A Month in Patreon - An open report and a show of sincerity

This is going to be a long one, folks. Hope you all are interested nonetheless. I will talk about how Patreon has been for me so far, what it meant for me, what I had to deal with... and pirates.

First things first, this has been a triumphant success to my life in so many regards. I know I say "thank you" a lot and it is cliched to say "I always mean it every time", but you should all be aware that this decision of mine to get on Patreon changed my life in a couple ways.

I was made aware that the stuff I'm doing are quality enough. Sure, I'd be the first one to say it has a lot to improve on it, and admitting it is half the battle. This however brings me back to the first times I ever drew in the name of Cuisine and man... A couple of you would hotlink those garbage fires on my stream and there is nothing more embarrassing than to look at those again. I've become better - and it was always thanks to you and your attention in the stuff I do. I can observe from VAT information that there are so many people in so many countries interested in my stuff and... I still can't believe that. It's awesome. Thanks so much for validating what I do.

Other than that, there is always the monetary part. I've been talking about my personal debts and how this is able to sustain me; but I also have the nagging thought that people are uneasy about the kind of debts I might be having - on an ethical standpoint perhaps. Of course, it's not huge credit card debts or gambling debts. I'm not making anybody pay for my big missteps that I should really deal with myself. I have student loans, bills and I run a monthly of overall 150$-200$ credit card expenses on food. My life has been spent trying to wrestle with those on a monthly basis, doing stuff I didn't really like doing. This time, at least, I get to do things I like. It's nothing but common problems we all wrestle with, and for this section of my life, I wanted to choose if I can survive without doing taxing jobs. Thank you so much for not validating that I can and I wish not to disappoint you in return.

The reason why my expenses might look so low to some is because I don't live in a big country (one dollar means so much to me than some of you out there) and I mostly always eat home-cooked. I wanted to really come upfront and transparent about these and I know it is hypocritical since you don't even know my real name, but it is very important that I keep that information due to where I live and stay employable - you'd understand it's not very appreciatable to some people, what I'm doing. I also am not trying to demean those who actually have bigger monetary problems than I do, even if it's caused by their hubris. We live in a world with a lot of cruel turns and twists and sometimes, we fall defeated to our own quirks, habits and mental issues. I was saved by you lots, and I wish the same to anyone with common problems like mine. I also wish relief on those who wrestle with bigger beasts. May you defeat your personal demons. Thank you.

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Let's talk about Patreon's two shortcomings I had to deal with this month, namely Fake Patrons and Piracy.

I know some of you would be delighted to know that my Fake Patron deterrent strategy was a mixed success, leaning on the positive side. For those who aren't quite in the know: I came up with an impromptu system of having my Pay-Per-Creation page attempting to bill people more than once, and reminding my Patrons to set things up so they don't get billed more than once despite that. This system actually worked, despite at some point even I wasn't sure if it was really going to. I've had over 100$ in pledges lost, most likely from those who attempted to run-and-gun after getting their rewards (nearly all of them happened in the Paid Post days AFTER the password exchange, so it's hard to assume otherwise). Little did these people know (and even I didn't know it that clearly), they still got charged, due to them pledging at the point of me having posted a Paid Post.

Some of you might've realized that I've had around 175 patrons a week ago and that number now shows 152. These are, to my surprise as well, aren't people who jumped ship in the new month: It's those who jumped ship during the last month. Because their pledges, despite them trying to erase it after getting their rewards, were still active. Only when their cards were billed at the first of this month, they were finally excluded from the Patron tally.

This is not to exclude those who genuinely realized they didn't like my content and wanted to leave. I'm aware not everyone who cancelled their pledges had such nefarious purposes, and please do know that I check Patron Exit Surveys everyday and read anything that you had to say. This is for the betterment of my services towards you.I especially want to bring one in particular to better address to it, as I believe doing it here would be the best way of me doing so.

Joined during a transitional period. I'll wait until the creator has stabilized their methodology instead of being a test subject of sorts to numerous pledge rewarding methods.

This comment was obviously made towards me changing the entire pay system of my page this month. And in a way, it is highly justified. Especially considering that I am right now telling all of you that the system in fact DID work. I'm changing my system, however, because I know a lot of people were unsatisfied and I particularly don't appreciate systems that penalize innocent people in favor of securing the provider. I don't like DRMs, I don't like deterrent charges. If it means a loss in future income, so be it. You already have a very visible signifier of how much I need in each month to survive, and I am right now well beyond that, all thanks to you. If or when I get below that, that will mean I should step up to make my services more attractive again.

Which brings me to why I think this comment in particular wasn't justified. Of course, I am not arguing against someone's wishes of not pledging to me, that's their right. But I am a little bit offended at the prospect of me, treating my patrons as "test subjects". I've tried to make it clear time and time again that any changes I make will be for the ease of mind of my Patrons. All the disclaimers and reminders I've plastered every place on my page regarding the "Optional Monthly Max" deal, and trying my best to keep up with all the private notes should at least give you a hint, that it is not within my interests to devise a plan to put you in discomfort. Switching my Pay-Per-Creation page to a Pay-Per-Month one will NOT affect your pledges, or make you pay more than what you wish for. In fact, the Pay-Per-Creation system potentially makes you pay more than what you want to, if you did not pay heed to the "Optional Monthly Max" disclaimers. It's an easy mistake to make, yet it can be a costly mistake and I am aware that my supporters shouldn't be mindful of such a technical, irritating issue. That's why I'm eradicating it. Not because I'm testing you out to see what I can get away with; but testing out myself in order to keep everything fair for everybody, including myself. I am still sorry nonetheless if it all made you feel insecure about your pledges.

Make no mistake that the meaning of this site isn't lost on me. I'm not the big guy here. You are. There is a reason why you all are called "Patrons". You have the power to make and break me, not the other way around. This is the reason why I asked you, directly you, about the second big release I'm about to make. There will be more Patron interaction stuff in the future, and a round of Patron requests next month. I'd like to do all I can to make all of you happy, but I already give a lot of work to myself and all I want to do is to stay true to my promises and give the best I can give to you.

Which, interestingly enough, brings me to the last small debate: Pirates. As I expected, Unbreakable Bond is currently on e-hentai.org for everyone to see. I've overseen the small argument happened in the comment section of that site but I haven't weighed in on it. A couple delightful patrons brought it into my attention but honestly, I've been aware since the minute 1. I'm sure a lot of you want to know my stance about it and here it is:

Multi-faceted. I don't like the prospect of my Patrons feeling scammed for paying for something that eventually becomes free, although it's never going to be me that who enables it (with the great exception that my previous 24 commissioners on FurAffinity all got their free gifted copy for supporting me in the past). I know I've said previously that your pledges secure the fact that I'll keep doing this for future releases. But it's also true that, it shouldn't mean a select portion of the viewer populace has to be the guinea pig for other freeloaders.

There is also the other side of this coin: By visiting that site and going into the statistics, you can see that over 20,000 individual visits came upon that gallery and they all viewed the comic, and most seemed to enjoy it. This number is way, way bigger than the 170 people I've currently shared the comic with by means of Patreon. Therein starts the age-old debate of the ethics of pirating. Arguments like these start becoming relevant:

• They were never going to pay for the content anyway and I've actually gotten a net revenue in the form of a massive exposure.
• Most of these people are in fact unable to pay for the content despite their intents, due to their monetary situation or geopolitical happenstance.
• These people are all potential Patrons to win hearts over, especially if I end up lowering the prices for earlier works in the future - something I plan on doing as I start giving away multiple works as sets/series.

This whole thing might not be as complex to you as my Patron but it certainly is complex to me. And, much like I said a little while ago, you are all my patrons. Whether to have the gallery be taken down from that site or not, is a decision I cannot do alone. There are certain factors that you value way more than I do, and vice versa. Please don't be shy about arguing about this in the comment section or to me privately, and I will act upon all your wishes on the matter. It might seem as I'm trying to throw my responsibilities away and make you all responsible instead: But I think this is a decision we all should weigh on.

I was going to make a poll regarding this but I imagined it would just be tacky. I don't find it right to have it be boiled down to an impulse black-or-white reaction, but I'm sorry for needing your thought-out opinions in the form of paragraphs nonetheless. Sorry for asking for your time on this, but if you think this is an important issue, my inbox is always open. Thank you.

This is all for now. The Gem Witch is all in the works and I will be making more arrangements for Unbreakable Bond 2 really soon, complete with a whole new announcement on it that I'm sure some of my patrons will be really interested in! Ta-ta for now, stay tasteful <3