I have a question...How come I see comics that live outside their so called rating get away with it? Almost all of my comix are A, yet I'm seeing comics on here floating through with M's and have equally adult material.
I can understand slipping throught the cracks, but some of these are popular award winners.
If I'm going A then I'm limiting my audience.
Is the rating system even enforced?

It's not enforced, unless an Admin stumbles across it (or a user tells an admin about it). If you have issues about other comics' ratings, let an admin know. :] We can't be everywhere.

I haven't read your comics, but FYI the A rating is generally reserved for comics that have explicit sexual content or excessive gore. Simple nudity would be M, as would a lot of profanity, or very implied sexual activity. There is a subtle difference (and the admins' opinions differ too) as to what might make something M or A: For example,

A nude person talking about oral sex- M
A nude person giving/receiving oral sex off-panel (but obvious)- M or A depending on context, any dialogue and amount
A nude person riving/receiving oral sex on-panel (but 'nothing showing'- A

Basically, the more you show and tell the closer it gets to A.

Point being- many people rate their comics A to be on the side of caution when an M is sufficient.

One other small note- thumbnails often don't show the correct rating. The accurate rating is always shown in the topbar once you're on the comic page. (A little late, by that point.) It's an issue with the thumbnails not re-generating after a rating change.

The way I understand it is the M comics contain adult material but it's part of the storyline/essential to the comic. The A comics contain adult material but it's gratuitous and there for just being there.

I'm sure there was another topic not long ago with this same theme :0

yikes! I forgot about the ratings. I just changed mine to 'teen'. heh, goodbye, small children!

Goodbyyyeee Noorma Jeeeeaaaan

I originally had the Hub rated as "A" on account of the constant bad language- but once I saw what real "A" comics were like, I bumped it down! The descriptions of the ratings make it sound more strict than it actually is. ^_^

Is the "A" that much of a stigma? Especially now that you can use the filters to show 'em in the top ten and such? I mean, besides not gettin' featured, does it really scare folks away? Just curious.

I did the same thing, though I'd be hardpressed to tell if it helped or hindered my page views any. I still think that rating comes second to what the comic's about; for me at least. I've always thought that a comic's synopsis and look are more telling than the rating, and therefore more relevant. The fact that there are a number of adult rated comics so highly ranked supports that notion.

I think my comic will gradually turn into a hardcore animal sex party extravaganza. If you draw a comic where a dog dresses up as a super villian named "The Piddler" and he runs around peeing on other animals with his droopy testicles flapping in the wind, is that considered Adult? Or is it just considered stupid?

Like with anything else, it isn't about scaring people away as much as it is reaching your *intended* audience. "A" comics get a lot of readers but if your comic doesn't have the content of other "A" comics, the people looking for them will be disappointed. Meanwhile, the readers interested in less explicit/graphic stuff and more along the lines of your comic's *actual* content will not view it because they assume it isn't what they are looking for. To get regular readers, it's best to represent your comic accurately in any ad banners, thumbnails, and descriptions including the rating.

I filter out "A" comics because the content is not what I am interested in. It has nothing to do with stigma. If I wanted to see gore, sex, or gorey sex (or sexy gore?), I would seek out the A's -- and be disappointed by the comics labeled "A" that actually are M or T.

On top of what usedbooks said there's also the case that this is the internet; if you want \porn there's mountains of it just a google search away. Likewise for anime porn fakku and rapidshit searches reveal GB's worth, and decent western art porn is just clicks away on imagefap. Hell f you want to read your porn there's literotica.
Why settle for a sex webcomic that almost always features terrible malformed amateur art? (or just rip their sex scenes from popular hentai anyways)

Thanks for the comments. I somewhat understand. It's a bit like Deviantart I suppose, but unlike DA you don't get censored even while carrying an A rating.
Guess I'll stick to a A rating since my comix are unquestionably ADULT.
I don't consider them porn by definition of the word "pornography", but there's definite reality that's unsuitable for kids.
It's funny though...what's the magic barrier for people's maturity level? Why is it okay for an 18 year old to look at the act of sex or intense violence, but a 17 year old can't handle it? I would bet a lot of us saw porn years before the age of 18.
What's this stigma with sex?
Biblical conservatism? Shit...the bible is raw with sex and extreme ultra-violence. Today's politicians are nose deep in sexual deviance.
What a wacky ass world.

There's a couple threads in the D&D forum that have touched upon this issue: Here and here, if yer interested.

I don't really pay attention to rating. Set mine to M cause my characters will swear whenever appropriate (apparently every second page, haha), there will be blood, there will be people dying.

Also, I have a "biblio-mythological fantasy" script with references to incest, teen pregnancy, genocide, cannibalism and racial war waiting to be drawn. Clearly M material too :D

As for other comics? See first statement at the top of this post :D

Yeah, it's tough to figure what rating to give your comic.

I settled on Teen, because I don't have any major cursing (nothing you wouldn't find on basic cable) and while my comic is a bit gory at times. I feel the way in which I portray it is so cartoony I don't think its that big of a deal.

Granted if I were getting numerous complaints about changing my rating, I would. But nobody has complained, so I"ll leave it be for now.

Btw, I believe the general concensus for ratings on DD is:

"E" = "G" = all ages, nothing objectionable to impressionable people

"T+" = "PG" or "PG13" = pretty much for the over 13 crowd. Prime-time TV or basic cable. Cursing is fine but f-bombs on every page probably needs a higher rating. Violence is fine if it doesn't get REALLY graphic (for me personally, it means blood but no organs)

"M" = "R" = For the over 18 crowd. Most stuff goes. You can get graphic with the violence. Nudity. Suggested sex. Curse all you like.

"A" = On DD, this rating pretty much applies only to porn. What is porn? "I know it when I see it." (If the violence gets REALLY gorey and graphic, it can slip into this, but I don't think I've seen it used for violence that much.)

The rating of comic can be quite a confusing thing. When I first signed onto DrunkDuck, I wasn't sure what to rate Negligence. I decided on M mostly because, even though it's relatively tame in a lot of aspects compared to most M comics, several things pushed it into that range:

-A storyline involving death by negligent gun care (kid shoots a kid with a loaded gun)

-Lots of language (Lizzep even renames herself the "C" word to defy authority)

-Generally, most of the stories involve mental disorders, pseudo-incest, cults, etc. I'd consider that mature content.

That's a whole other thing (as pointed out) which seems mainly to be centred around legal definitions of 'adult.'

As far as the DD ratings go, those ages are set by some legislation or another that the site builders tried to conform to.

If you want a rundown of how a comic's rating would affect its audience on DD:

E and T+ are viewable by any member, or non-logged-in visitor.
M is viewable to members over 13 and non-logged-in visitors. The only people who can't see them are logged in members 13 and under. (So their solution is just to log out, haha.)
A is only viewable to members over 17 - you must have an account to read them.