I agree with Josh you also have to take people on or they just keep at it. I noticed almost everyone he confronted never said anything back, meaning they now know, this artist isn’t taking any crap. I see your point of view too Tom, because if someone is spamming insults after warnings they should be erased.

good looking strip btw.

You fear that by deleting negative comments, it will make you look shallow or unable to handle criticism. But you and I both know there is nothing of value in a personal swipe against you. You wouldn’t invite someone into your home and let them insult you. This website should be your online home. No one should be allowed to desecrate it.

Promoting these comments to your homepage makes you look desperate. It makes you look like you crave attention so much, you’ll tolerate the hateful and the small-minded. It erodes your self-confidence and it alienates the supporters who don’t want to get in the middle.

Read the comments if you feel like you should. You’d have to read it anyway before deleting it. But what I’m saying is don’t give these people a platform to stand on. Because if you do, it either invites more harsh criticism or (like Jack Robyn points out) people coming out of the woodwork to shout those people down.

Yes, yes. I am guilty as charged. I’m one of the people trying to shout down the haters, too.

But I’m also trying to help you focus.

Look, either way - feedback that is overly harsh or overly praising is not helpful. You can’t learn from it. Calculated constructive criticism is the only way to go. Establish that environment in your comments and you will see more of that kind of feedback from your readers.

There is nothing wrong with standing up for yourself and stating clearly what you will tolerate and what you will not. TAKE THE POWER OUT OF THE HATERS HANDS.

Best of luck!

Odd, while posting this I was thinking more about player-base reactions to changes in City of Heroes.

She might not get any tattoo at all, actually! Stay tuned.

I have been challenged with the old “this will probably never get posted, but…” before in comments, yet I have always posted them. As frustrating as it gets, I have always posted them. I brought this up in IRC though, the fact that some (I said some, not all) people only seem to bitch to a vulgar degree because they have a public forum for it. Not only can they swipe at me, they can can attention for it from their peers. I have considered drawing a line somewhere as to what I’d let through, but it is a slippery slope.

At the same time, I am seeing mention about this all over. There have been mentions in GU, PvP and Starslip Crisis during the past week about creators catching flak from readers based on changes, and there may be something deeper to this phenomena than creators realise. Comics have evolved since their inception, obviously, but never before have readers had the access to artists and writers that they do now, for better or for worse. Some creators handle in different ways.

Penny Arcade seems to pretty much ignore feedback, but can you argue with their system as the most successful webcomic (and perhaps comic, period) on the planet? On the flip side, here I am in my own comments session, at times debating with my own readership.

I don’t have any summary at this point, but it is an interesting subject to shed some light on.