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Fables.Pro - Early Thoughts and Why You Should Join
Hello! While I was advertising Fables.pro on another site, someone wished to know more about it--the pros and cons and all that good stuff. Having been lucky enough to have participated in the Beta and as someone still using the site, I'm glad to help share and encourage others to give it a chance!
Without further ado - let's get into it!
Note: Screenshots will be at the very end.
Creator Forward (Why I Love It There)
The Fables Team loves comics and creators. It's seen in every inch of both the Discord and their own work. They want this site to succeed and we can all see them hard at work to make it happen.
Creators who post there also share in ad revenue, which is a definite plus in my book. It's one of the few sites that I Whitelist from my Ad Blocker.
They also go the extra mile to protect their NSFW creators, by providing a separated site so that those users can benefit from ads as well (albeit with its own hiccups since adult ads are...adult ads).
Their Promise to Creators won me over when I considered joining the site, and I can see that they're going to hold true.
Growing Pains (Cons of Early Adoption)
When Fables launched, it's main goal was to have a functional site with the bare bones necessities. This launch was successful, but everyone felt the slight frustrations that come when a website has no polish. It didn't look great and the mobile version of the site was non-existent.
That being said, Marty and Jay (two of the site moderators/creators) were open from the start about this and set expectations appropriately. They knew what they wanted and communicated it properly, which is something I appreciated.
The Fables Discord is very active and quick to share discussion and help if needed.
They have also been quick to adjust and address the most vital issues as they came up, and the site is already worlds apart from launch.
Constant Updates (And More to Come)
There's no question that it's easier to address issues when a site is in use; it makes problems that may not have been obvious earlier and puts them in the spotlight.
The Fables.pro team has already fixed the most frustrating things and they have a long To-Do list of things to come.
The biggest example is the mobile interface for the site. At launch, it didn't exist and the site was near impossible to read on a phone or tablet. That turned into their number one priority and a fix was put out fast.
Now I read comics on the site exclusively on my phone (and in some cases I like the mobile layout more lol).
A smaller example, would be a personal request I had made on the Discord. I had given feedback that I missed the "Keep Reading" button on mobile. It was easy to lose track of where you were on a longer comic, especially with the "Infinite scroll" the site currently uses.
A week or so later, it appeared, far faster than I was expecting.
I know that many user hiccups at the moment will be addressed in the future, so I really hesitate to list too many cons (even if there are a few at the moment).
For example, the site is not very friendly toward the management of longer comics since all of the episodes/pages are on a single edit screen (so much scrolling...) but the Team has already told us that Chapter management is down the pipeline, as well as considerations to better organize things.
Pros (A Random Assortment of Things I Like)
The Bulk Uploader: It's an odd thing to mention first, but it is a dream if you're moving over a ton of comics at once. The thing works amazingly, let me crosspost my old comic that was near 2000 pages at the time of the switch.
Comments: It feels like a given, but the team went the extra mile to make sure it was on the site at launch, and I for one am grateful (even if notifications don't work for them yet lol).
Inkscapade: You can post little updates and comments to your profile that show up on the Inkscapade feed. It's not super active at the moment, but I love that comic authors have places to post updates and notes that doesn't have to be directly tied to a comic page update.
Equal Advertising: All of the rotating banners are completely indiscriminate. Does your comic have a banner uploaded? It'll show up on the featured banners randomly. It's always a great way to see new things and there is a sense of glee when you see your own comic pop up.
All Skills: I love seeing art of all skill levels; beginning comic creators and old vets of the trade all in one spot. It's fantastic.
Flexible: The episode system is very flexible whether you post a single page at a time, or a long scrolling comic that's come into fashion lately. They both have a place in the same reader and it's nice to see variety.
Readers (The Site Needs Them)
As an author, I've found getting people to read original fiction is hard. It's even harder when you're trying to get them to step away from the established "Place" to do so. It's much the same with Webcomics.
Much like the internet has slowly shifted from individual websites down to major social media hubs, the same thing happened to a lot of comics. They went from individual websites to places like Webtoons and Tapas to try and chase an audience that prefers to read a bunch of things in one spot, like Kindle or Kobo does for ebooks.
Fables is trying to be a middle ground. They want that same ease for readers (Everything on one site and you don't have to keep track of a ton of webpages), while trying to let creators maintain as much of their rights as possible.
At the moment, Fables is suffering from the majority of users also being creators. While we can read each other's works, its not quite the same thing as sharing with a Reader-Reader, who is just there to share and enjoy. It can be discouraging to put so much work and effort into a comic and have no readers to show for it; to see that Subscribe count remain at 0.
So, the best we can do as creators is to keep sharing the site and hope that it grows little bit by little bit.
Conclusion
I hope you give Fables a chance (and I'd be thrilled if you read one of my comics lol).
Screenshots
Without further ado - let's get into it!
Note: Screenshots will be at the very end.
Creator Forward (Why I Love It There)
The Fables Team loves comics and creators. It's seen in every inch of both the Discord and their own work. They want this site to succeed and we can all see them hard at work to make it happen.
Creators who post there also share in ad revenue, which is a definite plus in my book. It's one of the few sites that I Whitelist from my Ad Blocker.
They also go the extra mile to protect their NSFW creators, by providing a separated site so that those users can benefit from ads as well (albeit with its own hiccups since adult ads are...adult ads).
Their Promise to Creators won me over when I considered joining the site, and I can see that they're going to hold true.
Growing Pains (Cons of Early Adoption)
When Fables launched, it's main goal was to have a functional site with the bare bones necessities. This launch was successful, but everyone felt the slight frustrations that come when a website has no polish. It didn't look great and the mobile version of the site was non-existent.
That being said, Marty and Jay (two of the site moderators/creators) were open from the start about this and set expectations appropriately. They knew what they wanted and communicated it properly, which is something I appreciated.
The Fables Discord is very active and quick to share discussion and help if needed.
They have also been quick to adjust and address the most vital issues as they came up, and the site is already worlds apart from launch.
Constant Updates (And More to Come)
There's no question that it's easier to address issues when a site is in use; it makes problems that may not have been obvious earlier and puts them in the spotlight.
The Fables.pro team has already fixed the most frustrating things and they have a long To-Do list of things to come.
The biggest example is the mobile interface for the site. At launch, it didn't exist and the site was near impossible to read on a phone or tablet. That turned into their number one priority and a fix was put out fast.
Now I read comics on the site exclusively on my phone (and in some cases I like the mobile layout more lol).
A smaller example, would be a personal request I had made on the Discord. I had given feedback that I missed the "Keep Reading" button on mobile. It was easy to lose track of where you were on a longer comic, especially with the "Infinite scroll" the site currently uses.
A week or so later, it appeared, far faster than I was expecting.
I know that many user hiccups at the moment will be addressed in the future, so I really hesitate to list too many cons (even if there are a few at the moment).
For example, the site is not very friendly toward the management of longer comics since all of the episodes/pages are on a single edit screen (so much scrolling...) but the Team has already told us that Chapter management is down the pipeline, as well as considerations to better organize things.
Pros (A Random Assortment of Things I Like)
The Bulk Uploader: It's an odd thing to mention first, but it is a dream if you're moving over a ton of comics at once. The thing works amazingly, let me crosspost my old comic that was near 2000 pages at the time of the switch.
Comments: It feels like a given, but the team went the extra mile to make sure it was on the site at launch, and I for one am grateful (even if notifications don't work for them yet lol).
Inkscapade: You can post little updates and comments to your profile that show up on the Inkscapade feed. It's not super active at the moment, but I love that comic authors have places to post updates and notes that doesn't have to be directly tied to a comic page update.
Equal Advertising: All of the rotating banners are completely indiscriminate. Does your comic have a banner uploaded? It'll show up on the featured banners randomly. It's always a great way to see new things and there is a sense of glee when you see your own comic pop up.
All Skills: I love seeing art of all skill levels; beginning comic creators and old vets of the trade all in one spot. It's fantastic.
Flexible: The episode system is very flexible whether you post a single page at a time, or a long scrolling comic that's come into fashion lately. They both have a place in the same reader and it's nice to see variety.
Readers (The Site Needs Them)
As an author, I've found getting people to read original fiction is hard. It's even harder when you're trying to get them to step away from the established "Place" to do so. It's much the same with Webcomics.
Much like the internet has slowly shifted from individual websites down to major social media hubs, the same thing happened to a lot of comics. They went from individual websites to places like Webtoons and Tapas to try and chase an audience that prefers to read a bunch of things in one spot, like Kindle or Kobo does for ebooks.
Fables is trying to be a middle ground. They want that same ease for readers (Everything on one site and you don't have to keep track of a ton of webpages), while trying to let creators maintain as much of their rights as possible.
At the moment, Fables is suffering from the majority of users also being creators. While we can read each other's works, its not quite the same thing as sharing with a Reader-Reader, who is just there to share and enjoy. It can be discouraging to put so much work and effort into a comic and have no readers to show for it; to see that Subscribe count remain at 0.
So, the best we can do as creators is to keep sharing the site and hope that it grows little bit by little bit.
Conclusion
I hope you give Fables a chance (and I'd be thrilled if you read one of my comics lol).
Screenshots