Poll: How Often Do You Read Westward?

Posted: Monday, March 19, 2012 Since January 2010, Westward has been updated every single weekday because 1) I believe people appreciate consistency and 2) I'm completely bonkers. What about you? Do you check it every day, or do you prefer to consume it in bigger chunks? Be honest!

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Gillsing:

I find that reading in bigger chunks is more likely to get me into the story, the setting and the characters. But reading every day is the only way to stay current with the comments, so that's what I do with almost every webcomic that I read.

So it's not that I can't wait to get my fix, it's that I feel forced to keep up. And I read more than 200 webcomics. Today is Monday, and I haven't yet begun reading the comics that I've scheduled for Friday last week. Because I foolishly spent the weekend playing Diablo II instead of reading webcomics like an addicted slave. Why are you doing this to meeeee?

"Why are you entertaining yourself? Stop entertaining yourself!" (If Nelson Muntz did webcomics.)

admin:

And I read more than 200 webcomics.

:-o How in the world do you do that? I'm lucky if I can remain generally aware of the storylines of two or three webcomics. Are you actually able to keep track of all those plotlines? And what percentage of the comics you read, roughly speaking, have plotlines that actually need to be followed? The questions abound!

Gillsing:

Well, obviously I don't manage to keep perfect track of every plotline. Things that happened a long time ago tend to be forgotten. I just read today's update of Dominic Deegan, and whenever there's link back to the distant past it may very well contain some events which I have completely forgotten everything about. What I usually do is that I try to focus on the current state of affairs in the comic I'm reading, and with every update I am reminded of everything that seems to be important for that current state of affairs. So how well I manage to keep track of the plotline depends largely on how obvious the progression of that plotline is in hindsight. Side plots that don't seem to matter for a long time are thus likely to be forgotten, and the same thing goes for previous main plots that reached a conclusion. Then I may remember the result, but not how it came to be. Or that's what I think anyway. Who can really know for sure how their own mind works? :-)

As for percentage, I'll take a wild guess that 80% of the webcomics that I read have plots that need to be followed. I'm a sucker for stories, and stories need their plotlines. I do read a bunch of gag-a-day comics too, but I usually don't laugh or smile. But every now and then it happens. Maybe it's not so much the quality of the comic that matters as my own state of mind. Appreciating humour requires way more attention than I might be able to muster when I'm going through a list of bookmarks.

easilyspooked:

i do read every day, as part of my morning cube ritual, and i do enjoy it, but i definitely felt like i Understood more of what was going on when i first discovered the comic and read through all the existing material in one go (couple months back). i felt closer to the characters when i had more time to dwell on them and wasn't just loading three or four frames, consuming them, and moving on. (i'm clearly a wuss, clocking in only 31 webcomics)

Meh.Aloe:

I READ WESTWARD SEVERAL TIMES A DAY wait has someone posted a new comment yet I better go check again uh-oh I think I may have a problem. >_>

I think I'd actually *prefer* to read the comic in bigger chunks, because I agree that'd probably make it easier to keep track of the story -- but Mr. Toman has fiendishly made it far too addictive for that, and failed to post any warning labels.

Alternatively, I'd love to be able to read a whole week in advance, but ever since I've been chased out of the crawlspace above Mr. Toman's work desk by a particularly scary spider, that hasn't been an option either. :(

I used to follow some ridiculous number of webcomics as well, but I've recently done a spring cleaning of my bookmarks, and now I'm down to just four, of which only three have plots. :P

admin:

I was wondering what had become of that little scrambling sound I used to hear in the walls.

Because you're clearly such a discerning person with excellent taste, Meh.Aloe, I simply have to know what led you to decapitate your Webcomics roster and what other three made the grade!

Meh.Aloe:

I realised at some point that I was following a lot of these webcomics out of habit, rather than out of a real love for their stories or characters or humour. :P Oftentimes I would add a new comic to my bookmarks in a sort of "I'll see where this goes" moment, and then just keep on visiting it even when it turned out it wasn't going anywhere all that wonderful!

For now I've trimmed it down to Westward, Never Mind the Gap (which is NSFW! Caution!), xkcd, and Freefall. I'm thinking of also adding Skinhorse back onto the roster -- the main reason I wasn't enjoying it was precisely because it was very hard to follow the long story-line, and hopefully now that will be easier!

... There's also Outsider, but it updates very, very slowly, so it's not really an issue. It's pretty! I feel guilty for enjoying a story that's essentially about old-fashioned Amazon Princesses in Space, though. :P

Meh.Aloe:

Just my luck... I share Never Mind the Gap, and it enters a particularly prolonged period of especial NSFW-ness. It's always been pretty clear that the comic will include nudity and sexual situations, but if anyone's looking it up at this time, do note that it does also include well-crafted characters, several other sorts of character interaction, good (if somewhat enigmatic) world-building, and awesome robots.

admin:

I appreciated your warning when you first mentioned it, Meh.Aloe. I did check out all the other comics you mentioned, though.

Freefall is especially intriguing�perhaps the phenomena of it even more than the comic itself, which has a very labyrinthine point-of-entry.

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Poll: How Often Do You Read Westward?

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