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.

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

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.

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 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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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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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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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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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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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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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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I expect "YOU SUCK AND ARE UGLY" comments to get deleted and am fine with that.

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

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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.

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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 happens with authors like say Max, who aren't around anymore? Is it just open season on his comics?

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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....

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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

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Who cares if someone deletes your comment?

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Who cares if someone deletes your comment?

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What is so wrong with being able to delete the comments?

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

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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.

Instead of simply having it to where comments are either turned on or turned off, perhaps you could set it to where comments are considered invisible until approved by the comic author. It's just a difference between prefering to make things selectively visible vs selectively invisible. Also, I really think there needs to be some kind of notification system so that you know when someone has commented on you and to which strip they have commented.

I don't see anything wrong with people using it strictly to show off positive comments. Comments only have as much value as you want them to, kind of like stars or comic ratings.

Just checking in to say I support this idea, regardless of whether or not the comments are deletable.

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

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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

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I love the idea.

I also agree that we should be able to delete comments. Nothing sucks more than seeing stupid flames everywhere.

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Just checking in to say I support this idea, regardless of whether or not the comments are deletable.

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Sounds neat. I say do it.

I'm a brownnoser so I think anything Brad says or does is perfect.
Go whatever this forum is about!

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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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Do eet! Do eet now!

Good plan. I've been vaguely toying with the idea of learning how to save my comics, and put them in a blog,
penny arcade style, with buttons for merch, info about the annal convention etc. Not got around to it.
This would add a lot of that functionality.

Comment spammers will always be trying to stay one step ahead of the game. Example: Max2 turns comments on, but then gets bored/dies horribly, and his comments fill up with spam. Your current proposed method is an "alert a moderator" button, and maybe that's enough. But I was thinking you could (if this is easy enough to do) have a setting that resets comments to off after a (month, year, period of time) of no new comics.
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Dear Ms. Mandingo,
My Name is Mr Emma Sankho a credit and finance manager with African Development Bank here in Dakar Senegal. In my department i discovered an abandoned funds (USD$ 20.5 million) in an account that belongs to one of our foreign customer (MR. ANDREAS SCHRANNER from Munich, Germany) who died along with his entire family in July 2000 in a plane crash.

Since i got information about his death, I have been expecting his next of kin to come over and claim his money because we cannot release it unless some body applies for it as next of kin or relation to the deceased as indicated in our banking guidlings and laws but unfortunately we learnt that all his supposed next of kin or relation died alongside with him at the plane crash leaving nobody behind for the claim.
It is therefore upon this discovery that I now decided to make this business proposal to you and release the money to you as the next of kin or relation to the deceased for safety and subsequent disbursement since nobody is coming for it and we don't want this money to go into the bank treasury as unclaimed bill.
The banking law and guidline here stipulates that if such money remained unclaimed after Six years, the money will be transfered into the bank treasury as unclaimed fund. The request of foreigner as next of kin in this business is occassioned by the fact that the customer was a foreigner and an Indigene cannot stand as next of kin to a foreigner.
Your percentage will be declare to you as soon as you indicate your interest. I will visit your country for disbursement according to the percentage indicated once you have agreed to get this fund transfered through your account.
Therefore, to enable the immediate move of this fund to you arranged, you must apply first to the bank as relation or next of kin of the deceased indicating.
1.Your full name and address
2.Your telephone and fax number for easy communication.
3.Your company's name and address.
Upon receipt of your reply, I will send to you by fax or email the text of the application .
I will not fail to bring to your notice that this transaction is hitch-free and that you should not entertain any atom of fear as all required arrangements have been made for the movement of the money.
You should contact me immediately as soon as you receive this letter.
Trusting to hear from you immediately.
Contact me on this email;emma_01@walla.com

Yours Faithfully,
EMMA SANKHO

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Dear Ms. Mandingo,

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Dear Ms. Mandingo,

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There's a Ms. Mandingo? Or was Mandingo a girl all along?

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