Updates and notifications
So, I plan to update more of the past content this weekend and I was wondering something regarding notifications. So far subscribers to the site only get notifications through the wordpress dashboard, in the activity tab. They can always subscribes to RSS notifications, but would you all be interested in an email/newsletter/push notification based system? Granted for now it would be hell as I publish 20-30 new pages/images at a time, but would that be an interesting feature for the future when the updates are more sparse and regular? I’d be happy to hear your opinion and suggestions on the matter.
I want to keep people updated, but not spam them. Personally for my favorite webcomics I just check the website whenever they usually update, and if I’m subscribed it’s for commenting or accessing forums and such. I don’t think we’ll have a forum, since there is the massive and lively discord community already, but who knows. There are other features the subscriber system could be useful for, like community contributions, building a wiki, exclusive sections on the website, etc.
I rather thought someone else would weigh in first, and didn’t want my opinion to skew the feedback. But …
Frankly, I stopped using update notifications of all sorts over a decade ago. The clutter in my inbox just got too annoying when I’m keeping up with about a hundred webcomics, plus other websites for various reasons. I have an organized bookmark section that I work my way through when it’s convenient for me a few times per week, or when I’m seeking specific information. I look for whatever news is posted on the website I visit, and periodically check other navigation links (such as galleries, character pages, etc.) to see if they’ve been updated. I may not be very typical, so I don’t want to speak for anyone else using the site.
tl;dr – I often don’t have time to check a website when a notice goes out, so I end up “discovering” any updates when I do get time to visit.
As far as other content, things I enjoy seeing are galleries of related art, even if it’s concepts, character sheets, in-progress sketches & inks, or even a wallpaper or two. Also, if there’s fanart, that’s always fun to see. A wiki is nice, but a lot of work. It’s a rarely used reference, but quite useful with a large cast of characters, deep lore, and a long storyline. You need to decide how large this story is, or if you’re going to use your website for most or all of your work. Then a wiki of all your stories & lore for them and how they’re connected might be worth the effort. Will there be mini side-stories, for example? Relationship graphs and timelines become important to connect them and the order in which they should be read.
I’m only just breaking back into using RSS feeds, as I should have been done a while ago. I don’t use email for notifications because the possibility of spam from shady sources (and heck, even my own hospital) has effectively killed it as a medium for anything except work for me. Up until now I’ve just been checking EHen, though I’m starting to organize a bit more so I can easily poke through website feeds. Discord folders are a godsend.
A weekly digest to subscribers might be a good middleground approach to preventing spam, with immediate notifications going out for comics they’re following specifically (as something they opt into) or for big announcements (at which point I would question why they aren’t just using RSS).
Agreed that email notifications are not ideal. RSS is cumbersome and there are hardly any current apps that still support it.
My preference is using a dedicated comic aggregator site. They check your favorite comics for updates and present them in fancy ways. I’m on Piperka (piperka.net), but for creators I recommend Archive Binge (archivebinge.com) or Comic Rocket (comic-rocket.com).
I’ve solved the issue by building my own application for reading RSS feeds :-).