So, this might not matter to most of you, as I assume my followers here on Comic Fury probably follow Rain here on Comic Fury. Still, I've been getting a lot of messages about SmackJeeves, so I'm gonna level with you: I have no idea what's going on.
It seems they've changed the site layout to a hideous, unintuitive new design, and let no one know ahead of time. I've heard people saying they've been getting error messages when trying to find Rain and other comics they read. The whole thing is a giant mess.
To make matters worse, I can't even log in. My saved settings don't work, and they won't respond to my attempts to restore password. I'm super pissed right now. Makes me wonder if I'm the only comic author being screwed over like this, or if SJ is ruining everything for everyone.
I'm going to continue to fight with SmackJeeves to see if I can get on again. And as soon as I can, I'll let you know (hopefully you'll hear back from me soon). In the meantime, if the worst case scenario happens and I still can't use the site before Rain resumes posting later this month, this site and the DeviantArt location are still available.
This one's not really my fault, but still if you're here from SJ, I'm really sorry for the inconvenience.
I've been getting a lot of new information from other SmackJeeves users, both authors and readers. SJ is removing or arbitrarily resizing comics to the point of ruining them. It's also removing message boards to make communication even harder. And at least for my part, it's also removing all my page blurbs (which I'm extra bitter about, as I frequently put a lot of work into those too).
Also, another SJ user explained to me why I can't sign in anymore. Apparently, "SJ made new password rules and locked out anyone who's passwords didn't fit the new requirements." You know, rather than just making people create a new password or anything (that would've made too much sense). But nearly 48 hours and several new password requests later on my end, I've still yet to get a single email from them for a new password. This should be quick and easy and automated for them, so it's pretty infuriating that they can't even handle that right.
If anything, I'm grateful I had the consideration to put the comic up on multiple sites. Partially for extra exposure, and partially as a precaution in case one of the sites ever went down or something. Didn't think I'd ever actually need it like this, though.
Unfortunately, not every author had considered that. Some apparently even lost their comics. If anything, that's what's really ticking me off most: seeing people who used this service for years and watching everything they built in that time get nuked... and for what exactly? Filling the pockets of someone behind the scenes?
Then there's the people who strictly read on the site who also get screwed. Because they might not even have accounts, and therefore almost definitely don't know what's going on. They just know their favorite comics are suddenly stopping or outright disappearing. And doing that to them is just adding needless confusion to an already poorly conveyed situation. The whole thing is just so gross to me.
At this point I'm struggling to find anything they didn't completely botch. And I just can't support that place anymore. They clearly don't support us: author and reader alike.
I know you're probably all sick of hearing me talk about SmackJeeves (and I'm pretty sick of talking about it too), but I just want to share one last follow-up for you.
I made a new account at SJ. Even if I can't actually sign back in on my normal account, I can at least contact any readers who followed the comic exclusively through SJ, and not the other comic sites, nor Facebook, nor Twitter, etc..
It's clunky. I knew the posts were going to be in order of most recent to least recent, but I did not anticipate the embarrassingly strict character limit. So I've got four backwards posts on the most recent Rain update there. ^^;
Still, I hope it reaches any remaining readers who might still be wholly unaware of what's going on.
As a final point, this seems slim, but I guess if anyone here knows someone who reads Rain (or any comic) on SJ, if you can let them know the situation (assuming they don't already know), that would help too.
Either way, Rain will resume posting both here and at DeviantArt on December 16th as originally planned. And I hope to see you all there. Much love, Rain Beaus! <3
The situation with Smackjeeves is frustrating. While I almost always read Rain on ComicFury, there are several other comics that I read on Smackjeeves. Unlike you, I haven't been locked out of my account, but the new website layout is awful. I've heard others describe it as a clone of Tapas/Webtoons, but I think it is even worse than those two.
Also, the change to Smackjeeves did more than just change the default layout. Previously, comics on Smackjeeves could you custom layouts, and could use their own domains rather than smackjeeves.com subdomains. Both of those features have been removed.
Several of the comics that I follow which used custom layouts or domains have moved to other hosts. One of my favorites, Inhibit, moved to Comic Fury (which still allows custom domains and site layouts). Others have announced plans to move.
@Jocelyn, I was rereading Rain for the 20th time and I came across the story concept for Something Dark. Is that completed? Will it ever be completed? I love the concept
So, the story here is that Something Dark was always kind of a filler name until I came with something a bit more permanent. I now refer to it as The Scars of Redemption. I'm hoping to get back to it pretty soon. I was actually planning to do it for NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) this year, with the hope of launching the first chapter by now. Unfortunately, I ended up scrapping what I had because I just wasn't happy about the way it read.
I'm back on my way with it and feeling better about everything, but with Rain starting back up soon, that's my top priority. Still, I am excited to return to Scars soon, and I'm hoping to see it go live sometime early next year. I'll be sure to keep you posted once it does. ^_^
Also, the change to Smackjeeves did more than just change the default layout. Previously, comics on Smackjeeves could you custom layouts, and could use their own domains rather than smackjeeves.com subdomains. Both of those features have been removed.
Several of the comics that I follow which used custom layouts or domains have moved to other hosts. One of my favorites, Inhibit, moved to Comic Fury (which still allows custom domains and site layouts). Others have announced plans to move.
So, the story here is that Something Dark was always kind of a filler name until I came with something a bit more permanent. I now refer to it as The Scars of Redemption. I'm hoping to get back to it pretty soon. I was actually planning to do it for NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) this year, with the hope of launching the first chapter by now. Unfortunately, I ended up scrapping what I had because I just wasn't happy about the way it read.
I'm back on my way with it and feeling better about everything, but with Rain starting back up soon, that's my top priority. Still, I am excited to return to Scars soon, and I'm hoping to see it go live sometime early next year. I'll be sure to keep you posted once it does. ^_^
And thank you very much for your interest! Also, there's not much, but I have a little bit of art available to peek around at if you're interested. ^_^
https://www.deviantart.com/jocelynsamara/gallery/64055650/the-scars-of-redemption