Maybe I didn't word this correctly. Maybe what appears to be my initial post really says "GO WRITE TO WEBCOMIC AUTHORS OR YOU'LL CONTRACT HEMMEROIDS! EXTREME ONES!" If this is what my post really says, please let me know so that I'll be aware that I don't know how to read.
I see you insist on caricaturing the situation, though I don't know whether you're aware of irony that you're applying the same kind of exageration to my post, as the one that you think I am applying to your post. But about being pain-in-the-ass that I am here, seeing that you were just the same kind of pain-in-the-ass elsewhere *cough*Buster's thread*cough*, I didn't think you'd mind that much.
This is only insincere dependent on the attitude of the person reading the thread. If the person reads the topic and says "Uggh, well okay, I guess. Geez, what a pain in the ass. I gotta' write fanmail to people and arrgh, it's such a hassle", then don't do it. Doing so then would be sincere. But if the person reads the topic and says "Hey, y'know, I do like this one author's comic, and I wanna' tell 'em that. Maybe it'll brighten up their day and let them know their work is appreciated at least by me", then do it. That's sincere, it's just that the topic was a catalyst.
People might have problems with getting on writing E-mail after reading a good comic; If they do, they'll probably have problems with getting on writing E-main now as well. However, there are differences:
1. In first case, E-mail is a product of direct enthusiasm for the comic. In second case, it's forcing, even if you're forcing yourself because you wanna do the good thing.
2. Comics you pick for writing a mail will probably be a random choice to the extent. Remember those polls where you have to name your favourite song? Five minutes later, you remember a song that you like more, but it's too late now. A hour later, you already have the entire list of songs that you love more than the one you named. If I was trying to come up with the names of three comics that, I think, deserve fanmail from me the most, I'd probably be lost.
3. And probably the most important: this is all about ego-boosting, isn't it? Am I supposed to write a mail to CRFH!!!? Wouldn't you reccomend if I wrote a mail to someone less popular? Should Derenge, for instance, write a fan mail to PA? PA gets so much fan mails on daily basis that they probably don't even care anymore. I'm reading your text as a suggestion to write a mail to another small comic, a kind of comic that wouldn't get mail otherwise, which boils down to ego-boosting of small comic authors. I know we all need ego-boosting, I was craving for it three years ago, but now I'm over it. But if we really wanna be open about it: what is the reason to boost the ego of your comrade small webcomicker? Because you're in the same situation as he it. It has more with compassion and sence of community than it has with love for the comic. And frankly, fan mails should be mostly about the love for the comic.
However, there are many other ways of giving someone a notice that I like their comics. Save for a lot of fanart that I've given when I had more time, I usually simply link the guy. If he finds the link through his refferals, he will know that I am a fan, because my link page isn't overcrowded with links which says that I'm not putting just about anything there. Perticulary, I favor getting a link with a little blurb next to it, that some link pages have. That way I am linked, and I get an opinion too.
You can also go and post in the forum of the webcomic, I think it will make many people more happy than a fan mail if you stick around there for a while. Which requires time, but then again, time spent shows how much you appreciate the comic.
There is also fan art, which, as nice as it is, isn't the most selfless because you're usually expecting the fan-arted personto credit you. But never mind, fan art isn't as much about being the fan as it is about seeing your characters interpreted about the other person.
Many people have blogs or newsposts on their sites. Many of them will link the thing they're currently reading or liking there. And artist who occasinally does the ego-search in google will eventually find it. Helping spreading word of mouth in any way helps.
Fan mail is nice in that it has that personal note: you feel like someone was so thrilled by your comic that he sit down and wrote mail specifically for you. You were mentioning that people are hard to get on it and actually write the mail. Therefore, when you get the mail, you know that this person not only liked your comic, but he liked it so much that he got himself to write the mail. This feeling is degraded if the person is writing you a mail only because he decided to write a mail to someone. Plus, if he wrote mails to two more people on the same account.
There's a reason why fan mails are cherrished more than any other kind of fan display I mentioned above: because they are so rare, they mean more.
