How do you prefer to read webcomics?

[Bekka]

I prefer to read my favorite comics periodically, so that I have several strips' worth of stuff to go through. That's because I think it does a comic more justice to read the strips in sequence, even pure gag comics have mini-storylines. If a comic is serious and builds an atmosphere it makes even more sense to me to read it in big chunks.

[Forevergrey]

Whats a webcomic?

But really, I go through a rapid motion of typing urls one after another in opened Firefox tabs, flipping through and closing each as I go about doing other things. I pretty much read them while wating for other pages to load, or a lull in the IRC buzz.

[Rkolter]

Question: "How do you prefer to read webcomics?"

Answer: Now, we will assume that I've already woken up, gotten to work, and am just sitting down at my desk. It's about 6:30am. From that point:

I turn on my monitor.

The scanning device in my monitor takes the video signal from my computer (generated via a digital-to-analog converter) and displays the computer's desktop on my screen.

The light from the monitor reaches my eyes, where it is inverted and projected on my retina. My retina then converts the signal back to digital and transmits it to the visual cortex of my brain.

My brain then reads the incoming signal from my eyes and makes sense of it (we're still working on the details of that).

My brain, now understanding what is being displayed, commands my right hand to move my mouse.

The mouse's movement is tracked via an LED that shines through a wheel inside the mouse with many tiny holes in it. The alternating pattern of 'on' and 'off' flashes of light is converted into X and Y coordinates and transmitted through the mouse's tail back to the computer.

The computer recognizes the mouse has moved, and moves the cursor, changing the data in vram, which in turn is transmitted through the DAC to the scanning unit inside the monitor, displayed inverted in my retina, retranslated to digital, and recognized by my brain. My brain commands my eyes to track the mouse cursor.

When the mouse cursor is over Internet Explorer, my brain commands my right hand to stop moving the mouse, and instead, double-click the left mouse button two times in rapid succession.

The clicks are transmitted to the computer. Windows 2000 recognizes that signal as a command to open whatever application whose icon sits at the X,Y coordinates the mouse cursor currently occupies.

The computer opens internet explorer. This process takes aproximately three hundred commands, which take less than a microsecond. The computer has to wait for the hard drive to access the drive, and finally, Internet Explorer opens up.

The computer sends the new information to vram where the DAC translates it to analog and sends it to the monitor. The monitor's scanning unit scans the new data to the screen, it's image is projected inverted onto my retina, where it's retranslated into digital and sent to my brain.

My brain commands the right hand to move the mouse to the 'Personal' folder of my favorites, and click one time.

The mouse sends the click signal to the computer, which in turn recognizes that Internet Explorer is the currently active window, and sends the command to the program. IE recognizes the X,Y coordinates of the mouse, and upon determining that the location the mouse is over is a favorites folder, opens the folder and displays the contents.

The new display data is sent to vram, converted by the DAC and sent to the screen, sent to my retina (inverted) etcetera.

My brain then commands the right hand to move the mouse to my 'Comics' folder underneath 'Personal', and click on the 'Comics' folder one time.

The mouse sends the click signal to the computer, which in turn recognizes that Internet Explorer is the currently active window, and sends the command to the program. IE recognizes the X,Y coordinates of the mouse, and upon determining that the location the mouse is over is a favorites folder, opens the folder and displays the contents.

The new display data is sent to vram, converted by the DAC and sent to the screen, sent to my retina (inverted) etcetera.

My brain then commands the right hand to move the mouse to the first comic in the comics folder, and click it.

The command is sent to Internet Explorer, which recognizes the mouse location as being over a favorite entry. It verifies connectivity to the internet, and then requests the IP address of the URL I have listed in that favorites entry. It works with the networking components on my system to request and receive the data from the comic's internet location, which it then displays to the screen.

The new display data is sent to vram, converted by the DAC and sent to the screen, sent to my retina (inverted) etcetera.

Finally, my brain commands my eyes to scan the comic, while accessing and using reading skills from my childhood. The visual cortex processes the data and then sends out action potentials to other portions of my brain.

At some point, I begin to laugh or giggle.

Repeat the process for each comic on the list.

I hope this answers your question. Thank you for writing!

[Helixdq]

gah, information overload !

[Cortland]

I read most of my comic using Thunderbird's RSS reader and comicalert.com.

[McDuffies]

Before, I was always reading several comics daily, and when I'd get bored with those, I'd change comics. Nowadays, I just wait for them to pile up and "Hey, it's been a time since I've read that..."

[Czar]

I'm not a very organized person, but I've got a system, it's not necessarily a good system, but the system works.

Originally I had my webcomics all piled up in one folder of my bookmarks, and I'd read them as they updated.
Then I had to many comics bookmarked, so I moved them into subfolders, one for each weekday as well as one folder of dailies. The comics were movded and placed into these mostly according to update schedules, but some were placed randomly.
I also use Firefox, so I can open an entire subfolder at a time.
If a comic hasn't updated, I can move past it.

When I get some free time on my hands, I've got a .txt full of comics I've yet to read, or which I am currently reading the archives of.
One problem is that several comics occur more than once on the list, but that's not a big problem.

[The Neko]

I just have a bookmark list on my links bar that says "comics". I just go through the ones that I know should have an update that day.

[Vorticus]

Bookmarks and my memory, I only read the ones I know update on a certain day. The erratic ones I check more often.

[NotoriousMEQ]

I tend to read a LOT of story based comics, so I ignore their updating schedules, and then check back every month or when I'm in the mood for a particular comic and see what's happened while I was gone. They just read better when taken in chunks, and it's how I prefer to read. I get anxious with daily cliffhangers, or bored. Both are irritating.

Some comics I do read daily, or when they update, because they are ANNOYING. Like Scary Go Round. If I forget to bookmark the last page I read, it's nearly impossible to find my place if I come back.

NEVER, ever, ever forget to do a calendar page for your archives and make sure the visited link color is different from the regular link color.

And use an lj community or mailing list to tell people when you update, too. Story based comics can use these to tell people when chapters finish or big chunks of comic go up.

-Megs

[Orion]

I'm an addict, when I first have prolonged computer access during the day I will sit down for 30 minutes to an hour and check all my comics, even those that don't update that day. I simply flick by if I see it hasn't updated, it's easier than remembering update schedules. Although it can get ridiculous, I still check cup of suffering every day.

[Faub]

I made a page that lists all the comics I've looked at with links and when they generally update. Then I mindlessly go down the list and check each comic in the "updating" sections and open them in a new tab in Firefox if they're supposed to have updated today.

Comics like Tales of the Questor sometimes update twice a week, even though I have it listed as Sunday only. It just means I get two comics for looking once. On the other hand, I have Elsie Hooper listed as MWF and it rarely updates that often anymore. I think it's down to once a month or something.

http://stripedb.freeshell.org/index.php?f=comics

[Paul.Power]

I... uh... just remember what days the webcomics I read update on.

Well, it's a little more complex that that. I have, set as my homepage in Firefox, seven different tabs. One of these springs up with Ozy and Millie, my favourite webcomic, and I tend to use that tab to browse webcomics in. Basically, I look at my favourites list and go "Right, which ones update today?" First of all, there are the dailies, then the ones that update two or three times a week, and so on.

[Tehmatthewj]

i have firefox, so i have a folder with all the comics i read on the bookmark bar. right click, open in tabs, and all my comics start loading at once. sure, it takes longer, but then i can just click right through the whole list to see who has updated, news posts, etc. i'm generally bored a lot, so even though i know there won't be updates, i check at least once a day anyway. go me.

[Kris X]

Rkolter has too much time on his hands.

o-O *Chases the light*

[Ian Moulding]

I organized all the webcomics I visit into folders, based on when they update (Dailies, M-W-F, T-Th-Sat, Sundays, Weeklies Other Than Sunday, Monthlies). Then I visit them all every single day, just to feed my Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder.

[Rkolter]

Rkolter has too much time on his hands.

o-O *Chases the light*

GAHHH! *floats away in a panic*

[Leko]

Rkolter has too much time on his hands.

o-O *Chases the light*

GAHHH! *floats away in a panic*

Hehe! Somehow, I never pictured the verb 'float' as a particularly fast action...

[Phact0rri]

I dont check comics daily, or even weekly. What I do is browse archives when I want to read a comic and catch up then won't look at the comic again for a few months.

I spend all my free time on forums and chat. like I have time to check comics everyday as well!

[Czar]

I'm an addict, when I first have prolonged computer access during the day I will sit down for 30 minutes to an hour and check all my comics, even those that don't update that day. I simply flick by if I see it hasn't updated, it's easier than remembering update schedules. Although it can get ridiculous, I still check cup of suffering every day.

Pfft. You call that being an addict?
In that case I'm an OD.

I organized all the webcomics I visit into folders, based on when they update (Dailies, M-W-F, T-Th-Sat, Sundays, Weeklies Other Than Sunday, Monthlies). Then I visit them all every single day, just to feed my Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder.

Now, that's addiction.

You may kill me once I've finished checking todays comics.