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Author Topic: So I'm wondering...  (Read 14767 times)

Aziraphale

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Re: So I'm wondering...
« Reply #50 on: 18 Mar 2015, 07:31 »

I was thinking the same thing about GWS. At that point, it's like reading a book. You know when you've come to the end and can just put it down when you're done. I binged "Woody After Hours" a couple of weeks back and it's ending in a few weeks. Binged Orneryboy (which I think was the first story-based webcomic I really got into) a couple years back and that went belly-up soon after.
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chaospersonified

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Re: So I'm wondering...
« Reply #51 on: 18 Mar 2015, 07:50 »

I've always meant to read Girls With Slingshots- now that it's ending, it might be the time.

This is the time. You can even get something close the original experience, seeing as Danielle is uploading color versions of her archive on a M-F schedule. 

I found QC back in 2011-2012, somewhere in that time frame, coming from XKCD. No clue what that first strip was, because I pretty much immediately clicked 'first' and read from the beginning.

My experience with GWS was like what you described for QC, though. I'd click the link on the QC homepage when I felt bored; maybe I'd chuckle, but I never got the urge to really go back to the start. Now I have, and now, of course, she's putting up the old strips with new, exciting technicolor. Still worth checking out, in my opinion, archive binges often leave gaps in memory, and there's always the newsposts to read
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Re: So I'm wondering...
« Reply #52 on: 19 Mar 2015, 07:03 »

I got to QC through an XKCD link. I think my first strip was http://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=1342 .
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TheCallMeFez

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Re: So I'm wondering...
« Reply #53 on: 25 Mar 2015, 12:31 »

My roommate kept trying to get me to read it. I was iffy at first because my sister also read it. Pintsize and several Dune references were enough to get me hooked! On a side note, my sister is my best friend. This strip describes a number of conversations we've had over the years. Its great.
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HeavyP

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Re: So I'm wondering...
« Reply #54 on: 26 Mar 2015, 07:06 »

Now that I think about it, I didn't really have a defining "this has caught me moment."  I started reading back in about 2008 when I was in grad school - one of my roommates at the time recommended it to me  but I never really got around to reading it until one day when I was procrastinating on working on my thesis.  I was aimlessly surfing, saw a link to it, remembered that Tim said it was pretty good, and started reading it from the beginning.  It didn't really catch me, I was just clicking from strip to strip with about as much enthusiasm as I'd have for my fiftieth game of minesweeper and at some point I realized I was actually interested in the storyline and wasn't procrastinating anymore (or at least, not *just* procrastinating).  A six pack of craft beer, an archive binge, and a sleepless night later, and it's been on my daily reading list ever since.
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happyninja42

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Re: So I'm wondering...
« Reply #55 on: 31 Mar 2015, 17:10 »

I didn't have any false starts with the strip personally.  I started reading it about...3 weeks ago I think? Maybe 4? Nah, probably 3, and caught up with the current strip about 5 days ago.   I found myself enjoying it quite a bit actually, though I am glad he's moved away from the constant indie band references, as they were mostly lost on me.  I'm a huge music fan, but obviously, based on the QC namedrops, not the same bands as Jeph. :laugh:  So most of the jokes about those bands were simply lost on me.  Once the strip became more "soap opera-y" (focused mostly on the romantic relationships of the characters), I found the jokes far more enjoyable and relatable. 
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rowas

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Re: So I'm wondering...
« Reply #56 on: 31 Mar 2015, 17:36 »

My first strip was sometime between strip 300-400, back when I was in school.
(Had to do something during the basic 'everyone have to take this no ands, ifs or buts' computer class)
I think it was the strip when Pintsize had been on a date ... Possibly ... Or somewhere around there.
And I know where I came from, Gaia Online  :-P
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Aziraphale

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Re: So I'm wondering...
« Reply #57 on: 31 Mar 2015, 19:03 »

I didn't have any false starts with the strip personally.  I started reading it about...3 weeks ago I think? Maybe 4? Nah, probably 3, and caught up with the current strip about 5 days ago.   I found myself enjoying it quite a bit actually, though I am glad he's moved away from the constant indie band references, as they were mostly lost on me.  I'm a huge music fan, but obviously, based on the QC namedrops, not the same bands as Jeph. :laugh:  So most of the jokes about those bands were simply lost on me.  Once the strip became more "soap opera-y" (focused mostly on the romantic relationships of the characters), I found the jokes far more enjoyable and relatable.

Agreed. I'm a big music fan too (including some of the bands Jeph used to reference from time to time), but those jokes and references always seemed kinda like speedbumps to me. The relationships and the human element are what makes it for me, and I think the strip got stronger the more it came to emphasize that side of things.
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happyninja42

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Re: So I'm wondering...
« Reply #58 on: 31 Mar 2015, 19:50 »

I didn't have any false starts with the strip personally.  I started reading it about...3 weeks ago I think? Maybe 4? Nah, probably 3, and caught up with the current strip about 5 days ago.   I found myself enjoying it quite a bit actually, though I am glad he's moved away from the constant indie band references, as they were mostly lost on me.  I'm a huge music fan, but obviously, based on the QC namedrops, not the same bands as Jeph. :laugh:  So most of the jokes about those bands were simply lost on me.  Once the strip became more "soap opera-y" (focused mostly on the romantic relationships of the characters), I found the jokes far more enjoyable and relatable.

Agreed. I'm a big music fan too (including some of the bands Jeph used to reference from time to time), but those jokes and references always seemed kinda like speedbumps to me. The relationships and the human element are what makes it for me, and I think the strip got stronger the more it came to emphasize that side of things.

Yeah, I think the only band he ever name-dropped that I actually knew and liked was Hum.  Most of the others I vaguely knew from second/third hand sources, or just simply didn't know at all.
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Re: So I'm wondering...
« Reply #59 on: 31 Mar 2015, 21:10 »

I'd started fine, somewhere around 1500 or so. And while I was reading day to day just fine it did take me quite a few tries to go through the archives. I Noped whenever I'd try and start and saw the art on the first strip.

Eventually managed and enjoyed it, though you can also put me down for not getting indie references and just skimming over them. I don't think he was wrong to have them, since that was his audience at the time, but probably doesn't work for most if the current audience.
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Re: So I'm wondering...
« Reply #60 on: 31 Mar 2015, 21:40 »

Welcome, new person!
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Omega Entity

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Re: So I'm wondering...
« Reply #61 on: 31 Mar 2015, 22:31 »

I think I was linked to the comic by an acquaintance who thought a particular strip was relevant to a discussion we were having, and it was all downhill from there. An archive binge ensued, and the rest was history.
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Wildroses

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Re: So I'm wondering...
« Reply #62 on: 27 Apr 2015, 02:05 »

I too was linked by a webcomic, but not XKDC or whatever it's called. It was Unshelved, a comic about a library, who reported in their news that QC was about to explore the world of libraries back in 691: http://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=691

I thought the comic was funny, and I liked how there were already 691 as there was a lot for me to read and it proved the artist was reliable. So I decided to read it.

Now, I have a deep, abiding hatred for reading things out of order and spoilers (my mother now knows better than to give me a second book in a series of connected books which all stand alone), so I went straight back to number one. Then I went back to 691 and back to 1 a few times because I honestly thought I'd clicked a different link to another comic, the art was so different. But once I started reading it, that was it, I was hooked.

But what really surprised me was eight months later I turned my mother into a QC fan without even trying. She had a similar process to the opening poster. When I visited, she just read the daily one over my shoulder for eight months. I did notice after a while she was stopping whatever she was doing in another room to come and see the days QC with me, which I thought a little strange. I wish I remembered which ones they were now. One was Hannelore thinking her new medication which had made her very sleepy and forgetful was great because she wasn't mortified at being in public in her underwear because Mum told me her mother had had to reject a medication because it made her forgetful and not caring like Hannelore, which is not something you can do married to a sheep farmer in shearing season.

Then one morning I got an email from Mum which saying she was reading the QC archives, my didn't the art change, my didn't Jeph get bored of Sarah quickly. That same day, five hours later, she sent me an email titled: "WAAAAAA!" with a one sentence message: "I have reached the end of Questionable Content!" And not long after that my Dad read them all because he feels if both of us like something it is probably good. He decided we were right.

We all still read them daily and enjoy them. We sent each other a lot of emails during the Faye Gets Fired and Nearly Dies arc. My Dad's a psychologist and had a few things to say about addiction, and my Mother was using her encyclopedic knowledge of the archives to point out previous times friends have tried to address Faye's drinking problem, and how Faye has never responded to someone saying she should stop drinking either for the night or for her life by agreeing. The opposite, she normally takes it as a sign she should drink more.
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Pilchard123

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Re: So I'm wondering...
« Reply #63 on: 27 Apr 2015, 02:25 »

So what happens when they inevitably find the forum?
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Re: So I'm wondering...
« Reply #64 on: 27 Apr 2015, 02:30 »

Who says they aren't already among us?
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BenRG

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Re: So I'm wondering...
« Reply #65 on: 27 Apr 2015, 02:33 »

So what happens when they inevitably find the forum?

Imagine what a three-way thread with Marten, Jim and Veronica discussing a comic strip. That's basically what I expect Wildroses' on-line interaction with the parents would be! :wink:
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celticgeek

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Re: So I'm wondering...
« Reply #66 on: 27 Apr 2015, 09:11 »

I too was linked by a webcomic, but not XKDC or whatever it's called. It was Unshelved, a comic about a library, who reported in their news that QC was about to explore the world of libraries back in 691: http://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=691

Interesting.  That's how I found QC, too.
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JLM

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Re: So I'm wondering...
« Reply #67 on: 27 Apr 2015, 10:40 »

I feel like I'm one of the few who got hooked in early, then fell out right about the time Faye and Sven started hanging out more (could see the writing on the wall on that one and I didn't particularly care for it).

Went intermittent for a while then came back a few years later right around the introduction of Marigold's crush on Angus.
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Penquin47

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Re: So I'm wondering...
« Reply #68 on: 27 Apr 2015, 14:44 »

So what happens when they inevitably find the forum?

Imagine what a three-way thread with Marten, Jim and Veronica discussing a comic strip. That's basically what I expect Wildroses' on-line interaction with the parents would be! :wink:

I've been part of a forum with both parents and my big brother.  It was fun!
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Wildroses

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Re: So I'm wondering...
« Reply #69 on: 28 Apr 2015, 03:35 »

We don't really need forums to discuss and speculate about QC, seeing as we all have each other. Plus I think I put them off from my descriptions of how the forum reacted when Dora and Marten broke up and Claire confessed she was trans...

Actually while I scan the QC forum occasionally, what I really come to the forum for is Alice Grove. There is so much we don't know in Alice Grove it's a lot more fun speculating and reading other people's speculations.
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Re: So I'm wondering...
« Reply #70 on: 02 May 2015, 05:13 »

We all still read them daily and enjoy them. We sent each other a lot of emails during the Faye Gets Fired and Nearly Dies arc. My Dad's a psychologist and had a few things to say about addiction, and my Mother was using her encyclopedic knowledge of the archives to point out previous times friends have tried to address Faye's drinking problem, and how Faye has never responded to someone saying she should stop drinking either for the night or for her life by agreeing. The opposite, she normally takes it as a sign she should drink more.
That's interesting- I was always curious to hear what actual psychologists & psychiatrists might think of a strip that focuses on characters with so many mental issues. Especially since some of them actually see therapists.

I definitely noticed a lot of references to Faye's alcoholism, and her defensiveness of it, over the years. And how the characters talked about it being a problem, but then kind of dropping it and not bringing it up again. It reminded me of all the times (SO MANY TIMES) the strip had everyone get wasted together, and the times Jeph had his characters extoll the virtues of getting someone to "open up" socially by liquoring them up. Every single person I told that to was like "Oh my GOD- THAT's not healthy!" It was quite interesting to discover that this was in fact JEPH's own personal hang-up, and that HE drank in order to deal with people. A lot of the strip made a lot more sense after that.

Of course, alcoholism in the strip makes a lot more sense when I remember that while WE'VE all aged during the duration of the strip, the CHARACTERS barely have- they're all in their early 20s, which kind of makes it more "okay" that they drink a lot. It seems like only Faye has a real problem with the stuff.
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TRVA123

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Re: So I'm wondering...
« Reply #71 on: 03 May 2015, 19:08 »

I actually do think  that people open up socially by having a drink or two. I don't think that it is abusive or even dangerous behavior, unless you are against drinking in general.

the fact that Jeph often showed the group unwinding and having a few drinks has never been a red flag to me.
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Stoon

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Re: So I'm wondering...
« Reply #72 on: 03 May 2015, 19:28 »

I've been reading QC for a little more than a year now, after the first of many archive binges. The funny thing is, I'd come across the strip a few times before then, and for some reason I'd read the first five strips or so, but it never quite clicked. Well, I was bored one night, so I figured I'd read 100 strips and either be bored out of my skull or end up liking it, but I would've at least given it a fair shot.

So that brings me, in a roundabout sorta way, to a question: who else had a few false starts with the strip? Or am I in the minority in taking a few tries to get hooked?
Wasn't like that for me with QC. 

However, that does mirror my experience with XKCD.
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Penquin47

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Re: So I'm wondering...
« Reply #73 on: 03 May 2015, 20:11 »

I actually do think  that people open up socially by having a drink or two. I don't think that it is abusive or even dangerous behavior, unless you are against drinking in general.

People do open up socially with a drink or two.  It's not necessarily abusive, but it's still not necessarily a good idea to encourage other people to do it or take them to a bar for that specific purpose.
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TRVA123

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Re: So I'm wondering...
« Reply #74 on: 04 May 2015, 04:54 »

I just don't think its a big deal. I mean, you could argue that by even portraying people enjoying alcohol and drinking without consequences (for most of the case, anyway) Jeph is encouraging "alcoholic culture".

But alcohol is a widespread social custom.

Jeph hasn't shown the group taking someone who is unwilling out for drinks and forcing them to drink. And he has shown some of the downsides to drinking in excess. I just don't see the big deal of showing a group of people drinking a bit to unwind and get to know each other better.
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Thrudd

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Re: So I'm wondering...
« Reply #75 on: 04 May 2015, 09:01 »

You also have to take the drinking in context with the local culture as well.

In parts of Europe either wine or beer is part of everyday life and does not see much difference in the amount of abuse that happens.

Here in Canada I did not see the High-school / College culture regarding abuse that I have heard about and seen on the other side of the lakes.

Then again there are parts where a being a drunkard is the norm - I'm thinking of certain parts of Russia and Poland.

Mind you this is all based on personal experience but my sample sets may have been outliers.
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Re: So I'm wondering...
« Reply #76 on: 05 May 2015, 08:45 »

I got my start when a friend posted a strip on his facebook wall and I clicked thru and hit random and started the archive at a time my wife and her sister and mom went on a cruise so I had hours to go thru it.  At the end my eyes were bleeding but I was hooked.  Stayed up WAY too late.
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Jab

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Re: So I'm wondering...
« Reply #77 on: 06 May 2015, 01:24 »

I actually do think  that people open up socially by having a drink or two. I don't think that it is abusive or even dangerous behavior, unless you are against drinking in general.

the fact that Jeph often showed the group unwinding and having a few drinks has never been a red flag to me.
Oh, the whole gang getting wasted a lot isn't a red flag to me, either- they're all young adults, many are in college, and they have few responsibilities. It's pretty normal. It was mainly the "the gang brings Marigold out to drink to help her get over her social inhibitions" thing that sparked a "wait, what?" moment with me. I recall one fan somewhere was horrified by a "you can only have friends if you drink" mentality and "the only cast member who doesn't get drunk is the socially-maladjusted loner- WTF" impression they got, but I wouldn't go that far.

I wouldn't doubt someone can open up emotionally a bit better with a glass or two of booze, but the whole "you can drink to get over your anxiety" thing is KIND OF a dangerous precedent.
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