Short and Far reaching Patreon-Type Questions (Patreon)

Hey guys. So, I have several short Patreon type questions, a few larger Patreon type question, and an opinion question. None of them have to do directly with my various stories, but the could impact their future.

First, the easiest. A few months ago, I was asked to post a story in Adobe Acrobat format. Would anyone like me to make this a permanent fixture?

Second, and sort of connected to the above. On Halloween, Fanfiction.net ran into problems, a lot of them, which blocked the latest chapter of FILFy from being visible there for five days or so via the website. It was still available via the app, but I also combated this by posting the story here in word doc format. Should I keep doing this in the future? I guess the question is, is the word document format easier to read/better than the fanfic version.

And now for the larger questions. I have greatly enjoyed the homage episodes I’ve been doing recently, and not just because they were astonishingly easy to do. Even with the episodes I had to write with practically nothing from the original I did so very quickly, barely spending a day at most, then an hour or so to go over it after Hiryo got them back to me. But this also has given my Ranma fans something to read during the month. A bag of popcorn rather than a full meal, but still. So here are the two questions from this point:

1.  Has everyone enjoyed the ability to choose-your-own adventure?  I know almost all the time the various choices haven’t exactly been close but still…

2. Are smaller snacks a better way to give you, my patrons more food overall than the Patron only poll?

Now, here is what I was thinking:

Looking at the December present poll, it seems that the new HP/WoW crossover idea is going to win hands down, unless all of my editors voted for Heroes of the High Seas. Since this is going to be a new story, I could try to write it as a choose-your-own-adventure style story. This way, I could give my HP fans the same five peace nugget-sized episode-type stories to bite into during the month.

…Please excuse the food-related analogies, I just started a new diet this past week.  It’s die with a T, that’s what it is!

If people want me to pursue the HP Addventure type format, that will have implications to how much time I can devote to the other Patron Only stories. Because, and this ties into the next question, making even short 5-7,000 word episodes without any kind of starting point would take time.  Especially if I try to match the update schedule I have been keeping with the Homage Episodes.

Beyond that, the next question to be asked about the Homage episodes is are they interesting enough to continue? 

By January at the latest we will be done with everything from the original Wonder About Zero Addventure thread. After that, making new episodes will take more time, and will have to be planned for. I like the story, but what do you all think going forward?

But here is another idea I wanted to run by you all in order to give you more stuff to read mid-month:  I could cut down on the size of my Patron Only story chapters. I would have to start the first such vote on the heels of November’s ending, but then would post a 10,000 word or so chapter near the start of the month, followed by a second patron only poll for the remaining two stories later that month. The next month (January) the first story updated would be the loser of the previous two polls, and would be updated, again, in small snack scale.

There are a lot of good points pushing towards this.  1. This will let me update all the Patron Only stories would progress in two-month blocks. 2. Smaller snack-type meals are easier to plan around.  3. Planning them is much easier, as they basically block my desire to world build beyond a certain point.  4. In this way, I can combat specific-story burnout. I can’t deny that the last two chapters of MW have come close to doing this.  5. I think, although this could just be me, that the smaller episode format also lets me check over my work and make certain there are fewer mistakes more easily.

Note these questions are not polls. I am just asking for everyone’s opinion on them.

And Finally, what is everyone’s idea about Archive of Our Own? Given the Halloween Troubles (patent pending) that Fanfic ran into, I have been asked numerous times about moving my stories there over the past few weeks. The problem is, I don’t really like the look of AO3, I think their tag system is a crapshoot and their security isn’t as good. Although adding pictures into some of the stories could be nice…

So again, what all is everyone’s opinion on this idea.