A recurring question I’ve gotten about Ultraviolents in the past has been: why are there no comments below pages, like other webcomics?
This is a very intentional choice on my part! And was something I’d considered from the very beginning, back when I was figuring out if I wanted to make UV print only or put it online. For example:
- Guestbooks, by their nature, feel slightly more formal than just firing off a comment below a comic page before clicking “next”. You have to think about what you’re going to say. People spend a little longer and leave more thoughtful comments and feedback. There’s no rapid fire live read comment bombardment for me to suddenly have to deal with.
- Spam is easier to manage. And by manage, I mean I’ve gotten zero mystery dick pill comments that plague most comment sections. Nada! Nothing.
- Easier to moderate in general. Less comments influx and less spam means I can very easily keep up with the queue when there is one. I don’t need to get a third party to moderate my comments section either. It’s just less stressful all around!
- The layout of the website is much, much cleaner. I do still want to add more bells and whistles to it (this is a webcomic after all- I want to spend as much time fiddling with it as I would paper stock for a print comic) but there’s nothing to distract from reading the comic. Ultraviolents is very much a long form, story heavy comic and vibes are crucial.
- It prevents back and forth arguments between commenters. I’ve seen comment sections be locked for entire scenes of webcomics because people were fighting between themselves. With nature of webcomics, that could be anywhere from weeks to months.
- It’s just nice to go through one big page of kind comments from readers! I don’t have to go digging for a screenshots folder or worry about missing things on social media.
This isn’t to say that comment sections don’t have their place- they’re perfect for strip comics, larger pages with a lot going on, or webtoon style episodes. But they’re not for every comic- if you do webcomics, you should consider your website to be an extension of the comic itself as much as spot gloss on a hardback cover is.
