Within Striking Distance Of The Next Goal - But Is It A Goal You Want?
Added 2015-10-12 17:49:57 +0000 UTCThanks to all of you generous donors Exiern is within striking distance of its next goal. But I wanted to ask you all if it is really what YOU want, and propose something new for the $600 goal and beyond.
As you will see tomorrow, and as I have been dealing with over the weekend, our current ad provider has objected to how clothed some of the characters are, regardless of what is going on in the scene or what is censored. I hate this, purely from a storytelling aspect.
Project Wonderful is an ad provider that has a much better handle on "mature" material. My proposal for a change to the $600 goal is that instead of dropping all ads just to post fewer pages, I use this new financial security to switch from our current provider to Project Wonderful (PW) and begin posting twice-a-week. I think a much better reward for everyone would be more Exiern pages. As the Patreon sum continues to grow the Goals would be adjusted to add more pages to each week's updates.
I know we'd all like a streamlined Exiern.com, but am I correct that we would all prefer more pages over fewer ads?
Before making any changes I wanted to propose this to our generous donors. I hope this makes sense. Please let me know your questions, concerns, quandaries, and thoughts so I can judge changing the goal. I am so thankful for your generosity and want to make sure you feel you are being properly rewarded!
Scott
Comments
Many many thanks for everyone's feedback. I've read every single comment and will announce my decision by the end of the month. I really appreciate everyone's thoughts and support!
Shan from 1st January 2021 and Scott from before that.
2015-10-21 10:24:48 +0000 UTCFor the record, when I say I oppose censorship, I'm not opposed to strategically hidden nudity (after all isn't that what clothes are?) but when a third party imposes censorship it only ever makes things worse.
2015-10-19 17:46:55 +0000 UTCSo, if the ad provider is switched are we all willing to contribute more to help make up the shortfall if it turns out more money is needed to at least maintain things as they are, let alone going back up to twice a week every week because there was a big enough drop in advertising revenue sufficient to affect production? After all, it is a possibility that can't be ruled out completely yet. (Currently keep current/switch/keep some form of advertising combined = 11, get rid of advertising =5)
Shan Wickremesinghe
2015-10-19 12:13:02 +0000 UTCIm in favour of the swap too, censorship is bad full stop in my view.
2015-10-19 11:01:51 +0000 UTCswitching ad provider is an acceptable option
Donald Randolph
2015-10-19 00:01:36 +0000 UTCThis is not a plug, just using as an example. This webcomic <a href="http://eternalknights.thecomicseries.com/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">http://eternalknights.thecomicseries.com/</a> is using Project Wonderful without issue as far as I know and if you at least read up to page 10, if PW hasn't seemed to have had problems with their content, then I can't see anything in Exiern being an issue. Full disclosure, I also give them money.
Shan Wickremesinghe
2015-10-17 04:24:25 +0000 UTCWith advertising = 9 With no advertising = 5
Shan Wickremesinghe
2015-10-17 01:23:03 +0000 UTCI'm ok with Project Wonderful ads as long as they don't impose any censorship. I'd vote switch ads to Project Wonderful and make $600 go for 2 updates every week instead of 3 every two.<br><br>With as close as you are and your current ad provider being a jerk, I'd switch to Project Wonderful with the 3 updates every two week schedule sooner rather than later.
That One Guy
2015-10-17 00:35:51 +0000 UTCArt over frequency.
2015-10-13 18:12:42 +0000 UTCOK - With advertising (current or PW) - 8 (3/5 split). Without advertising if censorship or prefer no advertising (4)
Shan Wickremesinghe
2015-10-13 15:41:49 +0000 UTCI really appreciate all the feedback so far. I will leave this thread open through the end of the week and post up my decision then.
Shan from 1st January 2021 and Scott from before that.
2015-10-13 14:30:14 +0000 UTCPriorities for me are no censorship and then more pages. If you can keep the nudity and still run ads to get more pages then sounds great to me!
Erik Thet
2015-10-13 07:10:53 +0000 UTCOK, the current total of more pages with or without Project Wonderful is 8 if I've interpreted everyone correctly and 3 for removing ads or preferring removing ads (2 saying remove ads if they come with censorship conditions and 1 saying prefer removing ads).
Shan Wickremesinghe
2015-10-13 07:08:46 +0000 UTCProjectWonderful is fine by me. I signed up to oppose censorship.
2015-10-13 06:21:07 +0000 UTCAn additional note, having both full exposure and censored pages available doesn't bother me -- it makes the comic more accessible to those that enjoy the storyline but wouldn't like the uncensored version, so wider potential audience.
Narsil
2015-10-13 02:52:43 +0000 UTCI'll vote for switching to Project Wonderful and posting more pages. Ads don't bother me so much that I'd forgo content to avoid them.
Narsil
2015-10-13 02:49:04 +0000 UTCCurrent vote tally: Jason, Graycat107, Me for more pages (3). Rajit, Arius01 for remove ads (2). OK with Project Wonderful: Erik and Brian (2). Leaning towards no ads: Nibelung (1). Prefers more pages but says get rid of ads if more onerous: miles (1) - possibly OK with and hence add to Project Wonderful total? Possible current tally, leaning more pages and keeping ads (though maybe switch to PW) = 6, Leaning towards getting rid of ads = 3.
Shan Wickremesinghe
2015-10-13 01:30:11 +0000 UTCMakes sense to me to go to PW.
Eric Loken
2015-10-13 00:50:31 +0000 UTCI am extremely good at ignoring ads, if Project Wonderful works for you that's a fine tradeoff for more story.
Brian
2015-10-13 00:32:26 +0000 UTC*amount per month from Patreon donors I mean. Also, the extra money from the ad service could also help to keep growing the number of patrons. If the number stalls at too low a level, it may not be possible to sustain things without the ad service.
Shan Wickremesinghe
2015-10-13 00:29:01 +0000 UTCMy opinion for what it's worth, keep an ad service at least until the amount per month safely clears the minimum required to keep things going by a lot and even more important that it stays at least at that level for a few months so there's a financial buffer just in case of the unexpected. I know it's less than ideal but they can always go back and adjust the archive later.
Shan Wickremesinghe
2015-10-12 23:56:29 +0000 UTCGoing to agree with Rajit here, No Ads. tell the story you want to tell ( Censorship or no it is up to the artist in my opinion if you like drawing without censorship then go for it)
Arius01
2015-10-12 21:48:05 +0000 UTCMy vote is for more pages.
Shan Wickremesinghe
2015-10-12 21:39:55 +0000 UTCmore pages.
2015-10-12 19:36:09 +0000 UTCRemove current ad provider; would like more pages, but rather have the art displayed as intended and without censorship.
RDH
2015-10-12 18:25:54 +0000 UTCI'd prefer no ads. [EDIT] Now with censorship going into clash with the intended art style, this vote is double in my opinion.
Nibelung
2015-10-12 18:20:41 +0000 UTCI'd prefer more pages as well. I don't mind ads per se, but if the ad provider is dictating content, dump them.
Generic_User
2015-10-12 18:15:14 +0000 UTC
