Eleanor_Rigby
2011-03-07, 05:31 PM
I spend quite a lot of my time on these forums in the fancomic section and I've had a recurring problem with a couple of threads and I'm not sure what the forum protecol is for the situation.
What should I do when I notice a forum member repeatedly asking about a fancomic artist's update schedule?
I have a particular thread in mind but this has happened in multiple fancomic threads and basic instinct has been the same almost every time: isn't posting purely to make inquiries about update schedule a form of (mild) harrassment? I dithered over commenting over the thread that caused me to start this topic but as I'm typing I've got a subscription notice from the fancomic author which essentially makes a repeated request for the forum member in question to stop making this sort of enquiry.
I'm rather aware that we're discouraged to stray from the given topic in all threads on these forums and I know the rules state it's best if we refrain from sniping each other, but in an unrelated incident I opted to actually report the post which asked when a new comic would appear (I made a more detailed case in my report which I won't go into here) because I thought that was the least disruptive option. I never found out if any action was taken in that incident. I assumed this was simply a case of the mods being too busy to tell me what they decided to do after I 'reported' the post and I accept this but since the problem's arisen itself in different places at different times since then I'd like to know if there's an official stance on this so I know the ettiquette appropriate thing to do next time it crops up (I have no doubt I will come across this again in the future).
I've read through the forum rules and the fancomic thread rules to see if I could find anything specific about this issue and I can't. Asking questions about when Order of the Stick will update is a potentially banable offence here (or that's my understanding of the rules and a number of posts I've read over the past year or so) but Rich Burlew's comic is obviously an exceptional case as it is the hub of the entire webspace. "Harrassing" other posters appears to be at least something that could incurr an infraction. Where does that leave the status of posts (I'm talking about people who ask on a semi-regular basis here and add nothing else in their comment spaces not people who say, "I thought I read you'd update this afternoon, was I wrong?" at the tail end of a review/ thought-out or clearly relevant observation/ speculation on the fancomic) that ask fancomic makers when they'll next post a comic? Particularly frustrating cases are those where there is no established schedule for the comic and never has been or where a fancomic artist states an intention to update at a specific time but real life intervenes and the comic becomes 'late' and the fancomic artist arrives to find a question about their timing waiting for them. Given this phenomenon frustrated The Giant enough for him to ensure that other mods incorporate a notice that this habit is not welcomed in the case of The Order of the Stick into the forum rules, might some sort of notice, reminder or stickied thread be something to consider for the fancomic board?
My closing remarks on the subject would have to be that the main reason this bothers me is that I've considered starting a webcomic myself at varous points and one of the things that often deters me is the pressure publising an ongoing project online can put on a person: a lot of webcomics I've followed have eventually burned out because they were no longer enjoyable for their creators to publish for one or more reason(s) many such independent comic creators close down their sites with an end notice that states that despite having a lot of followers they're finally putting their foot down and ending their comic - but one thing that kept them publishing for a considerable period after it ceased to be enjoyable was the 'debt' they felt they owed to their fanbase. I sometimes worry I can see similar patterns developing in the fancomic board. The last thing I'd want is a rule to come into action that prohibited the artists here in a way they aren't prohibited at the moment, but I've always found the Giant in the Playground Forum to be an unusually friendly online forum with incredibly considerate members and so I find it slightly puzzling that no specific rules or guidelines appear to be in place to protect fancomic artists from update-schedule related harassment because in some cases this can lead to someone somewhere feeling pretty pressurised and miserable. I have no one thread or artist in mind when I make this closing 'statement' with the possible exception of myself hypothetically in the future.
What should I do when I notice a forum member repeatedly asking about a fancomic artist's update schedule?
I have a particular thread in mind but this has happened in multiple fancomic threads and basic instinct has been the same almost every time: isn't posting purely to make inquiries about update schedule a form of (mild) harrassment? I dithered over commenting over the thread that caused me to start this topic but as I'm typing I've got a subscription notice from the fancomic author which essentially makes a repeated request for the forum member in question to stop making this sort of enquiry.
I'm rather aware that we're discouraged to stray from the given topic in all threads on these forums and I know the rules state it's best if we refrain from sniping each other, but in an unrelated incident I opted to actually report the post which asked when a new comic would appear (I made a more detailed case in my report which I won't go into here) because I thought that was the least disruptive option. I never found out if any action was taken in that incident. I assumed this was simply a case of the mods being too busy to tell me what they decided to do after I 'reported' the post and I accept this but since the problem's arisen itself in different places at different times since then I'd like to know if there's an official stance on this so I know the ettiquette appropriate thing to do next time it crops up (I have no doubt I will come across this again in the future).
I've read through the forum rules and the fancomic thread rules to see if I could find anything specific about this issue and I can't. Asking questions about when Order of the Stick will update is a potentially banable offence here (or that's my understanding of the rules and a number of posts I've read over the past year or so) but Rich Burlew's comic is obviously an exceptional case as it is the hub of the entire webspace. "Harrassing" other posters appears to be at least something that could incurr an infraction. Where does that leave the status of posts (I'm talking about people who ask on a semi-regular basis here and add nothing else in their comment spaces not people who say, "I thought I read you'd update this afternoon, was I wrong?" at the tail end of a review/ thought-out or clearly relevant observation/ speculation on the fancomic) that ask fancomic makers when they'll next post a comic? Particularly frustrating cases are those where there is no established schedule for the comic and never has been or where a fancomic artist states an intention to update at a specific time but real life intervenes and the comic becomes 'late' and the fancomic artist arrives to find a question about their timing waiting for them. Given this phenomenon frustrated The Giant enough for him to ensure that other mods incorporate a notice that this habit is not welcomed in the case of The Order of the Stick into the forum rules, might some sort of notice, reminder or stickied thread be something to consider for the fancomic board?
My closing remarks on the subject would have to be that the main reason this bothers me is that I've considered starting a webcomic myself at varous points and one of the things that often deters me is the pressure publising an ongoing project online can put on a person: a lot of webcomics I've followed have eventually burned out because they were no longer enjoyable for their creators to publish for one or more reason(s) many such independent comic creators close down their sites with an end notice that states that despite having a lot of followers they're finally putting their foot down and ending their comic - but one thing that kept them publishing for a considerable period after it ceased to be enjoyable was the 'debt' they felt they owed to their fanbase. I sometimes worry I can see similar patterns developing in the fancomic board. The last thing I'd want is a rule to come into action that prohibited the artists here in a way they aren't prohibited at the moment, but I've always found the Giant in the Playground Forum to be an unusually friendly online forum with incredibly considerate members and so I find it slightly puzzling that no specific rules or guidelines appear to be in place to protect fancomic artists from update-schedule related harassment because in some cases this can lead to someone somewhere feeling pretty pressurised and miserable. I have no one thread or artist in mind when I make this closing 'statement' with the possible exception of myself hypothetically in the future.