TWCL

[Lavenderbard]

It's coming up this week, but I have a story based comic, and I don't want to muck with the queue just so I can stick a "100 pages Woohoo!" graphic in.

But I want to do SOMETHING.

So far all I've come up with is "Have cake and ice cream." Which I probably will do, but I'd like to come up with something a little more... online.
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[MindChimera]

Does your site have a blog? Or somewhere you regularly talk to your readers?

You could make an extra comic to put out that day. Either two updates or just an extra fun thing with your characters, like a non-canon party. Don't include that directly in the archives, obviously, but have the link to it easy to find.

Are you any good at videos?

If you had a bit more time (or maybe you could still do this) maybe you could put out a call for fan art/comics and put them all up on the day.

... And I just noticed I'm coming up on 100 too. I think I'm going to look through my script and figure out which page #100 will be.
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[Marscaleb]

Animate some of your best pages!
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My webcomic: Mischief in Maytia
http://maytiacomic.com/

[vulpeslibertas]

Put the cake and ice cream online?

What about having two images in your update? Can you do that? Maybe a 100 pixel high banner at the top of your normal page?

FYI, your Next button on your very first page doesn't seem to be working for me.
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[ttallan]

I vote for a banner atop the page. You can always remove it later, if you want.
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[Lavenderbard]

vulpeslibertas wrote:

FYI, your Next button on your very first page doesn't seem to be working for me.

Thanks for letting me know.

I played around with the site for a bit and managed to duplicate the problem. Seems to have something to do with cookies.

I will go dig into the code and see if I can get it fixed it as soon as I finish responding to everyone's suggestions.

ttallan wrote:

I vote for a banner atop the page. You can always remove it later, if you want.

Ah! Nice solution. I can do that.

vulpeslibertas wrote:

Put the cake and ice cream online?.

Virtual cake and icecream has no calories, true, but don't you find it kind of... tastless?

Marscaleb wrote:

Animate some of your best pages!

This is a really cool idea, but, uh... a little time intensive to do between now and tomorrow. (Clearly I should have given myself some more time, but I've been busy with another project and it kind of crept up on me.)
... I could possibly animate a banner. Definately worth thinking about.

MindChimera wrote:

Does your site have a blog? Or somewhere you regularly talk to your readers?

My husband didn't want the blog on the same page as the webcomic, so I provided a link instead, which nobody has ever used.

Clearly I am a failure at this whole audience engagement thingy.
I have sold a copy of the book, though.

MindChimera wrote:

Are you any good at videos?

Uh... probably not. I've been reasonably successful at putting together small-scale animations that didn't totally suck, though.

MindChimera wrote:

If you had a bit more time (or maybe you could still do this) maybe you could put out a call for fan art/comics and put them all up on the day.

I think it would still be doable -- I could post the request with the 100th page, instead of posting the art with the 100th page, no? But I worry that I won't get any entries, and that would be a lame sort of celebration. (I know from bitter experience that I can't even get my own highly artistic kids to do fan art for me. They'd much rather draw their own characters. Sigh.)
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[Marscaleb]

Lavenderbard wrote:

Marscaleb wrote: Animate some of your best pages! This is a really cool idea, but, uh... a little time intensive to do between now and tomorrow.

Well then, I guess you have no excuse not to do this for the 200th page
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My webcomic: Mischief in Maytia
http://maytiacomic.com/

[Lavenderbard]

Lavenderbard wrote:

vulpeslibertas wrote: FYI, your Next button on your very first page doesn't seem to be working for me. Thanks for letting me know. I played around with the site for a bit and managed to duplicate the problem.

The problem I found is fixed now (under certain circumstances the website was loading the first page twice before moving on to the second page). Hopefully it was the same one you discovered, but even if it wasn't, getting it fixed was good.

Marscaleb wrote:

Lavenderbard wrote: Marscaleb wrote: Animate some of your best pages! This is a really cool idea, but, uh... a little time intensive to do between now and tomorrow. Well then, I guess you have no excuse not to do this for the 200th page

Only one.

You guys inspired me, and after reading all your suggestions I came up with an idea of my own: A contest! I figured I could offer a free Black Flag T-shirt (with a custom made-to-order design?) as the prize.

My husband thought it was a good plan, but that we should wait until we had more readers. So maybe I want to do that for page 200 instead?

I like the idea of attempting an animation of some kind though. I think I'll make a one year celebration the goal instead of 100 pages -- that gives me a couple weeks to work on it.
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[ttallan]

So no banner, then? Well, happy 100 anyway!
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[Lavenderbard]

ttallan wrote:

So no banner, then?

It didn't get made. I did finish building the 3D-CGI Jewlery box that was my goal for my current project. And I spent more time than I really like to contemplate hunting down an error in the website serialization code that ended up being a ONE CHARACTER FIX. ARRRGGG!!!! And I brainstorming animation ideas, and even got the kids to practice their music. So I think I've earned my ice cream anyway.

It's the first time I've ever hit a major milestone in a project that was actually had... READERS. Ones who weren't family members and couldn't be invited to share the cake. Next time I'll be better prepared.

ttallan wrote:

Well, happy 100 anyway!

Thanks!
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[vulpeslibertas]

Lavenderbard wrote:

The problem I found is fixed now (under certain circumstances the website was loading the first page twice before moving on to the second page). Hopefully it was the same one you discovered, but even if it wasn't, getting it fixed was good.

Looks like there's another bug. I was able to reproduce it at http://www.aircastle.org/?castle_serial=flag-in-flames&Page=Next_Unread_Page in Firefox.
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[Lavenderbard]

vulpeslibertas wrote:

Looks like there's another bug. I was able to reproduce it at http://www.aircastle.org/?castle_serial=flag-in-flames&Page=Next_Unread_Page in Firefox.

It appears to be a Firefox only problem.
How... scary. Those are the hardest ones to fix.
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[Lavenderbard]

Firefox wasn't finding a couple of values I was trying to pass on via ajax.

Figuring out which ones was the first problem.

Figuring why Firefox couldn't find them when every other browser I own could, was the next problem.

My health issues preventing me from being able to think clearly enough to figure out either of the first two problems was the third and most deadly problem.

But I think I have finally got it fixed.

In other news, there is no way I'm going to get the animation I want to do done for my one year anniversary.

This would be one of the reasons why I created the whole story first, and then started posting it. I cannot work to a schedule. I just have no way of predicting how many sick days will intervene, and how many emergencies will pop up.

The animation will be done when it is done. And when it is done, I will post it.
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[vulpeslibertas]

I know that feeling.
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[CardboardCrack]

I wouldn't make a big deal. SMBC had over 3,000 comics. These numbers are a big deal to us, but most readers could care less unless they're friends or family.

I would just give myself a pat on the back, buckle down, and start working on the next strip.

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http://cardboard-crack.tumblr.com/