Yet another poll related announcement. (Patreon)

Howdy!

I'll get right into it: I've decided to retire the monthly custom mod polls. It's something I've been considering for a while for various reasons, but the recent events in the community have solidified this decision.

The options I am able to put in the polls are either images of irl clothing, art, or AI art. All of these have the potential risk of incurring someone's wrath. If I use an irl clothing piece, the brand to which it belongs to could get me to take the mod down (this almost happened with the Yurippie mod). Using someone's art has the same risk. This is why I basically NEVER use art as inspo, because 9 times out of 10 the art in question doesn't have the creator's name on it, or anything that could help me identify the artist, so it means I cannot check the ToS / credit the person. If I use AI art - we get the whole AI art discourse.

This is why lately I have been trying to design my own mods here and there, but the way that process works for me is basically as follows: I open MD or Blender and just... let my brain take the wheel. I don't draw a design in advance - I just add and change things as I go (I can't paint or draw, I'm a terrible artist lol). Sometimes I will use an existing design as a base and just change it up too. Either way, this means that I can't possibly put my own designs in the polls, since I can't provide a visual representation of what it would even be.

(Slight side rant: I do eventually want to get to a point where all the mods I release are either entirely designed by me, or changed up A LOT, but realistically... I do not have background or skills in design. Majority of 3D artists do not, in fact, design their own assets. Game devs recreate concept art provided to them by artists who work for them. I cannot afford to hire an artist / designer who would do that for me. This is why modders so frequently end up using the dreaded Pinterest as a source of designs... and get demonized for it. If it wasn't for Pinterest etc. we would have almost no custom mods in XIV unfortunately. Anyway, sorry about the little rant, just wanted to give some context.)

I hope that this isn't too upsetting of a change. I know polls are fun, and I have enjoyed doing them, but as it stands, I am worried that one day the winning entry could be the one to get me into serious trouble. This applies to the non-poll mods too ofc, so from now I'll make more of an effort to change up the inspos I use, or design them myself, for all my work.
Hazelnut Lattes will still receive 5 mods a month, and I will aim to make the tier's exclusive mod more complex than the rest! March poll winner will still be released, but it'll be the last one.
Spiced Macchiatos will retain their exclusive channel in my Discord server, but since there will be no polls, it won't serve as source of entries for them. I guess it can server as more of a suggestion channel, or just hangout.

Thank you for reading and the continued support! If you have any thoughts or suggestions, feel free to comment!