Question from a new user.

[Aggeliki74]

Hello, I have recently discovered OOTS and I was wondering about the frequency of updates.
Is it completely random?
I've been waiting for quite some time now for a new update, I check every day of course but it's been like...10 days or something and nothing.
Has the comic stopped updating or is this regular? 2-3 updates per month?

Other than that, the comic rocks.

Thanks.

[Babale]

It's a random schedule, except for Rich trying to update once a week.

Also, speculation is against the rules; please don't.

/Summon Mod XIV!

[Liwen]

Rich is unfortunately the victim of an undetermined illness which leaves him incapable of drawing and posting new comics for weeks at time. He may also have other preoccupations that have kept him busy for the last few days. The update is mostly random, but I confess the latest updates have been few and far between.

Also, since you are new, allow me to tell ya that threads commenting the update rate, when will it be posted and so on of this subject have been banned. You'll probably get away with a warning from the mods this time. And now that you have been inform, I must only ask that you be patient. It will come when Rich will have the time and/or health to do it.

On a side note, the illness is not a lethal one from what we have been able to tell, so don't worry about Rich, he should still have many years of happy living ahead :smallsmile:

[NerfTW]

From the news page (way back)

10/14/2007

So, obviously, The Order of the Stick is back. I've gotten a few emails from...let's call them, "passionately concerned readers"...who were under the mistaken impression that once my vacation was over, OOTS would return to a regular Monday-Wednesday-Friday schedule. Just to clear everything up, no, OOTS's update schedule will remain random for the foreseeable future. Taking three weeks off was very good for me, but it doesn't actually change any of the facts that caused me to switch to a random schedule in the first place.

The goal is still to have three comics a week, every week, but that may not be possible. The next best thing, therefore, is to "catch up" afterwards when circumstances force me to miss. I only produced one comic last week, so now I have posted four this week—putting me only one comic "in the hole". So during some future week when the stars align more favorably (maybe next week, maybe not), I will again post four comics to bring me up to a three-a-week average since the comic's return from hiatus. And once I "zero out" my late comic balance, any additional comics beyond three that I do in any given week will go into a hypothetical buffer to guard against future absences. Or at least, that's the plan. We'll see how it plays out in reality.

and


7/7/2007

Those of you who have been readers a long time know that I tend to go in cycles with the strip: a few weeks on time, followed by a few weeks where most of the comics are late (and some days are missed altogether). Oftentimes, I’ll make an announcement afterwards that I was sick. The thing is, I get sick a lot, and that’s not likely to change in the future. For more than two years, I’ve been experiencing a medical condition that often leaves me unable to work (or even sit at the computer) for 2-3 days at a time, and the symptoms tend to come and go in clumps. I’ll be fine for a few weeks, then have a few really bad weeks where I struggle to get any work done. This is part of the reason I never can manage to create a “buffer” of strips in advance: I spend all of my working time catching up on stuff I was supposed to finish while I was sick. (No, I’m not going to tell you exactly what is wrong with me; it’s nobody’s business. Suffice to say that it is nonfatal and my significant other takes good care of me.)

[Roland St. Jude]

Sheriff of Moddingham: Efficiently done, Playgrounders! Indeed, the schedule is officially: at random.