Do we want the ability for people to post comments underneath comics? This has been a requested feature for years and I'm finally motivated enough to do it. Keep in mind:

- You would be able to turn off commenting (or maybe restrict it to donor-only or something) in your user preferences.

- You would be able to delete any comments you don't like on your comics.

- There will probably be a flag to report trollish/abusive behavior.

There are definitely a lot of potential downsides to this feature, but I think there are some very positive upsides. Like getting new users to participate without them having to join the forums, etc.

Anyway, I'd like to hear some opinions on this feature if you've got any.

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www.bradsucks.net

If individual strippers can turn off or delete comments on their own comics, then I can't think of any objection to this feature.

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The what mentioned above is total fiction. Please don't take it seriously!

I think it's a great idea.
Can we comment on our own comics? Sometimes it's nice to add a story that accompanies a comic and instead of having a seperate place for author comments and other user comments, we could put them all there.

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Mediocrity at its most average.

i REALLY like this idea. but i don't like that you can delete comments. thats the point of comments is seeing what people liked and what they didn't. how representative is it if someone can delete everything that isn't complimentary?

at the very least i think donor comments shouldn't be able to be deleted

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what if nigger meant kite

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I think it's a great idea.
Can we comment on our own comics? Sometimes it's nice to add a story that accompanies a comic and instead of having a seperate place for author comments and other user comments, we could put them all there.

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You would definitely be able to comment on your own comics and that'd be another added benefit. I think people often want to talk about what inspired their comics.

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www.bradsucks.net

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i REALLY like this idea. but i don't like that you can delete comments. thats the point of comments is seeing what people liked and what they didn't. how representative is it if someone can delete everything that isn't complimentary?

at the very least i think donor comments shouldn't be able to be deleted

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I can't think of any good reason that people should have to put up with comments they don't like on their comics. Who cares if all the negative feedback gets deleted? And I expect different authors will have different thresholds for what they're okay with.

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www.bradsucks.net

not to be an argumentative dickwad on a cool new feature, but that makes sense from the comic maker side but what about the viewers? that would be half the fun for me is seeing what people think of other people's comics. suggestions they make on how to improve it. but thats completely gone if i know that people can tailor the comments. then it isn't really so much comments by users, but comments that happen to agree with the comic maker. undercuts the validity of the feedback imo. plus, you said you have a seperate feature that will get rid of 'trollish' comments, so that would take care of all the ones that should be deleted anyway

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what if nigger meant kite

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i REALLY like this idea. but i don't like that you can delete comments. thats the point of comments is seeing what people liked and what they didn't. how representative is it if someone can delete everything that isn't complimentary?

at the very least i think donor comments shouldn't be able to be deleted

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I can't think of any good reason that people should have to put up with comments they don't like on their comics. Who cares if all the negative feedback gets deleted? And I expect different authors will have different thresholds for what they're okay with.

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I thought about this issue as well. I think everyone's got their own personal limits. Some people would only save the compliments (which, if the comic is really that bad, there may not be any which is a good indication that they're deleting them), others will delete some from people who they have a personal grudge against, and others may just delete ones that they simply don't agree with, and either which way it's nice to have the option so that your comments on one comic aren't flooded with "J00 SUXXORZ!!11!!111!!" (Which I fully intend to delete any comment where numbers are used where letters should be, or containing any of the following "LOL", "LMAO", "ROFLMAO", "OMG", and possibly "lewl" if used too often)

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Mediocrity at its most average.

It's too bad there isn't a "Stupid" filter. But despite the negatives, I'd rather not be able to delete the comments.

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It was such a waste of everyone’s time and money that even the Tokyo stadium’s rape robots apologized– something they were programmed specifically never to do.

Well, I think you're jumping to the conclusion that just because users have the power to delete comments that they won't allow anything vaguely negative in. I expect "YOU SUCK AND ARE UGLY" comments to get deleted and am fine with that. "Good opening panel! I think this comic could have been funnier with this punchline:" however is pretty polite and constructive and I'd expect only the most sensitive would object to it.

There would be a "report this comment/user" feature. But this would be for outright abuses. Flooding, spamming, trolling, death threats, etc. There are roughly 300,000 comics on the site. That's 300,000 individual pages that any user could comment on, which is probably more than I and the moderators would be able to realistically supervise.

That's the big thing holding me back right now.

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www.bradsucks.net

The other issue is even if I allow authors to delete comments, what happens with authors like say Max, who aren't around anymore? Is it just open season on his comics?

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www.bradsucks.net

but those would be deleted under the trollish feature anyway, wouldn't they?

you could set it so that by default comments are off. then all the long gone comic makers would be untouched. that would reduce the fun of commenting on like Cowboy Physics though. maybe it would have to be a self regulated thing where people who enjoy Cowboy Physics and other older comics would report the abuse for him

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what if nigger meant kite

Yeah, that was going to be my point. How about all accounts have the option set to "do not allow users to comment on my comics" as a default?

-- edit
I see mandingo has just suggested this, damn you, mandingo!
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I can't think of any valid argument against being able to delete comments from your own comics. There are many people on this site who make comics for a very small audience, or a very specific audience. We've all come across a user who has comics that are about people we've never heard of. Why would this user need a whole bunch of comments or advice from people they don't know and for that matter, don't want to know? I might suggest a better punchline for a comic only to find out I've missed some in-joke on the alt.hamster.duct-tape message boards or something.

I wouldn't mind hearing what non-forum users think of my comics, but I wouldn't want all my comics tarred with negative comments just because my forum persona is pretty antagonistic. Negative comments in your user info page is fair game. It's on a seperate page, but the main comic page is the whole point of this site, it's your own little special part of the site and you can make it look just the way you want. It'd ruin the whole idea if people could just stick comments all over it without you having any control. I would even delete a comment that said "THIS IS THE FUNNIEST COMIC EVAR!!!".

Anyone who was around for the short-lived "create-a-strip" will remember how this feature was mercilessly abused by various SC Crusaders.

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Dad was flammable

Hey, he's right!

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"Only things I approve of should exist." -some guy on the internet

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-- edit
I see mandingo has just suggested this, damn you, mandingo!
-- /edit

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mwa ha COUGH

furball

they could just turn it off though, right?

all you'd have to do is not have ratings show up on your homepage. only show up when you're at the url of the individual comic

another idea is to maybe have the feature where you can turn off ratings on individual comics. i like the other way better though, plus its probbly alot easier to script

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what if nigger meant kite

I think it's a great idea. If people want to be pathetic and delete everything they don't like, I say let them. I'd leave anything up, I don't care. My comics are funny to me, and someone posting, "This comic sucks, go die" wouldn't make anyone enjoy the comic less. I think not letting people delete comments would end up with about 10 people with commenting turned on.
I agree you should set it to "no comments" by default. As far as commenting on old stuff you like where the creator has gone away for good, maybe you could talk Brad into turning certain users' commenting to ON if you promised you'd keep an eye on them in case of spammers. Okay bye!

all you'd have to do is not have ratings show up on your homepage. only show up when you're at the url of the individual comic

another idea is to maybe have the feature where you can turn off ratings on individual comics. i like the other way better though, plus its probbly alot easier to script

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Well, that wasn't the point I was making, it's a personal choice. If you don't want comments on comics, turn them off, if you want them, turn them on. If your comics become littered with comments that you don't like, delete them. I can't honestly see any valid argument against giving the users more control over what happens to their comics.

What if you posted a comment on my comic saying "the punchine would work better if the boorite character was saying it", then I take your advice and edit the comic. Should I be stuck with your now-redundant comment?

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Dad was flammable

Didn't we already establish that you were Max?

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Dad was flammable

exactly. i'd leave everything up too. they're user comments. what they say is their opinion. what's the point of allowing user comments if they're goin to be filtered by the comic maker? all your learning about is the comic maker, not the community's opinion of the comic

but your taking control away from those who post comments. so its really not about more control for users, but how you distribute the control

i think other people could figure that out pretty easily. or you could do an option where the original comic maker can comment on any comment made (giving them the last word since its their comic)

but now i'll pull a boorite, though less cool, and say i raised my flag and whoever wishes to salute it with their dick may do so

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what if nigger meant kite

Who cares if someone deletes your comment? It just means they either didn't appreciate it or treated it like a PM message and deleted it once read. If you like them, keep them, but I don't think the balance of power should favour the comment maker.

Personally, I would have the comments turned on and would like to be able to leave comments on my own comics (to maybe save a narration panel explaining that the comic is a true story that happened at work or something). Although I would be quite irked if the comments on one of my comics had turned into a mini-forum of people discussing my use of the word "ass".
So now you have two comments, both cancelling each other out, both redundant. What is so wrong with being able to delete the comments?

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Dad was flammable

if you read above you'll see i'm saying what's the point reading user comments if you know the comic maker can filter them to make them say whatever he/she wants

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what if nigger meant kite

if you read above you'll see i'm saying what's the point reading user comments if you know the comic maker can filter them to make them say whatever he/she wants

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I say we wait until the comment system comes into effect and if such an example arises we deal with it then. I'm not exactly sure what you mean, it's not like people are going to be putting words into your mouth. If we left the deleting of comments to the moderators, I forsee many a "well, it wasn't technically a trolling/flaming comment, so I think my personal rights have been violated" argument.

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Dad was flammable

I don't think I'm going to change my mind about authors being able to delete comments posted to their comics. The task of moderating would be too huge without that and I'd rather not implement the feature at all.

mandingo, you're very passionately arguing the worst case scenario of everything and it's not at all helpful.

Maybe some authors will delete anything vaguely negative, but that will almost definitely be a tiny minority.

Maybe some people will feel that if their comments can be deleted, why should they bother posting anything at all. But that again will probably be a tiny minority.

Millions of people have weblogs with open comment systems and they don't all ruthlessly delete anything vaguely negative.

And your comments can be deleted on any open forum on the internet (including Stripcreator), but that stops almost nobody from participating.

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www.bradsucks.net

i could just as easily say to you that you are arguing the worst case about commenters and there even being a need to delete comments. why don't i? because i don't need to belittle your opinion to make my own known

actually i'm not very passinate about this at all. i was giving an opinion because the title of this thread made me think you wanted them. i'll appreciate the feature regardless of how its added

now if you'll excuse me i'm goin to go have a little chat with wall2

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what if nigger meant kite

No surprise here, I agree with Brad and Kajun. Here's why:

This account of mine has the greater potential to have comments I dislike posted to my comics. If someone posts, "Gay sex is disgusting," it might not be considered trolling since it isn't a personal attack and it probably relates to the content of the comic. Well, I've heard it all before and I write the comics to entertain myself most of all and my friends secondly. I don't make the comics to create a forum for people who happen to disagree with homosexuality for whatever reason and I'd rather not have it pollute my creative output.

In this thread you said of three of my comics, "they were fun to read in an expose kind of way, but not particularly funny to me." That isn't the kind of comment I'd trash, even if all you said was you didn't think they were funny. It's an honest assessment of the strips.

If I got negative comments frequently, I'd probably turn them off; but if it's only the occasional comment I don't like, I'd like to have the ability to delete it. As a moderator, I'd be able to delete comments anyway, so I'm giving an example of why someone might want to delete certain comments from their comics--maybe it will be a 14 year old girl who wants to show her parents a comic she made about school, but doesn't want them to see some R-Rated comment made below it.