KeenSpace

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Evil monster that eats WebComics. But it does provide hosting for aforementioned WebComics, which helps prevent them from folding.

Mjb67 - Is there an alternative for a comic that is a victim of its own popularity? PhoenixFeathers doesn't seem to be suffering, but if hundreds of people (even thousands) checked in every day for updates, like I'm sure they must for Sluggy or Schlock? Most webcomics are bigger sites than most corporate websites. To do it properly and get a rackmount box in someone's server room costs about Ł130/month. Let's say that's impossible for me (as a hypothetical impoverished webcomic artist) what should I do?

I doubt that many webcomics get anywhere near that popular, to be honest. There's hundreds of them out there, literally. A few big ones, like the Keenspotters, Sluggy, Bruno, MegaTokyo (though goodness knows why the latter) but most probably get a couple of hundred visits a week, which isn't going to break anyone's bandwidth bank. So I wouldn't worry about it unless it actually becomes a problem.

Mjb67 - So you suggest that people should run them on their own ISP accounts? A typical 100MB webspace isn't going to hold too much in the way of archives (maybe a few years, if your strips are the size of SunKitten's PhoenixFeathers), and the bandwidth would probably be up to it until you got linked to by someone really popular. But if those things (space and bandwidth) aren't limiting factors, why do people put their strips on Keen?

[Blackcat's rates] are also unlikely to break the bank. -- Senji

Oooh, that's good value--Mjb67

Oooh, they look cheap. Have just emailed them to ask how much they'd charge to be our secondary MX. - MoonShadow

: I probably ought to note at this point that I know one of the founders (Noodles), and am a satisfied customer of their domain registration service -- Senji

I didn't 'suggest' anything; I just pointed out that it's unlikely that bandwidth would ever become a factor. Even if you get linked to by 'someone really big' (and how often is that going to happen? they don't throw out links willy-nilly) chances are it'll be a big bandwidth spike for a few days and then back to maybe a slightly higher level than before).

I suspect people put them on Keenspace (1) because it's webspace, and it's free, and they don't have any other free webspace that has enough, well, space to hold them (the '5MB' promised by a lot of home connections isn't going to hold a lot) and (2) because it's 'where webcomics live' and so when people are looking for webcomics they might well just browse Keenspace, and randomly find yours (if they can put up with all the crud that's on Keenspace to find the few gems like 1/0), which is less likely if it's on a freeserve page.

I actually got talking to the authors of [Shifters] and Black Tapestries on IRC the other week (they collaborate a fair bit, I think, so finding them in the same place wasn't unusual) - their answer to this question (someone brought it up, although it wasn't me) was something along the lines of 'it's the automation, really - and the way it's all in the same place' - they also believed they'd attracted a decent number of new readers through KeenSpace's internal linking. (Although I found Shifters via CATNews?, and BT from Shifters...) -- TheInquisitor

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