Um: maybe producing a long-running, supposedly niche, stick-figure webcomic is seen as a chronic illness by many advertisers? :smallwink:
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I didn't particularly like that part either. I figure their train of thought goes illness -> irregular schedule -> advertisers reluctant to advertise.
You know, because nobody bothers with this site unless you update the comic. Active forums? What active forums?
I'd say it's more lack of ads = lack of ability to draw advertisers. And frankly, if you believe that, you've missed the point of this pledge drive entirely.
I suspect it is because they read your News Page entry where you said one of the reasons why you don't do advertising on the main page of the comic is that you don't have a regular update schedule. But they chose not to explain your rationale in the best of ways.
I am a chessplayer of some skill and fo that I ended up on local newspapers on occasions, and that tougth me one thing: journalists have no idea what they're talking about. Maybe big newspapers will have specific experts for politics or other big stuff, but when it comes to those kind of secondary news, the guy who do the writing simply don't know the argument and will do the best he can with what he have, making a lot of mistakes in the process.
From my experience, you're lucky they at least got your name right: a good third of the times I was mentioned in papers, my name was misspelled.
To be honest, I can see how they made that jump from what you've said publicly about not adding ads to the site (partly) due to your update schedule, and your update schedule being (partly) defined by your illness.
On the other hand yeah, it does suggest that the barrier is the advertisers rather than your own ethics.
Nice sentiment, although you're somewhere between 3 and 4 zeroes off for reaching superbowl viewership.
That said, I didn't understand the article to be making any argument about the proper cost of advertising, but rather the risk of advertising, which was apparently misunderstood due to the journalist not knowing how forums work.
Rich --
I would like to blog a retrospective on the Kickstarter Drive. Would it be all right to use two of the images from the drive? I was thinking of the original Kickstarter (everyone kicking Belkar image) and either the image from Kickstarter Update #4 or Kickstarter Update #5.
Thanks so much for your answer.
Yours,
Hmm
The advertising part is not about the forum, it's about the main comic site.
The comic is completely ad free, not because of Rich's illness, not because of the nature of a regular website vs a forum, but because it is Rich's bussiness decision.
The fact that the comic has an irregular schedule is a PART of the reason for that bussiness decision, at best, and Rich's illness is a PART of the reason for the irregular schedule, and the writer overestimated both effects to create a causal link between Rich's illness and the fact that the comic doesn't do ads.
His (the writer's) mistake had nothing to do with how a forum works, because he never looked at a forum, this is not about the forum, it's about the main comic site.
And actually, the forum does feature ads.
Same thing happened to me once. When I was younger (Nine or ten years old, IIRC) I was the headliner of the local newspaper (beating a homicide and the first birth in the area after New Years) because I wrote a 120 page book. The news-reporter wasn't even close to spelling my last name right.
I was in the local newspapers for foiling an international act of terrorism, winning every Walkley award and being awarded the title of 'World's Most Beautiful Person' on the same day. But they spelled my name wrong as well.
Not sure if this thread is also to be used for OotS in foreign media, but a big Dutch newspaper has put out a story on the OotS kickstarter:
http://www.volkskrant.nl/vk/nl/2694/...kstarter.dhtml
It's a very basic story, but if translations are needed, just holler!
The link to The Globe and Mail in the first post has a bad url, looks like it somehow starts with www.=http.com//. Deleting that part made the link work fine, though.
Singularity Hub did a Q&A with me about the future of media that you can read here. Bonus points for including the first time I've ever been called "conservative" in my life.
[Joke]
According to this Q&A you're referencing something from #294 in #845. To the archives!
*Browses*
Hmm, the confetti of Roy's torn up contracts could be a metaphor for the broken Order of the Scribble, or possibly used in reference to some destroyed documents that will shed light on the Draketooth philosophy and reveal the Shocking Secret™ that will cause every reader to rethink how truly noble Soon Kim was!
[/Joke] :smalltongue:
I think your summary of why your Kickstarter triumphed reflected my own thoughts: You engaged with us and turned into an event, and always had new stuff to keep drawing us in.
Maybe not personally, but I'm kind of surprised nobody's used the word for your merchandising strategy before.
Irregardless (*dodges fruit*), it's a good interview. Hooray for more coverage!
Well put, sir. Very good interview.Quote:
Originally Posted by The Giant
So... one can estimate the size of the OotS audience as 50 times the number of backers? That would put readership at around 750,000 strong.Quote:
Originally Posted by The Giant
:smallcool:
It's not regarding politics. "Conservative" in this usage means simply not as willing to predict the overthrow of all existing distribution channels in favor of an egalitarian patronage model that puts no one work of art ahead of any other. Basically, he's saying my feelings about what will (or should) happen in the future regarding art and media are not as radical as his own predictions.
Also, I have a Twitter now. www.twitter.com/RichBurlew More info to come on that later.
A story about a young detective and his friends investigating the mysterious shut down of a candy factory.
Basically, my teacher at the time was friends were a reporter. I showed my teacher the story, she showed it to the reporter, and the reporter decided to interview me for the paper.
The article also got posted on the newspaper's website. I even have the article in my Favorites.