Wow. So, I wrote a little comment on Frumph’s blog (I was trying to lighten the mood mind you, he took it a little seriously…) – and it was screened. (Mike posted it over here on his final post for the issue at hand if you care to read it.)
I came back to visit later to see other comments and realized he’d left something just for me:
greylillybeinginciteful.txt (I got rid of some of the spacing for spaces’ sake):
40,199,'Liliy','greyliliy@gmail.com',
'http://liliy.net/wam','<blocked ip>','2009-08-01 00:51:58','2009-08-01 00:51:58',
'Ha ha; love all the inspiration you guys got from Inkblot. :P\r\n\r\nOne comment though -
why is turning off site wide comments listed as a feature? That\'s a basic WordPress option on their
Discussion settings page...it\'s not retro active, but it\'s still there.\r\n\r\nUnless you guys just
mirrored that setting control on your CP settings page...
',0,'1','Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X 10.5;
en; rv:1.9.0.11) Gecko/2009060219 Camino/2.0b3 (like Firefox/3.0.11)','',0,0),
This is the message on twitter:
@radio_chio What's really funny is I don't even hate ComicPress. XD In fact, I can't remember being outwardly mean.
^ there's a reminder of some of the things greylilly said in the past. This is from an SQL dump because the old webcomic
planet frumph.net site no longer exists and the posts I was giving a 'good news' feature list to the comicpress community to
with a new version; greylilly belittled.
NOTE: Sitewide comments turned off (in the wordpress core settings) still leave the Comments are Disabled message that appears,
that option just disabled that from appearing or not, cleaning up the site's look. Not even a function webcomic+inkblot even has.
I do remember leaving that comment. In fact, when I left it I remember writing it with the intent of playful teasing as competitors since he was listing a few features that had already been released on Webcomic at the time* – clearly it was not taken as such.
The second half was a genuine inquiry about why he listed disabling comments as a feature. What he described above [the answer to my comments disabled question] was NOT listed on the post and to be frank, I remember receiving a very mean-spirited reply (That I sadly do not have because as he said, the post is no longer available – if Frumph would like to SQL dump that too, that’d be great! :D) in return.
In fact, I was rather hurt he instantly assumed I was “belittling” him. (You’d think attacking with the response he gave, I really really wish you could have read it – but sadly you’ll have to take my word for it. It was completely uncalled for.)
But, yeah.
*On a somewhat unrelated note – I think it’s expected that plugins/themes/whatnot that all do THE EXACT SAME THING are going to have similar if not identical features. So when one says ‘Hey, ha ha – love that feature from Inkblot’ *wink* it was supposed to be a cute joke, teasing, light hearted competitive rivalry.
It is expected that features are going to be the same in similar software (or in this case Plugins/Themes – let’s not forget WP is the core). I did not literally mean that Frumph stole something from Inkblot. Or that he was inspired by things from Inkblot. I think it was the natural course of the evolution of the plugin/theme that it would start showing features that have been requested by the user base.
Take a painting/art program for an example – can you think of a single on that doesn’t have a ‘paint’ or a ‘pencil’ option? What about crop? Tried comparing Photoshop and Gimp lately? Or PaintShop Pro? Or heck, even Oekaki boards have layers now-a-days. They do most of the same things, with similar tools – they just get there/work in slightly different ways.
People use what they like and what works for them. This goes for add-ons to WordPress to run a comic as well.
Breathe. Take a chuckle and relax. Life’s too short to be taking this little rivalry so seriously.
And that’s my last word on the subject (save for maybe tweets~)
I’m sure most people involved in the Webcomic community have heard of ComicPress in one form or another. It’s become somewhat of an ‘industry standard’ for those using WordPress or WP as a platform for displaying their comic. So, either you’ve heard of it looking for the best method to manage your own comic, or you’ve seen others using this theme. Recently, there’s been a hoop-la of activity concerning it’s recent move to pay via twitter, forums & personal blogs of the creators. This ‘ComicPress Premium’ or CPP1
So far I’ve been keeping my mouth shut on the topic, but it’s been building up enough that I need to vent somewhere on the subject and let you know my thoughts on the matter: The Pay Schema for ComicPress is most likely going to suffer failure.
History
Before I get too deeply into this topic, I feel it’s important to set up a little background of my own personal history with ComicPress. When I first decided to host my webcomic on my server2 I browsed around looking for the best method. I knew I wanted it to be automated due to the size of the comic and the complexity of managing all of those pages. As I looked around, the best choice I could find at the time was indeed ComicPress – at the time Version 2.5.
It took a little bit of time, but I did have my site up and running fairly quickly. Didn’t look great, but it didn’t look awful either. It worked – which is what mattered. Eventually though, I wanted to customize the site a bit more and was having trouble – so I asked Mike to give me a hand say, replacing the navigation with buttons3 and he helped out quite a bit. Eventually though, Mike looked farther into the code and realized – it was a mess. They had plugin functions built into the theme itself and the site was not set up for friendly styling. A few aggravated tries to modify later and well – let’s just say Webcomic was born and leave it at that.
However, before anyone starts arguing that I was messing with an older version – part of working on Webcomic & Inkblot means keeping up with competition and seeing what they’re up to as they release new things.4 So I have run, installed and messed around with the newer versions of ComicPress and to be frank? I’m not that impressed. But that’s a personal preference and at the end of the day -
None of this matters.
The Problem With Charging
The main reason the ComicPress for Pay model will ultimately hurt the Theme/Developers at the end of the day is it’s base CMS – ComicPress works with WordPress.
WordPress is a traditionally free CMS system that runs on the Free Model. The core CMS? Free. Themes? Free. Plug-Ins? Free. Support and Help? Free. The majority of WP users and developers do not expect to charge or pay for things related to the system and software. It’s Freeware on a GNU license.
If someone’s making money off of WordPress – it’s because of Donations. People donate to plugins and authors that they feel have gone out of their way to help the user or have provided a service they love. In fact – it’s rather similar to the webcomic community that does not charge for people to read their materials, but instead puts a happy little donate button on the sidebar.
Charging people to install CPP is going to result in sticker shock, outrage and people trying to justify the cost – and it worsens when you stop and realize that as of right now there is nothing that CPP is offering that you can’t get elsewhere for free. The fact the original number slapped on the product was $79.99 didn’t help matters either – not only where they charging for something they had come to know as freeware, but it was a steep price for what basically came to an install and troubleshooting support.5 It was mentioned that the “Designer” installing the software would set the price – but even then, that’s a marketing scam in itself. You tell people it costs $80 so when the person you approved to sell the product lists it as $40 – BAM! You think – what a great deal!
And it would be – if the product itself was even worth $40. HGTV has a wonderful saying on one of its programs: “Your house is only worth what people are willing to pay for it.” – The same model applies. CPP is only worth what people are willing to pay for it. If I had to estimate a more reasonable number, I’d say somewhere between $10 and $20 – at the most. Anything past $20 starts verging into uncomfortable territory and people wondering if they’re really getting what they paid for – or was that free plugin they found afterwords the better option after all?
Dissecting The Arguments
Of course though, there will always be defenders to things of this nature – here are a couple of the more popular defenses I’ve heard and my personal responses:
The creators worked hard on ComicPress and use their time to help people out! Why shouldn’t they make money off it?
It’s true, I do not doubt that the people making CPP have worked hard on their product and probably deserve a little compensation. But then again – so do the people who created the WordPress core. Or all those free Plug-ins. Or any of the thousands of themes in the WP Theme directory – some of which are quite literally professional quality. Do they deserve a little capital to pay for their services? Probably. To compensate for all the endless hours they spend trouble shooting and helping people out? Definitely.
Are they charging for any of it? No.
Again, as referenced above – WP is freeware. If you like the theme you’re using – donate. No one is forcing you to give them money but it’d be nice if you did. The point is the option is left up to the user to donate as they see fit. In general, no one is expecting or charging money for these services.
What about all those people charging for their themes? People have Pay Themes all the time and they make money!
Pay Themes on their own are a bit of tricky business – I personally can not see any plausible reason to pay for a theme. If you can’t find a theme you like in the Free WP theme directory, than you’re either looking for someone to personally design a unique site catered to your needs6 or might want to consider taking a framework theme and designing it yourself.
If Pay Themes make money selling their themes? I guess all the power to them – but this is assuming that the people buying are well aware of the free themes available -most of which are of equal quality or better than quite a few themes out for pay. Sadly, in this market anyone can slap a pricetag on a theme they created and call it ‘Pay’ but it may not actually stand up to the price it’s advertising. One of the very few instances where “You get what you pay for” has very little meaning.
Word of advice for this particular situation? Check the free stuff first. You’d be surprised what you find.
You don’t even use ComicPress so your arguments are invalid! You’re part of the competition so of course you’re trying to tear us down! You have a significant bias!
Because I no longer use a product or service does not make my opinions of the service invalid. I have used it [ComicPress, not CPP - despite what they say I can't see them being THAT different], seen it and came to the same conclusions I had the first time around. Constructive criticism of rival software is to be expected. Analyzing a product that is in high regard and used in a community that I am a part of is to be expected. Ironically, condemning the pay model is almost trying to help ComicPress. Options are what make WP such a great platform. I don’t want CP to drop off the face of the internet and leave no competition.
I think introducing CPP as a pay model is the rough equivalent of ComicPress shooting itself in the foot and I deeply hope they’ve realized this by now.
Questions
And of course – there are my own questions concerning the theme and the pay model. There is a good chance these questions could be answered when CPP is released, but right now information surrounding CPP is vague and they stand true. Such as:
Can I get CPP by itself without a designer getting involved? How much will that cost?
Will updates to CPP be free? Or will they require another installation cost?
What features are included in CPP? Are they truly unique to this plugin or can they be substituted by the thousands of other plugins out there?
Is it easy to modify? Does it have cleaner code than CP Legacy?
Is it possible to preview the theme and its code for myself before I lay down a $20/$40/$80 price tag? If it fails to meet my standards of quality can I get a refund?
What qualifications does one need to meet to sell and distribute the theme as a ‘Designer’ – is it only friends and people who worked on the theme or can any site be a distribution point if they meet a certain set of design standards?
The list could go on and on, but I’m sure you all can see where I’m coming from. There’s been a lot of questions raised – but not too many answered as of yet.
Conclusions
WordPress is a free content management system that is run by a community of developers and authors who7 offer their services and products on a donation-only basis. ComicPress is a Theme/Plugin combination that runs on WordPress, therefore – charging for it with a steep price tag is most likely going to turn away users and have them seekoutotheralternatives first.
Plus? Webcomic authors are cheap. I’d put a bet on it but I don’t think I want to spare the quarter.
When the announcement began, the pay version of the theme would be known as ‘ComicPress Premium’ and the free version remain ComicPress Legacy. As of recent events – they will be completely changing the name of the Theme/Plug-in to avoid confusion. Since I do not yet know the proper name, I will continue to refer to it as ComicPress Premium or CPP.↩
I’d been running static html websites for a while, but hadn’t quite made that leap into PHP or CMS yet.↩
I will give props to Ver 2.9 for cleaning up the navigation.↩
Most of which you can find people to help you for free everywhere from friends to the WP forums.↩
Which someone should indeed charge for – that’s an entirely different ballgame and has more to do with hiring someone to design and run your entire website than just grabbing a theme to throw your comic up on – most webcomic authors are never going to need this.↩
Google Buzz is the newest thing to hit the Google line. A supposed plethora of features that would connect twitter and a few other services and wrap them into your gmail.
At first? I thought this was pretty cool. Seemed like a neat thing.
So I went to post a buzz and realized that before you can post ANYTHING you have to update your Google Public Profile (I had one that showed me as my nickname ‘Liliy’). I noticed it had my real name attached but didn’t think too much on it b/c I had opted to not show my real name, but instead the nickname.
By agreeing it automatically makes your real name public and enters you into Goggle’s domain to be searched as a contact.
This is not acceptable.
My real name was plastered all over google Buzz to all of my contacts and to anyone who had my e-mail address (and since I offer that freely to anyone who visits my sites – that’s a lot.) My GMail account is for both private and web-related mail which means I deal with both people I know and total strangers. It worked for me. It doesn’t any more.
What’s worse? Google doesn’t seem to care. There are literally hundreds of posts screaming about this violation of privacy that are being ignored or brushed over with “It’s not a big deal.”
“The first time you create a post or comment in Buzz, we ask you to create a limited public profile (at a minimum it’s just your first and last names).”
Has Google not realized that it’s that “first and last name” thing that’s gotten us all so upset? I don’t even have the OPTION to be seen as an alias or Nickname like I do for most of their other services. I’m so livid I don’t even think I can see straight.
I’ve changed my name on my profile and I will not being changing it back until this is fixed. They do not have the right to decide whether or not I want to be available to be searched or if I want everyone to know my RL alter ego.
It is a beautiful thing. They took the amazing update that was 2.7 and smoothed it out into a slick, functioning beauty.
I love that I can tell it how many items to show on my categorie/post lists. And well, just the overall feel is nicer. Doesn’t look much different, but you can feel it.
This is probably one of the coolest things I’ve found on the internet yet. You fill out a chart with all the characters, run it through the server and boom! Instant font.
So far I’ve only created one, but I do plan to come back for more.
I finally got sick of looking at the old broken layout I created. So I yanked out the classic theme and started modifying that instead of working from scratch like last time. I like to think the results are much better.
Still calling the layout the same thing though; v1.0 Strawberry was a work in progress anyway. And so is this one.
Enough of that. *stretch* Layout’s not broken anymore. All that matters.
Well, my external hard drive problem is solved. My Dad’s got one he’s willing to sell me. 1TB. Whoot!!! Turns out he didn’t need it so I’m all squared away.
-
In other news, I must own this Doujinshi:
It’s called ‘Picture Perfect” and it’s by Dalc Rose. If you see it and I know you personally; buy it and I’ll pay you back. Otherwise, if you see it somewhere send me a link. XD I’ll be very grateful.
I love Rolo so much and after that 19th episode of Season 2 I have this urge to own everything his face is on. *breathes heavily*
For some strange reason, I tossed my ‘Images’ Folder into the trash and deleted it. If I hadn’t had an image open at the time I probably wouldn’t have even noticed I had thrown the folder away. *shrugs*
On the one hand I’m really annoyed because I had screen shots and the like (along with all the images Mike sent me of that one show that I can’t remember the title of) as well as some HQ downloads. It’s nothing I can’t get again; but I can’t remember for the life of me what images were actually in the folder.
*sigh* I know the importance of backing up but I don’t have another external harddrive yet (Poor TIme Machine isn’t getting used…this could have all been avoided. *_*) and Back-Up software is expensive. I’m better off paying $100 on a new external harddrive to use Time Machine than buying some of that stuff.
Ah well; Mini rant because I could have been in bed instead of searching google for a quick way to recover those files. I guess I’ll just have to re-download them later. *sigh* At least it was nothing too important.
“C’mon boys and girls,
come a little closer.
I’m the reanimator.”
Move Your Dead Bones by the Dr. Reanimator is probably one of the catchiest electronic songs I think I’ve ever heard. I just got it yesterday and my play count is already 37. I highly recommend listening to it if you get the chance.
In other news, spending a bit of time today cleaning up the layout CSS. I think I’m going to tackle the comment CSS and see where that gets me.
Speaking of CSS, if you’re interested in how I did the header, I made a tutorial for the CSS and posted it on Deviantart. Click below if you’re interested. ^_^
Ha ha! I finally made my own WordPress theme. Hurrah and cheers!
This tutorial was a great help. I couldn’t have made this without that; or Mike’s nagging. Nagging is an amazing motivator. You want to get everything done so they’ll shut up. >.> 1
But anyway. The current layout is an homage to Death Note. If you’ve read DN, you’ve probably guess that by now since L is sitting on the top of the page. At first, the entire homage was just going to be a Strawberry theme; then I started the header image and L just popped off my tablet pen. So now it’s a fanart!homage…I like it. But not nearly as much as the little Strawberrys that I’m using at bullet points. So, I’ve got the adorable L on the top of my page, and his favorite fruit as bullets. Hurrah!! Now go read Death Note.
The true irony of this layout is I don’t even like L that much. Well, I like him, he’s just very far down on my list of favorite characters in order which goes something like: Rem, Ryuk, Light, Misa, Matsuda, Mikami, L….etc. You’d think one of them would get a theme first. XD
Anyway, the layout is constantly being tweaked since it’s my first one; so if you see anything particularly horrible let me know in a comment on this post. Thanks!
EDIT:
You can thank Mike for the awesome Rollover Header. He taught me the CSS to do it, plus he was the one that requested that second image…and now Light is in the layout. Ha ha. But yes, isn’t it cool? *_*
1TB. Whoot!!! Turns out he didn’t need it so I’m all squared away.
