I just logged into my Smack Jeeves account for the first time in awhile, and it's completely different. They rebooted it like a Webtoons/Tapas clone, and I don't think they support the forum anymore. At least, no one's commented in it for weeks. Made me appreciate the forum here all the more!

What's everyone's thoughts on the new Smack Jeeves? Anyone active there have some insights?

Well, there was the mass exodus of refujeeves coming in here, so definitely seems that a whole lot of folks didn't like the change. There are tons of old SJ users here, so they'll prolly have much more to say on the topic than I do.

smackjeeves is a case of regretti spaghetti

cant speak for everyone but i have literally no reason to go on smackjeeves anymore. all the smackjeevers i followed (all two of them) came here, and if i want to read webtoons or tapas, i'll go on goddamn tapas or webtoons.

rest in pieces smackjeeves.

E: i feel the need to say i'm glad the refujeeves came here because there's some really cool comics that moved over here! we appreciate you. <3

this.

*pours one out for smackjeeves*

A lot of the thoughts on the new SmackJeeves design can be found towards the latter end of this thread. TL;DR - us refujeeves pretty much despise it from a creator and reader standpoint.

lol "refujeeves." I love how there's already a clever nickname for them.

I guess it's an even bigger deal than I thought.

The winter of December 2019 was dark, cold and cruel...

The whole thing just turned incredibly unappealing and ugly compared to the previous version and a lot of the features just got removed.

Yeah it was pretty devastating to a lot of us. The announcement was made with about two weeks to spare, but wasn't directly sent to every user, so you would only find out about it if you frequented the forums or if you went to the SJ homepage and saw the announcement there.

A lot of people got really screwed over. They got rid of the custom domain names, so anybody with business cards or any internet links to their comic, it now just comes back as a "this site doesn't exist!" message. It really sucked for people with massive archives (because each page is now "helpfully" renamed a "chapter," so you have folks with 1,000+ "chapters"), and for people who that was either their main site or a popular mirror that was generating revenue for them. All customization is gone so the hours people spent making their site actually look unique and match the tone of their comic were just lost.

They removed forum use, direct messaging, and personal user profiles, and additionally when you leave a comment on somebody's comic, the comments are displayed *newest first.* All of this discourages meaningful interaction between users because inter-user interaction can't be monetized as easily as "clicks" and "views." The shift was from a creator focused site that was friendly for readers to use, to being totally focused on the consumer (although even that is a worse experience than before, with the amount of intrusive ads, difficulty using the site, inability to meaningfully interact with creators).



SJ basically got taken over by really dopey, parasitic wasps that turned it into a shambling, unrecognizable and useless version of its former self

Wait, so you weren't there or even here when the Smackxodus (1) happened?
(I was busy archiving comics, greet arriving authors, write migration HOWTOs and such)

For a recap, read these Comic Fury threads:

- SmackJeeves is turning into a Tapas/Webtoon clone (original news post on Comic Fury) (2) (3)
- A warm welcome to our Smack Jeeves refugees (joke/reaction thread)
- Are any of the SmackJeeves refugees going to keep SJ as a second host? (refujeeves afterthoughts) (4)
- Smackjeeves Refugee Survival Guide (a migrants' must-read)
- Soooooooooo (the aftermath)
- Smack Jevees thoughts? (WebComicNetwork's aftermath refujeeves interview)

Actually, I got the news from the first link, in the same day that it was posted (I was reading Comic Fury forum at the time).

I have also personally written my review of the site post-changeover as a reader too, closing with mourning song; as I lost 1200+ comics I followed there. Now I no longer browse or read comics on Smack Jeeves.

And perspective from Smack Jeeves' side:

- NHN Announcement (its original version was also not telling the exact changeover date for the site)
- RIP Smackjeeves (the forum thread's pre-changeover URL is different)

Also external perspective:

- SmackJeeves Outrage causes MASS EXODUS from site, WebComicNetwork
- Sad day for Smack Jeeves and Smackdown on Quackjeeves, on Drunk Duck
- What are your opinions on the Smackjeeves changes? on Tapastic forum
- Free Jeeves from the tyranny of NHN, freejeeves.com
- Help, I want to make a new webcomic, how do I start? on Leif & Thorn webcomic (scroll down to the Smack Jeeves section)

And the ultimate outcome, one year later:

- Smack Jeeves' closedown notice (archived version) posted 1 Nov 2020, 11-month after the changover. (5)

And you could listen to the "yikes" from individual refujeeves too, by visiting Comic Fury's Introductions forum.

In a retrospect, it is fascinating to see that Smackxodus generated four pages of introduction threads at once, and this is not even the end of it yet...

Note that there's a gap between the original NHN announcement (~19 Nov 2019) and the first refujeeves in the Introductions forum (22 Nov 2019), as people from Smack Jeeves were rushing here to migrate their comics en-masse (very understandable) resulted in a massive traffic surge that brought Comic Fury offline, before @Kyo could summon COLO POWER from the ever-reluctant DreamHost to bring it back up again.

Once the site was back, here comes a breakdown of thread starts in Comic Fury Introductions forum, annotated with FuryTown standard time (GMT), listed in forward chronological order, counting only refujeeves threads...

22 Nov 2019:
- 20:35 @Narfwin
23 Nov 2019:
- 23:58 @OujaAkuma
(...Skip...)
25 Nov 2019:
- 01:32 @jellyfishin
(...Skip...)
27 Nov 2019:
- 02:29 @Israel
- 20:52 @Nekomata
28 Nov 2019:
- 01:32 @Firefly Jelly
29 Nov 2019:
- 20:32 @borzoiteeth
(...Skip...)
1 Dec 2019:
- 19:25 @Lampette
2 Dec 2019:
- 01:31 @NeroIntruder
- 22:06 @Sol Kage
3 Dec 2019: The Changeover Date
- 02:45 @JR Gervais
- 20:34 @InkyDoc
- 21:29 @DoctorGlasgow
- 22:27 @HeikeHowl
- 22:40 @TwigTwiggy
- 23:08 @Saeya
- 23:25 @Seven Rain
4 Dec 2019:
- 00:34 @ObviousParakeet
- 02:23 @blissybuu
- 02:30 @Lord Enigma
- 05:46 @Mundius
- 08:03 @DemonLouie
- 08:50 @Skoolar
- 14:47 @-JoKeR-
- 17:21 @Dadaph
- 18:08 @Shatl
- 20:45 @ShinigamiMaxwell
- 21:42 @BrandonH722
- 21:56 @GamerMom
- 22:45 @W.Wpickledeggs
- 23:53 @BlackEyedMass
5 Dec 2019:
- 00:43 @Lazyanon
- 02:44 @SanjanaIndica
- 03:53 @SaraElizabeth-J
- 06:24 @antibunny
- 07:56 @Martina McKenzie
- 09:17 @TC.
- 12:00 @StanleyComics
- 14:40 @KuKuruYo
- 15:32 @JustCamTro
- 19:10 @Daz Keaty
- 23:15 @Zarzaliel
6 Dec 2019:
- 00:37 @Algaire
- 03:45 @Yaaboa!
- 04:18 @eyugho
- 04:36 @Zyephen
- 05:13 @Tehpikachu
- 08:31 @StrangeLegos
- 09:34 @ReagentNein
- 11:57 @KidCthulhu
- 15:04 @Comrade Musk
- 20:17 @calmcnichols
- 22:33 @Squirreltastic-Blue
7 Dec 2019:
- 19:21 @TheGreatGBA
(...Skip...)
9 Dec 2019:
- 03:34 @Kittiebat
- 16:12 @marcorossi
- 17:35 @TimeSceo
- 18:47 @JitterbugJive
- 21:43 @ryank119
10 Dec 2019:
- 00:27 @CrayonQueen
- 00:41 @Kadew
- 19:45 @Xander Dark
(...Skip...)
14 Dec 2019:
- 17:03 @Marcianek
(...Skip...)
19 Dec 2019:
- 16:24 @Candralar
18 Dec 2019:
- 07:49 @Punchy
(...Skip...)
20 Dec 2019:
- 04:53 @MayelV
(...Skip...)
22 Dec 2019:
- 09:59 @FourString
(...Skip...)
29 Dec 2019:
- 18:18 @Annoyedaquarius
(...Skip...)
2 Jan 2020:
- 18:10 @SpaceRailroad
3 Jan 2020:
- 03:19 @SteamThief
- 08:48 @Reapeageddon
- 10:19 @smee440
4 Jan 2020:
- 23:23 @xkma4 (a.k.a. @ikma-studio)
(...Skip...)
9 Jan 2020:
- 00:09 @GrimmVisage
(...Skip...)
11 Jan 2020:
- 09:41 @Evildraws
(...Skip...)
13 Jan 2020:
- 22:59 @Annausagi2
(...Skip...)
24 Jan 2020:
- 22:37 @Valigarmander
(...Skip...)
10 Feb 2020:
- 04:04 @KatsuTG
(...Skip...)
23 Feb 2020:
- 07:30 @Grummancat
(...Skip...)
30 Mar 2020:
- 19:46 @Erokuso
(...Skip...)
30 Apr 2020:
- 20:43 @Chris_chris
(...Skip...)
9 May 2020:
- 03:30 @sebastianseancrow
(...Skip...)
19 May 2020:
- 05:44 @00Stevo
(...Skip...)
15 Jun 2020:
- 07:59 @TrinitySilph
(...Skip...)
17 Jun 2020:
- 18:41 @XerneaYggdrasil
(...Skip...)
1 Nov 2020: Smack Jeeves Closedown Announcement Date
(...Skip...)
12 Nov 2020:
- 03:17 @Ozone
(...Skip...)
19 Nov 2020:
- 11:06 @Lunar-Turtle
- 13:51 @NonnieGrey
(...Skip...)
24 Nov 2020:
- 00:10 @mitchellbravo
(...Skip...)
30 Nov 2020:
- 18:34 @bharts
(...Skip...)
13 Dec 2020:
- 02:37 @Toono
(...Skip...)
31 Dec 2020: Last Day of NHN Smack Jeeves
(...Skip...)
4 Jan 2021:
- 03:39 @TheSinkBoy1
(...Skip...)
13 Jan 2021:
- 00:05 @aajungroth
14 Jan 2021:
- 10:09 @Katt McAdam

^ Total 68 refujeeves introduction threads at the time that this was originally posted in 1 Jan 2020 (now 94 threads as of 29 Jan 2021); and do not count the heads yet, since it is not the end of migration by a long shot; and not every refujeeves made introduction thread (I could confirm this as I follow comics made by several of them).

Now I dare say that December 2019 is the busiest month of Introductions forum in the entire Comic Fury history, and may be the largest Comic Fury's "membership drive" too.

-----

(1) Many people call 12/3 Smack Jeeves changeover as "Smack Jeeves Exodus"; @Kyo called it "The Event", while some people (including me) call it "Smackxodus", or "The event of Smackxodus".

(2) In this thread, @Kyo jokingly dubbed his own Smack Jeeves to Comic Fury layout converter effort a "shameless war profiteering" LOL.

(3) @jellyfishin's post there (20 Nov 2019, 01:57) marked the first use of the term "SmackJeeves refugee" on Comic Fury forum. (@Kyo was the first to say just "refugee" however; on 20 Nov 2019, 01:50)

(4) @deo101's post there (3 Dec 2019, 23:11) marked the first use of the term "refujeeves" on Comic Fury forum, as a shorthand for "SmackJeeves refugee".

(5) Mentioned by @Ngamer01 on this very thread (at 3 Nov 2020, 16:30).

-----

Updates
2 Jan 2020: Adding footnote (3) and (4) on origins of the term "SmackJeeves refugee" and "refujeeves"
3 Jan 2020: Correcting footnote (3) on origin of the term "SmackJeeves refugee" (and the first mention of "refugee" as a reference to this influx of new members), also adding detailed time to footnote (4) and more refujeeves introduction threads as they come
5, 9, 11, and 15 Jan 2020: Adding more refujeeves introduction thread(s) as they come
16 Jan 2020: Adding link to WebComicNetwork's refujeeves interview thread
25 Jan 2020, 15/25 Feb 2020, 2 Jul 2020, 12 Nov 2020: Adding more refujeeves introduction thread as they come
20 Nov 2020: Adding more refujeeves introduction threads as they come, adding final Smack Jeeves closedown notice link.
24 Nov 2020, 5 Dec 2020: Adding more refujeeves introduction threads as they come.
13 Dec 2020: Adding more refujeeves introduction thread as they come, marking Smack Jeeves closedown announcement date on the refugees' timeline.
4 Jan 2021: Adding more refujeeves introduction thread as they come, marking Smack Jeeves' last day on the refugees' timeline.
13/29 Jan 2021: Adding more refujeeves introduction threads as they come.

xwindows, thank you for curating all of this information.

the influx of users on cf after smackjeeves simply announced the change was so big that cf went DOWN

edit: i just saw xwindows got that part but it's worth saying again

I finally finished porting my 1215 pages chapters from SmackJeeves yesterday. I posted a farewell message on SmackJeeves and do not plan on ever going back...

(...except maybe to read the two titles I can't find anywhere else)

Thanks again for being such a welcoming community, CF. It is truly appreciated.

Huh, that's interesting. According to those posts, NHN had approached Drunk Duck before, but backed down when Drunk Duck was standing their ground in their website principles. It sounds like the SJ admin might not have been as good at reading the fine print at the negotiation table.

My friend CEF and I bailed on Smackjeeves back when they got bought in the first place, though we left because of a potential threat to Intellectual Property over sacrificing individuality and such.
I had my fingers crossed by CEF has been sitting here insisting things would go south.
Lo and behold it did! Just took 'em a year.

I deleted my comic and my account from Smack Jeeves today. I finished moving my comic over here a couple of weeks ago, and I left it up on Smack Jeeves just so anyone who takes a look at it could see that it had moved. Now I have washed my hands of the place and have no reason to go back as most of the comics I followed have either moved here or have moved to their own site.

Somehow, my Smackxodus curation in this thread broke my record of "likes" I got in single post. Don't know that you guys loved after-the-fact recap so much.

^ On a serious note: the main reason I spent so much effort on documenting this, is the fact that Smackxodus did not get news coverage on the interweb as much as it should have. (Unless you used correct keywords, it won't even come up in your average web search anymore)

Now, as your local FuryTown historian (1), I dug a bit further and issued an update on the origins of "SmackJeeves refugee" and "refujeeves" terms, together with newcoming refujeeves introduction threads as they come.

Enjoy living the history, folks.

-----

(1) Fun fact: this is the second time I called myself a FuryTown historian. The first time is when I interviewed news source while I was researching about the mystery of $ELLOUT POWER.

SmackJeeves, NEVER trying to hide smaller webcomics? That is so funny.

From my point of view, SmackJeeves mostly cared about the big guns that were so popular like Gloomverse, Ingress, Ennui Go!, and all the other stuff that have already reached mass popularity. I appreciate them giving some comics spotlights, however there was only quite a handful that were underrated iirc. Heck, I even saw Gloomverse spotlighted there at one point. Gloomverse is really good, yeah, but in my eyes, I don't think it needs the help of the SJ admins in order to strive.

Note how the site made you look at the most popular comics, and then the spotlights. Comic that were recently released are in the THIRD tab. It's like newbies were less than the already popular and influential! At least here in ComicFury, you get to see the latest first, with "Popular Now!" and "Popular overall!" being second and third.

With SmackJeeves becoming a soulless, failing corporate entity, and the Smaxodus happening, everyone who has moved here has an equal footing with the rest now. Sure, they may get a lot more subscriptions, but they won't have their comic constantly being shown in the main site, at least not until you click the Popular tags.

It's sort of a fair and equal game for everyone now, I guess. I'm so glad I moved here.

The SJ's spotlight'd always confused me.
Because to even get it, SOMEONE ELSE had to nominate your comics on a special forum thread. Then it was reviewed by the admins... So you ALREADY had to be somewhat popular to have readers dedicated enough to set whole procedure into motion. THEN you had to fit within admins' tastes (or be chosen on a basis of fitting within the site's profile/agenda).

TL;DR: SJ's SPOTLIGHT -> a way to make a less-but-still-popular comics more popular(?)