Gutterflycomix Free Webcomic Hosting

[Black Sparrow]

...aren't you dead?

Meh. Mere technicalities.

[Ghastly]

Not a damn one of you are using 3 gigs in bandwidth - quit your bitchin'


And maybe, JUST MAYBE you should check your own computer for viruses instead of blaming someone else for your problems.


I dare all of you to link to a comic at http://www.gutterflycomix.com and try to take it down WITH YOUR NONEXISTANT READERSHIP - YOU PUSSIES!!

Well he does have a point. I'm definetly not using 3 gigs in bandwidth a month, not by a longshot. I am drawing damned near close to 200 gigs in bandwidth a month (divided by over 2 million pageviews). Yep. Nowhere near 3 gigs.

[Tynan]

Not a damn one of you are using 3 gigs in bandwidth - quit your bitchin'


And maybe, JUST MAYBE you should check your own computer for viruses instead of blaming someone else for your problems.


I dare all of you to link to a comic at http://www.gutterflycomix.com and try to take it down WITH YOUR NONEXISTANT READERSHIP - YOU PUSSIES!!

Well he does have a point. I'm definetly not using 3 gigs in bandwidth a month, not by a longshot. I am drawing damned near close to 200 gigs in bandwidth a month (divided by over 2 million pageviews). Yep. Nowhere near 3 gigs.

Well that's just GHASTLY!

[Black Sparrow]

Not a damn one of you are using 3 gigs in bandwidth - quit your bitchin'


And maybe, JUST MAYBE you should check your own computer for viruses instead of blaming someone else for your problems.


I dare all of you to link to a comic at http://www.gutterflycomix.com and try to take it down WITH YOUR NONEXISTANT READERSHIP - YOU PUSSIES!!

Well he does have a point. I'm definetly not using 3 gigs in bandwidth a month, not by a longshot. I am drawing damned near close to 200 gigs in bandwidth a month (divided by over 2 million pageviews). Yep. Nowhere near 3 gigs.

Well that's just GHASTLY!

How do we manage to turn everything into a pun?

We must be pun-ished.

*Slits her own throat*

[Sam_Charette]

Not a damn one of you are using 3 gigs in bandwidth - quit your bitchin'

This is the stupidest thing I've heard all day. A lot of peoplere here DO use more than 3 gigs a month and, to be realistic here, many more use more than 1 gig a month, which is, after all, what the free account gets you. And at the heafty overage fee that this place is charging, it's an exceptionally poor choice for any web comic that might even make it to the mid-ground, let alone to the popularity that War has.

Wow, things have certainly become heated around here.

That's what happens when idiots pop in (not you, the other guy)

As a peace-loving gutterfly I think I'd better clarify a few things..
1) The front page is heavily flash-based. I've never had any warning from my copy of Norton though I suspect Norton may be responding to the 'do you want to install maromedia' message? Perhaps? I don't know these things.

Well I don't know what exactly it is, but to be fair I don't get any warnings, from work or home, when I visit this place. Nada. I've also never gotten a warning to my recollection from CG, but many people have. Usually it's some extra bit that wasn't put there intentionally. I, for one, wouldn't be too quick to label this website as being infectuous. I don't think it's necessary, really.

2) If I ever used a GB of bandwidth I would be very happy indeed. That would be about 4000 pageviews, last month I had 1500. I'm not so concerned. If it does happen (Go for it Ghastly! - http://www.gutterflycomix.com/onethousandwords), I'll consider my options with a smile on my face.

Point is, though, once you get up there you can get up there really fast. A gig can be used up before you wake up the next day. And even a semi-popular strip can eat up that really fast. 3 gigs a month is only good for small strips that stay small, and you can't totally control how big your strip will be. (and don't forget that you have to pay to even get the 3 gigs)

3) I think Gutterfly's fort

[Black Sparrow]

Wow. I've never seen Sam_Charette like this.

As a peace-loving gutterfly I think I'd better clarify a few things..
1) The front page is heavily flash-based. I've never had any warning from my copy of Norton though I suspect Norton may be responding to the 'do you want to install maromedia' message? Perhaps? I don't know these things.

Well I don't know what exactly it is, but to be fair I don't get any warnings, from work or home, when I visit this place. Nada. I've also never gotten a warning to my recollection from CG, but many people have. Usually it's some extra bit that wasn't put there intentionally. I, for one, wouldn't be too quick to label this website as being infectuous. I don't think it's necessary, really.

I got a Trojan warning, too (on two separate computers), and it wasn't when I went to the front page. It was when I went straight to the forums. The first warning was on my home computer, with the original link in the original post. The second warning was from Joel's "I think we hurt someone's feelings" post. We know it's not you, and it looks like you've already addressed this on your own forums.

It was easy to get rid of, anyway. No one's accusing the Gutterflies of anything like that.

[Thomas51471]

I've noticed that alot of you have mentioned the bandwidth that we give over at Gutterfly and mention it is too little for a comic that gets big. Also you mention that our service seems to be geared toward the smaller, upstart comics only.

All of this is exactly right. We strive to help people out that don't want to get lost in a giant community start up their comic and then urge them to run with it to make it grow. We hope that in this process, with our encouragement and the help of the rest of our community and other communities that the artists will get big enough for them to justify hosting themselves independent of us.

At best, we would love to have a constant turn over of 30 or 40 comics that come and go because they have out grown us. I guess if you really have to label what we do we act more as an incubator for upstart comics. Similar to business incubators.

So far, none of the comics we host have outgrown us because we have only been at the hosting game less than a year. So, we'll have to see how it works out.

I am pleased to know that the trojan thing isn't exclusive to just our site and, as has been address here, we had our host do an extensive search of our servers and they came up with nothing. We will keep this monitored though.

Thank you all for your feedback. Contrary to what others feel, we do not dismiss feedback out of hand. I hope I have stated our hosting intentions above clearly enough to explain why it may appear to some that we have dismissed feedback out of hand on the bandwidth issue.

Again, thank you all for your comments and we hope that, as concerns have been voice, none of this becomes a flame war. But rather a lively discussion on the topic.

[Mercury Hat]

Again, thank you all for your comments and we hope that, as concerns have been voice, none of this becomes a flame war. But rather a lively discussion on the topic.

If we get more posts like this, I don't see how it could turn into a flamewar .

[Sam_Charette]

Wow. I've never seen Sam_Charette like this.

No? How odd. I get the feeling that, more and more these days I'm like this

It was easy to get rid of, anyway. No one's accusing the Gutterflies of anything like that.

Given some of the other things in the thread it does make it sound like some people are saying "Don't go there! It's full of viruses!". I'm just saying that I don't necessarily think it's true. I haven't gotten any virus warnings, and I do know that CG has had a few (through it's adds), so we should be cautious in labelling it as a possible viral threat, especially when, considered along side the rest of this thread, it could be seen as people using it as one more reason why they suck (which isn't the case, but it can fan the flames).

If we get more posts like this, I don't see how it could turn into a flamewar

I don't really see this as a flamewar, per se. I see it as one person who wanted to pimp their site, followed by many people with experience explaining why it's not a great site, followed by one total asshat, followed by the rest of us. It's really more of a discussion of webcomic needs in relation to CG and GFC than it is a flamewar, assuming you discount the aforementioned asshat.

I guess if you really have to label what we do we act more as an incubator for upstart comics.

That's kind of a neat idea, but what happens when someone's success comes overnight? Most hosts that limit bandwidth will either cut you off from the web if you go beyond it, or charge you an arm and a leg. So, on the free account, what happens if they go over a gig? Do you cut them off? What about on the paid account? Do they have to pay the rather hefty overage fees for surpassing the 3 gigs??

That's the nice thing about a place like CG, you don't have to worry about becoming an overnight success. If you do, CG eats the bandwidth hit, not you.

It's a great idea to help newcomers along, but it's still a potentially costly prospect to become popular when you have to worry about such a limited amount of bandwidth.

[Noise Monkey]

it's[...]great[...],one total asshat,[...]free[...].

Doesn't sound like such a great deal to me.

[Sam_Charette]

it's[...]great[...],one total asshat,[...]free[...].

Doesn't sound like such a great deal to me.

But it's FREE!

[JohnLynch]

it's[...]great[...],one total asshat,[...]free[...].

sound like [...] a great deal to me.

I agree

[Sam_Charette]

it's[...]great[...],one total asshat,[...]free[...].

sound like [...] a great deal to me.

I agree

pwnd

[Noise Monkey]

it's[...]great[...],one total asshat,[...]free[...].

sound like [...] a great deal to me.

I agree

pwnd

These aren't the droids you're looking for. </jedi>

[McDuffies]

Again, thank you all for your comments and we hope that, as concerns have been voice, none of this becomes a flame war. But rather a lively discussion on the topic.

If we get more posts like this, I don't see how it could turn into a flamewar .

*is amused that MH now has to worry about flamewars*

[Mercury Hat]

Again, thank you all for your comments and we hope that, as concerns have been voice, none of this becomes a flame war. But rather a lively discussion on the topic.

If we get more posts like this, I don't see how it could turn into a flamewar .

*is amused that MH now has to worry about flamewars*

You watch yourself or you'll find Spikey Hair Part II in your forum!

[McDuffies]

Forum sections wars!

[Thomas51471]

That's kind of a neat idea, but what happens when someone's success comes overnight? Most hosts that limit bandwidth will either cut you off from the web if you go beyond it, or charge you an arm and a leg. So, on the free account, what happens if they go over a gig? Do you cut them off? What about on the paid account? Do they have to pay the rather hefty overage fees for surpassing the 3 gigs??

If comics do go over their bandwidth at Gutteflycomix.com we contact them long before we consider to shut them down at all and let them know they have gone over the bandwidth. We wait for their response and then together, they and we, discuss where to go from there. The whole time we continue to allow them access to their ftp and their site is still live on the network.

If we do not hear from them on the first email, we try again and only after we have heard nothing for a few days after the second email do we suspend them. In the event that this happens we still try to contact the creator and will work with them so that we and they win in each case.

[Ryuko]

My two cents: My bandwidth more than doubled between April and May, and I was using more than three gigs in July and August when two popular comics linked mine. (I might have this month as well, but there was a good week and a bit that the stats don't show up..) I don't know what I would have done if that success had cost me any money or caused my site to reevaluate how it considered me. I might have stopped comicking altogether or moved someplace else.

But if it works for you guys, go with it!

[Warren]

The attractive thing about GF is the "no ads" policy. I like that, since you can be creative with your web design. However, the webspace is really restrictive (40 megs free, 100 megs paid.)

The costs of paid accounts rival those of budget webhosting, especially when stacking on additional charges for additional services. It doesn't seem to provide as much value, though. For $5 a month, I can get a gig of space with 25 gigs of bandwidth by just doing a little research by looking elsewhere.

If someone has the savvy (which basically means configuring an existing PHP script), I'd still recommend just going "indie". Especially if bandwidth is an issue.

I'd really like to see this company succeed, though. I want to see more people doing webcomics. Any way we can give people the means to do so is a good way.

And I'd like to play with the automation script they have. I want to see if it works better than the one I'm using now.