[Changes ahead!] Monthly Free Commission (Patreon)

Well, I've been informed that raf.fles are against Patreon's Benefit Guidelines (I can't even publish this text with that word written), in their words:

"Everybody loves the thrill of winning something, that is just part of our nature. In the past, we use to allow raf.fles but we have recently decided to take a stronger stance against tier benefits and goals that involve any kinds of give.away.

We decided that this approach was the best moving forward if we want to comply with gambling regulations. We understand that your own state or country might have different legislation, but as a global company we want to make sure that creators can safely offer similar benefits to all of their patrons without being at risk of breaking the law.

That said, we understand that raf.fle type of rewards are a strong incentive for patrons to pledge and there are many ways to do similar things.

As a creator, you can always create a higher tier for a limited amount of patrons for rewards that are too difficult to create for all of your patrons. You can also offer certain surprises for your patrons to celebrate special moments such as a year supporting your work, therefore encouraging your patrons to follow you in the long term. You can also consider conducting a give.away for all of your fans, without restricting it to just patrons, but make sure you check what laws you have to comply with as give.aways are still regulated.

As always there is room for you to be creative and if you have any doubts, please send us a note - we are always happy to help."

So to avoid having my account locked I guess I have no choice but to remove the "Monthly Free Commission" benefit since it is clearly a raf.fle... I am terribly sorry about this, I feel like it is my fault, I should have looked into it sooner :(

But looking on the bright side, maybe this is for the best. Now there's an opportunity to engage with all Stud ($10) Patrons instead of just one lucky Patron. Besides, now I'll have more time to work on personal projects, which usually turns out nicer than commissions since I know my strengths and weaknesses, so when I create something personal I'll stick mostly to what I'm good at, differently than commissions where I may be asked to work on something that I'm not so great at and the final animation ends up not looking as good as something personal, does that make sense?

But I do still really want to create something at least once a month which you can take part on, so I'm reaching out to all of you my beautiful Patrons. What do you think would be an equivalent benefit for the Stud ($10) tier in place of entries to a Monthly Free Commission?

I have those ideas:

• Monthly, I'll present the Stud tier a few ideas of my own (with reference images) of possible animations for them to vote on and I'll animate the winner!
• Monthly, I'll create a post for the Stud tier asking for their ideas for a new animation. Next, I'll gather the most interesting and create a poll for the Pony and Stud tiers to vote on, and I'll animate the winner! (I'm inclined to go with this one)
• Monthly, I'll create an exclusive poll for the Stud tier to vote on an existing animation that they'd like to have bonus versions with all mane 6 ponies.
• Delete Stud tier? ?

What do you think? If you have any other ideas please do share! And thank you for reading this far