yuurivoice
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Patreon "Collections": Let's Brainstorm!
🕑 Added 2023-10-13 14:38:58 +0000 UTCHappy Friday, friends! While I'm getting my morning started with coffee and assorted YouTube videos running in the background because heaven forbid I don't have random people talking while I try to focus, I wanted to invite you all to participate in helping me shape a big part of the experience here on Patreon! If you would be so kind as to read this post and answer some of the questions at the end, I would greatly appreciate it!
The newly introduced "Collections" feature is a big step Patreon has made towards letting Creators curate the browsing experience for patrons outside of search and tags, which is actually really exciting! For those of you who may be unfamiliar with the feature, here's the example I swiped from Patreon's help page because I'm too lazy to go screenshot it myself:
As you can gather from the image above, Collections are sort of like playlists curated by the creator that deal with various topics. Currently I have a collection for Character Bios and Character Playlists, but I see Collections working in a couple of very specific ways.
- Evergreen content that gets buried over time. (Bios, artwork, music playlists, etc.)
- Flagship content/series. (BitterSweet, other upcoming projects like Shattered, etc.)
- Less prominent series with enough content/hype to warrant attention. (Bunny Finn, etc.)
- Thematically related content that are absolute bangers. (Dominant or Submissive with flavor like bondage/toys/spanking, throwback audios to early YuuriVoice that are fan favorites to this day, comfort audios, etc.)
Now let my highlight ways that I DON'T see Collections working.
- Broad genres or umbrella themes. (Safe For Work, Not Safe For Work, Dominant, Submissive, etc.)
- Specific Characters. (Alphonse, Seth, etc.)
- Specific kinks or topics. (Choking, spanking, etc.)
In short, I don't think Collections should be used as "tags, but worse" because tags allow for specific sorting functions, list options, etc. and Collections do not, because they are specifically curated by the creator. Getting super specific and granular with collections defeats the purpose because if I just make a collection that has 100+ posts in it, I've just recreated the same issue that Patreon has always had with endless scrolling in search of content.
By creating collections that aren't overwhelmingly massive (hard to say how big, maybe 40-ish posts at most unless it's absolutely necessary for a series like Bittersweet) you make sure that people get a positive browsing experience and get their hands on content they may not have otherwise found in the sea of content scrolling endlessly or sorting through tags.
There is one risk I foresee, which is new patrons thinking that collections are all there is. Rather than looking at the "NSFW Audio" tag and seeing however many hundreds there are, they just go to collections and think that's it. I don't THINK that's how that would play out, but I'm trying to cover all my bases and see problems before they become problems. I think updating the welcome message new patrons get could easily deal with that if I clearly explain things and set new patrons up for success!
This is where you come in, I have a few questions for you all!
- Does my plan for Collections make sense to you, in general?
- Do you think, when implemented, Collections will help you find content you may not have otherwise found during your time as a patron?
- How has your experience been with tags and search when looking for content on Patreon? Is there a specific way that Collections could help work around issues with tags/search that I haven't already mentioned?
- Do you have any big ideas for a specific Collection outside of the examples I've already listed?
If I've missed anything or you have any kind of additional thoughts to share, by all means go right ahead! My goal is to have at least some collections implemented by the end of the month, so your input is greatly appreciated. Thank you for taking the time to read and playing a part in shaping what my Patreon looks like moving forward!
Comments
Adrienne Boykin
Putting them by characters and by story is probably the best way to go about it. Right now I’m finding everything by tags to find what I want. Also I want to say thank you it’s rare for creator to let us help in making their own page.
Diesel Dreamer
The plan for Collections absolutely does make sense, and I'm excited for it because I think it will help me to find content I might not have otherwise found using tags and search. As for how the experience has been using tags and search, it's been pretty decent. And I like the idea that the Collections will be curated by you, because it'll allow newbies like me to explore content that you think is worth highlighting in a Collection, and that's very exciting. I think your idea to have a Collection with less prominent series that get a lot of love (like Bunny Finn) is a fantastic idea. I'd also love to see a Collection that is just a group of your own personal favourites, like the audios that you're most proud of as a creator. I think that would be cool. And thanks so much for involving us in this!
Kai
This plan sounds perfectly fine to me and I don't really foresee issues with it for those who are new or (like me) not as active in the community and therefore don't come across older content unless they're specifically looking for it and willing to do the endless scroll to find it. I would like to ask for cannon and non-cannon events be separated in the series audios, specifically when it's seemingly set in the cannon or not specified to be non-cannon. I know most of the time you give the info that it's an AU or not something that did or could happen in the cannon like the bittersweet trio NSFW that is a what if scenario connected to a cannon event, but I'm absolutely clueless when it's not specified if that's what the character(s) might canonically do/say or if I'm not supposed to take those audios as reflections of the character's usual nature. I'm being overly specific about a few one-off audios, I know, but I did legitimately think sorcerer Fin was an AU and had nothing to do with any cannon series just like yandere Fin seemingly is (I might have missed if he is actually in Bittersweet but I don't think so).
YuuriVoice
Yeah it's been bad forever, and has only over the past couple of years seen improvements. We had to beg Patreon for years to add a search function. A SEARCH FUNCTION. So Collections is definitely a big step forward, and I'm hoping this won't be the only big update that helps us out!
I like this plan. I've been a patron for a few weeks now and I did have issue with tags. I though it was something on my end. Overall, I do not like the tags. When I wanted to find a series or an older audio it would take some time for me to find it. So I think having AU's and etc in collection of their own would be perfect
