NEW BENEFIT: The Young Protectors Community Site

TL;DR: I've created a new forum for our readers. It's got a bunch of cool features. Right now, only patrons can join. Eventually, it will be open to everyone, with exclusive categories just for patrons like you. You can Sign Up with your Patreon account here. A disco robot will then give you a tour. Have fun and explore. :)

Howdy y'all!

The most awesome thing to come from creating Artifice and The Young Protectors has been the community we've formed. We really do have the most thoughtful, considerate, and welcoming readership in webcomics.

And over the last year, I've been putting a lot of work into creating an even better discussion experience for y'all. 

Disqus is fine for what it is, but 

• It fills my site with ads, some of which are kind of gross. And I can't turn them off.
• It rolls out unwanted "features," like the much-loathed Collapsed Replies. And I can't turn them off.
• You can have a comment thread—but it's not organized by topic and there's not a great way to search for stuff

Disqus does allow commenters to use one login for multiple sites and, because of that, you can get introduced to other interesting sites through another commenter’s Disqus profile, so that's kinda cool.

But they’re a for-profit company and so they’ve reserved most of their best features for those who pay them $100/month—more than I can afford or justify.  And, like I said, some of their current "features" don't give readers like you the best experience. And overall, we just have to take whatever they decide to dish out.

As for the commenting system here on Patreon, don't even get me started. It's missing even basic features—you can't even tell who liked a comment! And that's not likely to change anytime soon.

So, I looked for a better way for y'all to be able to talk to each other...

....and I found an awesome, open-source forum app called Discourse.

With Discourse, you can not only post and reply to comments for each comic page, but it comes with a bunch of other cool features, like 

• Topic Threads, so comments on a single topic can stay together (and be added to/referred to over the entire life of the comic)
• a fantastic Search function (including Saved Search filters that will notify you about the things you care about)
• Reply-by-Email
• Automatic saving as you write your comments and reply
• a Revision History for your comments and replies
• Keyboard Shortcuts
• Markdown support
• Live Previews of Comments
• you can scroll back to view an earlier comment while still typing your reply  (no more scrolling back and forth)
• Polls (that commenters can post for each other)
• the ability to Blur Spoilers
• an automatic Trust System that rewards commenters who are engaged and helpful
• Personal Messages so you can interact directly with other commenters more privately  (or not—you have complete control over who can contact you and whose comments are visible for you overall)
• you can bookmark comments you find particularly interesting or helpful
• you can mark a comment as a Solution with a special badge if it was the one that answered your question
• optional Chrome/Firefox notifications

and much, much more.

Readers will be able to have discussions under different Categories, not just comic pages

(But you'll still be able to post comments under the webcomic pages too!)

There is a Page Updates category where every page gets its own post. 

Any comments and replies posted there will show up under the webcomic page on the site, like this:

But there are also other categories I've created—like Questions and Answers, Speculations and Musings, and Making Comics—where you'll not just be able to respond to a single comic page, but you'll also be able to start your own Topics which other readers and I can respond to.

Want to create a "Flyboy and Cory's Relationship" topic which readers can add to all throughout the current arc? You can do that! (And the discussion won't just get lost on a previously posted webcomic page...)

Patreon-Only Features

In addition to all that, I can create a special experience for patrons like you there. 

First off, you get a cool Patreon flare for your avatar, automatically added, which will show whenever you post and reply.

You'll also get immediate access to the special True Fan Lounge. Meant for the most dedicated users of the forum, you'll be able to talk with your fellow readers in depth about any topic you'd like (except for politics; there's enough of that elsewhere).  So you can really get to know each other and hang out.

And you'll have the exclusive ability to comment under the Patreon-only pages you can see (like the first two chapters of Legendary).  

And there's yet another benefit that I'll reveal soon..... Stay tuned.......

Announcing The Young Protectors Community site!

While eventually I'll be opening this up to the general readership, for this initial testing period, only patrons like you can join.

How can you check it out for yourself?

Just go to https://community.amwcomics.com/login

Click Log In and if you're already logged into Patreon, it should just ask you to Allow access to your Patreon profile information:

Click Allow, and you should be all set! An account will automatically be created for you on the forum.

If you aren't already logged in, you will be prompted to log into Patreon the usual way:

Log in as usual, and an account will automatically be created for you in the forum.

Once you log-in, a helpful robot called Discobot will teach you how to use the site. (Not kidding about the robot.) 

It only takes a few minutes to have the robot give you a complete tour and it's totally worth it. (And fun! :) ) 

So, what are the downsides to Discourse?

There's really only one downside. At least, if we ever choose to use it as a Disqus replacement.

The comments and replies you post in the Page Updates category will show up under the appropriate comic page on webcomics.yaoi911.com. But unlike Disqus, you'll can't just type your reply under the page itself on my webcomic site. When you click the reply link on a page on my webcomic site, you'll be taken to The Young Protectors Community site to post and reply.

Basically, to take advantage of all the special features I listed above, you need access to the full forum software of Discourse. And that can't be embedded on my webcomic pages. The features are just too powerful.

Having the ability to type in comments directly on the original website page has been a request people have had for Discourse for years, but it doesn't look like it's going to happen anytime soon. So, this is what it is.

I realize for some folks it will be a deal-breaker, at least for commenting on the comic pages.

All I can ask is that you give it a shot. Try it out. See if you like the experience. 

I too was skeptical, but I've been using Discourse as a member of other communities for the past 12 months, and I was quickly won over by the extra features and how those features helped facilitate much better (and easier) discussion. 

Our community is about so much more than just quick reactions to individual comic pages. Having access to a full forum could really let us stretch our wings. 

You'll let me know. :)

In the meantime,

I'm keeping Disqus comments available on my webcomic site

You'll find them on each webcomic page, just like always, underneath any Young Protectors Community comments.

I actually don't need to stick with Disqus to keep our years of previous comments. I've been backing them up on my Wordpress site, so even if I removed Disqus, I'd still be able to display them under each page forever. (And without the whacked-out Disqus ads, thank you very much.)

But this is a new thing. I want to give folks both options.

If people fall in love with the new Community site, maybe I'll be able to let Disqus go. But for now, I don't have any plans to remove it.

The Young Protectors Community will be what we make of it

Like pretty much everything I do, this is an experiment. Considering the in-depth discussions y'all have, I think super-high-quality forum software will be a good fit for us.

There are alternatives, though. Live chat apps like Discord are the hotness right now. I find Discord to be a bit non-intuitive and hard to navigate, but if that's the direction folks want me to go, I can look into that. 

But I'd say, give The Young Protectors Community site a shot. Check out my introductory tips in For New Users and take a moment to Introduce Yourself to your fellow patrons. Try leaving a comment and a reply under one of the comic pages in Page Updates or the Patreon-Exclusive Comic Pages and see how that works. Get to know each other as people in the True Fan Lounge.

And give me feedback. What you like, and what you think could be improved. (There's even a category on the Community site just for that.)

I think a high-quality forum would be a great fit for all our readers. So I will be opening The Young Protectors Community site up to everyone after you've had a chance to test it out and give me feedback. (And, if you use the site consistently, in a couple weeks you'll automatically be able to send out private invites yourselves.)

But for now, it's just for you. Let's set up a good foundation and make our new forum as awesome as the Community it was made for. :)

Thank you for being the real superheroes of The Young Protectors!

Alex