IMPORTANT!! Upcoming Patreon Changes (Patreon)

Hello everyone! Ari here! Hope you’ve been having a marvelous beginning of 2023! We’re excited to announce some MAJOR CHANGES to the Patreon!

As mentioned in the newsletter, we’re going to be revamping the Patreon in time for February! This means an overhaul of tiers and benefits in a way that hopefully makes everything more clear, more consistent, and better for Caytlin’s health.

First off, here’s a look at the new tiers! Everything is subject to change as we look into community feedback and finalize our plans over the next week.

Free

• Monthly newsletter
• Quarterly character Q&A

$2

• Discord Access
• Page 1 week early

$5

• Main-story PDFs
• Thank you in books
• Ask questions in quarterly Q&A
• Working streams

$10

• All pages in the buffer
• 1x month in-depth Q&A stream

$25

• Name as sponsor on site
• Monthly postcard

$50

• 20% discount on commissions
• Sketched Expression Busts (every other month)

$100

• Special thanks in books
• Flat Colored Expression Busts (every other month)
• Early notice when commissions or cameo slots open up

$250

• Taint people
• Resident of Abroad Forever
• Monthly 1 hour commission

As you can see, there’s going to be some changes! We want to be completely transparent about what our new plans are, so here is a list of what is going away and why:

Monthly TFTs

We love Tales from Treehollow. They’re a great way to share more stories from the universe. But unfortunately, they are VERY expensive to produce and garner little interest, even from Patrons. For more information on this, check out our Newsletter from this month. 

The good news is that all available Tales from Treehollow will be available as downloadable PDFS for purchase in the Tamberlane Shop, between $3 and $5. Browse all available Tales from Treehollow here.  

Polls

While we’re going to be offering Q&As, a lot of the polls we offer just..don’t end up getting done. When we do have polls, they end up on the Foxglove Server as informal polling. Since these aren’t consistent nor particularly useful, they’re going the way of the dodo.

Welcome Postcards

We know you love Postcards! We do too! And regular postcards will still be a thing. But the welcome postcards, being inconsistently handed out, are much more difficult to keep track of than our regular ones, and aren’t particularly interesting.

Twitter Shoutout

Look, Twitter is a big butt, and the bot keeps breaking anyway. The less we support the Blue Bird, the better.

Patreon Badge on site comments

We're going to be getting rid of site comments in favor of linking to the Foxglove Comics discord, so these are now irrelevant. (This is because moderating multiple spaces is energy-sucking and soul-draining, so we're consolidating!)

Page Accrual for Existing Cameos

Up until now, we’ve been keeping track of page numbers for relevant cameos, and we will fulfill all outstanding pages to the best of our ability.

That being said, there are now far too many cameos to be adding more, especially with additional pages. The story has to come first at some point, and if we don’t put a cap on cameos, the cameos will no longer be a nice way to implement characters into the story and will become more like Poochie in Itchy and Scratchy. Every character deserves a proper integration into the world, and at this point the cast list is so long that we feel this promise is no longer one we can continue to offer in the future.

For all current cameos accruing pages, you will be getting the pages that you have earned! We are simply cutting off any further pages from accruing as of February 2023.

Read more about the reason for this change as well as see the full cameo queue here. 

The 15 dollar tier

We’re aiming to simplify tiers and streamline things, and this tier would end up with more or less no incentives after the change, so it’s been folded into the 10 and 25 dollar tiers.

Next, here is a list of things we are changing from the old system, as opposed to removing:

15%/25% commission discount

Having multiple discounts to keep track of was a headache, so we’ve gone ahead and split the difference. From now on, $50 gets a 20% discount, right in the middle.

Commissions

Originally, 50 dollar reward commissions were full-body sketches, drawn quarterly. For the new system, these will be changed to sketched busts, drawn every two months. These are significantly easier for Caytlin to draw, and there are a lot of them. This will make it easier to keep up while drawing the comic, and will mean that 50 dollar members will get twice as many commissions as before!

In line with this, 100 dollar members will be able to have their busts drawn with flat color as opposed to sketched. They, too, will be on every-other-month schedule instead of quarterly!

"But Ari! Those sound like telegram stickers!" They do, don't they? You can get your commission formatted as a sticker for use in programs like Telegram or Discord, or you can stick with a traditional bust.

250 dollar commissions are now going to be 1-hour illustrations with a list of limitations. Caytlin kept going above and beyond and it kept her from getting any other work done, so I've put my foot down. 1 hour only!

Here's some 1-hour commissions she's done:

Proper guidelines will be written up for all commissions so that you can feel confident knowing you're requesting something that's within Caytlin's scope of work.

Cameo offers

As mentioned previously, long-term cameos are becoming nigh impossible to integrate, so we have decided that going forward, any new cameo instance will be sold as needed on Ko-Fi instead of acquired through patronage on Patreon. 100 dollar patron members will be given first notice on not only commissions, but on cameo opportunities, as there will likely still likely still be need for them in the future for crowd scenes and specific instances. This way, we aren’t trying to incorporate endless cameos, but when we do need them, you’ll be the first to know!

Again, everything you need to know about cameos and a look at the queue can be found here in this entry.  

Monthly Postcards

Caytlin's main hangup with these involved writing up the message that accompanied it, but we all know the main value of the postcards is in the art and the bad jokes. So that's what they are now!

AND SO...

As you can see, we’ve been heavily prioritizing simplifying monthly work flow for Patreon rewards, and that means mostly getting rid of things that a) are a lot of extra work for little return, or b) haven’t been used enough to justify being rewards in the first place. Hopefully, our new list will be more consistent and clear for everyone involved!

We can’t begin to tell you how much your support is appreciated. It’s thanks to all of you that we’ve been able to work as a team to fulfill the vision for this story to the best of our ability. Caytlin’s health has been an up and down journey, and by making these changes, the hope is that not only will patron members have a bit more clarity about what they’re receiving, but that Caytlin will have an easier time managing things and delegating as much of the non-art related tasks to the team. We want the comic to come out consistently and at its best, and this will help continue to make that happen!

WE NEED YOUR FEEDBACK!

Of course, all of this is subject to change, and we need your help! We're going to be posting some polls and surveys in the next couple of days and we need your responses! Your feedback is invaluable to help us ensure the Patreon changes are welcome and clear to all, so please keep your eyes peeled and DEFINITELY be sure to respond with any questions, comments, or concerns, because we want this to be the best it can be for you guys!

Watch the Revamp LIVE!

If you want to hang out with us, tune in on Twitch on Friday where we’ll be implementing the changes live! Specific details will be posted later in the week, but we hope to see you there. We can’t wait to get things rolling as we move into the fifth chapter in the Tamberlane saga!

Thank you all so much! We hope to hear from you!

The Tamberteam

FAQ

Caytlin here, stepping in to answer some questions!

Q: How will this affect annual patrons?

If you're staying on the same tier, it shouldn't affect you at all. The tiers are going to be edited with their new rewards, so nothing should change there.  

If however you want to change tiers -- such as those whom we're asking to leave grandfathered tiers -- annual patrons are hampered a little bit. Annual patrons cannot *decrease* their pledge until their patronage runs out. If they want to increase their pledge, they will be paying for a new annual subscription but with your current remaining annual payment as prorating. (More information here)

If you are an annual patron on a grandfathered tier, just change your tier when your annual sub runs out. That's probably your best option.

Q: On my commission can I bank slots so I can have more complicated pictures/extra characters?

A: No.

Q: Can you color a previous commission for me instead of doing something new?

A: No.

Q: Can I get something NSFW?

A: Yes, you may, within reason. I have a list of limits for what I will draw in NSFW. I will have a separate place for you to send details to, and it will be completed under my NSFW pseudonym, Zesty Marmalade.

Q: But what if I want a really tame version of something you have on your 'no' list?

A: Then the answer is no.

Q: Can my NSFW be outside the scope of your offered commissions?

A: No.

Q: That's a lot of No answers...

A: Yes. :) I am trying to simplify everything to make it easier on me, and these are the sorts of things I would love to accommodate for everyone but I simply cannot. So the answer is no. Sorry!

Q: Okay so if you put up a cameo on Ko-Fi...I have to pay for it now?

A: Yes. However, your discount code will work, and you will have ample warning for when any slots will go live. Keep in mind, these are not ongoing slots but single appearances.

Q: How much will the cameos be?

A: I don't know. It will depend heavily on the type of cameo, how long it's needed, etc. I don't have a range yet.

Q: I've been on a "background cameo" tier for a while and I haven't seen a way to submit a cameo.

A: I will be updating and releasing a new Cameo form sometime soon after the revamp! If you have not submitted a cameo, then keep your eyes peeled.

Q: So if you're turning off page accrual, can I drop this old, hidden tier I'm on?

A: Yes! In fact, please do! We are going to be deleting old tiers as part of the revamp. (We're going to make a post about this specifically in the coming days.) We are asking all folks on grandfathered tiers to bump to an existing tier if they want to keep receiving benefits.

Q: I have another question...

A: Ask away! I'll add it here as we answer questions.