What about the fans?

Discuss the future, present and past of sequential art.

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rcar
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Post by rcar »

The micropayment issue has been a big issue for us cartoonists. What about the fans? Do they know about all this? Maybe we should do some polling to get a feel from them. Would it work to put a question ballot on comic sites telling about a micropayment system then ask if you would pay, not come back. Pay by comic, by subscription. Then maybe some reader feedback. Then we could get a pulse on the fanbase.

Any thoughts?

Randy
Max Leibman
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Post by Max Leibman »

Y'know, if you put a noticeable, but still not-overwhelming link on the main page of a comic site to a short (2-3 question, probably with pull-downs or radial buttons to simplify the process) poll, you probably wounldn't annoy any fans. Also, you could do a bonus strip or feature, much like Scott's <A HREF="http://www.scottmccloud.com/store/store.html">"Why I'm Not Neil Gaiman"</A> strip he's offering for Amazon Honor system donations, as a thank-you for people who fill out the poll. You could probably get a sizable response from such a venture, plus some valuable data.

-Max Leibman

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Max Leibman on 2001-06-22 09:42 ]</font>
Tim Mallos
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Post by Tim Mallos »

Hey there Randy!

RE: Any thoughts?

A survey could be a starting point, but the results would be somewhat suspect. Unless we do a formally designed study that identifies what a "fan" is and who they are and then take a random sampling of those folks and convince them to give us the time to answer the questions thoughtfully etc?, it'd be hard to put any stock in the findings. Simply put, people who volunteer for things are "weird". Folks who responded to a survey (especially a survey at a comics site) will have their own reasons for doing so, so you're likely to get results that tend to one extreme or another. My gut tells me this is one of those ?try it and see what happens? sort of things.

However, I think software usability studies intended to make a particular implementation of micro-payments as "adoptable" as possible would be very worthwhile (necessary) when a designing a functional pilot system.

Having said all that, it?d still be interesting, to see what people would say, even if the results couldn?t tell us anything about a greater population of people.

Those are just a few of my thoughts. But, since my other thoughts are about laundry, where I'm eating lunch, and an irrational client, you're probably not interested ! :smile:

Tim
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