T Campbell's Blog
Writer of Penny and Aggie, Fans (also called Faans), Rip & Teri, Search Engine Funnies and A History of Webcomics. Experienced webcomics editor, currently seeking full-time work and working on strange and interesting new things...Saturday, December 10, 2005
If You Expected Me To Be Happy That A Webcomics Nation Competitor Has Closed Up Shop, You're In For A Shock.
Drunk Duck is dead because of staggering incompetence. Thousands of comics archives were lost, and you better believe they're not all backed up on their artists' own computers.
So far I seem to be the only one who's upset about this. There's an outpouring of sympathy for the artists and a bit of patient explanation. It seems like the community is once again coming together without malice to mourn one of its fallen. Isn't that great of us?
No, okay? Not this time. No. No! NO! This is NOT just an inopportune happenstance! This is not KATRINA! You had ONE JOB, OKAY? You were a HOST. You HOSTED people. They TRUSTED YOU TO TAKE CARE OF THEM.
Okay, so who am I yelling at, here?
Dylan Squires keeps the name of his host private, which is probably discreet of him, considering that the host's farewell message is basically, "Yeah, sorry I forgot to 'keep on top' of the payments, and sorry your account has already been down for months but I could hardly have noticed because my own computer was down too, and I could hardly be expected to buy a new one because IT'S NOT LIKE MY JOB REQUIRES BEING ABLE TO USE A @#$%$@#ING COMPUTER" and then it's like he steps out from between the pixels and BEGS me to break his kneecaps.
But I do have to reserve a little discontent for Squires. He's the one who chose to do business with this new host, and he's the one who failed to do any sort of backup with the previous host. Drunk Duck was his baby, and now he no doubt feels like a failure.
To which I have to say...
Good.
You DID fail, Dylan. Because of you and your idiot contractors, thousands of strips-- THOUSANDS OF STRIPS-- became homeless at best and lost at worst. You provided a solid, interesting service for them for three years and you deserve credit for that, but by the same token you deserve "credit" for dropping this ball.
We all fail, and sometimes we fail big. Modern Tales had a similar, though far more limited erasure early this year, and because I had failed to make proper backups it took far too long to reinstate the FANS archives. I failed myself and my readers there, but it wasn't the end. And this doesn't have to be for you. But you don't get a free pass from me.
And I'd ask that no one else give him a free pass either. Yes, you should definitely use this kind of thing as incentive to back up your own work, but that doesn't make this "the kind of thing that just happens." We can't just shrug this off.
This... is NOT OKAY.
So far I seem to be the only one who's upset about this. There's an outpouring of sympathy for the artists and a bit of patient explanation. It seems like the community is once again coming together without malice to mourn one of its fallen. Isn't that great of us?
No, okay? Not this time. No. No! NO! This is NOT just an inopportune happenstance! This is not KATRINA! You had ONE JOB, OKAY? You were a HOST. You HOSTED people. They TRUSTED YOU TO TAKE CARE OF THEM.
Okay, so who am I yelling at, here?
Dylan Squires keeps the name of his host private, which is probably discreet of him, considering that the host's farewell message is basically, "Yeah, sorry I forgot to 'keep on top' of the payments, and sorry your account has already been down for months but I could hardly have noticed because my own computer was down too, and I could hardly be expected to buy a new one because IT'S NOT LIKE MY JOB REQUIRES BEING ABLE TO USE A @#$%$@#ING COMPUTER" and then it's like he steps out from between the pixels and BEGS me to break his kneecaps.
But I do have to reserve a little discontent for Squires. He's the one who chose to do business with this new host, and he's the one who failed to do any sort of backup with the previous host. Drunk Duck was his baby, and now he no doubt feels like a failure.
To which I have to say...
Good.
You DID fail, Dylan. Because of you and your idiot contractors, thousands of strips-- THOUSANDS OF STRIPS-- became homeless at best and lost at worst. You provided a solid, interesting service for them for three years and you deserve credit for that, but by the same token you deserve "credit" for dropping this ball.
We all fail, and sometimes we fail big. Modern Tales had a similar, though far more limited erasure early this year, and because I had failed to make proper backups it took far too long to reinstate the FANS archives. I failed myself and my readers there, but it wasn't the end. And this doesn't have to be for you. But you don't get a free pass from me.
And I'd ask that no one else give him a free pass either. Yes, you should definitely use this kind of thing as incentive to back up your own work, but that doesn't make this "the kind of thing that just happens." We can't just shrug this off.
This... is NOT OKAY.
Comments:
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Wow! That's the angriest I've ever seen (or read) you.
I think clearly artists who don't save their own strips to a disc or at least on their own hard drive don't think much of their own work.
Still, you're right that the proprietor has to have accountability. All this weeping and back-patting that webcomics are so known for only leads to the repetition of the same mistakes.
I think clearly artists who don't save their own strips to a disc or at least on their own hard drive don't think much of their own work.
Still, you're right that the proprietor has to have accountability. All this weeping and back-patting that webcomics are so known for only leads to the repetition of the same mistakes.
"I think clearly artists who don't save their own strips to a disc or at least on their own hard drive don't think much of their own work."
Keep in mind that a LOT of webcartoonists are college students, on a tight budget, updating their comic srtips out of computer lab.
Not everyone's working off of a high end computer with a big-ass tablet and DVD-ROM Burner. Just saying.
Keep in mind that a LOT of webcartoonists are college students, on a tight budget, updating their comic srtips out of computer lab.
Not everyone's working off of a high end computer with a big-ass tablet and DVD-ROM Burner. Just saying.
"Keep in mind that a LOT of webcartoonists are college students, on a tight budget, updating their comic strips out of computer lab."
I'd call that an issue. Maybe it's time to start thinking about ways of giving webcartoonists affordable safe data-storage as well as website hosting.
I'd call that an issue. Maybe it's time to start thinking about ways of giving webcartoonists affordable safe data-storage as well as website hosting.
There are lots of really, really cheap backup solutions out there. Xdrive is the one that comes to mind.
http://www.xdrive.com/
Anybody with any website at all -- not just webcartoonists -- should do thier best to keep a backup of their work. This is your life and blood. You wouldn't leave your children at a friend's house -- no matter how much you trusted that friend -- without making sure you had gene samples handy for cloning, in case of emergency, would you? I know I wouldn't!
I learned my lesson with the Great MT Crash last year. Every WCN site is backed up to a hard drive here at my house once a week.
I'm not trying to profit from DD's problems (so far, we haven't seen any DD'ers move over, to my knowledge -- I think it's a completely different market).
I'm just saying!
Joey
www.webcomicsnation.com
http://www.xdrive.com/
Anybody with any website at all -- not just webcartoonists -- should do thier best to keep a backup of their work. This is your life and blood. You wouldn't leave your children at a friend's house -- no matter how much you trusted that friend -- without making sure you had gene samples handy for cloning, in case of emergency, would you? I know I wouldn't!
I learned my lesson with the Great MT Crash last year. Every WCN site is backed up to a hard drive here at my house once a week.
I'm not trying to profit from DD's problems (so far, we haven't seen any DD'ers move over, to my knowledge -- I think it's a completely different market).
I'm just saying!
Joey
www.webcomicsnation.com
There are lots of really, really cheap backup solutions out there. Xdrive is the one that comes to mind.
Heck, in worst case, you could always just e-mail them to yourself at GMail.
Heck, in worst case, you could always just e-mail them to yourself at GMail.
There are lots of really, really cheap backup solutions out there. Xdrive is the one that comes to mind.
Heck, in worst case, you could always just e-mail them to yourself at GMail.
Heck, in worst case, you could always just e-mail them to yourself at GMail.
... or a $50 USB "thumb drive" for that matter ... might sound like a lot to a poor college student, but the peace of mind would be invaluable, it seems to me.
The poverty of "poor college students" is generally overstated by same.
Most "poor college students" are only "poor" if you don't count the money spent on CDs, movies, concerts, &c.
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Most "poor college students" are only "poor" if you don't count the money spent on CDs, movies, concerts, &c.
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