Tapastic has always been a community for self-expression and storytelling. What began as a site for uploading webcomics has grown in ways we didn’t fully imagine when we started five years ago, both in terms of scale and scope. What hasn’t changed is our dedication to empowering creators, nor has our passion for bite-sized stories ever waned.
A year ago we announced the launch of Tapas, our revamped mobile apps on Android and iOS. In addition to an updated name and design, Tapas introduced books and web novels alongside comics, as well as new ways for creators to earn money from their fans. The transition was challenging, but represented a necessary evolution for us despite some growing pains. As the apps transformed, tapastic.com remained largely unchanged.
Today, tapastic.com becomes tapas.io. Our URL has been updated and the look and feel of the web interface has been refreshed, in order to provide a more consistent experience across platforms and lay the groundwork for future improvements. As in the apps, we’ll feature more premium content and books on the site, in addition to the free comics you know and love.
While some of the styles and icons are new, the features you’ve come to expect are essentially unchanged.
Uploading comics is still free, and your bookmarks and activity are right where you left them. The ad revenue and tipping programs remain available for creators on the dashboard, and before long we’ll expand our self-publishing features to include writers as well.
“But I like Tapastic better.” We like it too — after living and breathing Tapastic every day for years, we’re more than a little attached. But we decided the benefits of one unified brand and a more consistent experience across platforms outweighed those feelings.
“What about links?” Existing tapastic.com links will continue to work, so you shouldn’t need to update any previously shared on social media or floating around on other websites.
“Did anything else change?” Besides the name, color scheme, and some icons, the actual features should all work as they did before. We’ll be adding some new features soon, but tried not to take anything away.
“Why not .com? What’s with eye-oh?” Back in 1997, the .io domain debuted as the country code for the Indian Ocean territory. In recent years, it’s been adopted by techie companies for its resemblance to I/O, or input/output. We’re a little nerdy here, so we kinda dig that. Plus (this is a bit of a stretch, but stick with me), in a community like Tapas you only get out what you put in. Besides, decent .com domains are crazy expensive.
“Wait, I thought it was Taptastic?” No, that was never the name, despite all the people determined to write or say “tap-tastic” instead of “ta-pas-tic” every chance they got. While tapping on things can feel fantastic, the root of Tapastic has always been Tapas — after all we’re Tapas Media and focus on bite-sized portions of content.
Change is hard, but we’re excited about the road ahead. Over the next few weeks, we’ll continue polishing rough edges and cleaning up anything we might have missed. Be sure to let us know if you run into any bugs, notice something odd, or simply have questions. Each and every one of you makes our community what it is, so your feedback and help are always appreciated.
We’re anxious to share some of the new additions we’ve been working on in the coming months, and will incorporate your feedback as much as possible as we continue growing.
Whether you’ve been with us from the beginning or just joined today, thank you for making Tapas a wonderful place to discover great stories.
— Daron (and the rest of your friends at Tapas)
P.S. Along with these changes, we’ve updated our Terms of Service, Privacy Policy, and Content and Community Guidelines, to ensure they reflect the current Tapas service and community. Please take a look at our announcement and make sure you’re ok with the changes.
