have it, as it would literately take me about a month to handcheck every site for it. Comics aren't exactly searchable like text is.

and JessicaRaven, your comic gets all it's traffic from other TG sites, TG topics are already MA and rarely PG, so nobody is going to complain since they know what to expect already.

Dr Neo Lao · Post by **Dr Neo Lao** » Wed Sep 05, 2007 3:19 am

Kisai wrote:...should at least require a 'you must be 18 to enter' gateway page...

I've been meaning to ask about this for a few months now.

In order to set up a gateway page, the index.html file in the public_html folder can't have a ***todays_comics*** tag in it. The index is always the default page, and the navigation tags (such as ***next_day*** or ***last_day***) won't point to anything other than their defaults.

However in the Advanced Options for the comics data there is an option that says "If not index.html, which page is the default?"

If I understand that correctly, if I create a page called "gateway.html" with the 'You must be 18 to enter' message in it and I then put "gateway.html" in the "If not index..." field, then the default page that a viewer should see would be gateway.html, right?

This option has never worked as long as I've been a member of CG so I was curious to know if this option was deliberately turned off for some reason or broke at some point and has not been fixed.

I know that there are several comics that would like this feature enabled, unless there was a specific reason for it not working that we're not aware of...

Londonunderground · Post by **Londonunderground** » Fri Sep 07, 2007 2:50 pm

I'd be very interested in knowing about the index.html business. Although my comic isn't half as bad as some of the things I've just found out about today, I still think it'd be a good idea to have a warning page along with some other stuff first.

Dr Neo Lao · Post by **Dr Neo Lao** » Sat Sep 08, 2007 2:58 am

I was searching the archives on an unrelated topic and came across this little nugget of information in this thread:

Joel Fagin wrote:10. Support for the first comic and index page to be different.

This was a question for features being requested. The reply:

Kisai wrote:10. This has ALWAYS been available. See "override first comic" in edit_comicinfo. You can also override the index page last time I checked. People kept screwing up their sites by changing these settings, so if they are disabled, that's why. More work for me means lest customization for you. However having it work in autokeen was never implemented. So yes you can define it, but it has no bearing on autokeen right now, only guide.

It is a feature that used to be available, but was never implemented for AutoKeen (the automated software currently running). The obvious bit to take note of here is "people kept screwing up their sites" - in other words, the admins got sick of having to fix people's accounts because they messed with things they didn't know how to use.

I don't see this feature being re-implemented for AutoKeen, but you may want to start lobbying Stredwolf to have it re-implemented for WolfKeen which will soon replace AutoKeen (it's still in Beta, I think... ).

Londonunderground · Post by **Londonunderground** » Sun Sep 09, 2007 10:07 am

Thanks for the help, I thought the option had just gone down when the servers changed.

I guess I'll pm Stredwolf or something.

Scyze · Post by **Scyze** » Sun Sep 09, 2007 12:15 pm

Thanks for the help, everyone, but I have another question:

I'm not overly fond of the idea of MA-rated ads being on my page; is it possible to make a gateway page that warns readers, then sends them into the main comic which would not be rated MA (because of the ads)?

Or is it absolutely necessary? If it is, I'll do it, but I'd really prefer not to if possible.

Londonunderground · Post by **Londonunderground** » Sun Sep 09, 2007 12:46 pm

Even if your comic is rated MA, you don't get MA ads unless you specifically tick the box asking for MA ads. Although I don't know just how MA the MA ads are...

Scyze · Post by **Scyze** » Sun Sep 09, 2007 12:54 pm

londonunderground wrote:Even if your comic is rated MA, you don't get MA ads unless you specifically tick the box asking for MA ads. Although I don't know just how MA the MA ads are...

Ah, okay! Thank you! I can rest easy now.

NakedElf · Post by **NakedElf** » Sun Sep 09, 2007 12:55 pm

There *aren't any* mature ads. There used to be some J-list ads, but they've disappeared. The worst ads on this entire site are the National Lampoon ads, and you've probably seen them already. As a 'mature' comic, I haven't had any ads in months.

Frankly, even when I did have mature ads, they were nothing at all to worry about. If your readers are reading a mature comic, they aren't going to suddenly be scandalized by a mature ad. It's not like the 'mature' ads actually contain mature content.

The problem isn't actually that the mature ads contain content which non-mature comics wouldn't like (though I'm sure G-rated comics wouldn't like J-list ads,) but that advertisers don't want their products associated with mature comics.

Chaoticcomics · Post by **Chaoticcomics** » Tue Sep 11, 2007 7:06 am

Forget that! Run your comic raw uncensored and mark it as G for Gnarly or Gritty.

NakedElf · Post by **NakedElf** » Tue Sep 11, 2007 7:37 am

Technically speaking, US law requires some sort of notification to readers if they're going to encounter 18+ type content. (I do this through my title/URL, which describe the potentially adult material pretty well.)

Rkolter · Post by **Rkolter** » Wed Sep 12, 2007 11:21 am

chaoticcomics wrote:Forget that! Run your comic raw uncensored and mark it as G for Gnarly or Gritty.

I laughed out loud at this.

But, since people actually search the help forum for advice, I wanted to point out anyone who does this will get yelled at, possibly a whole lot. So don't do it.

The issue, besides ads, is newsboxes - your newsbox is an advertisement for your comic, and many people who run G or PG rated comics really don't want your ad displaying.

As for MA rated ads, if you're MA, throw the site giving you your free space a bone and check the MA Ads box - when we do get some MA rated ads, it'd be nice to give CG some ad revenue. There's no rule saying you have to. It would just be good of you to do so.

NakedElf · Post by **NakedElf** » Wed Sep 12, 2007 12:58 pm

They should just delete that option and have the ads default to MA ads on mature comics... it's confusing.