This is something that has been nagging at me for a bit.

I'd prefer my comics to be read for the page content not the drama that goes on underneath the page in the author and fan comments.
For people that don't want their comic commentary to become a big flame war like DD comics in the past, how does the creator prevent it or at least not fan the flames?

You dont.Thats democracy man, deal with it.Just dont read comments I guess..

Hrm... asking people to stop only does a small bit of good.
My suggestion is to mute the rude comments. If they're jerks constantly, consider reporting to the admins.
I don't speak from experience, so I don't know if that's the best way to handle things.

I have only had this pop up once (aimed at me) and a couple of times with readers friendly with me taking a snipe shot at another reader--most for a comment being possibly inappropriate. I handled the primary attack mostly by laughing! The fellow created a really good lampoon page of my first issue cover and wrote a sarcastic little blurb underneath. I was mortified at first, but then I realized it was like having MAD magazine doing a parody piece...cool! So I posted a link to the lampoon page and complimented the poster for his work and the fun! So far it hasn't happened again!

People have gone a bit back and forth on my forums but not on the comments, and it has all been good natured so far.

If people got so enthusiastic about my comic that they started flame waring each other, I would have to say I'd be pretty flattered!
But if people got too out of hand, you can always mute their comments.

why would you WANT to stop it? It forces the flamers to come back and read your comic to respond....the other readers come to watch...your views go up.


seriously, I would BEG for a flame war on my book.

I never thought this would be an issue in comments. Mostly because I don't get very many, and the comics I read here don't really have flame wars in the comments. I'm so sheltered.

Nick guy do you want us to go onto your comics and tell your readers to piss off and see if we can get some flame wars going for you?

I have never had an all-out flame war happen at my comic, or at least that I can remember...more just the occasional pissy remark shot between two people if anything.

I agree though that muting all of those may get the message to the people across better than anything, and reporting is the final straw if they don't knock it off (unless the comments are ridiculously terrible right at the start, then you should report them right away).

I LIKE reading debates about characters and things in the story though, I actually would like to see that more often! (Except I wouldn't want it to get so hostile that it would turn into a flame war. XD)

While it never really happened to my comics, if ever it does, I won't restrict their right to free speech unless there's threats of physical violence (regardless of tho whom it is directed to).

Kyupol what about if one person is abusing another? Being really personally insulting? Or if one person starts being incredibly racist?
In flame wars threats of violence are meaningless as the two people clearly dont know each other so couldn't hurt each other if they tried.
Something verbally hurtful is worse in my book, as that could actually upset someone.

Jillyfoo is smart to want to stop it, the negative feelings behind that flamewar are eventually going to attach to your comic and scare them away for good.

wat 2 do;
Short rude ones directed at your comic that aren't really mean enough to mute; ignore.
Long provoking comments that could stir reader response; mute. really some people leave them up for the stuff nickguy was talking about but most fans can see you're trying to get cheap views.
A long critique of your comic, harsh but true; say thank you and that you'll try to work on it, nothings worse than muting it and being thought of as 'not accepting of crit'.
A rude critique that was cleary flaming in disguise; mute it and kindly ask them to use PQ when sending crit.

Skullbie
Jillyfoo is smart to want to stop it, the negative feelings behind that flamewar are eventually going to attach to your comic and scare them away for good.

Totally this. Sure, flamewars might keep people coming back to your page to keep the argument going, but they aren't coming back for the comic. They aren't actually fans of the comic, more fans of the flames. And the actually fans will start to feel alienated by all the arguments going on. What are you feel with for readers? People who don't actually come for the comic!

I think Skullbie has some excellent advice. Ignore the small stuff, mute the medium stuff, report and delete the big stuff. But don't give it any more attention. The flamers really love the attention.

harkovast
Kyupol what about if one person is abusing another? Being really personally insulting? Or if one person starts being incredibly racist?
In flame wars threats of violence are meaningless as the two people clearly dont know each other so couldn't hurt each other if they tried.
Something verbally hurtful is worse in my book, as that could actually upset someone.

Racism and insults are fine. There's no need to censor that. Why? Its because whoever makes such remarks will only destroy their reputation in the process. Everyone will get to see how dumb and ignorant you are. You're shooting yourself in the foot if you ask me. :)

And besides, I don't wanna look like a hypocrite.

In my authors notes rants, I've sometimes talked about things like libertarianism, big brother, political correctness, etc.

And if I censor comments (aside from SPAM and threats of violence), I'll look like a hypocrite.

Well, if I ever were to have a flame war going on in my comments, I would either mute them, or report them to one of our fantastic moderators.

Or, I would personally PQ them, and scream.
And by scream, I mean type in all caps.
I think of typing in caps as screaming.
SO IT LOOKS LIKE I'M SCREAMING RIGHT NOW HAHAHAHA.
Whispering would just be small font.

But anyway, yeah, mute them, or report them. Always a good idea.

Ryuthehedgewolf
Or, I would personally PQ them, and scream.

They would like that. You'd be letting them know that they got under your skin. Mission accomplished.

Comments are good for critique and intelligent discussion. Attention whores and trolls should remain in their blogs and on 4chan where they belong. I only had a couple flamey comments before, and I got virtually no comments then, so there was no war or arguing back from other people. I just left the remarks.

If it would affect the enjoyment of my readers, I'd mute or have comments deleted. Although if there's some merit to the remark, I'd send a PQ as to why it was deleted and that I appreciate the critique. (If they are just being trolls/flamers, then I wouldn't PQ them because they would see even a rational discussion as "getting to me" and probably return to flame again.) I believe as the moderator of my comic and webpage, I owe it to my readers to keep the idiots at bay and make sure it's an enjoyable experience.

I have so far muted only one comment. It was actually a positive comment and not "bad" in any way, but it contained the *f* word, and the comic was rated E, so I felt the comments should also be kept to a kid-friendly rating. I PQed the commenter explaining this and thanking him for the comment.

I muted attacks from anonymous commentators, but that's because I usually recognized the language as being a member of TD trying to start crap for entertainment. For the most part I left comments that were negative alone so long as they didn't get pointlessly offensive or personal.

usedbooks
If it would affect the enjoyment of my readers, I'd mute or have comments deleted.

I'd do that.
One day, when my comics are old and haggard, I'd like to reflect on a lot of related healthy and dynamic discussion...as well as a few arguments. No flames, though - flames are completely pointless. (So far I think I got a few random "this comic is f'n stupid" comments on both throughout the years - not here, but on my main site's tagboards when they had them - and they were lol.)

NickGuy
seriously, I would BEG for a flame war on my book.

my thoughts exactly , seriously , that would be cool

Unless the comments were quite obscene, I'd just reply politely to any negative comments directed at me or my comic. People are entitled to their opinion. If they became very abusive, I'd definitely consider muting and/or (depending on the degree) even reporting them.

I'd be far less tolerant of comments attacking other readers. I'd try to head off a flame war by asking the culprit to stop immediately. If it persisted, again I'd mute and very probably report.

Fortunately, this is all theoretical. I have lovely readers who are always very nice to each other (and me!) The only time I've ever reported anyone was for a comment made on someone else's comic and, in that case, the comment in question was extremely abusive. I'm pretty sure the person responsible has since been banned.

harkovast
Nick guy do you want us to go onto your comics and tell your readers to piss off and see if we can get some flame wars going for you?

hahah I dont think any of my readers are angry enough. I need to attract more fighters.