What am I doing wrong?

[Pershing]

I can't get it to work...does this every time.

[Dr Neo Lao]

You're trying to upload to the root folder. You probably won't be able to upload to root or anywhere in public_html.

On the left pane, you need to be where your files are coming from (as shown in the picture) and the right pane will show where the files will end up. If Page1.jpg is a comic image, then you ought to upload it to workspace/comics and that ought to work.

However, note that if that is a comic you want to show live (as in, it's part of your comic and not just a test) then you ought to name it for the day you want it to display. For example, if you have a comic you want to display on new years day, you would name it 20100101.jpg (YYYYMMDD.ext where Y = year, M = month, D = day and ext = extension - such as .jpg .gif .png and so on). A comic for Christmas this year would be 20091225.jpg and so on.

Check the Tutorials in the CGWiki for loads more information.

[Pershing]

Thanks, I think I've got it... EDIT: CG Site Admin says my username isn't valid!

[Dr Neo Lao]

SiteAdmin curently isn't working for new users. If you want to force an update, you can use QuickAdmin which will let you trigger a manual update, though the server will try and update your comic automatically once every 24 hours, 365 days a year.

You can find the links to and more information about QuickAdmin in the first post of the "Can't log into SiteAdmin" thread here in the Help Ceter.

[Pershing]

Tried quickadmin yesterday...now, how do I find the thing?

[Dr Neo Lao]

Uh, can you elaborate on the question?

If you meant "how do I find QuickAdmin?" then:

You can find the links to and more information about QuickAdmin in the first post of the "Can't log into SiteAdmin" thread here in the Help Ceter.

This is the "can't log into SiteAdmin" thread, info on QuickAdmin at the end of the first post.

If you meant something else by "the thing" can you expand the question?

[Pershing]

My comic...

[Dr Neo Lao]

Oh.

Well, that's easy enough.

Step 1 I think you've done - you need to have a comic with yesterday's date or earlier sitting in workspace/comics (if the comic has today's date or a future date then the server will look at it and say "that's not supposed to go live yet").

Step 2 - assuming you've done that, log into QuickAdmin using your comics' FTP details.

Step 3 - in Quickadmin, on the left you will see a box with "Regular Update" and a button with "Update your comic". Assuming that you have eligible comics in the workspace/comics folder, then choose "Regular Update" and click the "Update your comic" button. That's it! Note that your comic will not update straight away, it'll be added to the queue of comics awaiting update. If the queue is short, it'll update pretty quick. If the queue is long, it'll take longer. (Note that in QuickAdmin, it does not tell you how many comics are in the queue.)

I would advise uploading a few "filler" comics with dates from last month plus update the two templates (indextemplate.html and dailytemplate.html) so that you can have a feel for how the CG system works. Read the tutorials in the CGWiki. And ask questions if you have any.

Edit: Oh, should mention:
Regular Update = update the newest comic and any changes to the last 30 day's worth of comics.
Front Page only = update the index only, like if you wanted to update the news but not add a new comic or are changing the layout, etc.
Archives Only = update all non-index comic pages, but not the index or extra pages (such as about, history, characters, etc).
Full Update = update absolutely everything. Not recommended unless you are doing a major re-build as it is quite a load on the server (especially if there are lots of comics in your account).

And also, the server will attempt to update your comic automatically once every 24 hours, 365 days a year - so you may not need to trigger an update at all.

[Pershing]

I still can't find the actual comic...could this process possibly be more confusing?

[Dr Neo Lao]

Can you elaborate? You say that you can't find it - where are you looking?

If you are looking in QuickAdmin then you won't see it. If you are looking in your browser then it'll be your comic name at the start of CG url - like this - perishing.comicgenesis.com

If you are using FTP and looking in the comic files directly then you will put it in workspace/comics and the server (when it updates) will move it to public_html/comics.

[Pershing]

The only comic I found had absolutely no relation to mine.

[Dr Neo Lao]

...where are you looking?

Your one-sentence reply makes it difficult to help you.

[Pershing]

The live search bar on the main comicgenesis site.

[Dr Neo Lao]

Oh.

Well, that's totally different. You won't show up on there until your comic account gets indexed by Google. The best way to get that fast-tracked is to create a link to your comic. The simplest way to do that is to put a link to your comic in the signature of your forum account since Google scans the forum almost every day. The more links to your comic, the easier it will be to find.

However, your first priority ought to be to get some comics up, second priority should be getting your comic site looking nice (or at least being happy that it looks the way you want it to). I wouldn't bother telling anyone about your comic until you have at least 20 updates up not do any serious advertising until you have over a hundred.

Why? It's some eletist thing nor an arbitrary requirement. The main focus of a webcomic is bringing people in to check out your art and read your story (or jokes if you have a gag-a-day style comic). If you have people visiting your comic when there are only a handful of comics there, then it is not normally enough to "hook" people and make them want to come back. Movie trailers cheat and show you the best bits or stuff that isn't in the movie because they have to trick you into seeing the movie at least once at the cinema - after that they don't care. But for a webcomic, you want people to come back again and again for as long as you are doing the webcomic.

Plus if you try and get people to visit your comic when you only have three or four updates, you'll be competing with the fifty other comics that only have a few comics. You want to have enough of your creation available for people to look at so that they can fall in love with the characters, get into the story and so on.

So worry about drawing.

Oh, last tip - set yourself a realistic schedule. If you can only do one update a week, do that. If you try and force yourself to update a lot (such as every day) when you don't really have the time, then you'll burn yourself out and end up thinking of the comic as work or a chore rather than something you do because you enjoy it.

[Pershing]

Oh, I found it! http://pershing.comicgenesis.com/

Yeah, I've got at least 7 pages done, and I can do one, maybe two, in a single school day, depending on how imaginative I am.

Thank you for everything.

EDIT: I can't connect to my FTP! It says wrong password...but I used the right one! It says "530 Login Authentication Failed."

[JoshuaCaleb]

yes, a lot of us are having that same issue about FTP

[Pershing]

Oh...so it's the server?

(Oh, and how do I make the 1st page smaller? It's over twice as large as the paper it was drawn on!)

[JoshuaCaleb]

not sure about what is completely wrong with it and not sure how long it will take to be resolved. Hopefully soon and hopefully it won't be anything drastic. Haven't heard much from admins about it yet..

[Pershing]

For some reason, today's page is on FIRST comic, with the page from days ago listed as today's comic!

[VeryCuddlyCornpone]

For some reason, today's page is on FIRST comic, with the page from days ago listed as today's comic!

What's the file name of both of these comics?