Comic Alert! FAQ

• What is Comic Alert!?
• What is RSS / RDF / XML?
• I don't have a news reader, can I receive updates via email?
• How do I activate Email Alerts?
• I would like to add links to the latest comics on my web site, can you help me?
• Why should I use Comic Alert!?
• Does it cost anything?
• Why don't you list my favorite comic?
• Doesn't this hurt the artists / publishers?
• Can you include the most recent strip directly in the news item?
• Why do the news items link to http://click.comicalert.com/?
• How are the different statistics calculated?
• What do the operators of Comic Alert! get out of it?

What is Comic Alert!?

Comic Alert! is a system to bring together thousands of comics, professional and amateur, from across the net, to your news reader, email client, and web browser.

Finding RSS sources for web comics used to be difficult, and most often impossible (they just didn't exist). Comic Alert! began by filling that void and providing free RSS feeds to comics of all sizes. Soon after launching we realized that RSS is a pretty new technology as far as the internet public at large are concerned, and so we began providing email alerts and "recently updated" web pages as well.

Building on that groundwork and an expanding user base, we began developing a variety of features that help you find new comics that you'll enjoy, provide feedback to the comic artists, and find old comic strips you half remember.

If your quest for web published comics is just beginning, Comic Alert! is a great place to start. If you're already an experienced web comic surfer with a set of comics you check regularly, Comic Alert! will help save you time and effort.

What is RSS / RDF / XML?

That's a question best answered by others. In short RSS, RDF are ways to deliver news notifications to your desktop automatically, without you having to constantly check the site. If you see something you want to read, you can click the item and read it from the original web site. XML is the format used by RSS and RDF.

I don't have a news reader, can I receive updates via email?

Yes! Using Comic Alert! no longer requires news reader software! See the next question for instructions on how to active your email alert.

How do I activate Email Alerts?

Once you've signed up or logged in, click on the "Preferences" link on the right. Then, beside "Send me a daily email report at", select what time of day you would like the email alert sent (we merge all updates over the previous 24 hours into one single email, so you don't get spammed). Note that you must have a confirmed email address entered in order to receive email alerts. If you haven't already entered/confirmed your email address, you can do so from the same Preferences page.

I would like to add links to the latest comics on my web site, can you help me?

Check out ReachRSS, a fully featured RSS client you can embed on your own web pages. Using your Comic Alert! RSS feed and ReachRSS you can display links to the latest comics in a variety of ways.

Why should I use Comic Alert!?

Because it makes your life easier - we monitor the sites so you don't have to. When you receive a Comic Alert! item you know there's a new strip waiting for you and a direct link to read it.

Because it helps to promote artists and their comics - we're an independent third party and are therefore able to promote ALL web published comics, regardless of the comic's affiliation / publisher.

And finally because it's FREE!

Does it cost anything?

No. Comic Alert! is completely free.

Why don't you list my favorite comic?

We probably don't know about it! If you would like to add a comic to your personalized feed but can't find it in our system, please fill out the Comic Request Form to let use know you're interested and we'll do our best to add it. Our goal is to syndicate as many comics as possible.

Doesn't this hurt the artists / publishers?

Not at all! Our goal is to promote comic artists and their work, not harm it. To that end we will not link directly to images in the RSS feeds or Email alerts (doing this bypasses the ad revenue, and that DOES hurt the artists). Plus, we have several features that are aimed at bringing new readers to existing comics. Think of us as free promotion.

Can you include the most recent strip directly in the news item?

Short answer, no (see above question for some details). If, on the other hand, we received permission from the copyright owner (the artist/publisher) to include the strips themselves, we'd be more than happy to. We don't expect this to happen anytime soon though.

Why do the news items link to http://click.comicalert.com/ instead of directly to the comic strip?

Because in order to reliably track the popularity of comics we need to know how many people read them. We have no way to do that unless you visit our site before visiting the comic page. You will be immediately redirected to the comic page when you click the link. For more details see our Privacy Policy.

How are the different statistics calculated?

User rating is the average of all user reviews, so if you think a comic is out of whack in this manner make sure you review it! Subscribers is the total number of people who have the comic in their personalized feed. Popularity is calculated by taking the number of hits for a comic (one hit per person per day) over a week and dividing that by the number of strips released that week. This gives a good indication of how many people read the strip regularly, instead of just the number of raw hits. With this method, comics that release only one strip a week can compete with comics that release daily strips.

What do the operators of Comic Alert! get out of it?

At the moment, nothing. Should the site become incredibly popular, we will probably place ads on some pages in order to help cover any bandwidth / hardware costs, but that's quite a ways in the future. Right now we're just doing it for kicks and there seemed to be a need for something like this. And of course because we like comics :-)