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  1.  (9144.1)
    So this thing here -- http://topwebcomics.com -- purports to show the top 100 webcomics. Although, at a glance, I'm guessing it's just a community voting thing.

    Still.

    Guess which webcomic isn't on there at all?

    By which I mean, guess which webcomic isn't even on their database?
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      CommentAuthorchris g
    • CommentTimeNov 4th 2010
     (9144.2)
    no sign of Freakangles, or the critically acclaimed Pitch Black or even Hark! A Vagrant. hmmph. Maybe I don't understand? I didn't even know there were rankings for this sort of thing.
  3.  (9144.3)
    Of the top twenty I have heard of three and read none.
  4.  (9144.4)
    Ginja -- You've heard of two more than I have.

    Also, I looked around on the site and couldn't find the either Sluggy Freelance (it's been running daily for 13+ years, how could it not be on here?!?) or Girls with Slingshots.

    Rather disappointing.
    •  
      CommentAuthorrazrangel
    • CommentTimeNov 4th 2010 edited
     (9144.5)
    My first question (after reviewing the list, recognizing three titles and noting the considerable number of manga/anime style comics) is "who the heck are TopWebComics?" from their infopage:

    What is TopWebComics
    TopWebComics(TWC) is a site dedicated to the promotion of webcomics. Webcomics participate in the hope of attracting new readers, while giving back to the community by bringing their own fans to TWC to find other webcomics


    Erm. So. I think you have to go to them first. I.E. They make their trade on the traffic between Webcomics. that's all.
    • CommentAuthorTwist
    • CommentTimeNov 5th 2010
     (9144.6)
    I got 15 out of the whole 100.

    At least 5 of them were top 20 I 'spose. Pheonix Requiem, the first one, is one I read. Its gorgeous.

    And yes, all the web comics I know of have a vote for me button that gets them their rating on the site.
    •  
      CommentAuthorAriana
    • CommentTimeNov 5th 2010 edited
     (9144.7)
    Well I know Phoenix Requiem, at least, maintains its ranking by offering "incentive" art if readers click through to vote for it on topwebcomics.com. And I wouldn't be surprised if that's the rule, not the exception.

    So basically:
    1. You go to [Webcomic].
    2. [Webcomic] has registered itself on TWC, an external site which possibly made money in the ad boom of the early '00s, and now miiight pay its own hosting. This is a pointless bullet point, but it had to be said.
    3. Regardless, though you're unlikely to look at any of the other comics on TWC, you click through to "vote" either by accidental click, or because you're genuinely interested in seeing the paywall incentive.
    4. TWC gets the traffic, but as you click back to the comic you just came from to collect your prize, other folks from other comics are doing the same thing -- i.e. [Webcomic] is not sharing traffic, but no one else is, either, so [Webcomic] is not getting traffic off voters.*

    (*hyperbole, I'm sure. But likely not by much.)

    Point is, upvoting sites (for anything, honestly) are less effective at generating traffic than c. 1999 webrings. Yeah, you may get a bit of google clickthrough if you've got a nice banner, maintain the frontpage, *and* people are bored enough to type "best webcomic" into a search engine... but...
  8.  (9144.8)
    Huh. Freakangels, Penny Arcade and Hark! A Vagrant aren't even a blip on their radar. They have XKCD at 51. Girl Genius, somewhere in the 30s. Meanwhile, the top tier is all insipid Manga fan wank. It's like if Previews were run like a payola scheme.

    There's gotta be some sort of curated webcomic list somewhere on the web. If not, perhaps we should start one.
    •  
      CommentAuthorscs
    • CommentTimeNov 5th 2010
     (9144.9)
    Wotta hosed list they have. About half the webcomics I read aren't in the top 200 -- no Kevin and Kell, no mmmmnm nbvcGirls With Slingshots, Least I Could Do, Pibgorn, not to mention Freakangels.
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      CommentAuthorrickiep00h
    • CommentTimeNov 5th 2010
     (9144.10)
    Also no Penny Arcade. Holy hell I hate that strip but I acknowledge its presence as King Shit in Webcomics Land.
    • CommentAuthorStefanJ
    • CommentTimeNov 5th 2010
     (9144.11)
    Yeah, I get a feeling there's a voting campaign thing going on here.

    This is not to say that there's a winner or two in there, but I'd rather see a curated collection.
    • CommentAuthorJosephus
    • CommentTimeNov 5th 2010
     (9144.12)
    Webcomicz is basically the same thing, ranked by votes. Webcomicsnation has a top 100, but only for comics they host, I believe it based on actual visits though. Webcomiclist uses visit stats also, but only counts if you click the link through their site. Freakangels is on there at least. Ranked 4996/16941. There used to be a dozen more similar sites, most have disappeared though. The voted ones always had so much garbage, and the other are so limited that I've never had much use for any of them.

    Since this whole conversation started with artbomb I thought I'd point out a few review sites that are actually doing a decent job. Artpatient and Webcomicoverlook are worth a look, though I wish artpatient had easier access to its old reviews.
    Webcomic bloglist used to do short reviews of webcomic reviewing blogs. Its little out of date, but there are some good sites there.
  13.  (9144.13)
    I've got a listing on Top Web Comics for the one I do, Spy6teen. We've actually done fairly well with our listing (for a young webcomic,) hovering somewhere around the 130 mark-- with only 20 pages up.

    TWC is a bit of a misnomer-- but let's face it, TopwebcomicOfthePeopleThatVoteOnThisSite.com is a little unwieldy as a URL. I don't think that it (or most of the TopList sites) claim to be categorizing every webcomic on the internet-- but are rather trying to serve as community hubs for their users to support the comics they like, and discover new ones from like-minded creators.

    That part has been great for us-- I decided to plant a flag on TWC and make a push for votes (as opposed to trying to juggle 18 different toplist sites-- which I've seen a lot of comics attempt,) by pushing the humble amount of readers we have to vote for us there. It's great, cheap, marketing at a grassroots level.
    The result of which is that I think we're picking up new readers...which, again: is great, because my weekly advertising budget is less than two pints at the bar. So anything that I can do to get two or three more eyeballs is awesome.

    To which, I'm not sure how effective a toplist site campaign would be for something like FreakAngels-- considering it already has a larger readership which, as Warren has mentioned, slowly grows with each week. Although it might be slightly amusing to start a vote campaign just to watch it "Hulk Smash" its way up the top 100 list.
  14.  (9144.14)
    I started putting Big Head Press' features on Topwebcomics.com in 2006, and as they were serialized graphic novels with endings they went through a sort of life cycle where they'd start out in the 500s and quickly rise up into the 100s for most of their life, then drop back down again into the high 3 digits after they ended and the page traffic went down to two digits a day.
    With ESCAPE FROM TERRA, we have a fan who runs a small radio station/internet podcast out of New Hampshire who organized a push for the strip and got it up to 39 at its peak, just about a year ago. Now it's back down to a bit over 100. You just can't keep pushing something like this, and I don't have time to rustle up incentive-art for the voters.
    My brother thinks there's still some utility to this thing although I think the space for that button should go to ShareThis or some other social hub. And for my next project, that's just-a-what I'm a-gonna do.

    BTW Josephus thanks for those links.
  15.  (9144.15)
    didn't see anything on that list by any of the ACT-I-VATE crew either.

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