Reader involvement.

Blahsville! · Post by **Blahsville!** » Fri Oct 08, 2004 5:49 am

Hey all, I'm not much of a poster, but I had a quick question for those of you out there. Right now we're doing a comic arc that follows a few of our characters as they run for Mayor of our fictional town. (This sounds like a pitch, but bear with me...) The arc eventually culminates on super tuesday when we plan to let the readership vote for who they want to become the next Mayor of our comic. The decision sort of determines what out next arc will be.

So my question is, how many of you have ever had your readership contribute to the direction of your comic? How did it work out? Good/bad? Did the results surprise you? Did it ever backfire?

Warren · Post by **Warren** » Fri Oct 08, 2004 5:55 am

How much of a readership do you have? Only a couple percent of mine even try to contact me.... unless you have several thousand readers you may be in for a disappointment.

Blahsville! · Post by **Blahsville!** » Fri Oct 08, 2004 6:07 am

My readership isn't incrediblly huge, but they seem to be very involved. (other webcomicers I've talked to seemed shocked at how much of my numbers actually take the time to write. I'm pretty lucky.) Plus we plan to make voting as easy as a click of a button.

But your right. We might have low voter turn out. Which mean one person could decide this whole thing for us.

It's a risk.

Bekka · Post by **Bekka** » Fri Oct 08, 2004 6:18 am

Hey that cup fork is neat

TheLoserHero · Post by **TheLoserHero** » Fri Oct 08, 2004 6:21 am

I had a character whose hair covered his eyes... I did it pretty much to obscure his identity and I really didn't think much of it. One of my readers suddenly said "hey, he's blind!" and I was like... "Yeah sure, why not. He's blind now." A big part of one of one of the protagonist's storyline now involves that guy being blind.

Of course, that was just the one occasion, and I didn't initiate any sort of contribution from my readers, but hey. Readers are as important as the webcomicers (I feel) in the process. In the above situation, it opened up new avenues of storytelling for me. I say totally give that voting thing a shot.

Just don't go overboard... some people don't have the best interests of the webcomic in mind when they suggest. @_@

K-Dawg · Post by **K-Dawg** » Fri Oct 08, 2004 6:56 am

I want vocal readers!

Ida · Post by **Ida** » Fri Oct 08, 2004 6:56 am

Bekka wrote:Hey that cup fork is neat

Copyright it! 8)

Kris X · Post by **Kris X** » Fri Oct 08, 2004 7:45 am

I tried voting on my site... Boy was that a bad idea. I had to end up voting myself.

Blahsville! · Post by **Blahsville!** » Fri Oct 08, 2004 7:46 am

Bekka wrote:Hey that cup fork is neat

Thank you.

Blahsville! · Post by **Blahsville!** » Fri Oct 08, 2004 7:50 am

TheLoserHero wrote: I say totally give that voting thing a shot.

Just don't go overboard... some people don't have the best interests of the webcomic in mind when they suggest. @_@

I'm know exactly what you're talking about. One of the shames of having a vocal readership is that you find yourself say " Um...yeah. Not a bad idea... but I think we're just going to do it our way..." more often than not.

That's why were pretty much limiting it to voting for our mayor... that way it's like a real election. You vote in people because you hope they'll do what you want... but really, it's up to them.

G-Lode · Post by **G-Lode** » Fri Oct 08, 2004 7:51 am

All three of my readers would probably vote on something like that if I had an "affect the comic" type scenario.

That would make me have the deciding vote, Damn!

Blahsville! · Post by **Blahsville!** » Fri Oct 08, 2004 7:52 am

Kris X wrote:I tried voting on my site... Boy was that a bad idea. I had to end up voting myself.

This too, is a possibility. One which I hope doesn't happen.

Kris X · Post by **Kris X** » Fri Oct 08, 2004 7:56 am

Blahsville! wrote:
Kris X wrote:I tried voting on my site... Boy was that a bad idea. I had to end up voting myself.

This too, is a possibility. One which I hope doesn't happen.

Worth a try, either way.

MixedMyth · Post by **MixedMyth** » Fri Oct 08, 2004 8:42 am

I havn't tried having the actual comic's plot depend on a readership vote, but I think it'd be interesting. the only voting I've really had was a 'favorite character' poll that turned out pretty tied, with Tamit slightly in the lead. Still, I remember RPGworld had a vote for an in-comic beauty contest a while back, but it sounds like what you're doing has more ramifications as far as the story goes. I'd say go for it!

KathleenJ · Post by **KathleenJ** » Fri Oct 08, 2004 8:48 am

Justin and I once collaborated on an experimental comic called Your Choice. Every week, there was a poll with four choices of what should happen next. The poll closed on Friday, the result was drawn over the weekend, and was up with a new poll on Monday.

It ran for, I don't know, a couple of months before we shut it down because we didn't have the time. It was an interesting idea, though.

The character ended up dying in a bank robbery, going to Hades, escaping in the River Styx ferry boat, and sailing to Mexico...and she was on a quest to find the Lost City of Gold when the thing ended.

MixedMyth · Post by **MixedMyth** » Fri Oct 08, 2004 9:57 am

Wow! That's a great idea. Too bad you couldn't keep it up.

KathleenJ · Post by **KathleenJ** » Fri Oct 08, 2004 11:08 am

We've talked a couple of times about ressurecting it. Maybe, maybe...

Blahsville! · Post by **Blahsville!** » Fri Oct 08, 2004 11:12 am

kathleenJ wrote:We've talked a couple of times about ressurecting it. Maybe, maybe...

I'd bet there would be a lot of interest in this sort of thing from fellow authors and artists. It'd be nice to see.

Blahsville! · Post by **Blahsville!** » Fri Oct 08, 2004 11:18 am

MixedMyth wrote: I'd say go for it!

We plan on it. I was hoping to get some feedback from people who've attempted this thing, though. Forwarned is forearmed, they say.

I'd hate to think I'm breaking new ground here... I'm sure someone has done this.

Very gorgeous comic by the way. One of the many reasons I read keenspace forums, I com across comics I might never had seen otherwise.

Sippan · Post by **Sippan** » Fri Oct 08, 2004 12:16 pm

I had a poll where all my 10 readers could say what they wanted me to draw, in general. "Random comics unrelated to each other" won, and apparently that's what I did.