August Update + new Poll systems coming in (Patreon)

Hello Everyone! (Big update wall of text, grab a snack....) 

Welcome to all the new members, there will probably be a bit in this post you are not familiar with but bare with me, we always have a fair bit going on. All the boring stuff I usually put down the bottom so feel free to doze off at any time but there is alot of important information down there about requesting new models and new voting systems so please also read that :)

Firstly a massive apology is needed. I was adding a late entry to the TMNT painting competition poll (it was submitted in time but we just stuffed up basically and didn't have it in there, sorry James ) and in doing so it wiped the current vote count. Yes I know, frustrating to say the least. I am sorry. We will need everyone to re-vote (and of course I won't touch the post again :) ...) and we might run the poll for an extra week to let it catch up again. I address the voting a little below.

Wow August.. it's hard to believe. Currently we are in full lockdown here in NSW Australia, school is a no go, so kids are at home, 2 weeks so far and now we're told another 2 weeks lockdown. I feel fortunate that I work where I am locked down anyway, so I can keep things plodding along as normal :) Although I live remotely there has been a couple of 'local' cases so i'm pretty much bound here anyway for the forseeable next few months, not that I go anywhere anyway lol... 

All the models pictured can be found in this months downloads on the member site.
NEW MEMBERS and even old ones, it is super important you are joined up to the member depot  site, this is where the files are!  if you have not signed up there, just click the link below, sign up with the email address you use here for patreon, and i'll activate the account. https://www.hex3dpatreon.com


There is still quite a few models in there from July also so get them before they are gone. Sometimes i'll leave the last months models up for a while - and as we grow substantially so does the number of people that might log in later to download them and we've found that keeping up the last couple weeks of each month lets people catch up on things they might have missed. September will see this months downloads section cleaned out and we're starting fresh so as I said, get whats in there before it gets moved to the Full access section (which you will be upgraded to at the start of your third month)

Good news for the winner of the competition however, the Mars 3 pro's are shipping and the one I pre-ordered will be here in time, so first prize is now officially upgraded to a Mars 3 Pro.

There is of course more models coming up this month. Usually I start earlier and finish earlier in the month, whereas this month im starting later and finishing later, i.e I will be releasing models and tutorials all the way through until the very last day of the month rather than the usual of slowing down in the last few days. 

COMPETITIONS:

I need as many people as possible to please, log into the member depot and vote on the TMNT painting and kids drawing competition. 

The Voting can be found right there next to "This Months downloads" There is samples and links to individual entries. Please check these out, there is some incredible work here.

Coming up:

We are very close to the 5k Goal, and one lucky patron will receive an Elegoo Saturn printer to a random lucky member! It is here in a box ready and waiting... I cannot wait to send this thing out! 

Anycubic Official Competition:

We are doing a promotion with Anycubic in the coming weeks  which will be public where you can win an Anycubic Vyper, but there will also be prizes for the same competition that are patreon member only rewards. We have printers (yes multiple) Resin, FDM ,and all sorts of goodies to send out. Big thanks to Jay who has organized this promotion and the printer prizes.

USER MEMBERSHIP REWARDS:

We will be sending out very soon rewards for members who reach (and have reached) their 1, 2, 3, 4 and now 5 year anniversary supporting this Patreon (and boy.. there is A LOT! ) But we have some cool things all lined up and happening as big thank you to all those that have been subscribed and helped me grow this thing, especially for such long times. Of course every month a proportion of people leave, but consistently more have stayed each month and over the years really, all thanks to what has grown to be an all round awesome friendly group of members, ie all of you, and people hang around for the long haul (and the models too I hope :) )

New sections will be opening up on the Member depot in September:

Member uploads will be re-enabled, please ensure you read the posting rules that are pinned at the top of that section before uploading models. 

Voting Polls for new models and how it will work (Please read) 

Since requests always get out of hand no matter how we try and run it (and hey it was easy when we had a few hundred members, but now besides email, messages on here, FB patreon etc, the requests are at a mindblowing proportion, even if I cloned myself 10 times I couldn't get them all done in any respectable time frame :) 

But the previous requests that were submitted (which are still there, we just disabled the section to pull the reigns so to speak) will still be used. Now this section had some great request ideas - but some of them were just either plain crazy, impossible to model or some people had submitted many requests each when really, we can only sort of deal with one request per person at the moment. 

I will be taking the top 25 requests from that section and creating a new poll which will be open to all members. 

It will run for 1 week starting tomorrow.  This will start the new process off so we can have it all running fresh by September.

I will commence work at the end of the weeks poll on the top model. Long story short - you vote for 1 week, I make that model in the next week, and we repeat. I mean it could take me way less than that to make it, it might take me a day it might take 5... who knows, all depends on the model.

I figure a week is safe, the idea is when that polled model is finished and released I put a new poll up and we go again. This way we can get through no less than 4 Polls per month for requests which should make some people happy I hope. 

So while we will start it slow to catch up on the older requests.. it will speed up to a fair pace.

You wanted more Requests done? you got it!! 

NEW SYSTEM STARTING SEPTEMBER - THIS IS HOW IT WORKS!:

The polls are generated from user requests and are broken down into 4 per month, all trailing eachother. A new system i've come up with but after much deliberation I think this is the best way I can get more requests out and more often. 

The polls will be run on the Member Depot along with everything else (It's just easier for me and us all to have it in one place along side the requests as you can imagine) This is probably the best system I can forsee to keep up with (a week per requested model is fine with me)

(1) Start of Week 1: New Poll Goes up

End of Week 1:  Top poll option starts getting designed.

(2) Start of Week 2: Model from Week 1 Poll  is released. New Poll is posted.

End of Week 2: Top poll option starts getting designed.

(3) Start of Week 3: Model from Week 2 Poll  is released. New Poll is posted.

End of Week 3: Top poll option starts getting designed.

(4) Start of Week 4: Model from Week 3 Poll  is released. New Poll is posted.

End of Week 4: Top poll option starts getting designed. 

This last model (4) will be released when the cycle repeats itself at the start (1) of the following month. Making sense now? :) and over and over it repeats.

This is of course on top of whatever other models I make for that month, but at least this way I know at least 4 models I make in that month is what people wanted and not what I hope they wanted haha. 

USER REQUESTS THAT GENERATE THE POLLS

AFTER this initial 1 week poll tomorrow, The request sections WILL open back up again when we start this new system at the Start of September. 

THE NEW MODEL Request Section will start again (as many of the old requests are from old/expired subscribers and I'd rather do what the current members want) 

To stop the issue of multiple requests, this section will have posting approval on, so basically if you post multiple requests they just won't get approved) so this way we can keep it at 1 request per member. If your request makes it to a poll and does not win, this doesn't mean its out for the count!! No...  if it was really close it will automatically be included in the next poll that week. If something gets zero votes then it might be a while until it gets a shot at a poll again (unless you can drum up support for it of course :)  

Requests to EXISTING models section will be backup:

This section was disabled because instead of posting requested to have modifications made to models we already had, people used it to request new models.. so like the above, post approval will be turned on for this section this time around. This section is specifically where you can request modifications or changes to existing models that have been released, on this patron (not models from other places...) Do you need something cut into pieces? need a larger piece for a larger printer? whatever- this is the section in where you ask for this. This will go live again on the first of September along with the other new stuff.

So that is it for a large update, I don't post them often but things are changing, The new poll system will see at least a few posts a month on patreon itself rather than the monthly updates just to keep the people who are not in the Facebook group in the loop. I will also try to make an effort to be more visible on Discord, personally it's just another distraction from work (and making the models you guys want!) but I promise I will pop in more in the future. It is pretty buggy, even as admin it kicks me out a lot for no reason too. 

Anyway thank you for reading this giant text wall if you did. I cannot believe we are nearly at 5000 patrons (and 5 years!) what a wild ride.  I am forever grateful to you guys and gals,  thank you for being part of this ever growing family!

Regards, and as always , May the force be with you, and your printer.
Geoff.