Bittersweet Candy Bowl Forums

Announcing Mix March Madness 2013 Seeding Round! | ComicMix

Hey guys look BCB's up for the running for this toune-a-ment

You should all vote

I just got done. Bittersweet now has 60 votes.

oops. seems that i accidentally voted for Goblins

Ava's Demon is kicking ass. No surprise there...

The seeding round isn't over until tomorrow night at Midnight. But once it is you will need to vote for your favorites every few days as the rounds progress. And if you really like BCB, you can donate some money to charity to give them extra votes.

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and the only other two webcomics i'm a fan of aren't even on the list

Then you could suggest them and they will add them to the list.

i have a suggestion for you

Why not, my suggestion got accepted and it's a pretty obscure comic. Glad Power Nap is on there too, I didn't think it would be as it's only four chapters in and updates irregularly.

Surprised to see BCB jump so quickly, although I'm sure that has something to do with the author promoting the vote.

How the shit did I forgot to vote for Questionable Content? Oh well, at least I voted for the other ones I like

Wait you pay for votes now? So you could just invest $100 bucks and get 1000 votes? Seems kinda cheated.

Also, is there a way to vote once without donating? Everything seems to indicate so but I can't find an obvious link or button... Maybe I'm just blind. Oh, it's Thursday. Voting must've already ended.

This post has been edited by Migrant: 07 March 2013 - 11:48 AM

Your first vote is free.
But you may donate money to the charity to give extra votes to your choices.

BCB has secured itself a seed in this competition, sitting at 11th most voted for in the seeding round. Just remember to check back every few days to vote for it and your favorites when the new rounds are posted.*

*I am still waiting for the brackets to go live as of this moment.

This post has been edited by DLancer: 07 March 2013 - 05:02 PM

Mix March Madness 2013 Webcomics Tournament Round 1! Vote Now! | ComicMix

Hey guys! Round Two is up! Let's keep this going!

Round 1, technically. Ha/ir.

It looks like you need a facebook to vote from now on as they are using an outside service called Opinion Stage. The setup is extremely cumbersome, but you only need to for one comic, so go do it, NOW.

You have an option for anonymous voting, should you need it and can still buy 10 extra votes at $1.

And as of right now, BCB has 84 votes to Boumeries' 83. Let's do something about that!

This post has been edited by DLancer: 09 March 2013 - 04:40 PM

I broke the 90-90 tie.

Round 3

I think BCB should be able to creep into the elite eight. It's just straight up juggernaut match-ups from then on out. I think Lackadaisy will make it out of the Washington division. Ava's Demon is a blatant final four pick. Kubert div is kind of a toss up, but xkcd seems pretty dominant. For BCB to knock off Homestuck, though, I think most if not all the fans that are able to vote need to be on board.

I always like to root for that one Cinderella team, which in this case is "Redtail's Dream," but I dunno...the comic from a glance looks like a cross between Brother Bear and Ginga Nagareboshi Gin.

This post has been edited by Purin: 14 March 2013 - 07:07 PM

I agree that BCB is likely to make it through to the fifth round, then be decimated by Homestuck.

Did you know that I had never heard of Ava's Demon before this thread? I tried reading some of it, but it just didn't seem to grab me.

Voting ends 9pm EDT Saturday. Use your facebook, and if you got a twitter, you can also use that to vote as well.

Most recent count shows BCB by 11 votes. This will be a nail biter all the way until the end.

Except that Medusa guy is being pretty Thunty and someone on his front page says they donated votes for him. I guess those will come in after the real votes are counted

The paid votes are added as they are (manually) processed

How Modest of them.

Mix March Madness Webcomics Tournament Sweet 16! Vote now! | ComicMix

Through to Round 4

Well, there goes our dream of losing to Homestuck.

SuitCase, on 18 March 2013 - 10:51 PM, said:

bcb vs sandra and woo in the finals

Ha, I thought the Homestuck fandom would pick up on the voting, but I guess not. Then again, the author of Modest Medusa was wrong on both counts: he thought his own comic would be matched up with Cucumber Quest.

EDIT: I should probably read the comments first. Homestuck actually was slightly ahead of Unsounded, before the paid votes were tabulated. Same with Modest Medusa and BCB. Now that I've read the discussion, I feel the contest might be more fair if paid votes were removed altogether, and the vote totals not reported during the voting period. For the record, I myself have not voted beyond the initial seeding round, nor have I paid for any votes.

This post has been edited by wacko: 19 March 2013 - 04:40 PM

It's for a good cause though, albeit on a broken system. As long as you support your comics and perhaps discover new ones, thats all that can really be expected.

This post has been edited by Purin: 19 March 2013 - 07:41 PM

wacko, on 19 March 2013 - 03:23 PM, said:

keep in mind you can actually cheat the voting system without donations. you can easily vote twice with both a twitter and a facebook, and you could just keep making more twitter accounts.

at least with vote donations money is going to charity. there's more to dedication of a fanbase than who's willing to register the most twitter accounts to vote.

If it's true that people can still vote twice or more if they were so inclined, then that's not really any better than people who vote from different devices with different IP addresses. In which case I would wonder about the utility of voting for anything at all online. (Note to politicians: this is why you should never allow online voting in elections.)

SpaceMouse said:

Or who's willing to purchase the most votes in order to ensure their comic wins.

I suppose in the end, even if it's all rather a pointless exercise, it's still optional and the money does go to charity. And it does provide some exposure; I know I checked out a couple of unfamiliar comics because of it.

Last time I checked round 3 it was 49% BCB 51% [OTHERCOMIC]. Looks like someone made the push for the last 20 votes because it's round 4

(And Weregeek is getting curb stomped at 38% :3)

Elite 8 of March Madness Comics

Some ppl had problems seeing this round in the archives, so just posting it here. There's some pretty solid comics in the running still.

Oooo girls with slingshots. That's a long running one with a decently large fanfase of lesbians. I mean, yeah no probably lesbians.

That being said I used to read it for some reason until my virus scanner decided it didn't like that website.

There were two recent instances of their servers being fubared by some nastything. I have been waiting for the story with Hazel/taxiguy to progress. And yeah, you're definitely right on that fanbase.

Once more unto the storm goes the Bowl, for it taketh no pris'ner!

This post has been edited by DLancer: 22 March 2013 - 10:46 AM

60% BCB to 40% Girls with slingshots.

Rather looks like BCB is heading for the semi-finals.

Edit: For those that can't find the link: Vote Here

This post has been edited by Anialator: 25 March 2013 - 04:43 PM

BCB 46% and A Redtail's Dream 54%. Lets get voting, guys!

Looks like Redtail's Dream has been getting about 340 - 360 votes per round, with BCB reaching about 380 - 400 per round. I think we have a pretty hot chance of getting second place. (since I expect Sandra + Woo is gonna take first) Still, being voted as one of the top two comics has gotta be some pretty hot advertising. :3

If we win the competition I will draw a wallpaper picture of Sandra and Woo

Plenty of discussion about BCB in the comments. A little controversy may spur some people to take a closer look at the comic. Some won't find it to their taste, but others might. You can't really lose with that type of exposure.

no god i hate it hate it hate it hate it hate it

this is exactly why i was sort of hoping BCB would get demolished by homestuck and would just quietly die in one of the earlier rounds but it's in the final four what the hell and even though i'm really flattered i'm also really shitting myself and feeling super miserable????

because these contests always get really super vicious and people start shit-talking against other comics that they deem "undeserving" and bcb's just some random dumb comic and i don't want it to win but at the same time it really does make me feel quite honoured that people have pushed it that far and i don't wanna be against that??? i don't know how to feel about it all i just don't want people to hate me it's not like i've been sitting around whoring the comic and forcing everyone to vote it just happened oh my god

why can't people just like comics and vote for their favourite comics and not be shits to other people in such a dumb popularity contest i mean seriously i really hate it and i can't go to the site and look at what's going on because i'm frightened as shit and i hate that people are being apparently shitty????? i just want to die i hate this

i just want to drink acid and curl up in bed and die

i think the advantage of BCB getting into 2nd place (I really hope Ava's Demon wins) at this point is that it can be removed from future contests like gunnerkrigg and goblins and that's seriously what i'm hoping for because i don't know if i'm going to be able to deal with this next year

well, it's easy to see why you're upset and anxious, but everything will be fine in the end. like you said, it's just a silly popularity contest, a contest most of the hot-headed people will forget about after a day or two.

@Taeshi: I'm going to use my very first post in the forum to hopefully cheer you up . Let me know if any of this starts sounding bad to you.

"All four of these comics are great, IMO. I have read BSCB and Ava’s Demon pretty regularly in the past, and just started getting into Sandra and Woo and A Redtail’s Dream because of this tournament. Whoever wins deserves it, IMO, these are four of the best uh, “mid-majors” and exactly the kinds of comics that should be winning this tournament." -KGN

"I like all the remaining comics quite considerably, but BSCB has been a longtime favorite for me. I noticed a lot of posts the last round talking about how they didn’t understand how BSCB has gotten so far, who the comic caters to, and so forth.
...
BSCB for me scratches a certain itch that I can’t scratch with anything else, comic-wise. It’s the sort of comic that lets you indulge in your own emotions and drama, the sort of thing that we’ve been taught to let go of or suppress as adults. I wouldn’t call it “female social gossip – the comic” as much as I’d call it “high school drama – the comic”.

It isn’t that I want to relive my high school drama, god knows I had enough of that. But there aren’t many venues where we can see people talking about their emotions and feelings openly, and I think being able to live that way makes me feel kind of envious. I like it for the same reason I like to watch Glee — it’s a guilty pleasure, but secretly, I can connect with a lot of the characters’ heartache and loss and happiness and everything that is the swirl of that time of your life.

BSCB is, I think, the most “human” of these comics, despite there not being a single human in it. I think that resonates with a lot of people. It’s indulgent, but a little indulgence can be a good thing." K-Ten


"I like Bittersweet Candy Bowl because I can relate to the characters AND try to analyze what they are going to do next. There are situations that would easily be resolved if the characters were just honest with themselves, but that is not always the case in this comic or in real life.

All the various twists and turns the characters take make the story seem more interesting and in a way more real. If you had any idea what my high school experience was like, then you would understand why I said that.

I think I will finish by saying: Not everything is black and white… life can be quite colorful as well." -this one was what I posted with my facebook account .

POINT IS NOT EVERYONE IS TALKING TRASH ABOUT THIS COMIC NOR DO THEY AUTOMATICALLY HAVE TO FALL IN LOVE WITH THE STORY... in fact Sordy, Esn, and Ajedi32 are the only ones that said they didn't like Bittersweet Candy Bowl. Sordy only read one chapter and proceeded to say "I am 55 years old and twice widowed – Maybe that will explain why I don’t get BSCB. It is like torture!" -Sordy Yeah that would explain why Sordy didn't like a comic filled with romance and heartbreak .

"BSCB, by contrast has too much drama and duplicity for me to be comfortable with." -Esn... I guess a comic filled with drama was not Esn's cup of tea.

"I haven’t read Bittersweet Candy Bowl, but the first 20 or so pages of it make it seem like the whole comic is about nothing more than a bunch of cats and dogs gossiping about each other. (Sorry if that’s not a fair assessment, but like I said I don’t really read that comic.)" -Ajedi32 ... I don't really think that is a fair assessment... in fact I'm curious about how that conclusion was reached.

Taeshi I like your story very much but that does not mean everyone else will like it as well. They also don't have to automatically hate it with a passion. Umm, yay for honesty?

This post has been edited by Supertails: 26 March 2013 - 12:18 PM

Oh I know people don't have to like comics, that's fine. I always just assume the worst and I just remember how vicious people were last year when it was Gunnerkrigg against Goblins, which is what I'm really scared of. It's not a case of "Oh I'm not a fan of the comic because ____" it's more the fear of "Why does THIS comic have to last so long, it isn't good! This other comic is much better!" because in that case it's something I cannot control and cannot really do anything about.

I just fear that whole football team allegiance that always seems to happen with these kinds of things, akin to Topwebcomics.

I tend to steer clear from comments sections of foreign areas because I know I will always overreact and panic over wanting to be better and wanting to improve and to please everyone even though it's an impossible goal, but because I ignore comments sections I'm in a dilemma where if someone goes "Oh people are talking about how BCB is controversial" I immediately go into massive assumption mode and get all "Everyone hates my comic and i'm terrible and i can't improve and i am just the worst and nobody likes what i do"

CATCH 22

The general consensus from the comments in that tournament is that the voting system sucks, but all the remaining comics deserve to win. I like how one person put it - "it's like a battle of the mid-majors."

Nothing about this tournament even seems to hint at it being vicious or full of spitefulness. Sandra and Woo is the only comic that is gunning for a 1st place finish, only under the assumption that winning will bring more readers over a final four appearance. Other than that it seems pretty laid back. The only upset people are 55 yr old twice-divorced weeaboos.

as i said it's more the drama from last year that worries me since it was kind of a disaster, and the main reason i've steered clear from looking at comments :-[

Oh, Taeshi, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to unwittingly stoke your paranoia. The comments really aren't that terrible. There will always be a number of people who just don't like BCB, or think that it's too 'furry' or contains too much petty childish drama or whatever. On the other hand, there are many people who've found your comic and love it for what it is. You could consider what Meowth said last round:

Meowth said:

The whole premise of the contest (aside from raising money for charity) is that just by being in it to begin with, you'll attract potential new readers, including some who may be put off at first but find that they enjoy the comic once they've given it a chance. And that's all to the good for you. Heck, the fact BCB has made it this far means you've got lots of readers who love your comic enough to take the time to log onto Facebook or Twitter to vote for it, and even some fans who'll happily plunk down good money towards it. And that's always good to know. You can't really worry about the small proportion of people who denigrate the comic because of their personal biases, but rather focus on the people whom you know already love the comic and continue to read it.

I do agree that people can get carried away, and rabidly defend their favourites against all on-comers. That's not really what this contest is about, and I hope people realize that and just learn to say, "I like this comic, but this other one doesn't really hold my interest." I didn't follow the contest last year, so I don't really know what happened then save that it was apparently such a clusterfuck that the top two comics decided to donate to charity and not participate this year. Yeah, I'm much more a fan of the "live and let live" philosophy and I get what you mean there. But you shouldn't feel absolutely terrible over what other people decide to do or say. You can only really control what you yourself do!

Bottom line is, Taeshi, you're a great artist and you do some excellent work with watercolours, which is fairly unusual for a webcomic. You should be proud of yourself for what you've accomplished thus far, which is creating an engaging webcomic with a good following. *hugs*

Uhm.. Am I living in a tiny world? Beside from BCB, the only webcomics I'm really familiar with is Ctrl+Alt+Del and VG Cats, which I have known for ages. I do kinda know what Homestuck is since recent, but that's about it. Being a tournament of nearly 300 comics, the only names I really do recognize is CAD and BCB.

Albeit, I must say BCB has done some nice progress, I'm personally not so much into this tournament. I'm more interested in watching Daisy getting to the mall.

You made a good comic taeshi regardless of what any contest says. I dont really care about much but I do enjoy your wonderful drama. And I dont do the facebook so I havent even voted since they started with that which im sorry. But I would just like to enjoy the comic without having to compare it to any thing. You shouldn't let rude comments get to you and stress you out isn't that like a cause for wrinkle's or something? We dont want that now.

Well Taeshi's pretty crazy. =O

Also from how emotional everyone was here I was getting excited to read some kind of flame war in the vote comments. I was very disappointed. :|

Anialator we will have more time for that when we get to the finals. Also, I think the new voting system(facebook) might be a deterrent against possible flame wars. Of course there are a few people out there that might just create a facebook account just to incite some conflict but that seems unlikely. If Taeshi is crazy then I am psychotic

This post has been edited by Supertails: 27 March 2013 - 03:01 PM

And I'm wacko. We're all psychotic, really.

With the current poll numbers, BCB could potentially sneak into the final round, depending on the paid votes. Maybe Taeshi will luck out and it will become a trend for the finalists not to appear in the following year's vote.

that will be my christmas present