So who is Spot gonna steal next?

[X space coyote X]

The jury is out on that one.
Some people hate me, some people like me.
All for different reasons.

Probably because I have the balls to stand up to people like Kurtz, or snuff and lolicon artists.

You're okay in my book.

Is there a story behind the Kurtz thingy?

[Van Douchebag]

He put creator of Spells and Whistles Tauhid Bondia in a position where Tauhid had to comply with Kurtz's demands he change some of his characters that "resembled" PvP. Needless to say, there wasn't much resemblance but Tauhid couldn't afford to go to court in any case.

I publicly denounced Kurtz. I may be a loudmouth and a jerk, but I have balls of steel and I'm not afraid to fight against immorality and injustice.

Anyone know of Chugworth Academy webcomic?

[X space coyote X]

He put creator of Spells and Whistles Tauhid Bondia in a position where Tauhid had to comply with Kurtz's demands he change some of his characters that "resembled" PvP. Needless to say, there wasn't much resemblance but Tauhid couldn't afford to go to court in any case.

I publicly denounced Kurtz. I may be a loudmouth and a jerk, but I have balls of steel and I'm not afraid to fight against immorality and injustice.

Anyone know of Chugworth Academy webcomic?

Oooh, I remember the lawsuit thing. Public denouncement, eh? Must've been fun.

[Van Douchebag]

Yeah, considering I was the first one to do that publicly.
Kurtz was trying to keep the entire thing underwraps but I found out some info, then went to Tauhid to find out what happened. I then looked around Kurtz's camp for what I could before I made my decision.

And WHAMMY! Whatta decision!
I irked Kurtz a lot.

First he called me a liar who didn't know what I was talking about.
Then I told him I got my info straight from Tauhid himself.
Secondly he said some of what I said was untrue.
Then I clarified what I said and proved him wrong.
Thirdly he said one thing from what I said was untrue.
Then I told him it was a comic just to laugh and insult him.
Fourthly.... he shut up.

[Jackhass]

"- Keenspot doesn't seem to favour epic, blatantly manga-style comics. They seem to like more western style comic strips.
- I thought they required every comic to update at least 3 times a week. I don't have time for that many updates anymore, and it shows.
- My comic has never been one of the top 5 Keenspace comics (except for about a month when MegaTokyo linked to me).
- I don't think my comic is particularly well-liked or read by Keenspot people.
- I don't think I'M particularly well-liked in the webcomic community."

If they invited you, they obviously did like/favor you. If you decide to throw away another invitation to a major webcomics site, can I have it?

[Phalanx]

Don't worry about whether you'll be spotted or not, and just keep working hard and do your best, says I. Good things come when you least expect them to.

Truer words were never said. Make sure the Fab Four know about your comic, maybe sure more and more people know about your comic, and make yourself unignorable like Adis

And Van, about Scott Kurtz, what exactly were you talking about? (ie I wanne link to the other comic)

[Phalanx]

Nmind, I found the argument threads...

http://forums.keenspot.com/viewtopic.ph ... sc&start=0

You know, originally I was going to comment on it... but now the only things I can think is...

*groan*

Van... please stop digging your own grave. Please?

[Pockybot]

So you didn't take it because why? Nah, kidding.

I think I get you, though. I'm pretty good at judging people, even online.
You have self-esteem issues don't you? That's why you don't show your face or take positions of exhaltation.

Still, I can't believe you passed it up. This forum is filled with people that would die to be part of Keenspot.

I'm really not proud of my self-esteem issues... so let's not get into that any further, to avoid a pity party.

And yeah, I can understand why so many would want to be spotted. But what can I say? I'm not exactly a normal person.

Don't worry about whether you'll be spotted or not, and just keep working hard and do your best, says I. Good things come when you least expect them to.

your the one that does saturnila? you should have any self esteeem problems, that comic has exceptionally good manga art.

[Van Douchebag]

Nmind, I found the argument threads...

http://forums.keenspot.com/viewtopic.ph ... sc&start=0

You know, originally I was going to comment on it... but now the only things I can think is...

*groan*

Van... please stop digging your own grave. Please?

That's not even the original topic.

[Ghastly]

If you want to know the best way to get spotted, become extremely buddy-buddy with as many Spot artists as you can. It's no secret that Spot is very cliquish. Get yourself known and liked by the Spot artists and you'll have a much better chance than you will have as someone not liked by the Spot artists. It may not be fun but sucking ass with a little tongue can go a long way.

The most important thing to remember is, Spot really doesn't offer all that much that you can't get on Keenspace if you work really hard at it. Things may come easier, but still, you can accomplish anything off Keenspot that you can accomplish on Keenspot. Self publishing has never been easier. Bandwidth has never been cheaper, and even merchandising has become simpler, promotional opportunites have never been more affordable than it was back in the olden days when I first started my comic. It all comes down to how important certain things are to you and how hard you're willing to work for them.

The only thing preventing a Ghastly's Ghastly Comic book from being on the market is my own comfortable laziness. I can easily afford to self publish. The only thing preventing quality Ghastly's Ghastly Comic merchandise from being on the market is once again my own laziness. There are many simple and affordable alternatives to CafePress's shit. And now, thanks to the special arrangement I enjoy with Keenspace, being Spotted would likely mean I'd make less money off my strip than I do now.

The only real advantage Keenspot has now is promotional power. Being on its front page and in its newsbox is a pretty powerful tool. Keenspace has a newsbox too now, but it's power isn't quite as strong as Keenspots (and I suspect most newsbox traffic from the Keenspace newsbox is sent out from my webpage but I don't think there's anyway to track that for sure). Still, there are an awful lot of popular comics on Keenspace that got to be that way all on their own. It all depends on how hard you want to work at promoting your strip.

I've worked very hard at promoting my strip over the years that I've been doing it and the best opportunities for promotion that exist to webcomic artists now adays didn't exist back when I started. I would have killed to have promotional opportunities as affordable as what's offered by comics like Sexy Losers, Something Positive, and even Ghastly's Ghastly Comic. I had to do it that long, slow, and hard way.

If you're looking for a goal with your comic, don't make that goal Keenspot. Now I'm not saying anything against Keenspot, and if you move to Keenspot, cool. More power to you. If you want a goal make that goal independence. If you need a goal to work towards have that goal be making you comic so successful that you'll be able to run the entire show on your own. Believe me, that goal has never been so easy to reach as it is now. We have never had the merchandising, publishing, hosting, and promotional opportunites that exist right now and things are only going to get better in the future. Just wait until Webcomics Nation gets up and running. Being an independent will be even easier.

There was a time when being on Keenspot could have been a make-or-break event for your comic but that time has past. Besides, if you want to join Keenspot to be part of the community, you're not going to find a better webcomics community anywhere other than Keenspace. Keenspot is like a country club and Keenspace is like a pub. I've been a member of country clubs and I've been a regular at pubs and let me tell you there's not a country club in the world that can compete with a good pub. Keenspace really is a great community of artists and it's almost a shame to see some of them leave for Spot.

If you're creating a webcomic and you have serious success goals in mind there are a couple of thousand things far more important you should be concentraiting on before you worry about being promoted to Keenspot.

Seriously, being on Keenspot just isn't as important as it used to be.

[Faub]

You must observe all applicable laws for the United States, including copyright, trademark, and obscenity law.

We will not print any material which defames or violates the right of privacy or publicity, or any copyright, trademark right or any other right of any third party or which may be abusive or threatening to any third party, advocate any illegal activity, or be obscene, pornographic or violate any law.

Ghastly, do you think this is going to affect your chances of getting printed through them? The word of law doesn't matter if it's being interpreted by people with an agenda. Just wondering really. Have you tried to contact them at all?

I'm in the process of reformatting my comic to 600 dpi for printing. It'll be a lot of work. I'm wondering if it will be worth it.

[Van Douchebag]

But Ghastly, you have 20 times my traffic.
Being Spotted would only be advantageous for me.

[Ghastly]

Not really. The words "obscenity" and "pornographic" are actually legal judgements. A person cannot proclaim something "obscene" or "pornographic" in a legal sense. That's a judge and jury call. Someone can say that in their opinion such-and-such is obcene or such and such is pornographic but in terms of a contract they can't judge it as obscene.

Now if the terms of the agreement were "we will not permit adult material" it would be different but since their restriction is just obscenity I'm not worried about that.

Until a judge and jury declair my comic "obscene" it is not in violation of any obscenity laws and thus reguardless of whatever anyone's personal opinions of my work are, it is not obscene.

[Ghastly]

But Ghastly, you have 20 times my traffic.
Being Spotted would only be advantageous for me.

Yes, but there's no reason why you can't increase your traffic 20 fold on Keenspace. And for you the task will even be easier than it was for me because promotional opportunities exist that didn't exist when I was starting out.

[Van Douchebag]

Ghastly could probably it anyway, considering his comic's context. It's not hardcore sex, but rather sex themed comedy.

Hard could do this too, but he's more risque.

[Joel Fagin]

promotional opportunities exist that didn't exist when I was starting out.

You mean you.

- Joel Fagin

[William G]

Does how well-liked in you are webcomics communities have anything over the Spotting decision? For Van Douchebag's sake, let's hope not.



Kidding, Van, kidding.

The jury is out on that one.
Some people hate me, some people like me.
All for different reasons.

Probably because I have the balls to stand up to people like Kurtz, or snuff and lolicon artists.

Actually, it's because you're an obnoxious little cyber-stalking prick who's self opinion far out weighs his skill.

You know, I was once like you Miguel, so I know that you wont be willing to accept this good advice that I'm about to give you.

Endlessly going on the attack such as you do in a naked and seriously pathetic attempt to support your fragile ego may get you the support of a certain type of mouth-breather webcrowd. But those people will turn on you eventually, and no amount of yelling about the brilliance of your Penny Arcade derivatve art-style will be able to support you.

Now, you're lucky that most of the users here are either too young or too cowed by you to step on you like you've been asking for, but eventually someone will, and they will step hard. And you are not going to like it.

Kid, and lets not fool ourselves, you're still a boy, you say you want to get Spotted?

Stop being a dick, and show them that having you onboard wont cause them more problems that you're worth.

Got it?

No, of course you didnt. You'd have to shut the hell up and listen for a second.

Moron.

[Ghastly]

promotional opportunities exist that didn't exist when I was starting out.

You mean you.

- Joel Fagin

Oh indeed me, and Something Positive, and Sexy Losers.

When I was starting out the big guys in webcomics were measuring thier audiences in the hundreds of thousands. Now adays the big guys measure their audience in the millions.

It took me over 2 years of work to get onto the first page of the Guide's pageview rankings. If when I was starting out the opportunity to get myself here had presented itself to me for only $35 I would have jumped at it. Heck, even if I had wanted to advertise on a comic with as many readers as mine has I wouldn't have been able to because none of them would allow (and still don't) adult content to be advertised on their sites.

My strip and Hard's strip don't place any such restrictions on our advertisers and even Something Positive will allow an adult content site to advertise so long as the advertising image itself is safe-for-work.

So on the one hand I will admit new comics have a much harder time promoting themselves. When I started there were only a few thousand webcomics to compete for attention against. Now adays there are tens of thousands. But on the other hand there are a lot of big guys who are able to really give your comic a lot of exposure for a very low price reguardless of your content and those kind of opportunites just didn't exist back when I started.

Now I won't kid you, getting Spotted will mean a big jump in readership. Chris Crosby says that a trippling of the readership is not unheard of for Spotted comics. Still, if you can promote and make your work popular without the benefit of Spot, well that really says something. Let's face it, and there are a number of Spot artists who will privately if not publically back me up on this without naming names, there are a number of Spot artists whose only claim to fame is being on Spot. Their work is mediocre at best and the only reason they have any degree of visibility is because they enjoy the benefit of feeding on the traffic generated by Spot comics like Sinfest and Errant Story. There are a good number of Spot comics who owe any success they have as webcomics solely to being on Spot.

So if you can achieve the popularity of a Spot comic without being on Spot, well that looks very good on you in my books and that's something you should take pride in.

[Van Douchebag]

Actually, it's because you're an obnoxious little cyber-stalking prick who's self opinion far out weighs his skill.

You know, I was once like you Miguel, so I know that you wont be willing to accept this good advice that I'm about to give you.

Endlessly going on the attack such as you do in a naked and seriously pathetic attempt to support your fragile ego may get you the support of a certain type of mouth-breather webcrowd. But those people will turn on you eventually, and no amount of yelling about the brilliance of your Penny Arcade derivatve art-style will be able to support you.

Now, you're lucky that most of the users here are either too young or too cowed by you to step on you like you've been asking for, but eventually someone will, and they will step hard. And you are not going to like it.

Kid, and lets not fool ourselves, you're still a boy, you say you want to get Spotted?

Stop being a dick, and show them that having you onboard wont cause them more problems that you're worth.

Got it?

No, of course you didnt. You'd have to shut the hell up and listen for a second.

Moron.

I was going to rant and nickname you tootsie-pop, but you want me to do that don'tcha?
Too bad. I ain't playing that game, foo'.

You can't stop the phenom.

[Hard]

My strip and Hard's strip don't place any such restrictions on our advertisers and even Something Positive will allow an adult content site to advertise so long as the advertising image itself is safe-for-work.

Actually, I do place restrictions on the advertisers. No sex, only VERY tasteful nudity, and I have not taken on clients if I feel that the service is not on the up and up (adult "dating" services and such).

I break more than even, so it gives me the leeway to say "No" a few times.