Jesus.
So a friend of mine, nikogeyer, who draws the webcomic Fantasy Realms, received this lovely e-mail. I'm sharing this on my LiveJournal because I got a real kick out of it, and Niko's too nice of a guy to defame others for personal pleasure to do it on his own journal--I however delight in it! <3
I knew I had to come up with some interesting subject
title and lure into reading this; and if it worked -
how typical.
I have been a reader of "Fantasy Realms" for about a
fortnight, and I cannot deny that the art is
impressive if not gorgeous. However, I am almost
certain you've heard enough of nice things. That is, I
take it that you expect to hear only nice things said
about your work.
Today's your lucky day; you're about to hear something
different.
You and your co-writer stated on the site "we are NOT
providing trade links" Just reading that made me think
of a myriad of things and all of them tended toward a
more negative light in viewing and understanding your
work.
THe immediate question is why not? And what could be
more obvious other than your dliberate intention of
shutting out ALL other webcomics from the webcomics
community from the current readers of your site? The
so-called "Affiliates" share a similar trait - they
are all elaborately colored, ostentatious, and all,
not keen to associate themselves with other webcomics.
All except SquirrelWorks, that is.
What does this mean? It all suggests that your
Affiliates and you are no dobut trying to establish an
Elitist webcomic sub-group, in which only the "Best"
get to share their fill of readers. All other
webcomics in your eyes are either less sophisticated,
lower in class status or are probably Asian or Black.
That is depsite the fact we are all Americans... well
except Sarah Ellerton, she's Australian, which is not
neccesarily a good thing.
Where is the equality? Where is the sense of
community? In the quest for elitism, you chose to
destroy the very foundation webcomics is built upon -
The recognition of an active webcomic community
standing as a new and upcoming form of virtual
entertainment. The irony is that you wish to tap into
the exisiting community of webcomics only to get the
precious readers while at the same time dying to
disassociate yourself with the generic term of
"webcomics". For the term will neccesarily imply a
given sense of community, that webcomics naturally
comes out of other webcomics.
Your aggressive advertising on Squirrelworks proves
this point. If you're really so damn good, you don't
ever need to advertise. Yet, you need it because,
webcomics get known largely through the mechanics of
advertisement; which proves my point. You manipulate
the community, while only wanting to get away from it.
Where, then, do you stand? You're not a published
artist yet, and you are not a webcomic... Perhaps you
are what you term a "realm", a "fantasy realm" in
which you think you stand proud and alone with your
affiliates, and nothing else exists outside this
realm.
To single you out is unfair, since Megatokyo,
Applegeeks and PennyArcade did the exact same thing.
Hence, it could be suggested that you did what you did
because clearly it worked for them as well.
Megatokyo's fame is fading, which is not to suggest
that it's losing readers fast, but to suggest that it
is no longer getting a fresh torrent of NEW readers,
who have found better colored and scripted webcomics,
like yours for example.
That is to be your fate as well. In the quest for
elitism, you need to disassociate yourself from the
wealth of other webcomics, and like vultures, you can
only feed on a existing readership, and pray that it
hits 10,000 readers, who will ALWAYS buy your books,
toys and what not.That is about all, locked up in your
own realm. Come 10 years down, when an even superior
comic comes along, and out you go forgotten in your
own realm, cut off and removed from the community that
has strengthen its ties without your obtrusive
existence.
I hope you'll have a nice stay in your realm, and i
eagerly await the downfall of you and your work - the
downfall of webcomic elitism.
PS: In the meantime, I shall start by getting readers
away from your site. You can't track me, because that
is the nature of the Internet. There ARE realms
outside your realm; realms that you have NO power
over. Have fun.
Things to note: Niko doesn't readily offer link exchanges to anybody who comes strolling around asking to do so because, obviously, who would want their link page cluttered with sites they wouldn't personally recommend, so long as they link you back? It detracts attention from the sites that you WOULD recommend and DO deserve to gain more exposure. Not to mention that there will obviously be people who exploit you for your link exchanges--people who ONLY link exchange with you NOT because they appreciate your work, but because you've got more visitors.
Niko used to have a link section on his art site with nearly a bajillion links--one day he decided to take it off completely because it was just getting too cluttered, and honestly, who actually visits the sites listed on a gigantic link page? COINCIDENTALLY, after he did this, a HECK of a lot of sites that link exchanged with him took his link off. SCREW the fact that he's an AMAZING artist whose work is MORE than deserving of being seen--he doesn't link back to me, so he doesn't get my support!
And what if he did open link exchanges? What if he had the whole system of "If you link to my site and you show me your site and I like it, I'll link to you"? Obviously not every site is going to appeal to everyone--wouldn't it cause unnecessary drama among some people if they asked for a link exchange with a site that you don't personally enjoy? "Oh, I'm sorry, I don't like your site enough so I'm afraid I'll have to decline link exchanging with you." It'd be less painful for EVERYONE by just limiting your link page to sites that you DO visit and enjoy.
Oh, and another thing that the e-mail brought up: his advertisement on Squirrelworks? Niko's friends with the guy who runs the site, and was offered to have his banner kept up, free of charge. And and and, gasp, Niko IS a published artist! So much for that! ROLLS EYES.
Anyway, uh. I guess I rambled too much about this. In any case, yay stupid e-mail.
I knew I had to come up with some interesting subject
title and lure into reading this; and if it worked -
how typical.
I have been a reader of "Fantasy Realms" for about a
fortnight, and I cannot deny that the art is
impressive if not gorgeous. However, I am almost
certain you've heard enough of nice things. That is, I
take it that you expect to hear only nice things said
about your work.
Today's your lucky day; you're about to hear something
different.
You and your co-writer stated on the site "we are NOT
providing trade links" Just reading that made me think
of a myriad of things and all of them tended toward a
more negative light in viewing and understanding your
work.
THe immediate question is why not? And what could be
more obvious other than your dliberate intention of
shutting out ALL other webcomics from the webcomics
community from the current readers of your site? The
so-called "Affiliates" share a similar trait - they
are all elaborately colored, ostentatious, and all,
not keen to associate themselves with other webcomics.
All except SquirrelWorks, that is.
What does this mean? It all suggests that your
Affiliates and you are no dobut trying to establish an
Elitist webcomic sub-group, in which only the "Best"
get to share their fill of readers. All other
webcomics in your eyes are either less sophisticated,
lower in class status or are probably Asian or Black.
That is depsite the fact we are all Americans... well
except Sarah Ellerton, she's Australian, which is not
neccesarily a good thing.
Where is the equality? Where is the sense of
community? In the quest for elitism, you chose to
destroy the very foundation webcomics is built upon -
The recognition of an active webcomic community
standing as a new and upcoming form of virtual
entertainment. The irony is that you wish to tap into
the exisiting community of webcomics only to get the
precious readers while at the same time dying to
disassociate yourself with the generic term of
"webcomics". For the term will neccesarily imply a
given sense of community, that webcomics naturally
comes out of other webcomics.
Your aggressive advertising on Squirrelworks proves
this point. If you're really so damn good, you don't
ever need to advertise. Yet, you need it because,
webcomics get known largely through the mechanics of
advertisement; which proves my point. You manipulate
the community, while only wanting to get away from it.
Where, then, do you stand? You're not a published
artist yet, and you are not a webcomic... Perhaps you
are what you term a "realm", a "fantasy realm" in
which you think you stand proud and alone with your
affiliates, and nothing else exists outside this
realm.
To single you out is unfair, since Megatokyo,
Applegeeks and PennyArcade did the exact same thing.
Hence, it could be suggested that you did what you did
because clearly it worked for them as well.
Megatokyo's fame is fading, which is not to suggest
that it's losing readers fast, but to suggest that it
is no longer getting a fresh torrent of NEW readers,
who have found better colored and scripted webcomics,
like yours for example.
That is to be your fate as well. In the quest for
elitism, you need to disassociate yourself from the
wealth of other webcomics, and like vultures, you can
only feed on a existing readership, and pray that it
hits 10,000 readers, who will ALWAYS buy your books,
toys and what not.That is about all, locked up in your
own realm. Come 10 years down, when an even superior
comic comes along, and out you go forgotten in your
own realm, cut off and removed from the community that
has strengthen its ties without your obtrusive
existence.
I hope you'll have a nice stay in your realm, and i
eagerly await the downfall of you and your work - the
downfall of webcomic elitism.
PS: In the meantime, I shall start by getting readers
away from your site. You can't track me, because that
is the nature of the Internet. There ARE realms
outside your realm; realms that you have NO power
over. Have fun.
Things to note: Niko doesn't readily offer link exchanges to anybody who comes strolling around asking to do so because, obviously, who would want their link page cluttered with sites they wouldn't personally recommend, so long as they link you back? It detracts attention from the sites that you WOULD recommend and DO deserve to gain more exposure. Not to mention that there will obviously be people who exploit you for your link exchanges--people who ONLY link exchange with you NOT because they appreciate your work, but because you've got more visitors.
Niko used to have a link section on his art site with nearly a bajillion links--one day he decided to take it off completely because it was just getting too cluttered, and honestly, who actually visits the sites listed on a gigantic link page? COINCIDENTALLY, after he did this, a HECK of a lot of sites that link exchanged with him took his link off. SCREW the fact that he's an AMAZING artist whose work is MORE than deserving of being seen--he doesn't link back to me, so he doesn't get my support!
And what if he did open link exchanges? What if he had the whole system of "If you link to my site and you show me your site and I like it, I'll link to you"? Obviously not every site is going to appeal to everyone--wouldn't it cause unnecessary drama among some people if they asked for a link exchange with a site that you don't personally enjoy? "Oh, I'm sorry, I don't like your site enough so I'm afraid I'll have to decline link exchanging with you." It'd be less painful for EVERYONE by just limiting your link page to sites that you DO visit and enjoy.
Oh, and another thing that the e-mail brought up: his advertisement on Squirrelworks? Niko's friends with the guy who runs the site, and was offered to have his banner kept up, free of charge. And and and, gasp, Niko IS a published artist! So much for that! ROLLS EYES.
Anyway, uh. I guess I rambled too much about this. In any case, yay stupid e-mail.