UPDATE! Changes to the Patreon (Patreon)

Hey, everybody! It's me! Your favorite Rican Demon. Today, we're updating the Patreon to be more of ... well, a Patreon. Prior to today there were no rewards on this page. It was treated entirely as a tip jar, an easier way for people to support the channel for the sake of supporting it. 

While this made things easier on me work-wise, it also didn't strike me as particularly fair. Some of you were donating a lot and sharing personal messages with me and I felt I was taking more than I was giving. So here are the changes that I hope will result in a far better community here on PETREIN.

REWARDS! - There are rewards now which means now you can actually get something out of this. Ultimately, this is still a one man operation so I can only offer so much but it's better than the nothing that was there before. Some tiers are simple thank yous, higher tiers have invites to sneak peaks and private discords (no Kraut stuff, don't worry) and highest tiers have personalized merchandise from yours truly. These rewards are still being worked out, but I wanted to at least have some kind of guideline to follow for people who considered supporting and what they can expect.

PER MONTH! - It is no secret that I spend a lot of time on big projects. The Musicals take months and Recaps can sometimes take several weeks to make. This in particular makes the "Per Month" model feel incredibly unfair. There were periods in 2017 where people essentially paid just to support me and nothing more. One video a month. Yeah. I know. In response to this, I'm changing "Per Month" to "Per Highly Edited Video." This specifically accounts for Musicals, Recaps and any content that matches in the editing department, so whenever you pay you're actually getting something. No more donating to the channel for a month of what could possibly be nothing. If there's no video of that caliber, there's no charge.

Standard videos like Glasses Off, Ray Gun Live, and low effort one-offs like the video about YouTube's New Monetization Policy do not qualify for a paid creation and you will not be charged for that content.

Keep in mind you can always limit your donations with a cap, so if you feel more comfortable limiting your donations per month to ensure you don't overpay, that's entirely doable as well. I simply feel it makes more sense for the creations to determine donations as opposed to time.

UPDATES! - The previous set up of the Patreon allowed me to ignore the community. It was per month so I never really had to engage or post updates and there were no rewards so I didn't have to engage to fulfill those rewards. The reason I allowed that out-of-sight-out-of-mind attitude to persist was because I felt a greater pressure engaging with people who were supporting me financially than I did with the general audience. It's a little scary to talk to people who are paying you because you feel like you need to make your content live up to the monetary value the patrons provide. 

However, this is ultimately childish and I just need to grow up and get over it, preferably not with Bennett Foddy. I think this new responsibility will make me utilize Patreons features. Asking you questions directly and updating you personally on how content is going and what content is coming soon.

END!

So those are the new updates. I hope I've conveyed my feelings effectively as to why these changes are being made and I hope some of you can stick along for the ride.

Regards,
Chris