DrunkDuck
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DrunkDuck is a free webcomic hosting service founded by Dylan Squires in 2002. The site provides a community, peer and fan based feedback through a voting/comment system, and various rankings of webcomics divided in two categories, which are Comic Books and Comic Strips. DrunkDuck has been a continuously active website since it was relaunched in January 2006.
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[edit] History
[edit] Origins
DrunkDuck was founded in 2002 by Dylan Squires. By 2003 the site was rapidly gaining comics (thanks, in part, to severe bandwidth issues experienced at the time by Keenspace, another comic hosting site), and Platinum Accounts were introduced to provide users with extra hosting options. These accounts helped to fund both the site and later projects, such as the DrunkDuck comic anthologies.
Since its founding DrunkDuck has accumulated thousands of comics, though the majority are dormant accounts. The last known statistics held that the site averaged around 150 updates per day.[citation needed]
[edit] Partnership with Buzzcomix
DrunkDuck announced its partnership with BuzzComix in early 2004, allowing a symbiotic cooperation between the two sites. This partnership has since decreased in importance and is no longer directly visible on the DrunkDuck site, though BuzzComix continues to use a special category for sorting DrunkDuck members.[1]
[edit] Crash and relaunch
DrunkDuck suffered a crash in late 2005 due to loss of data by the site's host. The hosting company was experiencing financial issues due to lack of income and profitability causing the server that DrunkDuck was then hosted on to be shut off. The future of the site was deemed uncertain by Squires, who stated that though the site would likely return, it was not clear what sort of services it would provide.
On January 1, 2006, Squires announced that DrunkDuck would make a full return. Several beta testers were chosen who gave the new system a thorough tryout, eventually clearing the way for open enrollment. Many of the original site's features were restored and new functionality was added.
[edit] Updates
In late August 2006, Druck Duck moved to a new dedicated server with daily back-ups and high bandwidth capability. Soon after, Squires unveiled the new DrunkDuck page layout. It quickly managed to polarize the community; the majority of users agreed that it did look more professional, but criticized it for its cluttered appearance and cutting the recently updated list down to only 5 comics. Many also complained that some of the more popular comics were being given an advantage as they were given thumbnail links in a large red window right above the recent update list.[2][3] Squires promised another update within 30 days, but upon hearing the complaints of users, the site was quickly modified to restore the recently updated list to 25. Version 1.1 also removed the thumbnail window for the most popular comics.[4]
Version 1.1 also launched a new comic browsing tool. In this release comics may be searched by genre, type, or statistical values (popularity, page count, or update frequency). The browse search tool allows the user to control all the variables to allow for targeted searches. The site now features a universal control bar at the top of all pages allowing access to favorite comics as well as the browse/search function, site store, forum, and user controls.
Version 2.0 was launched near the end of September 2006. The news about Drunkduck being bought by Platinum Studios was more evident in this extra large update. The user favorites bar previously on the left hand side of pages had been moved to the right hands side. The comic categories have increased and the icons changed. New features included a private messaging system, an integrated forum, and featured comics section on the front page. Five featured comics are displayed one by one on the front page, these comics being reviewed and chosen by an administrator. The Old PhBB forum was removed with the new integrated forum, Drunkduck users use their Drunkduck accounts to post on the forums rather than signing up for a forum username. Within the first hours of the launch of the new forum complaints poured in about the layout of yellow text on a blue background. Not too long after this was replaced with black text on a gray back.
Also new from the release of 2.0 was the homepage feature for comics. Although still being worked on, the homepage feature allows the user to give his or her comic 'main page' allowing the listing of chapters, description of the webcomic, and recommended comics from the users favorite list to be displayed. On the other hand, to emphasize it being the 'homepage' ratings for are left off and it requires users to go to the actual comic page in order to rate that particular page.
[edit] Purchase by Platinum Studios
On September 25, 2006, a New York Times article reported that Platinum Studios, a relatively young company, had purchased Drunkduck.com for an undisclosed sum. Platinum chairman, Scott Mitchell Rosenberg plans to release Platinum comic books online before they're available for print. Rosenberg's aggressive marketing for DrunkDuck will mark the first time ever that the site will be able to reach readers, which it already has by the thousands, by a means other than word-of-mouth.[5]
DrunkDuck creator Dylan Squires has been named director of software development for Platinum Studios' New Media Group. Squires is also launching Drunkduck.com version 2.0 to coincide the new purchase.
[edit] Service
In addition to free webcomic hosting, DrunkDuck also provides a default site template as well as a series of custom templates for users to choose from. Site customization however is also possible and users can upload additional files for further customization. There is also an RSS feed available for each comic a user creates.
There are no upload limits and users can upload multiple files at once at whatever date they chose. Users can also create multiple comic accounts under one username and can act as assistants to other accounts. Additionally, the account is integrated into the forums so users do not have to sign up for an additional account to participate in them. Communication between users can be achieved either through the private messaging system (known as PQ or Private Quack) or the commenting system available in each comic.
Currently all services on DrunkDuck are accessible for free.
[edit] Community
Advertised as a webcomics community, it was originally mostly run by founder Dylan Squires (Volte6) and cartoonist Chuck Rowles (Ronson.) The administration team soon expanded to include SpANG!, Black Kitty, Skoolmunkee, and Ozoneocean.
While the site has significant forums, the promised Version 2.0 upgrade in late September 2006 is said to substantially improve the community functions.
DrunkDuck is structured to provide support and feedback between artists as a means of critique and improvement, but also allows non-artists to voice opinions on all comic pages. This system is generally used for positive feedback, though the issue of differentiating between legitimate and malicious negative feedback has often been an issue.
DrunkDuck has had several small community projects throughout its span which have met with moderate success. Among the more recent are the Comic Review, a comic reviewing "system" run by the community, and Fightsplosion, a comic-fighting tournament. The most successful of the projects is the print anthology.
[edit] Anthologies
On September 2003, DrunkDuck released its first webcomic anthology entitled Drunk In Public: The DrunkDuck Collection Volume 1. It featured twenty artists on DrunkDuck who donated original comics for the publication. The main purpose of the book was to raise funds for both the site and future anthologies.
On July 2004, the second anthology entitled Drunk and Disorderly: The DrunkDuck Collection Volume 2 was released. Unlike the previous book, this anthology featured action orientated comics with longer stories.
The third anthology, titled Drunk on Laughter, was scheduled for release in late 2005, but was not released until April 2008.
[edit] Criticisms
Given its community aspect, DrunkDuck has been subjected to several complaints by its users. Most often this concerns the voting/feedback system itself as well as the quality of the comics DrunkDuck lists on its main-page display system. Most debates on these issues seem to occur within the forums.
[edit] Ranking lists
The Top List was often a sore point for DrunkDuck users. Several users had suggested in the that it be scrapped altogether to make way for a different display, such as a chronological list of updates that does not hold an implication of comparative quality. As of August 26, 2006 as part of the second wave in DrunkDuck’s summer redesign, the top list has been removed to reflect these suggestions.
The current system features a “Most Popular” list for each category, derived from individual comic traffic, and “Most Recently Updated” lists, which list the ten newest pages in each category.
All prior iterations of the list used the numerical ratings given by users to determine rank, but the formulation was altered greatly throughout DrunkDuck's existence. Rank was determined by calculating votes given by other users for a given comic account. This would eventually utilize degeneration to move non-updating comics off the front page at a variable rate. “Karma” was introduced later to give extra power to active community members, a feature that remains in the current version, though the intended purpose for it is currently unclear.
[edit] Voting system
Throughout its history, DrunkDuck's voting system has been a source of discord amongst users.[citation needed] During the periods in which votes directly affected front-page placement, there was a general fear of retaliation to low rankings. This seemingly resulted in a culture where few voters were willing to state "honest" opinions or rate anything below a perfect score. Aside from fostering an environment that stifled criticism, this state of affairs decreased the value of the Top List to accurately rank the members. Currently however, the voting system seem to have no effect on the comic's standings or rankings within the site. Instead, it is now simply a part of the commenting system, allowing users to express themselves using numerical values as opposed to actual comments.
[edit] Bugs and Security
More recently a source of frustration among members has been the various bugs found amongst the site. Various bugs and several possible security exploits have been reported to the administrators only for nothing to be done about them, even several months after their initial report. Bugs such as the cached image problems, which means updated avatars and edited comic pages are not seen by anyone unless they clear their cache, are particularly annoying, getting in the way of the primary function of the site.
