alt.ripper

[Dan Nicholls]

Hey guys, I wonder...

If a competing service to such things as Comictastic was produced, which allowed the comic to be displayed either with the entire page or with relevant and obvious links to important site portions, and was entirely opt-in and on-consent only, would you join it? Would you support it?

What would you want to see in it?

[Faub]

I'm not sure I can vote on this one. Rippers inherently hurt Keenspace because they pull down comics without grabbing the ads. I couldn't support it but I wouldn't be opposed to it either. Even if they did download the ads, the user would never see that ad and the ad company would eventually ignore any hits caused by that browser.

[Vorticus]

What do you mean by webcomic friendly? That could have alot of definitions, depending on who you're asking.

[Phact0rri]

well personally here's my take on it.

people want a page of easily seen webcomics on keenspace? thats why we have RSS feeds. thats what the function is for get news wire, or Mercblocker, or heck forumzilla.

boom its better than a ripper.

the other approach is the i-frame set up.

then there's tab browsing and pull up all the comics in one firefox, or opera window.

[RPin]

Comictastic got my support now.

[Dan Nicholls]

I mean basically it shows the comic with an adview from the site.

It, theoretically, loads the page, adview included, perhaps with slightly altered content-- like, maybe, the comic, ad, links to forum, shop, main page, whatever the author wants. The author controls it. It gives the reader the ability to view it, supporting their webcomic with adviews, along with other comics it supports, easier and quicker.

[Dan Nicholls]

On a totally seperate note, I don't know why some people are changing their view on Comictastic...except response to people who oppose it, which is pretty irrelevant to the program itself.

Personally, I don't have a current comic at stake, it just pisses me off that someone's ripping people, absolutely without their consent or supporting the server that provides the comic. I think it's bad for the community all around.

[Rkolter]

Yeah. If it was only opt-in, and it clearly gave credit where due and a link, I'd sign up, no problems.

[McDuffies]

Hey, I'd agree with something if it doesn't hurt Keenspace. Anything besides that can't get my support.

[Sortelli]

Yeah, I'm not sure how to vote either. If there was a new and better way to browse comics that didn't involve screwing someone I'd not mind, but it's not like it's hard to open a bookmark.

[YarpsDat]

As long as "webcomic-friendly" includes: loads and shows advertisements, or otherwise provides the host with money to cover bandwidth cost, OR by some means removes the need for the host to pay for the bandwidth used by the program. *gasp*
I'd support it.


There should be a way to opt out (or more like option to opt-in, with opt-out beeing the default), and it would be nice if it provided some sort of visits tracker, and some contact with readers. (an easily accessible link to the real homepage is a must), and perhaps a place for the comic's own store's banner.


I know people complained how they lose control over display, but personally, if someone chooses to miss out on my uber cool callendar, comfortable buttons all over the place, and other features that don't take a second to load because they are already in the cache... well, I can only call them stupid. If they'd rather read my comic standing on their heads in a bucket full of pirhanias, it's their own problem.
As long as they don't make me lose money I'm cool, and perhaps they will reccomend me to their more sencible friends.

And if a program like that was created, it would at least be taking customers away from the bandwidth stealing ones.