New & future changes: 720p & Anime Club? (Patreon)

Before the new month begins tomorrow we are announcing some changes but also opening the floor up to have people vote on some of the changes that are up in the air.

Some of you may be aware that we pay money to host our Patreon videos. For the new folks, because our videos are reactions and copyrighted, we cannot post them to YouTube and most other sites. We have to pay bandwidth usage to have our videos hosted on a private platform.

Currently, we pay around $13,000 every few months because we keep ripping past our yearly allowance. This is not OK. I have been trying my best to not make changes around here but I have paid off my debt TWICE now, only to credit card this bill every few months and then spend the next few months paying it off.

There are several reasons why our penalty is so high.

• 1. We put out too much content
• 2. The file size of our videos is too large
• 3. Too many people pirate our Patreon
• 4. We don't charge enough

We've discussed it with the team who handles our video hosting and these are the big issues causing a huge volume in bandwidth usage. Of these issues, #3 is the one we can't do anything about. We are not very open about it but we are aware that people pirate then share our Patreon content with others. We have around 5,800 Patrons but our usage vs our Patrons doesn't match. We know people share and also leak our content. We can't do anything about that.

So then the only things we can do to try and curb our bandwidth usage are the other options. #1: We can try putting out less content. Sure, we could do that. But we'd be limited to only 3 bg and 3 gg variety content per week at only 6 total. For reference we currently do 6-8 bg and 6-8 gg for a total of 12-16 per week. Drama Club would be dropped down to 2 per week. Sure, we could put out less content and I could film/work a little less but I feel like I'd be INCREDIBLY bored if this is all we did. I film around 50-60hrs of content per month but the VARIETY of how many groups I check out is what helps keep it interesting! I also don't think people will want LESS content.

#2: Our file size is too large. Unfortunately the only solution around this is for all videos to be published at 720p quality. This is a MAYBE. We do not know how much this will impact the bandwidth. It could be moderate or it could be substantial; regardless it will definitely help some.

#4: The price. This is something I've been struggling with for a long time. I know that I have been needing to raise my price since forever. But I don't want to. Listen guys, I know what it's like to grow up as a teenager or a young adult, and hell I know what it's like to be an adult and to have bills. Which is why I have not raised our Patreon prices ever after we set our season themed tiers. And if we just didn't have this bandwidth usage to pay, we would't need to raise our prices. From the looks of it we would have to raise our current prices from $10 to $20/month. That's DOUBLE and I know that would be incredibly difficult for some people. If we have to raise prices I would most likely only raise it to $15/month. That should help us pay for half the fee and then I'll just pay the other half out of my pocket.

Those are just solutions regarding our bandwidth problems. I do have a solution I could propose.

NO FOOTAGE: So the idea behind this is simple. I would film my reactions in the same way except that it would have no footage or audio from the show that I am reacting to. Now I understand this option is MASSIVELY inconvenient. But if we did this, because they are copyright free, we could host these videos on YouTube and link them here privately. The only thing I don't like about this option is that it requires you to have two devices and it's very inconvenient.

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Alright, I know that was a huge information dump. Look over it, think carefully, and voice your opinion in the poll. 

I'd also like to make it clear that whatever option is picked at #1 does not mean it's automatically going to be implemented. We just want to know what our current Patreon audience (for the most part) thinks. 

For the month of March all our videos will be in 720p (except for Drama Clubs) as a "tester" so it will not be included in the poll. If everyone finds it satisfactory then this will be a permanent change.

From the looks of it, the only options may be reducing content or raising the price of SUMMER tier patronage (or the nuclear no footage option). Whatever the option, we know that it will cause a lot of people to leave. The way we see it, we have no choice but to force some kind of change, even if our Patreon takes a hit because as it currently stands I film 50 ~ 60 hours worth of content everyday and that's just too much work for how much we're being penalized.

Anyway, that's it for this long post. Thank you for reading until the end and we ask for your understanding through this!