January is a Month (New Year Announcements) (Patreon)

First off Happy new Year! I have some things about patreon we need to talk about.

Tip Jar

Firstly: I know I said I would be raising the lowest tier to 2usd at the start of the new month. I'm putting it off until the end of February/start of March: 2021 was really hard of a lot of people and immediately raising the tip jar didn't feel appropriate to me right at the turn of the year - I know the difference between 1 and 2 dollars doesn't seem like a big deal, but I absolutely do not want to add to stress for anyone who is distracted by more important things. Tip jar going up to Patreon's "standard" 2usd they want me to implement starts in February, not this month.

Patron Polls

I get a lot of feedback on the polls and one of the more consistent complaints is people feeling like they never win, or more specifically like the same people and characters always win. I think a perfect solution is going to elude me forever, and I know some people specifically do not like it when I don't allow my own characters to be added to the polls. So this is the compromise we are trying this year:

If your idea wins a poll you are in the winner's box for two months. Meaning you cannot win another poll for two months, hopefully cutting down on the back to back. Characters have the same restriction: there needs to be a two month gap between characters who are featured in winning poll submissions. Because I cheat I may add one of my characters I think fits a winning submission - but they cannot be specifically requested (So Barria might be in the background twice in a row, for example, but cannot be the central character for a submission after she won one, etc).

This sounds like I am overcomplicating it? Yeah, a little. But I want the polls to feel like something people can participate in, and right now I get a lot of people upset or feeling bad that it feels like the same people and OCs always win and they don't get a chance.

So let's give this a shot this year and see how it works.

December Poll Winner

Speaking of poll winners! The December patron poll winner is a kickass idea that I want to make a pretty hefty illustration on as kind of a year of the tiger themed project. So it might be bigger than expected and kinda elaborate. WIP on it will be going up so you can see what I mean, but it definitely got bloated (heh) as an idea in my head.

Anyways. Those are my big announcements for end of year: rest of the stuff is the usual - try to get more work done, clear my plate for comics, etc. Without the holiday season looming over me anymore I have a bit more time again to focus on the draws.