IMPORTANT: A Patreon Matter (Patreon)

Now some of you may have heard recently about Patreon making some new changes later this month that effect you the donators, so here is a little FAQ I am making for your to understand these changes and what my plans are in regard to the changes.

So What are these changes Patreon are making you are talking about?

Patreon has from my knowledge sent emails to everyone on the matter but just in-case here are 2 posts they made on the changes in full.

https://blog.patreon.com/updating-patreons-fee-structure/
https://patreon.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/115005631963

In short, they are change the fees structure. In the past, creators have had to have fees taken out of their monthly payout but with this change, creators only have a 5% charge, but on the flipside donators now have a fee to pay. Nothing hugely ridiculous, mostly loose change, but say if you support tons of creators its might just add up in the overall cost.  

Please be aware that Patreon made the decision without consulting any creators, I found out exactly the same way you did.

So when does this change happen?

December 18th is when its meant to be taking place. However, this applies mostly to new donators after that date, for my current Donators it won't happen till the 1st January.

What about the monthly payments?

That's another thing they are changing. Instead of charging you at the beginning of every month, they're meant to be doing it on the anniversary of your pledge (Say you make a new Donation on the 18th of December. Your next Payment will occur on January 18th instead of January 1st). I do not know if that applies to my longest current donators or not, but you might want to check what day of the month you started your donation to my gallery to be safe.

I'm not happy with these changes. What should I do?

A lot are concerned or unhappy about this. The best thing you can do is contact Patreon either by their Contact Us page or their Twitter page to express your concerns.

https://twitter.com/Patreon

And what about you Lapras? What will you do and think?

Honestly, I am a bit concerned. They do say they are doing this for the creators, but the scary thing is I've been hearing stories of creators losing a lot of smaller donators over this (Like hundreds). As you may of seen, people are complaining about this change to Patreon. I have no idea how this will effect my Patreon gallery in terms of donation growth to achieve certain goals, like making this a full time career (Moreso then it currently is).

For what I am going to do, I'm mostly going to wait and see what happens.

For one thing, Patreon could U Turn the decision due to the complains and everything carries on just as normal, or even change the fee thing to better suit donators, hence why I will wait and see what Patreon does. If this goes ahead regardless, then its a matter of seeing what this does to the Donator numbers.

I had planned on making those overdue small alterations to the Donation Rewards this month as well as really get the Rewards going even if it means spending an entire day to complete 1 or more Rewards and such. Those that have donated to me for the longest and most, all your monthly rewards will be honored whenever you'd like me to start on them. For now, those alternations will be pushed back to January when I can get an idea what effect Patreon's changes have on this gallery.

If I do take a bit of a hit from this, there are ideas I'm considering but again, I shall wait and see what happens first.   

How come you made this FAQ?

Because YOU the donators matter.

When I started this Patreon, I did not think it would be much of a success at least not for a long long time, but in record time you guys really surprised me, showing me just how much you love my works and the creative ideas I put into them. At a time when I thought I was going nowhere career wise after never being given a real opportunity to grow, you guys told me I could do this, I could make this Patreon gallery a success and build it up to where it is today and where hopefully it will go years down the line. Because of that, I've been able to switch to tablet drawing and slowly but surly make the art look better then it did like 3 years ago. This summer I switched to daily updates and opened further galleries on places like Pixiv and facebook to promote the page with more to come. And for that and everything, I am forever grateful and very much appreciate your continued support.

I have a question that's not listed here

Then please leave a comment below and I'll will answer it in due time. If you wanna ask me in private, just send a private message. ;)

I married a Seabear?!?

Yeah, and Fake Science Monthly!

Seabears and Fairytales are real?

But in all seriousness, I would really like to hear your opinions about the situation so please, leave a comment below. Even if Patreon might not do anything to change their minds, I can at least adapt to their changes based on your feedback and ideas as well as what changes I'm considering to better suit you the donators.