Waifu Wishlist news —and sort of why. (Patreon)

Hey guys! The following is an update I wanted to share with you, about a few different things that's been going on, and which put together made me pressed for a change.

But first let's have a TL;DR sum-up to keep things clear: this update regarding the Waifu Rewards is NOT changing anything for the patrons that subscribed until May 31st 2020 and before. That is, all of you on Tier3 right now reading this post before June begins. So don't worry your waifus are safe, and read on in the spirit of staying up to date with Fegu's concerns.

The first thing to know, which is actual news, is that Patreon has started asking us creators to categorize the benefits in our Tiers to discriminate between taxable and not-taxable content; it sounds like Patreon is being pressured to satisfy a series of updated tax regulations from all over the different countries our patrons/supporters are in.

Apparently the big switch is happening somewhere between June and July. The interesting part is that creators can now categorize our content in a variety of ways, many of which are not taxable. This way each pledge would only be taxed over a fraction of its cost, depending on the benefits included in the tier, and which of them counts for "sales taxes". I've been analyzing that closely.

The next thing to know... is that at this point I no longer feel very comfortable (confident?) letting the Waifu Wishlist grow indefinitely. In the pure way I conceptualized the Waifu Rewards at the beginning, the core idea was to have something special to give back for Tier 3 pledges over time (what I used to call "gratitude turned into art"), and as a way to celebrate your combined efforts supporting my work with new and interesting characters that I wouldn't be drawing without your input.

The majority of you understood it that way, which always made me glad. And though the waiting time's been very long in most cases, I've always enjoyed seeing the results and I've hoped you had too. So far so good!

However, the pending volume of this our "waifu wishlist" (which is in fact a list of T3 patrons holding slots by order of arrival, whether or not they've added a waifu yet) has increased over the years ahead of the speed I get to complete new rewards... So before it gets out of hand, I've been thinking should be time to do something about it.

Going back to the taxing issues, it happens that the Waifu Rewards are a bit of a gray area, which can lead to confusion. They are not commissions, clearly, and they've got no additional cost either... since are only a tiny bonus gift, eclipsed by the amount of full artpacks delivered during the waiting period. But each Waifu Reward itself is "work" that I do on request, so... what are they? "Gratitude turned into art" is not a tax-friendly concept. It doesn't fit anywhere.

All these things, put together with the ongoing stress that life and pandemics are putting on my table, have made me decide for a change. So starting next month, I'll stop offering NEW slots to the Waifu Wishlist as part of my Patreon benefits.

This means for the foreseeable future the Wishlist will not add new slots, keeping only current Tier3 patrons (as of May 31, 2020) who haven't got their Waifu Reward drawn yet* and as long as they remain on that Tier. I'll keep progressing thru the list as has been so far, removing patrons as their waifu gets done, until the last one is drawn and the Waifu Wishlist ends.

What you'll notice is that after May ends the Tier 3 description won't include that item anymore. But rest assured that change is not affecting your earned slot in the waifu wishlist, ready for you to add your character of choice. I'm super hoping this has been all the clear it needs to be...

Come to me with your questions if anything still sounds unclear, and I'll do my best to clear your doubts. In case your question is the "what number I'm in the list!!???" type, I'll beg your patience, as the thing needs frequent updates, as patrons come and go, and it's one bit of a monumental task for someone who doesn't love spreadsheets.

That's all right now! Huge thanks for reading this far!

(*) note: The only exception are the remaining few "early birds", who I still got their second waifus waiting (btw, I admire each one of them for their patience ;;A;; )