Just a query

[den]

Would you call a comic published exclusively on Live Journal a webcomic?

Comments

[klishnor.livejournal.com]

Engaging "Which Tyler"[1] mode, I would have to say no.

My reasoning is that a webcomic is totally open and accessible if you know the URL, whilst a journal such as the one you're thinking of requires you to not only know the name of the journal, but to be part of that journal group and to become a friend of the author. OK, none of these hurdles would stretch the jumping ability of any animal short of an elephant, but they do exist.

It would certainly qualify as an Internet comic, but the Internet isn't just the web.

[1] He led the Pedants revolt.

[quen-elf.livejournal.com]

But lj is a Web site. There's nothing that says Web sites have to be open to the public - very many sites have protected areas. That doesn't mean they aren't Web sites. Anything served via http or https, using HTML or XHTML or similar, is a Web site by definition.

Now if it was distributed by email or on newsgroups then yes, it would be part of the Internet but not the Web, hence not a webcomic. But on websites? Sure it's a webcomic - however many hoops you have to jump through in order to access it.

(rest is a response to general comments)

Leaving aside the issue of silly restrictions, I don't think LJ is the best interface in the world for webcomics, but it's not too bad. It has a forward and back button, what more do you need? And I guess for those who do have LJ accounts it's convenient to read since you can friend it (although personally, I do read a comic based on lj - the excellent get_medieval - and haven't friended, but read via a bookmark).

[klishnor.livejournal.com]

> But lj is a Web site.

I accept that it uses an interface which is based on HTML, but then I have helped to write Intranets and front end applications which use the same conventions. They certainly aren't available in th Internet.

> There's nothing that says Web sites have to be open to the public - very
> many sites have protected areas. That doesn't mean they aren't Web sites.

Protected areas, yes, but LJ is a whole site with (some measure of) isolation from the web.

> Anything served via http or https, using HTML or XHTML or similar, is a
> Web site by definition.

> Now if it was distributed by email or on newsgroups then yes, it would be
> part of the Internet but not the Web, hence not a webcomic. But on
> websites? Sure it's a webcomic - however many hoops you have to jump
> through in order to access it.

I think we will have to agree to disagree on this. But that's fine, I disagree with a lot of my friends.