Megatokyo Update Schelude Debate Thread
Submitted by Kiba on December 3, 2005 - 17:51
One of the most common compliant is that Megatokyo doesn't update when Fred say he would.
(WARNING: This above is rant and opinion with number thrown in that may or may not be accurate.)
In my opinion, he did update when he say he would. There are 78 DPD in the archive. THAT RIGHT! 78 of them in like what? More than 700 strips. Here the ironity....most of those are in his Megatokyo's FIRST YEAR. I even have the evidence to back them up.
(END RANT)
OK, here come the evidence and the fun part.....One of my colleague at comixpedia.org did a research on it. You can read it here in his livejournal http://www.livejournal.com/users/rhandir/1458.html
Discuss whether the research is accurate, if it have flaw, and other stuff about it. You can also discuss if the opinion about "Megatokyo often miss the updates every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday " is valid or something related to update schelude. Have fun debating and don't turn this into a Megatokyo bashing thread! Also, if comixpedia.com report on this; than the report on that livejournal become citable, giving us rebuttal to make Megatokyo more NPOV and that a good bonus.
- Array
Megatokyo Update Schelude Debate Thread
by Kiba - 12/03/2005 - 17:51
One of the most common compliant is that Megatokyo doesn't update when Fred say he would.
(WARNING: This above is rant and opinion with number thrown in that may or may not be accurate.)
In my opinion, he did update when he say he would. There are 78 DPD in the archive. THAT RIGHT! 78 of them in like what? More than 700 strips. Here the ironity....most of those are in his Megatokyo's FIRST YEAR. I even have the evidence to back them up.
(END RANT)
OK, here come the evidence and the fun part.....One of my colleague at comixpedia.org did a research on it. You can read it here in his livejournal http://www.livejournal.com/users/rhandir/1458.html
Discuss whether the research is accurate, if it have flaw, and other stuff about it. You can also discuss if the opinion about "Megatokyo often miss the updates every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday " is valid or something related to update schelude. Have fun debating and don't turn this into a Megatokyo bashing thread! Also, if comixpedia.com report on this; than the report on that livejournal become citable, giving us rebuttal to make Megatokyo more NPOV and that a good bonus.
RE: Megatokyo Update Schelude Debate Thread
by Uncle Ghastly - 12/03/2005 - 20:26
Life would be grand if we could all coast on to fame and fortune with such a... relaxed work ethic.
by Fabricari - 12/03/2005 - 20:57
Hmm, this is an interesting study. I'm glad to see evidence that supports his consistancy over the years. Frankly I really don't consider it necessary for other webcomic artists to give so much flak to the Fred or any artist for that matter for their updating practices. Lord knows there are enough rabid fans. (Not saying I see that a lot here, but have elsewhere.)
"Fame and Fourtune", though? I don't think he's really THAT well off doing coimcs. Not many are. Even Scott Kurtz (in BLC podcast) mentioned sweating bullets over having to go back to the day job in a couple years. If I recall, from Fred' blog, he and his wife still livin' in an apartment. That's not living the life of fortune.
And fame has nothing to do with work ethics, ever. I don't think I have to back that up with evidence - turn on your T.V.
Truth is, we're just a jealous lot. Yeah, sure, I am a bit, too. I have to drive 30 minutes in snow and crappy traffic to sit in a poorly lit cube farm and stare at lines of code all day - because it pays the bills. I'd rather have Fred's deal, work in my living room, draw and go to conventions.
What happened to simply being a fan of a webcomic? If you don't like the irregular updates, you just won't show up every day. I had a run of irregular posts in my comic earlier and I suffered the traffic loss instantly. We make mistakes and deal with the consequences. Applegeeks had a string of missed days because life got in the way. As a fan I just stopped reading for a few weeks, but now that Hawk's back at it, I'm back to checking the site out regularly again, too.
Sure, it's healthy to discuss this with our fellow webcomic artists, cuz we can learn a thing or two - but really, there should never be excuse to speak poorly of an artist for how they choose to update their site.
Unless we're fabricating the drama. Because drama is ALWAYS good for traffic.
Steve "Fabricari" Harrison
by LGraf - 12/03/2005 - 21:22
*nods in agreement with Fabricari*
I've such a twitch over not having a good schedule. I know all too well that traffic will drop if you miss, and I've not a good history in keeping a good schedule.
I do the same. If a creator has stated they're going to be off-schedule for work or school or vacation and if they give a date when they'll be back, I wait. It takes a lot for me to stop reading a comic if I really like it.
Take Fallen for instance. Aido's last update as Sept 3rd. Her update before that was much longer. She's given warning that when she goes to school her comic schedule suffers. Many fans are patient, lurk her LJ for when she updates. I check now and then because I want to know what's up on the story, where it's going.
When we go on hiatus, we give when we're aiming to be back and try to stick to it. This time around Dean's work and my artist block were the reasons our schedule didn't pick back up as we said we would. I try to keep the readers up to date on progress in TA's LJ.
What I dislike is when a creator just drops out of sight. No warning, no reason, just stops. And then you hear second, third, fourth or more hands down the line their reasons for stopping, and it's usually a case of they got bored or hated how the comic was going. Okay fine, but how about a little courtesy for their readers and informing them so they don't check back time and time again?
As for Fred, at least he gives fair warning and info on progress.
Enh, I'm about to rant, so it's time to get back to rewriting my script. :roll:
--L.G.Twilight Agency: my frustration, my insanity... http://twilightagency.com
by KrazyKrow - 12/03/2005 - 23:59
I have to admit, I'm personally horrified at how someone who's made the leap to earning a living off their art would treat it like that. Quitting the day job is an oppourtunity most of us are never going to have.
But hey, if MT readers are willing to put up with it...
by Uncle Ghastly - 12/04/2005 - 04:18
Keep in mind though that some of us don't want to quit thier dayjobs. I'm just returning home from my day job, which ironically is at night. How many jobs let you drink your ass off on free beer all night?
Although I've certainly contemplated cutting back on my day job and using the webcomic to take up the slack. Instead of taking on any project for pay, taking on only the ones that truly interest me and having my webcomic handle more of the financual responsibility of the household. But then again playing music for a living is like sex or pizza. Even when it's bad it's still pretty good.
by Erik Melander - 12/04/2005 - 07:22
First of all, I'd agree that updates and whether they're missed or not is something between the creator and his/her fans. When I stopped reading Megatokyo, it wasn't because of missed updates, it was because I didn't find the story interesting enough anymore. I do think that because Piro is a professional creator, the fans could set a higher standard for him and expect the schedule to be followed. However, if they don't that's really their thing and Piro would appear to have a system that is working for him and the fans seem to accept it.
But using Megatokyo as a case studie about missed updates is still interesting so I'll add my thoughts about the statistical analysis of Megatokyo's update history.
First of all I think the livejournal post undervalues the meaning of filler material. Shirt guy Dom and Dead Piro Days should be counted as missed updates, because they are the equivalent of someone putting up pictures of kittens or roadkill as an update. But I'd go as far as say that even guest strips and filler strips should be considered missed updates because it is the harsh reality when you're creating a comic with a continuing story and not a gag strip, that anything that interrupts the main comic is an annoyance for the reader.
The statistics of the first two points in the livejournal post should also be made with these filler strips as missed updates to reflect how this would look.
But lets face it. the missed update is a subjective thing and I think most readers evaluate them in real time and not number of updates. What I'm saying is that if you look in the Megatokyo archive for the last year, you will find that there is a Dead Piro Day or Shirt guy Dom strip (aka the worst kind of fillers) pretty much once every month with more on occasions (such as two whole weeks missed in October and September). This might not look like a lot, a missed update every 12 or so, but a reader will see "He cant go 4 weeks without missing an update". Compare this to Chris Crosby who has missed maybe once in 6 years (and yes I am aware that there is significant difference in how long a Superosity strip takes and a Megatokyo page) and people might raise an eyebrow that a proffesional creator misses deadlines so often.