And this is why we can't have nice things! (Patreon)

Hey folks.

Part II is almost done and ready to drop, but before I put it out, I want to ask something honestly.

As a lot of you know, Tier IV comes with a small perk: 24-hour early access.

On paper that’s a nice, simple extra for the highest tier. In practice, though, it occasionally becomes a real problem for Tier III when one person leaks the set within hours of release.

My stance on leaks is pretty simple.

This is the internet. I get that once someone has the files, they can post them anywhere. I don’t have a publisher or a pile of lawyers behind me. So I’ve always been pretty chill about it, as long as people wait a few days or a couple of weeks. When I spot a leak, I usually just message the site and ask them to hold off a bit. Most of the time they do, and things show up two or three weeks later.

Every now and then, though, there’s that one Tier IV member who just can’t wait and dumps it the same day (within hours).

If that’s you and you’re reading this: I don’t hate you. But it does hurt the person you’re supposedly supporting, and it especially sucks for the Tier III folks who then see the set leaked while they’re still waiting. This completely kills the entire point of the early access perk that I gave you. And now, because of you. I may have to consider putting an end to that perk.

To be clear, early leaks like that are rare, but they can happen, and it isn’t fair to Tier III subscribers when it does.

I thought early access would be a nice perk when I added it. But... Clearly some people don’t want to play nice with it.

So I’m seriously considering changing the perk for an "archive perk" for Tier IV instead. I’m not going to just decide that myself. This affects you, so I want you to vote.But hear me out!

The idea:

Tier III would have access to the 3 most recent image sets. After that, those sets get archived, and only Tier IV can still access the archived sets. That’s the new perk in place of early access. A lot of other creators do something like this. And at least it's a perk that won't be affected by leakers.

This would not touch OC content or game releases. Tier III would still get those. Only the big image sets would get archived.

That way, if someone leaks immediately, Tier III already has the set at the same time as Tier IV. And Tier IV gets the convenience of being able to grab older sets whenever they want without having to download the whole library.

To me that’s the cleanest compromise. But I don’t want to force it unless most of you are on board.

So here’s the poll:

Do you want me to switch from 24-hour early access to archive access for older sets (basically anything older than 3–4 months)?

Or would you rather I leave it as-is and keep early access?