Anouncement
Added 2023-02-27 19:24:36 +0000 UTCMy Friends, I want to let you know about a major change that’s going to come to pretty much every aspect of the way my gallery, Patreon, social media, and discord server are going to work in the near future.
Its going to be a 180º paradigm shift that I believe is going to be beneficial to everyone involved.
I’m moving away from the current pay walled tier based reward system to a public gallery with a 1$ voluntary tip jar/early access system. On hand with this, there is going to be a pronounced shift towards social interaction on Discord, meaning there is going to be more emphasis on conversations, discussions, and a lot of input from the community on the direction of comics, lore discussions, etc.
What exactly does it mean?
Starting on April 1stthe following things will take place:
1. There will be a new Patreon tier simply called “Early Access” that’s going to be just 1$. All art will be posted there one week before it comes out to the general public. Also, there will be a new discord role that will allow members to have access to more social interaction and participation in the server.
2. All other Patreon tiers will become unavailable to sign up to and all content within those tiers will be set to Patreon Only which means it will be available to all patrons. I can’t put it as public within Patreon because the platform requires that all NSFW content be non-public. All the art and comics associated to those tiers will be posted on Discord open to the entire community. They will be posted as well to my galleries on Deviant Art and Pixiv, as well as social media like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram (with the content restrictions each platform has, such as requirements on censorship and the like). Bare in mind that a huge upload of years of work into the galleries and social media in one day will not be possible (or desired) so it will take a few days to get the galleries all caught up, however Discord galleries will be updated from day 1.
3. On Discord, the Patreon galleries will be set to public.
4. Also on Discord, there will be a new voice channel where I’ll be in a regular schedule, probably Wednesdays in the evening, to talk to anyone who comes in about characters, ideas, story, tips for beginners, etc. An open forum to talk anything related to female muscle fandom in general, not only my creations.
5. I’m also thinking about a second voice channel associated to Patreon at a separate date, probably Tuesdays, maybe a Q&A type channel where we can go in depth into any relevant topic you guys want.
Why the change?
There are several reasons:
1. I love working on images and stories about my characters and there are times, more often than not, that it feels bad to put my best work behind a pay wall when I would love that everyone who enjoys my work to see it.
2. Currently there is an inherent expectation of an amount of bulk of content that has to be posted per week, which is understandable because the subscription was done with the understanding of getting “value” in return. It’s kind of sad when one has an idea to do something but realize it will take X amount of time to do, and regardless of how much you want to do it, you must put it aside because you have to post something to keep people happy. It might be a restriction I put on myself because there is nothing I want less than to feel I’m delivering less value than what is expected.
3. Piracy. I’ve seen my work lifted from my Patreon and put into pirate sites within days of my postings. I know that trying to fight it with takedown notices is pointless because they’ll just post again under a different user and it’s like nothing happened. It’s a losing battle and I think the best way to beat them is to take them out of the equation entirely. I believe taking my content public and taking small donations instead of pay-wall galleries will effectively halt the piracy machine regarding my content and deny them the current revenue they get from my work.
4. Experimentation and broadening reach. People who are aware of my art from way back in the early 2000s know I used to do muscular women just like now, but I also did content with muscle furries (male and female). I want to go back to that and add a larger variety of characters into my world. Under the current tier system I would have to add a new tier for non-human so people who only want to pay for muscular female art don’t feel they are paying for stuff they don’t want. That’s what I did for futa women but now adding anthro would add so much complexity it would be unmanageable. I believe its much better to have one single optional token donation and a well organized gallery so people see only what they wish to see.
5. Finally, I want to put community first. I think its better to have a number of people who support your work with a token small amount donated because they like what you do and wish to contribute than something more reward oriented.
Why April and not March?
The main reason is to give current subscribers enough time to decide to switch to the new 1$ tier or opt out entirely if that is their choice. I believe 1 month is plenty of time as a heads up.
How will the content be in March?
It will be just as before. Nothing will change until 1st of April.
Will the monthly image sent by mail continue to exist in the new model?
Yes. I believe a thank you image exclusive to the current month’s current subscribers is fair and a fun perk to get.
This decision came about after long consideration. It’s a scary prospect because I have no idea if it will kill my Patreon or make it take off, probably it’ll be somewhere in the middle. I expect my income will be reduced by one sixth of what currently is at, not accounting for people who might chose to leave for whatever reason. I’m taking this gamble because I believe in the long run will be a lot more bigger and more fun for all of us.
If you have questions about the change, please let’s have a discussion. I want to hear your opinions and suggestions on how this server and community can grow and evolve.
Comments
The change will not hide any previous posts, at least not the ones with images or stories. I might do a bit of spring cleaning removing old announcements or polls which would just add clutter and are irrelevant at this point, but all rewards will be available. The issue we had during the rollout of futa content was that I created a new tier and had to go back to all older posts and mark them as available to both tiers. I will have to do the same this time. Go back to the oldest post and set it to "Patreon Only", that way it will be available to all tiers. This will in effect empty the content of the current tiers and put them all on the new one.
Kurt Logan
2023-02-28 15:07:23 +0000 UTCWould the change make some older posts hidden ? (Because when you added the Futa Tier by subscribing to it some older posts were initially not part of it). Also will this lower the amount of posts along with the price? And will the previous monthly rewards also be made public ?
John Alamo
2023-02-28 08:43:34 +0000 UTCThank you, I really appreciate your words. I completely agree with your comment about the quality. Nowhere in the plan is to lower the quality of the postings. It's just about the flexibility to do a wider array of artwork and stories that might not fit neatly into a specific tier while keeping with the overall heart of my characters which is Powerful characters with crazy proportions and insane strength. That will not change one bit.
Kurt Logan
2023-02-27 20:06:47 +0000 UTC