You're gonna love this update!

Jun 01, 2012 11:24 PM | 6
I finally added scene ratings to the search results page! Took me forever to get to it, but I managed to create a system to do it. I also added the scene's "rank" (which is based on page views) as well as the number of images contained in the scene.

I increased the number of results per page to 20 by default. You can now display up to 50 results per page.

I also worked to condense the URL that is displayed when you do a search. It used to be really long and unsightly.

Please enjoy these new enhancements! More scenes should be coming as well.

In other news, someone on Twitter said this website was "pervy"...

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Ratings and faves matter more than ever now!

Jun 09, 2012 06:27 PM | 0
As you all know, sleepycomics.com has two very cool and underused features: ratings and faves! First off, thank you to the same 10 or so people who actually use them.

If you haven't noticed, I just released the ability to sort scenes by total faves, and average rating. It's under Advanced Search Options at the top. This provides an alternate way of viewing what the sleepy community thinks are the best scenes.

A "Fave" is basically the same thing as a "Like" on Facebook. You don't have to fave every single thing in the world, but if you see something you really like...Fave it!

Ratings provide similar feedback, but in more detailed fashion. Feel free to rate as many scenes as you want. Think of it like IMDB.com ratings. If I had hundreds of votes per scene, I could create accurate top 100 lists of the best sleepy scenes ever.

Finally, ratings and faves provide feedback as to what kind of scenes this community likes. If I notice high ratings for manga scenes, I'll make more of an effort to find those. Likewise, if there are low ratings for "electrical KO" scenes (for instance), I won't bother to post them anymore. Saves me time.

But none of that is possible if you guys don't give me feedback. So click those stars!

Thanks!

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The comment system sucks a little less now.

Jun 12, 2012 09:00 PM | 0
In an effort to encourage more user participation, I have overhauled the commenting system slightly. You can now reply and delete comments.

Deleting comments is restricted however. You can only delete it within 30 minutes of posting the comment. This is because I want to make an effort to keep all comments in the system. I feel they contain useful information. The delete feature is so you can make corrections.

The reply feature is nice. You specify the user's handle (ie, "@Red"), like Twitter, and that user will receive an e-mail notification. I am no longer doing the BCC thing where every single user who has ever commented on a scene gets an e-mail. That was starting to get annoying.

If you don't specify a reply handle, a notification is sent to the uploader of the scene (which will 90% of the time be me). So feel free to comment away!

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Look! Shiny new buttons

Jun 16, 2012 12:33 AM | 0
I think you'll like this new feature. I added four new buttons under the search form. Clicking them will take you directly to the search results page, but with different sort and filter settings.

  • Most Recent - Takes you to a list of all recently added scenes. The default behavior of the Search button as well.

  • Most Popular - lists all scenes sorted by Faves and then Views.

  • Comics/Manga Only - lists only comics or manga, sorted by most recently added.


It's a quick way to find what you want without having to fiddle with the Advanced Search Options box.

Don't forget about Ratings, Faves and Comments! Faves matter more than ever now, because it determines what is the most popular.

I also fixed some issues with the commenting system. You can now delete comments within 30 minutes of posting it. And if you use the "@username" syntax, you can reply directly to any user you want.

I've been getting a lot of useful comments from people helping to correct scene information. Thanks a lot!
I really want to increase the accuracy of my data, and you guys are vital to that process.

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Data fragility, and the importance of Sleepycomics.com

Jun 21, 2012 12:21 AM | 0
Data is fragile. The other day, I read a post on Reddit about how some 90% of all Silent Era movies are now lost. Not 'lost', as in they just misplaced the film. No, the movies are 100% destroyed; impossible to get back.

That got me thinking: how many comic books are lost? How many great KO scenes were drawn that we will never see? Many comics from small publishers had very limited runs, and are very difficult to find. How many are probably sitting in garbage dumps across America and Europe? Same situation with Japanese Manga.

Data is fragile. We lose data all the time. When people die, where do their photographs go? How many photographs have been lost to time?
Think about how fragile Sleepycomics.com is. In 100 years, after we are long gone, will the data on this website still exist? Hard to think about, but these questions keep me up at night.

It's vital that we as a community protect the content on this website. I encourage people to save as many images as they can to their hard disks. You never know when this site might go down.

And be proactive. If you can add information to a scene, leave a comment! Search as many comics books and manga volumes as you can. Because in a few years, it may be impossible to find those issues again.

I'm young (25 years old as of this post), so it'll be a few decades before I need to think about this. But I'm going to eventually need someone to take over this site. It's still early to start taking action, but I think it's worth it to have a discussion about it.

Data is fragile people. Protect it.

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Why are there so many new manga scenes all of a sudden?

Jun 23, 2012 11:48 PM | 4
What's going on here? Did Red get hit on the head with a blackjack? Is Sleepy Comics becoming "Sleepy Manga"?

Everybody just calm down.

The majority of scenes on Sleepycomics.com are still from traditional comics. Manga is actually hugely under represented.

The simple reason why manga is suddenly showing up more, is because it's easier to get it now. It's also easier to find sleepy content in manga, at a much more efficient pace too.

Anyway, here are some of the reasons why I am starting to prefer manga for sleepy content:

  1. Individual comic issues are too short. A typical comic book has only 24 pages. Each manga volume I search has around 200 pages. It's more likely to find sleepy content when there's more art.

  2. Manga artwork is more consistent. American comics tend to use different artists across issues.

  3. Manga sleepy scenes tend to be longer.

  4. Manga is extremely diverse. You can find quality content from any genre. American comics are dominated by superheroes (which is not a bad thing, it's just less diverse I feel).

  5. Finally, I think manga artists tend to be more liberal about their fetishes. They are not afraid to throw in a little bondage or fan service every once in a while. That kind of stuff is harder to find in American comics, which tend to be more politically correct (but it wasn't always like this).


I'm not forgetting about superhero comics, not by a long shot. I think there are many disadvantages to the manga format as well. The heavy use of black and white, doesn't compare to the full color artwork of American comics. Manga scenes can also become TOO redundant, with scenes going on for endless pages.
I also think that the best superhero comic scenes, beat the best manga scenes. Manga still doesn't have characters like Wonder Woman, Batgirl and Supergirl.

But if they make a superhero manga...I'll be all over that.

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We just surpassed 22,000 images.

Jun 27, 2012 01:35 AM | 3
I think this is the fastest I've ever added 1,000 new images to this site. Just recently we passed the 21,000 mark. Now we are over 22,100 images stored on Sleepycomics.com.

While I don't place much value on the scene count anymore, we are about 30 scenes away from hitting 7,000.

The volume of images being served is having me worried. The actual storage is small, currently around 6 GB (including all the thumbnails). It's the bandwidth that is concerning. At least 10GB of data is served per day. And it is continuing to grow, albeit slowly.

When I reach my hosting provider's capacity limit, I will inevitably have to move to something like Amazon S3 storage, which is also going to cost me a little extra.

I mean, it's a good thing that we are growing. But it also means things will start costing more.

Anyway, I am continuing to add scenes as I find them. It's mostly manga right now. I highly recommend everyone visit http://www.updateraw.com/ and download some manga. It's a lot of hard work finding good sleepy art. I might have to search 30-40 volumes before finding something good.

Post some comments and don't forget to rate and "like" scenes. Your feedback is valuable!

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Reflecting on the amazing growth of Sleepycomics.com

Jun 28, 2012 11:17 PM | 3
I know you guys are sick of hearing me say this, but it's such an exciting time for Sleepycomics.com. We are growing. For years I knew this site got consistent traffic. It wasn't until I started analyzing it that I realized: Sleepycomics.com is really freaking popular.

Thousands of people around the globe consume the content on Sleepycomics.com. The majority of the traffic comes from overseas, from places like Japan, Italy and South America.

It wasn't always like this. When I started in 2006, I was running a crappy little Blogger.com blog, hosted on Tripod.com. This was back during the height of Slumberville's popularity. I started my blog because I was tired of living in hiding.
I kept my sleepy fetish bottled up for years. Starting the blog was like taking a load off my chest; it was a huge relief. As I got older, I learned that my particular fetish wasn't even that weird.
There was a period of time recently where I thought, that one day, my fetish would wane. That I would lose interest, like an old man loses his sex drive. Guess what? That hasn't happened yet. In fact, the fetish is expanding and consuming me.

I'm curious as to what older members of our community have experienced. Does this fetish wane over time, or does it remain constant throughout life?

Anyway, getting a little sidetracked here. Sleepycomics.com's growth was entirely organic. I never advertised this site. The only 'marketing' I did was to place a small link in my forum signature. I don't consider that real marketing though. I have my site linked from a few other websites, but not many. All traffic comes from Google searches and word of mouth. That is every blogger's dream come true!

Having a high traffic website worries me sometimes. I worry about people attacking the site, making fun of it, reporting it. In some ways, I wish Sleepycomics.com remained anonymous, only frequented by a select few.
But the content on Sleepycomics.com is too valuable and too useful.

I know I sort of neglected Sleepycomics.com for about a year, letting the users upload content. Well I'm starting to have a change of heart, because it dawned on me that Sleepycomics.com is my greatest asset. Sleepycomics.com is something I created, and it's something I want to add more value to.

More importantly, for the thousands of you who frequent my site, I need you to get involved! Register an account, post comments, rate and fave scenes. It's really fun! Feel free to send me e-mails...I WILL respond. My e-mail is [email protected] (notice how there is no 's'). Follow me on Twitter.

Let's work together to create a vibrant and awesome sleepy fetish community!

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Women of Sleepycomics.com...who are you?

Jul 01, 2012 02:02 AM | 2
I was checking out some demographic info for Sleepycomics.com (using quantcast.com), and it's no surprise: Men dominate this site. It makes sense. Seeing unconscious women in peril - it's a classic male fantasy. Think of all those men's adventure pulp magazines, featuring damsels in distress. Sleepycomics.com caters to that group.

That being said, why do women still make up approximately 20-30% of Sleepycomics.com's traffic? Ladies...who are you? What brings you to my site?

I really am curious to learn more about the female perspective on this fetish. Sure, I could just contact one of the many commercial sleepy content producers, many of whom are female. But I can't be sure if those producers are into the fetish themselves, or if they are in it just to make money.
I feel Sleepycomics.com's audience is genuine about their sleepy fetish. Most commercial sleepy fetish producers, basically create pornography. The people who visit Sleepycomics.com can appreciate a sleeping beauty, without all the sex, nudity and groping.

I think society makes it difficult for a woman to openly talk about her kinks and fetishes. Think about how much "slut shaming" goes on in America, just for having too much sex! People want to conform. People want to seem normal. Admitting you have a sleepy fetish...separates you from society.

To any woman, or man, who has this sleepy fetish: you are not alone!

I once had a woman contact me and tell me her story. She said when she revealed her sleepy fetish to her then boyfriend, he freaked out. It actually changed their relationship. Stories like that are fascinating to me. The sleepy fetish isn't something that's personal anymore...it affects the lives of those around us too.

So to the women of Sleepycomics.com, tell me your story! What brought you to my site? What kind of content interests you? Feel free to e-mail me at [email protected] or leave a comment.

And to the men AND women of Sleepycomics.com, thank you for your support!

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