Overwelmed (Patreon)

Hey there, Oxdarock here.

Well, it’s gotten to that point. I’m not sure how many people kind of saw this coming, but here it is: I’m retiring the Stack Point system. 

I want to believe that it was a neat idea, but it just doesn’t seem to be working out all that well. Aside from taking a while to update and keep track of all the points, less than a handful of people have really done anything with it. The more looming issue is that as more people reach the point cap, it’s likely I could get hit with a lot of requests at once. As it stands, I’m not even able to keep up with the old list of suggestions I got way back before the year started, let alone any new ones. As for the ones I currently have, if I can finish them I will, but it’ll be a slow process. 

That said, from here on I think I should put the concept of doing personal requests for as many of my patrons as possible to rest. It’s really only something that should be offered to a handful of people every month for artists who are able to handle it (like it's the core of their Patreon). The most direct input into what I create I can give people consistently is to collect request ideas every month and then have a voting poll on which to draw (or just leave it to the random wheel).

I still feel that my upper tiers are lacking in the reward department though, but the only thing I can think to do is open commissions again for patrons at a discounted rate. I wouldn’t take sketch, line art, or flat color commissions however, and I’d only be able to take one per month. I’d also have to find a way to offer the finished works on my store since I’ve never had good experience with commission discounts, so selling them afterwards evens everything out. And honestly, these days I don’t have many motivations to post things outside of my store and Patreon (only reason I can think to do so is for advertisement purposes). 

Also,  I’d like to get rid of the $1 Big tier at the beginning of June. It’s kind of a pointless tier to be honest, and has the potential to hurt more than help me. Everything I make on Patreon makes it’s way to my store at some point, however the problem is, because I don’t discriminate when it comes to sending out dropbox links so long as you’ve been charged, people who set a monthly limit for $1 on the Big tier end up getting more content for less money than if they were to buy it from my store. The other issue is that, by manipulating the monthly limit set for posts, every value on the $1 tier can be met by a higher tier (in fact, all the tiers can do this to some extent). A perfect example is how a person who sets a limit of $5 for one post on the Giant tier pledges the same amount as someone on the $1 tier for five posts but still gets the archive rewards. So while it’s easy to join a tier and not set a monthly limit, I think it would be better to do away with a tier where one gets less rewards while pledging the same amount as someone on a higher tier.

So, that’s where I’m at as far as the Stack Point system admonishment and eminent removal of the lowest tier. I'll try out the request poll idea at the beginning of next month, but the commission discounts stuff will have to wait until later (after the next two Snapzine issues have been released). If you have any questions, please let me know via comment or message. I’ll be updating my Patreon page as well as sending out notices to Big tier patrons later.

Oh! And lastly, the last two paid posts of the month will both be Snapback pictures since the other pictures I had in mind are too much to do in a limited time frame (think similar scale to the Symphogear pictures) and because Moo-Moo March.

That’s all for now!