[SIGNUP] New Signup Page Problems (6/22/2008) [Solved]

[EchoLoco12]

I'm reall really REALLY sorry to bother you with such a stupid question, but I did'nt really know where to turn besides the fourms... Anyway on to this year's dumbest question(s):
1. In the form it says "Please Please Please only use one Author name, you will not get an email if more than one is listed" Does that mean only first name or online username or full name on birth certificate or what?
2. Is it possible for me to use a pen name of any sort (besides an online name such as "Echoloco12" (I mean in the "can people figure out who I am in the real life sense"). I don't anticipate getting contacted unintentionally but since I am such a freakishly introverted I just want to make sure...
3. If I wanted to start publishing online starting a certian date should I just sign up on a certian day and hop I get lucky, or can I go through a process so that I wouldn't be kicked off for being inactive until, say, January 1st, 2010...

Thanks for answering my moronic questions, I hope you'll see my "creations" (albeit probably subpar ones) soon!

PS PleasePleasePlease respond!!! Thank you!!!

[Dr Neo Lao]

The only stupid question is one that should have been asked ... but wasn't.

1 - What it means by "Author Name" is the real name of the person signing up for this account. You are required to provide your real name (ie: what is on your birth certificate) for legal reasons (should Comic Genesis ever need to get in contact with you directly). The default template (when your account first goes live) will show your real name, but you can easily change that so that your comic does not display it.

Note however, that no matter what you do, if somebody wants to know who you are they will always be able to find out. There is no such thing as total anonymity on the internet (despite what many people believe). Having said that, if you run an average comic and don't do anything illegal (such as inciting hate, racism or any other of the big "no" topics) then you stand a very good chance of being able to run a comic for years on end on almost any topic you wish to draw about without anybody knowing it is yours.

What "only put one name" means is that some people work together on a comic (say, two writers and an artist), but one person needs to be nominated as being the responsible one for the account. Once the account is created, if there are several people working on the comic, then all their names can be put all over the site. If you put an alias (such as your forum name) then your account will be in violation of the Terms of Service (ToS) and although your account will probably be accepted (it is an automated process), it might be deleted at any time when a human notices that an alias has been used instead of a real name.

2 - As stated above, your real name does go into the Comic Genesis system, though if it is not displayed on your comic site then very few people would know where to look to find it and even fewer could be bothered to do so. If you are not aware, Comic Genesis uses something called "KeenTags" in its administration of the code for the site. For example, the ***date*** KeenTag will display the date. One of the KeenTags is ***author*** which will display the real name of the author in the Comic Genesis system. If you remove the ***author*** KeenTag from your comic, then your real name will not be displayed.

You would then be free to put any penname you wished on both the site and on the comic strips (assuming that you put a name in the margin or w/ever).

3 - Comic Genesis is set up to be both automatic and as easy for the author as possible. There is no reason why you can't sign up today and run your comic with some really lazy artwork comics as filler to get a feel for how Comic Genesis works and then a few months down the track delete all the nasty ones and start running your proper ones.

Comic Genesis also allows you to "future date" your comics. Comics are always named in this format: YYYYMMDD.ext where Y = year, M = month, D = day and .ext = extension. So if you had your first comic as a jpg file you would name it 20100101.jpg (year 2010, month 01, day 01) and upload it today. Comic Genesis' software would "hide" the file in its system and then on the first of January, 2010 the comic would be "published" (moved into the public section of your comic account). The other valid extensions are .png .gif and .swf - other extensions (formats) like .bmp and .tif are not supported.

If you have a specific launch date in mind then I would recommend signing up fairly soon as it takes most people a few weeks or even a few months to get the hang of how the system works and get their comic site looking the way they want it to.

If you have any more questions, feel free ask.

[Sorcha]

Can't insert: You have an error in your SQL syntax; check the manual that corresponds to your MySQL server version for the right syntax to use near 's Death part-1.jpg', signup_vetocode='79b07fe9edff292222d4b59843014ab6', signup' at line 1

Hi all. This is what I get when I try to sign up. Any ideas?

Nevermind. Fixed it. It was an issue with the filename.

[vennificus]

My timezone isn't there. I suppose it's to be expected, what living a half hour off the east coast.
-3:30 GMT.

[Tyciol]

About http://www.comicgenesis.com/signup.php

Do we need to fill out all the contact information? Is it possible to not give out a phone number, address or name? Not sure I feel comfortable. Could it be added later?

Can the update offset be changed later?

How often are we obligated to update the comic? Does our account get deactivated or comic deleted if we do not update it for a certain period of time?

Is it possible to remove the comics later if we want to?

Does the example comic we upload have to be good? I was thinking of doing an M.S.-paint thing, possibly improving over time as I work on my art skills and maybe buy some paper to scan or use a digital sketchpad.

Does the size maximum apply to only the example, or is this a restriction on all images of the comic in the future?

Are there any limitations to how many pages your comic can have, or how many per day? Would adding them get restricted if it happened too frequently or they were too big or the CG admins thought the comic sucked?

What is the policy on erotic/sexual subject matter, not sure what is restricted. Especially wondering how we determine what is or isn't obscene (even ecchi can be 'prurient interest').

[Spaceprincess]

1 you can't change the info later, and I'm not sure why the ask for it. probably a spam issue

2yup this can be done through site admin

3 you need to update few early on or it may be deleted i think its 6 in 9 months or something like that, they don't want people uploading one and thats all.

4 yes, you go into the public folder /comics and remove it

5 it should be a good representation of comic, but it doesn't have to be a master piece. these are amateur comics so they don't have to be perfect

6 no but you want to keep your files small, saves space and loads faster. they really don't need to be more than 500k ( mine are around 350k) and they look pretty good)

7 shouldn't be a problem, some people do dailies.

8I don't recall seeing anything about that. the only restriction is spirits or screencaps basically using other peoples art work. just set it web MA and it should be fine.

[Kisai]

What is the policy on erotic/sexual subject matter, not sure what is restricted. Especially wondering how we determine what is or isn't obscene (even ecchi can be 'prurient interest').

As long as it's legal, however keep in mind that this is not a "porn" site, and if it crosses the line to where it draws unwanted attention, the site will be removed at the admin's discretion. So far incidents like that are few and far between.

[AltSpec]

Well,I've been trying to sign up for a month or so now,and I sign up and everything,but then I dont get anything and nothing ever happens.

[Spaceprincess]

Well,I've been trying to sign up for a month or so now,and I sign up and everything,but then I dont get anything and nothing ever happens.

you should get an email after you sign up. check your spam folder. sometimes it goes there.

[Cyrano]

Hi guys, I've tried to sign up for about 5 times now... why can't I?
I have given all the information that I could and my image is just 210 kB!

Help please!

Also, this tekst comes up and I have no idea what it means...:
Can't insert: You have an error in your SQL syntax; check the manual that corresponds to your MySQL server version for the right syntax to use near 'm Sid preview2.jpg', signup_vetocode='5cf7c23dc17cb03c19b1d32de8004c8f', signup' at line 1

EDIT:
Nevermind, I found out that I used the wrong kind of sample image