Keenspotting: A holiday drama

December 24, 2009 | Posted by Brigid

I’m working on a link post, but work has been crazy the past few days, with the usual run-up to Christmas combined with several unusual events, so I’m behind anyway. But then this Keenspot thing came up, right after I posted my year in webcomics column at Robot 6, which just goes to show that you should never try to summarize something until it is actually over.

So here’s the executive summary: Keenspot told Kel McDonald, creator of Sorcery 101, that they would not be hosting her comic any more come January. She posted her account of what happened on her LJ, and if you’re curled up with a cup of eggnog anyway, check the comments, where various members of the Crosby family come in to defend their operation and get smacked around by the other commenters.

(People keep referring to this as “firing” Kel, but she wasn’t an employee, she was essentially a customer, so I don’t get that. Keenspot is a collective, and they provide hosting, ad services, and the exposure that comes from being part of a destination site. Over at Webcomics.com, Brad Guigar, himself a former Keenspot member, explains (scroll down) why it seemed like a great idea at the time—and how things have changed since then.)

Then Keenspot CEO Chris Crosby sent out an e-mail to the members of the collective a few days ago headed “FOR YOUR EYES ONLY, DO NOT REDISTRIBUTE OUTSIDE OF KEENSPOT.” Which really makes me wonder about these guys, because of course, it was all over the internet in a New York minute. Or at least, as long as it took Gary Tyrrell to do his due diligence on it. Gary has done a masterful job of teasing out the story and getting reactions, and I recommend you read his post, but the executive summary is that Keenspot is no longer accepting new members and is unilaterally instituting a new contract that they fully expect most of their current members will find objectionable. The plan is to winnow down their site to a few carefully selected comics and lavish all their attention on them. That part makes sense, but what I don’t get is why they don’t just inform their creators that the contracts are being terminated as of such and such a date, rather than taking this roundabout “Here, you’ll hate this so why don’t you quit” route. They claim this has been in the works for a while, but some folks suspect that it’s a defensive reaction to the Kel thing. It’s hard to tell from the outside.

Anyway, here’s one more link: Colleen Doran has some interesting perspectives at her site; be sure to read the comments there as well. And have some more eggnog.

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