Patreon Changes (Patreon)

Hello all,

This post will be a long one! It will explain in depth what changes I am bringing to the Patreon, and why. There's a TL;DR at the end if you're just interesting in knowing what's changing!

I'll go through the following points, the first one dealing with the results of the opinion poll from earlier this month, and the other ones being issues that were raised in the initial feedback post or consequences of these issues and their fixes (in no particular order):

• 1. Opinion poll results
• 2. Overworking
• 3. Lack of Log Myu schedule
• 4. Fixing the schedule
• 5. Less reworks/experiments
• 6. OCs overwhelming polls
• 7. Size variety
• 8. How long before the changes happen?

1. Opinion poll results

I recently asked you in an opinion poll whether you wanted more Log Myu or more drawings, through four different theorical options. Overall, all tiers voted for more Log Myu (overwhelmingly, I'd say), with a slight decrease in higher tiers.

In terms of numbers:

Want more Log Myu:
Chubby Tier - 85% (74% want more, 11% a little more)
Plus Size Tier - 70% (51% want more, 19% a little more)
Super Size Tier - 64% (50% want more, 14% a little more)

Statu quo:
Chubby Tier - 9%
Plus Size Tier - 19%
Super Size Tier - 18%

A little more drawings:
Chubby Tier - 5%
Plus Size Tier - 11%
Super Size Tier - 18%

I can't say I'm too surprised by the repartition of votes. I've designed the Chubby Tier to be about comics and a little bit of drawings, the Plus Size Tier to be about drawings and a little bit of content suggestion, and the Super Size Tier to be about content suggestion. It's pretty much in line with what could be expected, even if I thought the trend to be more noticeable.

What surprised me however, is how many of you voted for more Log Myu. I might be at fault here as I probably give too much importance to external audiences (Deviant Art, Twitter) that tend to be very critical of Log Myu's slow pace, but I expected more people to want more drawings. Message heard loud and clear, though!

The change: I'll draw more Log Myu, but I'll compensate higher tiers patrons that might prefer drawings with new benefits.

2. Overworking

Quite a few people were worried that I was exhausting myself due to the variety and amount of content I publish. Overall, it's true that I rarely have downtimes while working and tend to be on a tight schedule. To go a little more into details: while it's the end goal, I'm still not working fulltime on Patreon, but the expectation I try to set up content-wise is that I'm working fulltime, as I need to have a clear idea of whether or not it's viable to live only from what I earn on Patreon (theorically it should be possible). I make up for the difference by working every day, and plan to do so until the time I might be able to draw fulltime. Currently, it's not much of an issue as I enjoy what I'm doing here. The only issue regarding the amount of content I produce is that there's little room for anything else. I've barely had the time to work on the companion website and games, and delays happen whenever there are unforeseen events as I don't have any leeway (my current lateness with the sequence and drawings being a good example).

To put things into perspective, on average, I create monthly 6 to 8 Log Myu pages, and 11 to 12 drawings (a 5-parts sequence, 3-4 characters, 1 experiment, 1 rework, 1 nude) for a total of 13 to 16 uploads. Your feedbacks made it clear that the amount of content I publish is also a strength of my Patreon, so obviously I'm not going to dramatically change things in that regard. But I hear and understand your worries, since we've seen more than enough artists burn themselves out. Before writing the numbers, I'll admit that I didn't necessarily realize how much it represented, and I'm certainly not willing to see my name be added to that list of artists.

The change: Currently I'm targetting one new upload every two days. I'll now target three new uploads per week. It's 6 uploads in two weeks, while it previously was 7 uploads in two weeks. We'll see on the long run if it brings the change I expect, but at the moment I believe that it might be enough to re-balance things without feeling like there's a drought of content.

3. Lack of Log Myu schedule

As mentionned above, I currently try to publish something new every two days. The priority goes to drawings, but if I don't have enough time to finish a drawing, I publish a Log Myu page, which is something I can normally create quicker than a drawing if I've done all the prep work. Because until now Log Myu pages acted as "fillers" of sort, I never scheduled them, hence the erratic publishing with sometimes 4 consecutive pages in 8 days followed by none for the next 8 days.

The change: I'll schedule Log Myu pages, you can now expect them every Tuesday and Friday!

4. Fixing the schedule

Months are an awful way to split the year. It's hard to plan and schedule content weekly when Patreon charges monthly, that months can start in the middle of a week, sometimes last 28 days, sometimes 31, and that you want patrons to know what to expect as benefits for their support. I tried to plan content on 28 days/4 weeks (at least a month), but it's impossible to cram everything within that timeframe without decreasing content or content quality, and increasing the risk of delays. It would also be incompatible with the two weekly Log Myu pages.

The change: Feedbacks clarified that having content released one month was of mild importance, as long as said content wasn't released too far away from the votes. So, I've decided to stop doing things monthly and to now work on a six-weeks cycle, starting on the monday of the first week, and ending on the sunday six weeks later. It's the best compromise I've found between regular suggestions/polls, amount of drawings/sequence vs Log Myu pages, and the switch from one upload every two days to three uploads per week. Switching to a six-weeks cycle implies that suggestions polls will now be scheduled and predictable. At the end of each month, I'll now publish a calendar to clarify what can be expected by patrons as benefits the following month.

5. OCs overwhelming polls

This one is a tough issue to solve. First, because it's not an issue in itself. It's just popular characters winning the poll, which is the point of the character poll, even if popular OCs tend to overshadow other suggestions. And second, because I can't simply duplicate the character poll and create a poll dedicated to OCs, it would be impossible time-wise. I believe however that the underlying issue here is more about overwhelming wins completely discarding other suggestions than necessarily a problem of OC. Since I only draw one pic from a poll, everything is about winning. Obviously, that belief can be wrong, so I'll see on the long run if the solution below works as intended.

The change: The 2nd and 3rd place of the character poll will now keep respectively 50% and 25% of their votes if they're suggested again in the next poll (same size, same outfit). Additionnally, suggestions by patrons from the Super Size Tier will also be able to retain 25% of the votes if renewed the following month. It's what I mentionned previously as extra benefits for higher tiers when it comes to drawings. Basically, it'll now be possible to build up support over time for a suggestion instead of having to go for ultra-popular suggestions. Suggestions from February's character poll will be eligible to this new mechanic in the next character poll.

6. Less reworks/experiments

Reworks, experiments and nudes were all introduced back in November. I believe they've all had a positive impact, in different ways. However, multiple feedbacks mentionned reworks and experiments taking a little too much place over my core content. I understand that reworks and nudes in particular can be a little disappointing when released as they take the spot of completely new content.

The change: I don't want any of the categories mentionned above to depart, but I still need to make changes to both to accomodate feedbacks and the new six-week cycle. To make room for other content, reworks and experiments will now use the same suggestion slot and alternate every six weeks instead of both occuring every new month. Reworks suggestions will now be limited to the Super Size Tier, but nude polls will merge with the character poll and I'll now create a nude version of every new character drawing that is eligible (neither an underage character nor another creator's OC), and publish both at the same time, like I did last week with the Dark Magician Girl. I believe that by creating nudes directly when I create Character drawings there is time to gain while creating extra content. 

Side note: Depending how it goes time-wise, I might provide on-demand nudes in a future new tier (so, not through a poll), content that I'd release when a character can't be drawn nude.

7. Size variety

That one went both way. Some people wanted more variety in the smaller end of the size spectrum, while others wanted more in the bigger end. Considering I recently changed how the character poll works by ensuring that each month, each size get a drawing, it's an issue that might already be solved for the smaller sizes. For the bigger sizes, I'll change the way Ultra Size character suggestions work : contrary to Chubby, Plus Size and Super Size, Ultra Size is not a clearly defined size, especially since I've drawn it very differently over time. I think it's safe to assume that patrons suggesting characters at Ultra Size pick it because they want the suggested character "as big as possible". As an artist, it's hard not to think I might disappoint some people due to that lack of clarity (is it too big, too small?).

The change: starting this month, I'll rename the "Ultra Size Character poll" into the "Free Size Character poll", and ask patrons doing a suggestion in that category to give a size reference on top of the character reference. As a result, the "bigger than ultra size" that was an option in experiments won't be allowed anymore in that poll since you'll be able to suggest it here. Please note that the size reference I'll ask for is related to the amount of fat on a character, and not to the actual size of the character (a planet-sized character suggestion for example would still belong to the experiment poll).

8. How long before the changes happen?

You can find attached to this post the new schedule, it should give you a good idea of what it will look like.

The changes are already partially in place. I started last week to publish Log Myu on Tuesday, and started this week to publish another page on Friday. On Sunday there will be a drawing.

Next Monday, I'll create the new Character Poll suggestion post that will take changes into account.

There won't be Rework and Experiment polls this month, but:
- if you belong to the Plus Size Tier or above you can DM me your Rework suggestion, that I'll add in the next Rework poll, whether you're still a patron or not at that time,
- if you belong to the Super Size Tier, you can DM me your Experiment suggestion, that I'll add in the next Experiment poll, whether you're still a patron or not at that time.

The Nude poll fully departing, I can't compensate similarly the lack of suggestions this month, so I've decided instead to go back at February's poll, and to create nude versions of the 2nd and 3rd place (Lucy Sequence, 4th panel, and Kitsune of the Rings), that were very close to each other in terms of votes, and much ahead of the fourth option.

Starting april, the new schedule will be fully applied.

TL;DR - What changes?

Everyone: Suggestions and polls now come back every six weeks instead of every month. Expect a calendar every month to know what's happening the following month so that you can take a decision whether or not to support my work that month. Log Myu pages will be released more often, every Tuesday and Friday, and drawings on Sunday. You can find attached to this post the new schedule.

Chubby tier: no benefits change!

Plus Size tier: Rework suggestions are departing and becoming exclusive to the Super Size Tier. The "bigger than ultra size" that was previously locked in the Super Size tier becomes an option in the "Free Size character poll" replacing the "Ultra Size character poll", in which you can provide a size reference on top of the usual character reference. Nude polls are merging with the character poll, what means that a nude version of any new eligible character will be released at the same time as the non-nude pic. In character polls, the 2nd and 3rd places keep respectively 50% and 25% of votes if suggested again next poll.

Super Size tier: Rework suggestions are now exclusive to your tier. Experiments won't allow "bigger than ultra size" suggestions anymore, but it becomes an option in the "Free Size character poll" replacing the "Ultra Size character poll", in which you can provide a size reference on top of the usual character reference. Experiments and Reworks will now use the same suggestion slot and alternate every six weeks. Nude polls are merging with the character poll, what means that a nude version of any new eligible character will be released at the same time as the non-nude pic. In character polls, the 2nd and 3rd places keep respectively 50% and 25% of votes if suggested again next poll but as member of the Super Size Tier, you also get to keep 25% of the votes on your character poll suggestions when you consecutively suggest the same character, whatever the place it ended at.

Conclusion

It took me a lot of time to decide what to do on each of these points. Defining the new schedule was a series of complicated choices. While I hope it won't disappoint anybody, I'm aware it's almost impossible. At the very least I tried to balance all negative changes with positive ones! Be sure that I'll keep doing my best to deliver content worth your support, and try to improve this Patreon as much as possible.

Feel free to ask any question you'd have about the changes, I'll take the time to explain them more properly if needed.

As usual, thank you all for your support!