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PATREON UPDATES - IMPORTANT (Patreon)

Published:
2023-01-30 19:40:15
Edited:
2026-09-06 19:22:23
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Content

Hey guys!Hope you are doing ok.I'm going to write a lot, so, please, take your time to read all of this and mostly, do it only when you have free time, nothing important to do!I'm going to divide my "essay" in chapters, so you can read it pece by piece if you want! XD-01. THE ISSUEI would like to spend some time talking about a recent issue some of you found:THE POLLS.I am aware that while some of you are here to support me and whatever I do with my art, other people are unhappy of various things.The main issue is that the polls tend to have as winner a POPULAR character instead of a less know character.The othe issue is that with stripgames, I tend to make popular or trend characters instead of everything else.Some of you suggested that I should make ALSO polls with less popular characters.Other suggested that I should open commissions so a person can pick a personal favourite even if it is not popular.In general, with 225 patrons, maybe just a little portion of you are unhappy, but I want to talk about it, nevertheless.-02. THE STORY OF MY PATREONYES, I am going to talk about this in order for you to understand better my point of view. I am sorry, I have to do this.Long story short, I opened this patreon in 2016, after quitting my previous job and for almost 1 year I was able to make around $30 per month with my patreon.Pretty good for a 25 years old boy, uh? Well, not that much.I accapted every kind of commissions in order to earn something and survive.Things started getting better when in 2018 I started working for a french publisher.WIth that, my patreon and commissions, I was able to reach JUUUUUST enough to pay food, bills, survive in general.I noticed the only way to grow on patreon was to make trend characters.Even with that, " the algorythm god" has never been good with me, never once.I was just able to grow slowly, really slowly.And also, everytime I decided to do something more "personal", I reached even less people.Let's jump to January 2022, a month in which I finished my job for the French publisher (small editor btw) and I had only this patreon to help me survive.In January 2022 I had:- 102 patrons- 1 poll per monthI don't want to specify the details, but for sure it was not enough for me to live "safely"I was desperate, really not sure what to do with my life.I have personal project I want to make.in detail, I started all of this as shonen manga author and the patreon is the only way for me to support that dream while surviving in generalStruggling, I decided to go on... until June 2022.- 03. JUNE 2022One day, randomly, I noticed a thing on twitter: Stripgames.I decided to start a stripgame with a character I like, Ryuko from Kill la Kill.There was nothing particularly good with my art.But probably by giving the chance to people to vote, interact with my art and decide the next steps was a good idea.I started growing, finally.130 patrons in june, 138 in July, 156 in August and so on, until 225 of this month.Thanks to that I started to work better, using a fixed amount of time, spend more time with my family (my gf and our dog), started thinking again to my personal project and mostly, OPEN MORE POLLS.Yes, I sterted doing more polls thanks to the growth on patreon.My thought was: if I open more polls, at least 3-4 more characters will be made and more people would be happy, right?Obviously I think that is true, but also I didn't notice that this pattern of "recurring failure" of the people that suggested unpopular characters, combined with the stripgames (that maybe not all of you like) are the things that maybe are making some of you unhappy.After growing (and I hope to keep growing) I now have to deal with more people and your feelings, obviously.- 04. THE SOLUTIONSI'm pretty sure that if my english would be better, this would be a good video in which you would interact happily. But my english is not good enough, sorry! XDFirst of all, I DON't HAVE AN IMMEDIATE SOLUTION.If you read everything so far, you can understand why I am doing what I do now.Open a poll for less popular character would lead to have always 1 winner, the most popular between them, so it is not a solution.Open commissions again would lock the "less popular character" behind a paywall.Also, maybe those commissions would be personal/private so that would mean less contents for you and less interactions, so less patrons, back to before  the JUNE 2022 PART of my life.I don't want to say "hey, the polls are for eveyone so I have no fault" but probably a lot of creators just make whatever they want, not hearing feedbacks and their community.I'm not better that other creators, and I am not ignoring the issues or your feedbacks, don't get me wrong.I just don't have a perfect solution right now.I think a creator should create.I think the end goal of PATREON is to have people supporting you because they like your art.Not to find a "good startegy to get cheap commissions or things I (a patron) want".I am STILL in the position in which I have to do things to keep growing.I ENJOY doing what I do and I am running thing this way because I think it is a good thing FOR YOU an FOR ME. - 05. YOUYou are the only way for me to keep doing this, to support my art, to support my life now and my future.I want you to be happy to see my art, whatever I do.I feel sorry when there is a fight or an argument between you guys on discord (you know that) and I would do everything is in my power to make you happy.For this reason, please if you have any thoughts or solution, post a comment here below.If you read until now, I give you my thanks, from the bottom of my art.Probably if you read until now, you will have something to say, even if you just agree with me, I would be happy to hear your thoughts!So, time for your suggestions.And again, thanks you for being here!

Comments

Oscar Iván Rortega

First of all lad, thanks for opening up for this problem that seems to lurk in your mind. As you say some of us are here for the love of your art, whomever you draw (to be honest, as you say, sometimes I tend to suggest old or less known characters that are not chosen and it is sad, however as I said, I like your art whatever you draw) personally, love the interactions and mild references to the original series that make the strip games you run so interesting. Probably not a real solution but maybe you could do kind of a left characters from previous polls and randomly draw them as you would normally draw the last picture of your stipgames. That way it would be totally random (I think the fairiest way I think) however it would mean an extra piece of art for you. That is the best solution I can think of. Sorry for the podcast I wrote but I also wanted to take my time to let you know what I think of your art and the situation in general. Keep the amazing art mate. Greeting from Mexico 🇲🇽

pilobill

I'm here for a long time now and don't plan to leave even if I'm not a big fan of the characters drawn (even if popular). I'm here for the art and the waifus (of course, let's be honest). I don't know the (miraculous) solution, if there is one. Maybe you could draw some less popular girls in stripgame or in the more detailed character. The poll might be a base to choose from time to time those characters. Of course, continue the trends, It's a thing you have to do. Commission is still a thing (depending on your financial situation of course) and it will not necessary be a less popular girl (depending on the commissionner). Important thing is to keep the quality of the content. Not going to much more girls to satisfy the more if the quality lacks after. Keep the motivation, we are here behind you ;)

BladeComm

An artist I follow has a polling system that might work. He asks for characters at the beginning of the month and splits them into 3 polls, 1 a week. He draws the winner and moves the 2nd place into the next poll. What he does is that he tracks the other choices that didn't win votes and once they reach a certain number and still didn't get picked he would draw art of them as a substitute. That's the best idea I can think of.

AK87

Luis Francisco Sanchez Farias

hola buenas tardes a mi me encata tu arte aunque no gane un personaje que haya sugerido te seguiria viendo una idea en base a algo que hacia otra persona a la que sigo seria por que no pones a los menos populares en las encuestas en un sorteo tipo loteria y el que gane ya sea que quieras hacerle un stripgame o un arte para que sea al azar en lugar de que gane el mas popular entre ellos

JRuS

I've done enough damage for one day and I am sorry for that. I admit it I got too passionate in the moment, but looking it was too much and I've probably hurt people in a way. I wont pretend either to have a fix to the problem at hand. But if you want some suggestions for new things to the patreon perhaps it could be something a bit different, but not unfamiliar to your content already. One idea I've seen floating around that I mentioned before was a "character creator" kind of game. I've seen artist's do a thing where they draw preset choices of, hair, eye color, body features etc and the people vote for each to make an oc. Yes I know some features do have the chance to be popular than others but with this its not just a popular waifu from an already existing thing. its something unique. From there you can use it in future drawings, content etc. Another idea I had was related to comms. Yes I knows whats been said about them already with limiting interaction so to maybe remedy this, make the commission be a patron comm strip game. The commissioner requests and pays for a character of their choosing, but they agree to the terms that you the artist will run the strip game and the ensuing art. Perhaps to give the commissioner a bit of control, let them suggest possible choices along with yours or perhaps the commissioner at set points gets to put things in. In the end the person gets their commission, people get their stripgame. Could be like you had before where there was a list of requesters for each month. You could sub in 1 or 2 of these comms in place of your other strip games so you still get what the regular content without too much sacrifice. In terms of another way comms could be done, but in a way that reduces time and workload is skeb style. For those unfamiliar, skeb lets you comm artists in japan, but the catch is you can only give them an initial prompt/details that they must work with as per the terms. No refining, no adjusting, no comments. The artist interpret it as they see fit and you get the finished picture. No dealing with endless adjustments leaves time for other stuff to be done. This is for those who don't want a stripgame, and are okay with a single image with the possibility for variations based on artist's decision. Again I hope you can forgive my actions. I just want others to have fun too here. I just came out wrong and messy.

redjet

Thank you for your words and your feedbacks my friend!

redjet

Absolutely, quality first! thank you as always man, thanks you for all your support so far! <3

redjet

Thank you for this feedback and this idea! Noted it!

redjet

Thank you so much for the feedback! I'm taking notes of all these thoughts, they will help me for sure!

redjet

muchas gracias por tus palabras y por compartir conmigo tus pensamientos!

redjet

All of your suggestions are absolutely good and I'm taking notes of it! No damage as been made, there are just more new things for me that can help running things better! So, thank you for your feedbacks!

Space

Sorry about my grammar. A solution could be that you usually do 4-5 characters or so, correct? You can allocate the character by two for popular, two for least, and one for random or so. Then have some type of tracker or temporarily ban list for the chosen characters or media for let say a month or two. Any ties can be a random pick between the tied waifus. Let use January Poll 01 (from January 08) as an example: Two most popular: Orihime Inoue (Bleach) & Nami (One Piece) Two least popular: Elysia (Honkai Impact 3rd) & Tsukuyo (Gintama) [Random pick-Tied] Random: Mara Sov (Destiny/Destiny 2) or it can be an OC character you design or something. Picked characters cannot appear on the February poll or picked media like Bleach cannot appear on the February poll. End of my example. Pretty much allocate a number of characters that will be created by a certain amount for most popular, a certain equal amount for least popular, then rest on random or so. Have method to prevent popular characters or media from temporarily appearing again. The other comments have amazing ideas. Up to you since you will be doing most of the work. Have a nice rest of the day or good morning. I Enjoy your artworks.

Ray W

Possible solutions: - Keep all of the characters suggested in a big document somewhere, but remove the ones who win. Then, every so often, put the list of suggestions into a random name picker (like www.miniwebtool.com/random-name-picker/) and draw whoever comes out! That way, no suggestion is 'wasted' because each time a Patron suggests a character they like, they basically put another 'ticket' in the 'lottery' for an illustration. OR If you don't want to keep the suggestions long-term, you could just draw a random extra girl from each month's polls (pick one losing name out of a hat at the end of each month) OR Keep a tally of characters that get suggested, and draw them if they reach 5 or 10 (or however many) suggestions without winning. ---- Like you say, polls are always going to favour more popular characters who more people recognise -- even if it is a poll between less popular characters, it will just be the 'most popular of the least popular'! But these are some possible solutions for your consideration =3

Ray W

Also want to say that I love love LOVE your work and we are all here because we love it so much. You should ultimately draw what you want to draw and Patreon polls should *not* be a way for us to get free commissions xD With all that said, I understand why people get upset feeling like their favourite waifu will never win a popularity contest, and even I get a little tired of Tifa after a while... x'D It's a tough spot for you, my friend, but ultimately we are all here because we love what you do and want to support it =D Watching your growth this last year with the strip games etc. has made me so happy. Keep drawing the great stuff you already do!!!! <3

Ray W

One more thing (I'll shut up soon, I promise) -- I think maybe it helped keep the suggestions more varied/streamlined when you had a 'theme' for each poll (like pink-haired girls, muscle girls, etc.) but I know it must be a lot of work for you to think of the theme each time =)

Ray W

I like the commission strip game idea. It would be a bit like the Tier you used to run which was one choice of waifu per month where the patron chooses but you chose the pose etc.

redjet

Thank you so much for your feedback and good suggestions too! I will keep notes of this comment too! ;D

redjet

Thank you for your words and your suggestions my friend! As I said to other patrons, I am keeping notes of all these awesome suggestions and at some point I will share with you guys some possible solution!

matty

all commenters who think yall arent speaking english well, I only speak english & yall do a great job. i understand everything you guys say quite clearly even if there are some grammatical errors here & there. just had to chime in, all great ideas & I'll stick around regardless red!