I have a question and I'm burning to have you guys opinions but that's if you are willing to share it with me. Here it goes: What makes DD better than Comic Genesis as a host for a web comic because I was planning on releasing one but I don't know who to go to or is it OK for me to post on both sites. I'd appreciate you guys answers much. Thanks.

John Jr.

you retain all creator rights when posting on dd. so it's ok from dd side. i dunno about comic genesis.

DD is more community based, with comic genesis it's every author for themself. Although you can update on both, Drunk Duck lets you update elsewhere, I'm sure comic genesis would.

What BFFSatan said RE: community.

Also, DD requires no knowledge of html to have a decent lookin' page. It's really user-friendly for us "not good at that kinda stuff" folk. I also like the "browse" set-up here better than over there; I think comics are much more visible/ accessable; but that might just be me.

There's a sticky thread in the "Hello Goodbye" forum, something to the effect of "Why I chose DD"- might get some good info diggin' through that.

Thanks you guys, I appreciated your response. I was looking to begin a web comic but I didn't know where to choose as a home and host page, so now I feel a bit better about where to go. Thanks again.

John Jr.

I'll be moving this to the proper section now.

ComicsGenesis if it's keep the same rules from when it was a part of Keenspot requires that you only publish on CG. DD has no exclusivity rules whatsoever and gives you almost 100% freedom as to the content and location you post your comics and advertising. Overall, DD is the more open community, while CG is good if you want to be able to customize your comic more. I believe CG also offers a small rewards program in which you get a small amount of money for each pageview you receive. However, those are the terms from when it was Keenspace and they may have been changed since I last looked.

lba
ComicsGenesis if it's keep the same rules from when it was a part of Keenspot

Yeah, you made a little mistake there by accident: CG was Keenspace, not spot. Keenspot is the one with the rules and the money agreements. Keenspace which is now CG doesn't have issues like that. :)

As people mentioned though, the HTML aspect is harder for beginners there.
It does have a big active forum though and it's own community, but without a good comic commenting system like DD the whole thing isn't as integrated into the community as DD is. But they have some extra features like banner code that can cross promote your comic on a whole lot of other comics there, good name recognition for the site, a wiki system that comes with your comic account etc...

So there are plusses and minuses. Quite a lot of people would usually host on a number a free hosts, even comics with paid hosting would also mirror on a few free hosts- so that sort of thing shouldn't be a barrier to you.

DD for the actual system of upload/presentation. Comic Gen. for the community. Mix the two and you have a pretty rad site.

Compare and contrast mates!

Comicgenesis DE

Drunkduck DE

It took me half a year to figure out how to edit my CG site to make it look nice. :O
As you can see you can't have PW ads on CGsites...(or can you?)
There is less ads on CG. No comment system integrated into the site unless you do it your self. CG doesn't have a Jump page or archive system (you have to make it yourself. The calendar doesn't count.) The CG site though does look less cluttered.

DD has the favorites and comment system which is great. (Even though SJ has that stuff too, DD has the variety of genres. Oh yeah compare to CG only.) I do sometimes wish there was less ad junk on the top or have it there only if you sign in, but I can deal with it. It does make it easier to jump all over drunkduck.


Soo... why not pick both and see which you like better?

ozoneocean

lba
ComicsGenesis if it's keep the same rules from when it was a part of Keenspot

Yeah, you made a little mistake there by accident: CG was Keenspace, not spot. Keenspot is the one with the rules and the money agreements. Keenspace which is now CG doesn't have issues like that. :)

I said part of it. Keenspot was and still is as far as I know the owner of Keenspace. Back when I looked into it a couple years ago, they gave me the impression that those rules extended to Keenspace as well.

lba

ozoneocean

lba
ComicsGenesis if it's keep the same rules from when it was a part of Keenspot

Yeah, you made a little mistake there by accident: CG was Keenspace, not spot. Keenspot is the one with the rules and the money agreements. Keenspace which is now CG doesn't have issues like that. :)

I said part of it. Keenspot was and still is as far as I know the owner of Keenspace. Back when I looked into it a couple years ago, they gave me the impression that those rules extended to Keenspace as well.

No, only to Spot :)

DD's been good to us, I'm fond of it. A friend of mine recommended the site, met some good people here. I like the community and now a lot of the bugs are fixed, the site does what I need.

Although I prefer Drunk Duck, Platinum Studios' financial situation is looking grim and I fear for the future of this site.

angry_black_guy
Although I prefer Drunk Duck, Platinum Studios' financial situation is looking grim and I fear for the future of this site.

yeah. that has me a bit worried.

Interestingly, people have been saying the same thing for about two years.
Danger, danger! Collapse immanent! O_o

But it still trundles along.

ozoneocean
Interestingly, people have been saying the same thing for about two years.
Danger, danger! Collapse immanent! O_o

But it still trundles along.

For sure. Which is why I never made a post like "IS IT ALL OVER?!?!" ha. but, you know, you see things like this in the news, and then you gotta wonder...

20 mil.

Anyway, I'd imagine that DD does okay profit wise, on its own. So even if something were to happen, I think DD would at least get sold to someone during liquidation... Though I'm not really an expert on how big businesses work.

Maybe I should just shut up.

ozoneocean
Interestingly, people have been saying the same thing for about two years.
Danger, danger! Collapse immanent! O_o

But it still trundles along.

I would be super pissed if my comic were suddenly a homeless derelict. how much money, though, do they spend on this site? I am pretty naive and tend to just assume that everything on the internet is free ; )

why does platinum studios even own DD? they can't be good judges of a comic's character or marketability-- otherwise I'd be getting a sweet advance on The Optimist.

On the bright side with the Platinum problems, they still have faith is us.

From their financial report:

The three-pronged effort to increase the value of Drunk Duck mirrors that of WOWIO, namely instituting an aggressive marketing campaign to attract readers, a multi-pronged effort in business development to attract corporate sponsors and advertisers, and an outreach program to attract more webcomic creators.

Not sure how "aggressive" they can get being so deep in the hole, but good luck to them. I'd like the DD doors to stay open for quite some time.

Sadly, the Comic Book Challenge is "suspended".

Kristen Gudsnuk
why does platinum studios even own DD?

Ha!
Well running a trafficked site does indeed cost money. All the bandwidth it takes up and all the processing that goes on when people visit the site or use the facilities all costs, along with what they pay people to look after issues and things. The site gets money from ads which pays for its upkeep though.

When Volte6 ran and owned this site by himself it was lovely, but it would go down almost every third day, and sometimes those downtimes got pretty serious. It was hard for him to afford the good hosting and not working full time on it -he had to have another job of course- he couldn't be there all the time for it.
--------

When Plat bought DD, at the time that was really quite visionary. Then later on all the copycats jumped on-board too- Zuda comics etc.

First off whether you posted this question on CG or DD no matter what you're going to get a biased opinion on which one is "better".

Having been someone who started on Keenspace/Comic Genesis and also having a site here it depends on what your tastes are.

If you can do html and all that fancy stuff CG might be better for you. But CG does have site templates you can use if you wish, you can find them in the help forum there.

DD doesn't have a queue, on CG there are certain times of the day (usually midnight to 1am eastern time) where most comics update and it can take upwards of 10-30 minutes to see your update show up on your site.

If you're someone who cares about stats, I find the stat tracker over there a lot better than the one here.

But you can post your comic on both, I'd say do that and decide on your own which you prefer.

DD forever! All rivals and enemies will be crushed by the power of DD!

Big problem with Comic Genesis is that you have to know and have access to ftp, in order to put a comic up there.

I seriously don't even remember what ftp is anymore.

ftp?

isn't that like... uh...

I use both CG and DD. CG you do have to know a bit of HTML to make a decent site, where DD has realy good templates to start you off. Both DD and CG allow PW adverts and neither want exclusivity. I like DD cos I get people commenting on my comic. For us artists thats a cool thing (we love attention!) Where on CG its more just a plain ol' website.

Ugh, FTP. Years ago I did a brief comic stint on keenspace (which became CG)... what a nuisance all that was. I don't know if things have since been improved, but those ques made me want to tear my skin off. Had so many times where my upload just vanished without explanation.

I prefer DD vastly.

I think DD is better because it's easier to use and because it's a great place to start up a comic if you're new to it.

That and the community.

I do my main site on Comicgenesis, at http://mindmistress.comicgenesis.com , I (with several others do the CROSSOVERLORD here on Drunk Duck at http://www.drunkduck.com/Crossoverlord/index.php (which has mirror sites on Comicgenesis and Webcomicsnation) and do another comic on Webcomicsnation at http://www.webcomicsnation.com/alschroeder/flickerflame/series.php , so that gives me good insight into all three.

Comicgenesis is the best if you want to customize your page your way and are fairly proficient with html and ftp. (I'm pretty good with both). Which is one reason I use comicgenesis on the main site for Mindmistress. OTOH, the community is NOT very close-knit.

Drunk Duck is less flexible on how you can organize your page, but has a GREAT community/comments/rankingsystem which is perhaps its greatest strength.

Webcomicsnation has probably the less flexible template of the three, although it has a fairly good promotion system, and its community isn't as strong as the Duck's...yet.

So...look around. Whatever suits your needs best.

---Al

And is true with all free services, occasinoally there are glitches. For instance, it looks like Comicgenesis just went down.--Al