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Patreon Tier Changes for May, 2022
🕑 Added 2022-04-15 12:21:39 +0000 UTCHello everyone, some changes are on the horizon so read on below!
As of early May, next month that is, there will be some changes to my Patreon tiers.
The $1 "Customer" tier will be converted into a "Veteran" tier in order to face a slow phasing out.
Instead a $2 tier will open up as the new "Customer" tier, having the same benefits as the old $1 tier. People staying on the $1 Veteran tier will retain access to the same content as the new $2 Customer tier so long as they remain subscribed.
The $5 "Regular" tier remains completely unchanged. Just like it was before, with discord access as the main draw.
A new $10 tier will open up, getting similar discord access as the $5 tier, but also voting power in a monthly Patreon poll that will determine the character featured in the last Monday loop of that month. These polls will run at the start of every month, for 2 weeks, and will have its results turned into an animation before the end of that month.
The $1 Veteran tier will be "unpublished" in Patreon terms, meaning that it will not be deleted, and the people who are in it will retain access to all my Patreon posts just as always, but it cannot be selected by new patrons once these changes are in place. I hope that this will serve to both reward long-term backers who have been with me for a long time on this tier, as well as offer a potential option for those existing backers who know that $2 is a bit too steep for their budget or who otherwise are unwilling to pay this much for access to my work - but who still know they wish to support me in some form for the foreseeable future. So if you're a $1 backer and wish to stay that way, nothing will actually change for you.
Tiers will thus be as follows:
$2 - Basic access tier.
$5 - Discord tier.
$10 - Discord and monthly vote tier.
$1 - Hidden and unable to be selected by new patrons, but retains same access to content as $2 tier. This means that if you unsubscribe and return, you will not be able to select it again.
I am also, owing to feedback, launching a Subscribestar mirror-page with these same tier changes in place from the start, meaning it will not have a Veteran tier. The Subscribestar page will feature exactly the same content that I will make for Patreon, and since both pages have their own unique controversies and preferences I hope that this will offer people a choice of platform to support my work on. The one difference Subscribestar will have is the lack of archive content in terms of my non-public work, like the older Monday Loops and wallpapers for instance, as the task of re-downloading and re-building all these posts to the page would be monumental - it will thus only feature the major projects in the sticky post, as well as any and all future content made from May forward. This is to retain my sanity.
The reasons for these changes are rather simple: first, the $1 tier came from a time when I made this Patreon as something of a tip-jar that came with some perks for those interested in my then entirely SFM-oriented work. I believe that I, since then, have evolved my work and that I offer, to my knowledge at least, a lot of content comparative to the norm in terms of Patreon rewards from creators, and genuinely feel that the amount of time I put into this requires adequate compensation. Second reason is that my day-job is honestly killing me, and I am looking for a way out at this point, or at least a means to inoculate myself from potential backlash from my boss in the event where I lower my hours. Any and all support for the work I do here is actively giving me security in the event where I suddenly find myself without a job, or I end up in the "shit pool" where you barely get any shifts allocated owing to having been "difficult", so thank you everyone, from the bottom of my heart, for supporting me and my work.
I was also recently, once again, approached by Affect3D for potential cooperation, but ended up turning down their offer. I've come to realize that the reliance on crowdfunding pages like Patreon and Subscribestar is tenebrous enough as it is, and making myself even more reliant on second party middle-men to deliver my content is not in my interest. My chief concern is signing off pricing and the rights of my work to other parties who might then undermine or otherwise price things at rates that are unfavorable to my Patreon/Subscribestar backers - meaning I would essentially end up competing with myself.
In terms of project progress, things are in the works, but I don't want to turn this wall of text into anything longer or more confusing than it already is, so more on that next Friday. I'll be sure to read any and all feedback in the comments, as to ascertain people's feelings on these matters and see how I can maneuver accordingly. While I don't always answer to comments, know that I read all of them.
Thank you, as always, for your continued support and for all of your kind words. While the future remains uncertain, I'd like to believe in what I'm doing here, and hope that wherever you are, you're doing well - all things considered.
Take care of yourselves, and each other!
/DH
Comments
FPM
Indeed, I've reached the same conclusion as the one DH has just detailed, i.e. that it is just fair for him to get as much financial security from his Patreon works as his patrons deem worth, so that his dedication to his creations is less hindered by the necessities of his day-job. IMHO, I get happiness from his works, so it's just fair I try to pay it back accordingly, as long as I can afford it (and I perfectly understand that those of us who honestly can't don't, so it's a win-win situation if those who can help make DH endeavours sustainable in the long-run and everybody benefits from it ; anyway there's more than financial gratifications to help an artist keeping motivated, be it justified praises or helpful opinions on how to bring yet more improvements to his creations). It was just my two-cents...
FPM
Indeed, it's exactly the way it happened to me when I upgraded from the $1 tier to the $5 tier in the first days of April 2022 : after having been charged $1 on April, 1st, I was then charged an additional $4 the very day I changed my tier, so that my April 2022 charge has eventually become the intended $5 for this month, as it will be for each of the following months, except I'll probably upgrade to the $10 tier, more as a support to DH than as a means to access Discord (which has no particular appeal to me).
Zanment
You know might have to upgrade.
DH
From my understanding the way Patreon sorts this out is that it takes into account the charge of that month and charges for the difference between that and the new tier. So if you're subscribed to the $5 tier in the present and the shift of the month happen, you would be charged your tier's usual $5, and upon choosing to upgrade to the $10 tier, be charged another $5 to make up the difference: https://support.patreon.com/hc/en-us/articles/360000126286-Editing-your-membership
DH
A personal website might become prudent depending on how my backing develops in the future. Aardvark's got a lot of stuff he needs hosted for the public, such as models and the likes, so it makes sense for him to maintain a space where he can organize that properly. In my case, I can still rely on third party services to host my public videos, as the rest of my content is mostly relevant to my patreon/subscribestar backing. I've effectively entirely switched to Blender at this point, correct. The idea was to make a slow transition, but it became more of a leap as I realized the limitations of Source was an immense constraint on my creativity. While Blender certainly is more demanding owing to the fidelity of the models, it's also entirely constrained by my actual system resources, as opposed to SFM which tends to begin crashing the moment you dare load up more than 3GB of memory usage in terms of models. The downside with Blender comes in the form of render times, which is something I have to take into consideration both for long-form projects and my loops, what is feasible from a time standpoint in conjunction with my update schedule, and so on. In general it's been working out pretty great, but I am antsy for this global hardware shortage to end so I can buy a new GPU for these matters :)
Daniel
I'm currently subscribed to the $5 tier like most of your supporters. Since I'm interested in upgrading to the $10 tier, is there a way to upgrade without having to pay the monthly $5 fee? I don't want to unsub now and then sub back next month because I might be temporarily removed from the discord server.
Tuume
This sounds like a solid plan of action. The mirror site thing is a good way to spread yourself. Have you ever given thought to a personal website? Lordaardvark went that route and he seems to have a greater deal of control and freedom. Lastly, you've switched to Blender, correct? How's that working out? Thanks for sharing with us.
DH
Owing to how I work as a creator, I've come to the conclusion that it would be difficult. While I've gotten better at it over the years in terms of work discipline, hardening it out and working on technical matters even on the days when there's zero spark, project work still mostly happens in shorter bursts of inspiration, which is why the Monday Loops became a thing as to pad out the time between larger releases. I'm also nervous around the prospect owing to the the audience I have cultivated with my frequent releases, thereby loading my patreon with that expectation, and the fact that transitioning into a monthly release schedule would, naturally, immediately make my plans for the $10 tier obsolete as well.
hans erhard
Would a once a month model for Animations be interesting for you? Meaning that you could put much more polish and creativity on a single animation. which could possibly pull a bigger audience in you social media and Patreon etc. similar to Jackerman and Rigid3D i guess. altough the latter is more a 6 month thing.
