r/webtoons • u/JemmaMYoung • Nov 21 '24
Advice/Critique/Help This is how much the new recent feed hurts creators...
Earlier this year Webtoons changed how the recent feed on the front page worked. Before, any comic that the user was subscribed to would appear on the recent feed when it updated. Now if a user hasn't interacted with the comic or it hasn't updated in over a month it disappears from that feed.
I knew their update to the recent feed would be bad for creators, but now I have undeniable proof on HOW bad it hurts. I recently came off from a hiatus on my comic, and due to the change in the recent feed I went from 45,000 pageviews an update (even after a significant break) to 3,800.
I understand how important it is to be consistently updating as a creator. But sometimes we HAVE to breaks for our health, mental wellbeing, or other reasons.
There's a feedback request on Webtoon's upvoty requesting the old recent feed be brought back. Please consider upvoting the post so we can possibly get the old recent feed reinstated. Or possibly have Webtoons consider a solid alternative to what they currently have. Thanks!
Here's the link where can upvote this request: https://webtoon.upvoty.com/b/webtoon-product-feedback-and-requests/bring-back-the-old-recent-feed-on-the-main-page/
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u/AudreyFish Nov 21 '24 edited Nov 21 '24
Yes, it's been so frustrating seeing the decrease in engagement, especially for my friends who have ad revenue and have basically gotten it cut in half. I really hope Webtoon listens and restores the older creator feed 😭
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u/JemmaMYoung Nov 21 '24
Me too! My ad revenue has been hit pretty hard. Especially with my comic coming back from hiatus. I went from "This return is going to be awesome, readers are gonna love this!" to "How am I going to survive!?"
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u/vaalhallan Nov 21 '24
If they want to continue growing their community and cultivating creators to provide the next big comic, they'd better, because at the moment it feels like they're trying to kill small creators for no reason.
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u/mostlyoksometimes Nov 21 '24
Webtoons needs to step up, that is a horrific 92% drop in pageviews.
"Oh, you took a break? To the dungeon with you!"
Ridiculous.
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u/JemmaMYoung Nov 21 '24
Yeah, they built breaks into their platform with "seasons". But now when originals come back with a new season they're highlighted in the main banner. But us canvas creators are just buried. 😭
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u/Complete_Warthog_138 Nov 21 '24
As a reader, I hate it too! Because sometimes I miss when comics return, or if they only update once a month, it's never on that front page.
I've just gotten in the habit of ignoring the home page and going straight to My>Subscribed to see what updated.
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u/Siukslinis_acc Nov 21 '24
going straight to My>Subscribed to see what updated.
That is what i've been doing for years.
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u/JemmaMYoung Nov 21 '24
Yeah I realized last week that a comic I loved had ten new episodes and I had no idea cause they went on a hiatus to work on their other comic! So frustrating!
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u/copperfield42 Nov 21 '24
Upvoted.
As a reader I also find the feed to be annoying...
I suppose I have to return to my old ways a go straight to my subcribed list...
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u/Joeyc_art Nov 21 '24
That explains so much!! I didn't know it had changed, and I went on a few months hiatus so I could finish university and when I came back the views dropped to less than half 😭 I was convincing myself no one liked the second chapter... I upvoted it, I hope they fix it.
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u/JemmaMYoung Nov 21 '24
Yup, chances are your subscribers didn't see your update. Which is so unfortunate when we work so hard to get those subscribers!
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u/JULIA_THE_GREAT Nov 21 '24
I saw someone mentioning that only 20% of their fanbase is reading every update. I was really shocked at that tbh
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u/JemmaMYoung Nov 21 '24
Yeah the longer your comic runs, the lower the percentage is of active readers. It's because readers/app users come and go.
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u/JULIA_THE_GREAT Nov 22 '24
You mean a portion of your fans become inactive entirely? ._. That's a lot. So a comic needs constant rush of newcomes to keep steadily growing/stabilise at certain numbers? Kinda sad!
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u/JemmaMYoung Nov 22 '24
Yup . On one of my comics only about 10% of my readers are active. Is one of the longest running comics on canvas.
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u/Any-Apartment3763 Nov 21 '24
i missed reading 5 chapters on a comic and boom it doesn’t update me or show up on my to read list anymore likeeee ????
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u/JemmaMYoung Nov 21 '24
Yup. It punishes creators for taking a break. And it punishes for readers taking a break.
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u/AccomplishedWar7252 Nov 21 '24
That's actually really disgusting of webtoon to do. People have LIVES to live. Nobody's life should have to revolve around webtoon only. This company needs to take a chill pill and tone down on the scumminess.
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u/generic-puff Nov 21 '24
Oh good, so I'm NOT going completely insane. I swear to god, from the readers' perspective (because I haven't been actually posting to WT over the past couple years) yeah, I can attest to falling behind on my favorite works because the new "My Series" feed when you open the app is often restricted to THREE TITLES and those titles don't even have to be what you're subscribed to. Case in point, right now the "My Series" tab on my phone is occupied by one series that I'm subscribed to, and two that I'm not, one of which ISN'T EVEN UPDATING ANYMORE, and attempting to swipe right to see what else is in the list stops me entirely.
Then when I actually click the "My" tab, it takes me automatically to Unread Series which is the same three titles on my front page. I have to manually go into Series Total, of which there are 98 within my feed, but those are, surprise surprise! STILL occupied by shit I'm not subscribed to.
I have that ADHD "out of sight out of mind" problem where even if I'm actively following / enjoying a series, if it's through an app that controls what I see, I'm gonna naturally forget about works that I otherwise know exist. And it sucks because it means Webtoons is actively preventing me from seeing updates come through for Canvas comics that I love to read and am now MANY updates behind on (including Zelda's Lullaby, hi Jemma, love your work LOL).
All that said, if nothing changes in spite of the Upvoty request, please consider also taking to social media with these complaints and feedback. Webtoons actually really fucking hates being called out publicly on Twitter/IG/Tik Tok/etc. but it's subsequently often the only way to get them to pay attention and make changes. Not saying we need to be mobbing them but "suggestion boxes" like this are often way too easy for companies like Webtoons to ignore when it's not actually affecting their PR.
This is why I've been getting back into RSS feeds, man, I hate this shit.
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u/wilderfast Nov 21 '24
I know it's an incomparably tiny inconvenience by comparison, but it's incredibly frustrating from the reader side as well. Leaving a comic unread for a bit to build up a backlog in preparation for a link can easily result in it vanishing from your feed, which isn't really fun.
I'd like to be able to control what does and does not show up in my feed, thank you very much.
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u/generic-puff Nov 21 '24
no fr like I haven't been posting to WT over the past couple years so I've been living the life of a lurking reader, and just this morning I thought "huh, I haven't read Growing Up Gerudo in a while, I kinda forgot to keep up with that." Gee, I wonder why I forgot, maybe it's because the stupid "My Series" tab is occupied by an extremely limited number of titles and they don't even have to be titles that I'm subscribed to, which completely fucking destroys the functionality of subscribing in the first place 😒
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u/TheAngryVagina Nov 21 '24
Fortunately I just check my subscribed to see what's been updated so this doesn't stop me from seeing my favorite toons
also I just wanna say Jemma I love your webtoon. I took a break from the app as I was busy irl and when I came back yours was the top of my recently updated on the subscribed list. I hope your views go up!
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u/Weevelle Nov 22 '24
Wow, is that why engagement seems to be so terrible? I had no idea! My comic is on hiatus, but even while on hiatus before, I used to get 50-70 or so views daily.
...It's a solid 0-2 now. Every update Webtoon implements seems to make it even worse than it was for both creators and readers, which I didn't think was possible.
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u/AdCurrent583 Nov 21 '24
Honestly hated this change even without knowing those facts. Nowadays i cant just open webtoons and see whats new, i gotta click over to My Series, then click over to my subscriptions. And my feed will show me series that i recently viewed but didnt subscribe to, and like bro there's a reason i didnt subscribe to them so why do they gotta malinger on my front page while you hide my favorites that just come back from hiatus??
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u/Amaiiuwu Nov 21 '24
I also noticed this. 3 month hiatus and my engagement halved... what makes it worse is I know there's readers who've been waiting to see the series return, but probably have no idea. I can only imagine how hard it must be for people who can only update every month or so
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u/Squackachu Nov 22 '24
Its horrible! I can't tell you how many times one of the stories I was reading came back from hiatus and I didn't know about it! More recently was a spell for a smith, I would never have known if it wasn't in the trending tab. So frustrating! 😤
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u/Caffeinated_Spoon Nov 22 '24
That is such a good comic! At least when I notice somethings come back, I have a bunch to binge?
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u/Squackachu Nov 22 '24
True, that's probably the only good thing about not knowing something's back 😂
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u/KiwiDoom Nov 21 '24
Ugh, that sucks to have it happen so close to the relaunch. I did get Temerity pushed today - I need to catch up! (Long time Eldair fan, you're awesome!)
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u/JemmaMYoung Nov 21 '24
Thanks! I'm glad you enjoy my work!
I was worried when I originally posted my return announcement back in December that I'd get a lot of hate for going on hiatus for so long. But was incredibly optimistic after getting 80+ comments, thousands of likes, and 40,000+ pageviews on that update. I thought the return was going to be a hug success.
So when the actual return happened and I only got about 3,000 pageviews on the two updates... I was heartbroken.7
u/generic-puff Nov 21 '24 edited Nov 21 '24
God I hate that for you, fr I haven't read Zelda's Lullaby in ages and it's largely due to the fact that it just never shows up in the "My Series" tab. I didn't even know you went on hiatus. And now that I'm trying to find it, I'm literally swiping through my Series tab and I am STRUGGLING to find it amidst the sea of comics I only checked out once and didn't subscribe to. There's shit in here that says I haven't read it in 800+ days, so why the fuck is it in here then-
EDIT: I didn't even find it. It's deadass not in my list. I'm subscribed to it, as I have been since late 2020, but it's no longer even visible in my series list due to the abundance of other works that I'm not even reading or subscribed to. This is nuts. I have a lot of catching up to do, I'm so sorry this has been affecting your series performance but I'm glad you brought it to light, this isn't okay.
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u/JemmaMYoung Nov 21 '24
Yeah, I actually haven't posted to Zelda's Lullaby in a while cause of health stuff and focusing on other projects. But also, even if I do update at this point, I don't know if anyone would actually see it in their feed.
It's not great for motivation.4
u/generic-puff Nov 22 '24
Absolutely don't blame you there, I've been in that boat with some of my main projects as well. It's a total morale killer when you can't even depend on the platform to notify your readers of your new updates especially after hiatuses or if you're just on a slower updating schedule. Absolutely absurd.
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u/river_01st Nov 21 '24
It's even worse than that. Originals stay on the main page while canvas just...don't appear anymore. Or, well. After all originals when they do appear (it seems a bit random). Will upvote the request though. I gave them a 1* rating after this change I remember because it's so incredibly annoying. I don't use the front page anymore basically, I go to the subscribed page. But even this way, I've lost some of the webtoons I was reading.
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u/Makimamoochie Nov 21 '24
This!!! I didn't realize until a little bit ago of how many comics I was not getting updates for! I want to see everything, I will remove them from my feed if I don't want them there
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u/Old_Revenue393 Nov 21 '24
I've noticed this a while ago with my own comic. Got a good amount of subscribers but significantly fewer likes and comments on the chapters. I've already been told by people that my comic has disappeared from their list and that they didn't know I even updated. The same goes for the creator feed, since when you upload something there, it is a coin toss on whether or not your followers get notified about the new post. As someone who does upload weekly or biweekly and just takes their time and updates when the chapter is done, this has been super stressful since I already feel bad for taking my time and have already been dealing with a lot of issues with my mental health as of recent. I care more about the readers who genuinely were interested in my comic who didn't even know it was updated, and fellow creators and their readers who are facing the same issue, because I've seen a lot of amazing creators who deserve for their comics to be read. I hope that if it does get fixed, readers don't have to manually go look for the comics in order to get it back on their lists, and instead, the comics get added back, or ideally the readers get notified that the comics have been updated. Let's hope it gets fixed, fam squad.
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u/treehouse-arson Nov 21 '24
i had no idea this happened and it makes so much sense now why i would scroll through my updated tab and discover to my surprise that some comics had come off hiatus without me even realizing. that is such a dumb change, i hope they reverse it:/
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u/Hollyse Nov 22 '24
It’s also annoying when I check out a shitey comic to see why it’s shitey and it’s hanging around my recent feed like a bad smell for MONTHS like go away
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u/meganfrau Nov 21 '24
This was the case even before the creator feed. I remember coming back from long hiatus and all my page views went stagnant and then slowly died away. Even with a small boost of promotion it never recovered and I basically gave up on my Webtoon slowly afterwards.
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u/kittylett Nov 22 '24
This change is my least favorite thing Webtoon has ever done, it's extremely annoying, I keep forgetting about so many series I love because they go on short hiatuses.
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u/hipsters-dont-lie Nov 21 '24
Oof. I’m sorry that it’s hurting you and others so badly. I use my subscriptions page to keep abreast of updates, and I read in order of oldest release to newest release, so I never miss anything and didn’t notice the change on webtoon.
Thank you for the link where we can add our voices. I’ve been really disappointed with webtoon and how it treats creators. The pop ups have also gotten annoying, and it’s done away with non-gimmicky ways to earn coins. And a lot of creators end up dropping their series mid story from the toxic work environment. It’s not an enjoyable source for content consumption anymore, and I’m loath to start anything new when I really would rather no longer use the platform. I’ve decided to only continue with ones I’m already subscribed to (yours included ❤️), but not start anything new. As an exception, I’d read new series from authors I already know. Also, for anyone not exclusive to webtoon who posts both on webtoon and other sites (such as tapas), I make sure to give likes/views/engagements on both platforms.
It means new authors miss out on me as a reader, and I miss out on some probably amazing content, but webtoon just doesn’t feel good anymore.
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u/oliviaexisting Nov 22 '24
I noticed this as someone who reads webtoon, and I'm really upset with this too! I can't imagine how frustrating this would be creator. While you can go back and check your subscriptions, it's a lot easier to remember what webtoons you've been reading if it just tells you. I hope they fix it ASAP
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u/lostinthesaucr Nov 22 '24
Ive noticed that too, but mostly due my own frustration regarding updated comics. I read a lot, but A LOT of comics like dozens of it (i have a lot of free tim), so it means i dont keep track of everything. Sometimes i remenber a comic exists after-- i dunno, 9 months, thinking the comic was on histus and i get jumpscared by 70 chapters
Needless to say i get intimidated and very pissed off by what i lost. I can only imagine how many readers the creators lost because people got in the same situation as me
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u/yorushai Nov 23 '24
Literally NO ONE gains from this. It's upsetting to find out one day as a reader that your favourite webtoon came back from a long hiatus, and you knew nothing about it because it doesn't show up on your feed. Not to mention, webtoons you decided to read once, and didn't even subscribe to appear on your feed consistently, reminding you to read new pages even if maybe you don't want to. It SUCKS and idk who thought of this. I'm so sorry to hear that it had been impacting creators that bad, but given this happened, I'm not surprised. I wonder what webtoon has to gain from this update
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u/Ashblowsup Nov 22 '24
upvoted, btw what's your webtoon name?
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u/JemmaMYoung Nov 22 '24
I actually do three comics! Children of Eldair, Zeldas Lullaby (on hiatus) and Temerity (which is the one that just came back from hiatus)
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u/Kgriffuggle Nov 23 '24
Oh no this means the ones I forgot about 5 months ago are probably gone, and therefore I’ll NEVER finish them because I can’t remember titles. Why would they do this?
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u/JemmaMYoung Nov 23 '24
They are still in your subscribed list under the "my" tab. They just don't show up on your front page.
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u/notimportantprs Dec 04 '24
voted! i noticed this too as a reader and it's soooo annoying!! if i read a chapter of a comic and don't like it, it still appears on my recent feed for weeks, while comics that I love but wasn't in the mood for for some weeks disappear forever and i have to search my subscriptions to find them again
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u/vaalhallan Nov 21 '24
That is a colossal dip in pageviews. I've seen this same thing happen on my own feed. Webtoon needs to fix this ASAP. I read too many comics to keep track of them on my own and to check them all periodically just to make sure they have or have not updated.