Reward and tiers update, and some thoughts about a community pirating Patreon's content 會員獎勵更動，以及針對會員專屬獎勵的保護措施

這篇文有點太長!!!總之得麻煩各位用力滑到很下面去看中譯版(跪地)

# The pirating community issue

Weeks ago, I've talked in a patron-only post, about a community which is currently pirating content from Patreon creators to a public website. Here's a screencap to show that I'm one of those many victims. 

They 'import' my posts, including paid-only ones, attachments, and comments on their website and make them free and public. This is a serious infraction of the right of mine and my patrons. They even open for donation and want to milk money from our effort. This website has been mirroring content from many Patreon creators for years, and the only response from Patreon support team is suggesting us making a DMCA takedown notice. Which helps no one actually, and the pirating community is still growing bigger.

How do they get those content, though? By looking at how their 'post importer' works, it seems someone had come to my page, pledged and imported my content. Unfortunately, it also means one or more of my patrons, are distributing to that pirating community. 

Why am I becoming a target? They're targeting easy victims who cannot legally fight back. I'm a small fan artist, which make me vulnerable for not being able to seek the protection under copyright laws. 

I believe most of you are willing to support, even the kindest people I can find on the internet, and this is how Patreon works, by generosity and trust. I don't want to sacrifice the right of my patrons, by overly protecting my content and deter new visitors. But something needs to be done, and I don't want to live in the mercy of them randomly deciding to stop importing my posts. And who knows if they are the only or the last one doing so.
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# New plan and reward changes

// To be a more independent artist, by creating more original content:

• To reserve my basic rights against people stealing from me.
• To reserve my basic rights against someone gets offended and report me.

// Adding warning texts on the top images of my paid-only post:

• To warn the importer and whoever gets my paid-only content for free that this is not acceptable by the content creator.
• To inform whoever gets my paid-only content for free that I need financial support to create more. 
• !! Remember you can still download images with no warning texts from the attachment files. 

// Here is a chart for the new reward system (you can also view it on Overview section):

• Videos are now 'occasional' reward, and sometimes it may not including full process. I'm switching to 4k displays (To be more specific, 8k! Because I sync it to a second monitor to fix problems that are hard to observe on Cintiq), the cursor are lagging, can't create too much layers, recording software often crashes and I lost the footage. Providing video reward become harder than it should be so I decide to only record some footages randomly. Sorry guys :((
• Every month I'll post at least 1 series of process photos for $2+ patrons. Sometimes it would be a painting process; sometimes it would be a drawing process. Since I'm deciding to create more original content, I need to draw more to improve the availability for viewers to get interested.

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And I also updated new information to the Q&A post. Here's what you may want to know:

# Watermark

// Is it possible to get any artworks without watermark?
Sorry, all of my digital rewards will have a small watermark.

// The only way to get my art without watermark is to buy physical products. 

• Books: You can buy books from Seemoon. Read this tutorial to know how to make an order on Seemoon. 
• POD (print on demand) products: You can order them on society6. (If you prefer to buy products on redbubble, I can also create a shop there.)
• 18+, nudity, and fanart content are not available for ordering on POD shops. (already some exceptions there but it is not wise to submit more)  

# Other Q&A

// How about selling on Gumroad?
It's not wise nor safe to sell fanart or NSFW content there. Artists like me are always some kind of outcasts and easy targets, no matter how much effort we put into our work, and this sucks I know. Which is why I'm deciding to make more original content in the future. So, yeah, only original and SFW content will be available on Gumroad. 

// I really want some old rewards on your Patreon.
You can contact me and I'll make a custom tier for you. But the price will be slightly higher. See the price in Q&A post.

Phew, this is a long boring post and I thank you for reading them all through. I've been struggling with thinking what is the best plan for my destination in recent few weeks. And now I want to start as simple as it could be. 

(And then the pain is to translate all texts between two languages...well, never said running Patreon is going to be easy ;o;)

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# 某社群正在專門盜取Patreon內容

數週前，我在一篇會員專屬的文章裡提起了這件事。某個社群正在盜取Patreon上許多創作者的內容，並將其公開在他們的網站。下有截圖為證：

這個群體「上傳」我的文章內容，包含非公開的文章、附件檔案、甚至各位的留言。這些被盜取的內容在未經我授權之下被公開曬在他們的網頁。這當然嚴重侵犯了我的創作權，也非常不尊重願意付費支持我的群眾。而且該網站管理人甚至提供管道收取捐款，儼然想把這種無良侵權舉動轉變成他們的營收。

透過搜尋，我發現該問題竟然已經持續數年之久，許多的Patreon創作者都成了受害人，而Patreon團隊因應態度之消極也教人心灰意冷。他們所提供的補救措施簡單來說只有一條路：向該網頁的網路提供商發送DMCA下架檢舉函。講實際點，這救不了任何人，而這個群體正在逐年壯大。這也讓我體會到，在歐美平台發表衍生同人作品毫無保障可言，整體環境也相當地不友善。

這些人要怎麼盜取我的內容？他們提供一種「自動上傳服務」，但前提是這些「盜傳者」必須先透過付費加入成為我的會員。不幸地，這也意謂我的Patreon會員之中存在著這種不肖的「盜傳者」。

那麼我為什麼會變成他們的目標？他們盜取的主要目標是針對我們這些衍生同人創作者，因為我們無力回擊，假設我發送DMCA檢舉函，還要承受對方反過來駭我或控我誣告的風險。但他們盜取內容的程度已經足以取代受害者的Patreon專頁，他們有某程度的程式撰寫與駭客技能，有匿名社群在幫他們上傳內容，所造成的威脅和過往的典型盜圖事件有天壤之別。

我相信絕大多數會員都是非常樂意贊助我的粉絲，甚至可以說是我能在網路上找到最熱情響應創作與回饋的一群人，這該是Patreon運作的基本原則，慷慨和信賴。我必須在不傷害這原則的前提之下採取某些行動，我不打算一直活在「噢我運氣真好！這些傢伙今天還沒偷到我最新的內容！」這種悲哀的困境，或用「這些人反過來說也等於在幫我打宣傳」這種無力的想法自我安慰。而且誰能保證這種網站不會隨著衍生創作者權力被漠視的情況下變得越來越多？

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# 新的目標與獎勵調整

// 今後的創作將會有更多是原創內容。

• 以保有我在台灣以外的平台、捍衛自我作品的基本權力，即便目前以我的力量或是大環境來看，幾乎是辦不到的，但我不喜歡讓可能性一直掛零。
• 以保有我可能遭到針對性舉報之後，自我捍衛的籌碼和權力。
  

// 在付費文章的首圖標上警語。

• 警告盜傳者、以及免費在上面觀看其內容的訪客，這些行為都是不被我容許的。
• 讓免費偷看的人知道我需要實質的贊助才能繼續創作。
• !! 各位仍然可以在文章的附件內下載沒有添加警語的作品。
  

// 獎勵方面也做了若干調整，以下將用圖表來說明：

• [ 圖表已貼在本帖上半部] (你也可以從我的專頁介紹看到圖表)
• 影片獎勵調整為「不定期發表」，且不一定包含作畫全程影片。明顯地我其實也幾個月沒錄影片了，因此前數月都製作了插畫包做為賠禮。原因有很多，主要是錄製影片比我想像還要困難地多，而我目前工作時會使用到兩台4k螢幕，對顯示卡和CPU來說是很重的負荷，下筆會LAG，圖層開不了幾層，錄影程式錄到一半就當掉，也丟失了許多錄影片段。
• 我每個月仍然會在這邊發表至少一系列的作畫過程「圖片」。有時是彩稿/灰階稿的過程，有時會是墨線稿/素描稿的過程。由於決定創作更多原創內容，目前才剛起步，我不得不完成更多作品和設定，否則無法清楚建立原創的方向和概念。因此有時候會沒辦法抽出時間完成需要更多時間繪製的彩稿或灰階稿。

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此外在問與答專區也新增了一些說明。這裡複製貼上一些各位可能會想知道的問答：

# 浮水印 

// 能不能提供沒有水印的獎勵？
歹勢，所有數位獎勵內容都會有一個小小的浮水印。

// 我的實體商品沒有水印，您可以考慮在以下商店購買：

• 同人誌和周邊: 在月見草或Booky購買。
• POD(隨選即印)商品：在我的Society6商店購買。(如果你偏好redbubble，可以要求我在redbubble開店。)
• 18+，含裸露內容，非原創作品等不會在POD商店上架。(目前已經有一些例外商品，但不宜再繼續增加此類內容) 

# 其他常見問答 

// 舊商品會不會在Gumroad上架？
只有原創與SFW性質的作品會在Gumroad上架。

// 我很想收集某些已經過期、但無法在Gumroad上架的舊獎勵。
你可以私訊、email給我，我會為你開一個客製的會員等級。但已過期的舊獎勵價格將會稍微高出一些。每件獎勵的價格請查看問與答專區。

最後恭喜你，你把這篇無聊的文章看完了！這陣子我都在煩惱接下來到底要怎麼走，倒也不是發現東西被偷走對我造成多大的衝擊，而是這種「從頭開始吧」的心情，原來也需要很大的勇氣(最主要壓力是同人債沒還清啦其實)。我目前還是盡量希望一切從簡，以創造彈性去嘗試更多的可能性。