Cambrian
patreon
Full Transparency: Why I'm turning off Public Monthly Earnings
🕑 Added 2021-12-02 17:20:49 +0000 UTCEDIT: Fuck me lmao, all that switching the setting did was put a little box around the number I wanted to go away and label it Private. I have been thoroughly stymied in my attempt at helping my own mental health: https://i.imgur.com/ICAPyYm.png
Hey everyone! For those who actually care about this, all I ask is that you read all the way through before passing judgment! For those who don't care, here's a quick TLDR.
TL;DR: I am turning off Public Monthly Earnings because they have not been accurate for a year and are affecting my mental health.
Alright, so admittedly, I never thought I would do this. Way back when I first started my Patreon, I took it as a point of pride that I showed how much I was making each month when some other creators I considered my contemparies/rivals were hiding their monthly earnings. It was fun building that number up with you guys, and passing through all the goals that I made for the Patreon in under two years still fills me with pride and joy to this day.
Unfortunately, the Public Monthly Earnings Number has become something of a lead weight pulling me down at this point. This is, primarily, because it has NOT been accurate for all of 2021. The reason why is Annual Pledges.
When I enabled Annual Pledges in January of 2021, you guys responded in a big way, showing me that you all respected my commitment to this Patreon and trusted that I wasn't going to go anywhere for at least the next year. I really appreciate all of my patrons, both monthly and Annual, but it was nice to see how many of you threw in your support for a yearly subscription, even if for some it was just to save some money ;)
That said, an unexpected consequence of this was the complete disconnect from my actual Private Monthly Earnings, and the number that showed up when people looked at my Public numbers to see how much I was supposedly making. Put simply, the Public Monthly Earnings number has not been accurate at all in 2021, because it does not properly track new Annual Pledges and how that money is affecting my month-to-month earnings.
The Public Facing number might vacillate between 5-5.6k every month, but in reality I've been making hundreds more than that. In fact, in the interest of full transparency, I've broken into 6k the past three months straight. No clue if that's going to continue with December or into 2022, but that's just to give you an idea of how inaccurate the number has become. You all see it say I'm earning 5.5k a month, but in reality, I've been earning over 6k.
So then, why do I want to turn it off you might ask? Well, just because it's not a legitimate number doesn't mean it doesn't get into my head. I'm a very numbers-oriented individual by nature, and when the numbers go up, I'm happier. When they go down or slow down, it eats at me and I start wondering what I could do differently to make them go up again.
This isn't necessarily a bad thing. A lot of the renovations, additions, and evolutions my Patreon has gone through over the years have come about from my drive to see the numbers go up. I added the Prompt Poll way back in the day, and more recently I've added Patreon Exclusives, first one set of four and then another, all for the sake of drawing more patrons to my Patreon.
But when one of the numbers driving me forward is fully inaccurate and seeing it go down and up is directly impacting my mental health despite all rational thought saying it shouldn't matter and I should just ignore it... it's time for a change.
So I've decided to 'hide' the Public Monthly Earnings. After I post this up, I'm going to go and turn the setting from Public to Private. From now on, only the number of patrons I have will be public information.
I hope I've made my reasons for doing so clear. I'm not trying to keep anything from you guys, and I've never wanted to. But in this case, the information was wrong all year long anyways, and it will never be 'right' because Annual Pledges will always make it inaccurate. So for my own sake, I'm going to do away with it.
Comments
Orion9137
As an idle curiosity I like to see the earning of someone I am or am planning to support just to gauge how well satisfied their audience is with their creations (obviously we're quite satisfied with your many works). But if it's going to go I won't cry over its loss as I already like what I've backed for a while now. Moot point unfortunately as Patreon doesn't have as many helpful creator options as it really should have...
P_DUB96
Anything to help your mental health
Kyo Amamoto
well we can't see it at least so progress?
Rann Organa
I only subscribe to a patreon for content I like, not for because someone has high "earnings". That said, I think you'd do poorly in Satisfactory.
ked100
If that’s what you want go for it, the writer's health should always come first.
Dark Wolf Shiro
So Patreon can’t do simple maths? Mood
Rolando Estrada
Don't worry about a thing, i am sure MANY of your patreons will not mind this change at all
That black guy
sorry to hear you're having that moment of stress and can't even turn it off
ForeverMe
Stay healthy. Couldn't care less about the 'Monthly Earnings' but I do care about you doing what you do. As proof, I've made like maybe 3(?) posts on patreon and this is one.
You should also know that there is a notation error, when it displays Creators earnings. I'm from Denmark and Patreon is nice enough to convert the monthly earnings to DKK but... The number is changed, but it still says US$, so at a glance it looks like someone is making 30-40k US, when they are only pulling in 4,5-6k
Cambrian
So yeah, it turns out making the Monthly Earnings Private does nothing to hide them from myself. But I'm going to keep it that way anyways, because the number was still not actually representative of my earnings anymore. Better to have no info then a lie imo. Meanwhile, I'll just try to git gud at ignoring that number and find a way to accept it doesn't represent my current growth or success in any way and hasn't for some time.
Dalhan
I'm sure many, like myself, have never even checked the monthly number so you do whatever you need to to stay healthy mentally and physically and we'll still be here voting on high quality smut!
