r/questionablecontent • u/RhododendronWilliams • 8d ago
WTF is this?
This popped up when I first got on the site, and then again when I opened another comic.
Doesn't he have merch and a Patreon? I honestly think all art pages should avoid ads, because they mess with the visual experience.
You can click "continue without supporting us", if you notice it in the small print on the bottom. But you have to do it every time you look at a different strip. Great way to make people avoid your page.
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u/duranbing 8d ago
This has happened before and was something Jeph didn't realise was added to the site I'm pretty sure. He sorted it after people let him know on twitter.
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u/Overkillsamurai 8d ago
heh. ya'll need better adblocks. i didn't get this popup
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u/CFrosty10 8d ago
uBlock?
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u/Overkillsamurai 8d ago
that's one of them
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u/The_Truthkeeper 8d ago
I can't imagine needing more than uBO.
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u/CatlikeTypist Haha, okay. 7d ago
I use a combination of Librewolf with strict filtering turned on, uBlock Origin, and PrivacyBadger. I never see ads of any kind, even on Youtube, and the few sites that try to shame me into turning off protection get put on the "never visit again" list.
The fact that a site wants me to turn off the tools I use to safely browse the web and avoid malware and hacking attempts, tells me they are probably attempting to inject something nasty into my browser. Even if they aren't trying to do that, they are using the same language and dark patterns that actual malicious actors use, so they get lumped in with them. Do stuff in an evil way, get categorized as evil.
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u/Stormborn_Apostle I Hate Femto 8d ago
He's not exactly a starving artist.
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u/Rumer_Mille_001 8d ago
Just remember that these sites that post supposed net worth of celebrities, artists, etc., are never accurate, and tend to very sharply over-estimate the actual amounts earned. Do any of us really believe Jeph is making nearly $275,000 annually from this comic?
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u/SkeletonBirdcages 8d ago
It’s based off of his monthly patreons, which 100% can’t be guaranteed but also yes he does make quite a bit of money off of it.
That being said, he lives in NS (as do i) and we are one of the highest taxed provinces in Canada. Given that this is his job, he definitely isn’t keeping that at the end of the day/month/year. Probably losing about 40%.
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u/Bronek0990 Haha, okay. 6d ago
That's still a 6 figure job, after tax, and he gets lazy about that. holy hell
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u/MacForker 8d ago
Yes. Those aren't guesses they're based off the publicly available Patreon subscriber numbers.
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u/VegetableStop2831 8d ago
Even if it's a grossly estimated number, cut it in half then. Not sure what Canadian taxes are like and all of that, but at $137k for putting out 5 strips a week is a pretty good gig. Far more than I'm making in my "9 to 5".
On the thread topic, asking for donations when making that kind of cash is ridiculous.
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u/MacForker 8d ago
It's a decent gig for sure. Not saying Jeph doesn't work hard for the art, but there are worse jobs that pay $137k after taxes :)
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u/VegetableStop2831 8d ago
Especially given he's completely digital and has years of layers (backgrounds specifically) to reuse which cuts down considerably on time.
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u/CatlikeTypist Haha, okay. 7d ago
This has nothing to do with Jeph or QC, but that site is absolutely creepy. Right across from the entry for the TrueAnon podcast (apparently an anti-pedo-elite podcast, cool) is a banner for one of Graphtreon's sponsors, called "Young & Naughty". That's fucking disgusting and a really weird placement. Plus it's not from an ad network which is why I can see it at all; I could of course block the element in uBO, but after seeing that I'm never visiting that website again so I won't even bother. Ugh.
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u/Kataphractoi 8d ago
Clicking around there, I see a fair number of names I recognize and goddamn. Like, I'm happy they're making a good income off their art or podcasts doing something they love(?), but at the same time I'm like here I put on my clown suit and go to my 9-5 that pays in a year less than some of these guys make in a month.
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u/Perscitus0 8d ago
The ads are on the bottom of the page, below the comics, so I personally don't notice them unless I scroll too far below the comic itself. It's rather unobtrusive in this case.
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u/Larkson9999 8d ago
If you buy even one shirt or other relatively priced merch from an artist, even with the cost of the item, they make maybe $2-3 which is like viewing 100,000 ads for them.
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u/ArterialRed 7d ago
It's a reminder to keep your adblock up to date and not trust adblockers that claim there are "acceptable ads".
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u/FluorescentLightbulb 8d ago
I don’t get this and have no ad blocker. It’d be hilarious if this was targeted at all the trolls in this sub haha.
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u/Embarrassed_Fox5265 8d ago
I don't mind ads if they are small and unobtrusive. For many years Order of the Stick was the only webcomics page where I allowed ads because Rich Burlew had a very strict policy on what ads were allowed:
1) They must fit in the small banner space he allocated at the very top and bottom of the screen.
2) They must be family friendly.
3) They must not be animated.
This resulted in ads that were appropriate to the site. Eventually he was forced to switch to a Patreon model because Google stopped policing their advertising content. Animated ads, pornographic ads, and ads that would attempt to break out of the banner became more and more common until he was forced to find an alternative solution.