Updates.

I had to take the weekend off to think about the recent ham-fisted moves by Patreon over the last week.  They've been essentially keeping their heads in the sand and not clarifying anything further, so most people on the system are made to just come up with their own theories as to what is happening.  

I had to step away from the hyperbolic ramping up of a wall of theories and text and screaming to figure out what I can do.  I needed to figure out if I had any other avenues open to me and how I actually was feeling about this price thing that they're so adamant 'we all want'.

I'l be honest, I still don't like it.  I'm not a fan of it for several reasons, some of them personal, others practical.  I spoke with some people, and wasted a full day that I was supposed to have for R&R researching other platforms and mediums.

The timing of this couldn't really be worse.  Its already difficult to find another platform that works.  Its also a time that I have a lot of life drama going on.  I've seen about a dozen or more different 'solutions' and none of them are quite right, but when I have so much going on, picking up and moving an entire catalogue, then finding a decent code solution to accept Paypal/Credit Card subscriptions, doing graphical and layout work on a new site and then finding not only a site that I can afford to put the new pages on, but finding a place with enough pipeline and storage to host high-resolution uncompressed files is proving to be too much for me to be able to handle this month.

I've had folks offering a lot of help for which I'm grateful.  The 'Kofi' site was proposed as a way to let people toss a dollar or two, but as far as I know its literally a tip jar without recurring months or a subscription model.  And it allows for no content to be distributed.

Drip (a horribly named site) is another possibility, but has a few problems that make me wary.  The first being that it's invite only right now, and there isn't an official ETA on when it might be open to the public.  It also looks like it was coded by someone using a typewriter.  I can understand it's in beta, and that can be forgiven, but its hideous looking.  And lastly I'm very wary of any site that goes out of their way to state just how 'into helping indie creatives' they are.  Patreon rolled out that same drivel, and often its to hide the investors behind the platform.  The hilarious image of the 'oh so goofy/trendy/wild' creatives they use partly had me in hysterics. 

Another few solutions included getting a Squarespace sub and setting up a raw Paypal sub feed, this is labour intensive, at a time when I'm at my limit.  There are also WordPress solutions that allow for a similar setup, perhaps cheaper, but still fairly costly in time.

I think more solutions will turn up, as time goes on.

But one solution was to stay put, for now.  While I don't like what is going on, mainly because I still don't understand the logic behind it, right now I can't pull up everything and shovel it onto another site.  I can't just be reactionary and run for the hills.

I'm not terribly happy about it, but its the least intrusive thing to do right now.  I've had two pretty sleepless days to think about it (probably too much), and I've learned that sometimes life isn't a buffet of fair choices.  And screaming about how unfair it is mostly just makes you tired, and changes nothing. 

To all of you, I want to thank you.  I'll keep going here as long as I can.  I wish I could shed more light on things, but I, as long as with every artist I know, have been ignored and haven't had any answers to our direct questions to Patreon.

I hope to those that stick around, the things I create are worth it.  I'll keep trying to find a better buffet.  It just eats up a lot of time.

-T.J.