Spacers of Yore.

[MariaAndMichelle]

♫ MEMORIEEEEES! All alone in the MOOOOONLIIIIIIGHT...! ♫

Yeah. Good times.

We joined the forums back in March of 2003; we remember Heffaloop, and Bean, and UnFan, and Matt Lim, and KedaDiba- KedaDib- Ked- ... well, her not so much, we guess. Jamie was the first person to ever say anything nice about our comic, and we were wicked flattered to have someone "so important" to think we didn't suck. It was a time before The Box, when newbies instead had their pants set on fire. Stats pages still had KeenBucks. And Sortelli existed- and he posted, too!

It was magical. There were probably unicorns.

[MariaAndMichelle]

But you had to be on KeenSpot to see them.

[Brockway]

Damn things were always digging in the trash and messing up my lawn.

[McDuffies]

But you had to be on KeenSpot to see them.

Darn nine years and all I ever got to see were ponnies.

Personally, I think the death of Keenspot was when they disassociated themselves from Keenspace. Rather than having a conflicting brand identity, I think the two sites meshed well with each other, Keenspot gave the aspiring artists something to aspire to and learn from, and the readers of Keenspot who wanted their own comics could go to Keenspace. Both sites funnelled traffic to each other, which is always a good thing when it comes to ad-supported websites.

Once that link was severed, though, Keenspot became just another invitation-only comic host, and Comic Genesis became just another free comics host. This came at the worst possible time, too, because there was an influx of a dozen or so similar services within a couple years.

I think that Keenspot dissaciated themselves from Keenspace from the start, long before the name change. I mean, "breeding ground for future 'Spot artists" might have been a bit of propaganda, but 'Spot was always picking up just as much, or more, of independently hosted comics (not that I have something against that) and lots of 'Spotters were always wary of someone mistaking them for space, there were complaints years before the name was changed.
Times have changed, really. Back in 1999 it was easier to select 40 decent webcomics, when there was, like, less than 100 popular webcomics alltogether, and most of them prefered their own hosting anyways. Nowadays when you have an infinite selection, you have to form some kind of editorial policy, what kind of comics you want and what kind of audience you're aiming for. Imo they probably opted for the lowest common denominator, when I read some of their comics I can almost see them thinking "will kids like this? Kids like sex and violence, right?"... Which really isn't a good idea because those kids spend their time on youtube and twitter... or I dunno, that policy apparently gets them something in terms of pageviews, but not the prestige, not the "I'm going to Keenspot because all my idols are there" kind of thinking.
In their defense though, I do read "Out there" regularly, and not just because we know the artist.

[Pimpette]

I remember Ghastly's Wild Ride, and being all excited about who was on which page of the Guide.

[Terotrous]

I remember being all excited about who was on which page of the Guide.

Is that dumb Pokemon sprite comic still on page 1?

[Cope]

It's the number one comic, in fact. Although, I should mention that the ranking system stopped being updated a year ago.

[Tenma]

Looks like it's still number one. According to Alexa, it's responsible for 28,8% of all traffic on CG.

[McDuffies]

Kinda shameful, isn't it?

[Rkolter]

I was so proud to be on page six at one point.

[Tenma]

I definitely have fond memories of getting up into the top 15. Then life caught up with my update schedule.

[McDuffies]

I was so proud to be on page six at one point.

I once made a page 1 with Comic Writer X thanks to stats being reset every month... mcDuffies never got past page 5 or 6, I think. How Not To Draw a Comic had a good run, I guess.

[Cope]

Atavism briefly got to page one just before it ended...mostly from being plugged by Emergency Exit about three times in a row.

[Terotrous]

If I recall correctly, How Not to Run a Comic did reach page 1 at least briefly. Nothing ever I did myself got very high, though.

[Yeahduff]

Was page 1 at least once. Mostly a page 2 mainstay when I stayed on top of this shit. Mostly I regret never seeing how many keenbucks I could've been earning.

[McDuffies]

That stuff was a total usury.

[MariaAndMichelle]

That stuff was a total usury.

Now you're trying too hard.

[[AlmightyPyro]]

If I recall correctly, How Not to Run a Comic did reach page 1 at least briefly. Nothing ever I did myself got very high, though.

I enjoyed HNTRAC myself.

[Netpoet]

*wanders in from the ether* Hmm... I think I came in to CG somewhere around the end of 2004, maybe early 2005. I don't really remember.

Edit: oh hey, I can just look at my user login. Feb 2005. Yup.

[McDuffies]

That stuff was a total usury.

Now you're trying too hard.

Would you say I was being usurious?