Renovating This Patreon: The Big HGTV Revamp
Added 2019-01-23 19:43:53 +0000 UTCI started this Patreon back in 2015.That is to say: I started this Patreon back in graduate school, back before the Check Please: Year Two Kickstarter, back before getting published…and back when Check Please was my only project. I'm now out of school, I’m traveling more, I'm doing more conventions/signings/festivals, working on brand new projects, and collaborating with a publisher, manager, and art assistants. So a LOT has changed since I animated that cartoon opening in 2015. (My hair doesn’t even LOOK like that anymore!)Over the next few months, I want to re-work how this Patreon functions. And of course, I would love your feedback!! Tell me what you think. Below, I’ve listed ideas for new features , alongside ideas for changing old ones. (There’s also a quick n’ dirty poll to see which features would interests you most.)
- One Short Livestream (Weekly) or One LONG Livestream (Monthly) (Both Recorded! Private!) - I’ve been doing 3 hours of streaming a week for three years. As it turns out, this can be quite overwhelming! In dialing this down, I also want to do more public streams while maintaining private chat spaces for Patrons to congregate.
- One monthly mic’d Q&A Patreon Chat - A brave return to audio! It’s sometimes easier to talk about process and approach, than to write everything out. I’m not totally sure of the logistics of this feature?? But it might involve getting questions from Patrons beforehand, speaking on certain topics as voted by Patrons, or simply hanging around in a livestream with a mic.
- Alternatively, A monthly recorded micropod - Finding balance!! If streaming Monthly is too infrequent, or Q&As don’t work…maybe I can ramble about superheroes or my favorite conventions or art school for 10 minutes?
- Using Discord As The Overtime Blog - Discord is a popular app that allows for highly customized chat spaces. I’m thinking of creating a server (an umbrella for many different group chats) for patrons, which a number of channels for discussion. (I’d be MORE than happy to link to tutorials on how Discord works!)
- Separate Tier For Frequent Updates??? - For folks who might not want to use Discord, but want constant Patreon emails dropped in their inboxes? I need to build a robot that cross-posts everything to This Kitchen Sink Tier. (All post from Discord would pop up on this Kitchen Sink Tier.)
- Cross-posting to DRIP??? Drip is a subscription-based crowdfunding platform that is very similar to Patreon--except it was launched by the folks at Kickstarter. I know some of my followers aren’t interested in joining Patreon or are already on Drip. So, look out for this possibility!
Changes in pricing won't be drastic. In fact, I hope many of these new features will be remixed into current tiers. If for any reason you feel like these new changes don’t work for you, no hard feelings at all about stepping back from patronage! If you do decide to postpone your patronage: good news! Another 2019 resolution of mine = I really want to use Instagram, Twitch, and Twitter more interactively this year.OKAY, please provide any and all feedback you might have! You can also DM me via Patreon to talk about any financial concerns. Hopefully, these changes will arrive sooner rather than later!
Below: Please check off whichever features interest you most.
Comments
So far, the discord has lent itself to more doodles/rambles! I'm excited to share/cross-post here.
Ngozi
2019-01-30 12:24:51 +0000 UTCThanks, Hallie!
Ngozi
2019-01-30 12:24:08 +0000 UTCokay. I'll be cross-posting from Discord to Patreon.
Ngozi
2019-01-30 12:24:00 +0000 UTCMy favorite thing is your silly little rambling goofy posts! I can't always watch a livestream, but love seeing the results. I vote for whichever option brings us the most doodles!
2019-01-28 18:35:39 +0000 UTCI voted for a micropod but I'd also be interested in the discord option
Hal Forbess
2019-01-28 02:05:44 +0000 UTCgod please don't make me use discord to keep up with the blog. I like blog posts. I miss them when they don't happen.
Jenrose
2019-01-26 01:15:27 +0000 UTCNoted!!
Ngozi
2019-01-24 16:38:57 +0000 UTCAw, thank you so much! And you're definitely not alone--some of the "perks" that people have expressed about patronage is being notified about Kickstarters, pre-orders, and new merch.
Ngozi
2019-01-24 16:38:26 +0000 UTCThank you for the feedback!!
Ngozi
2019-01-24 16:33:01 +0000 UTCHm! I upload the same 960x540 files to Patreon as I do to the checkpleasecomic.com site? But maybe uploading an extra hi-res PDF might be the way to go. I'll have to think on that!
Ngozi
2019-01-24 16:32:28 +0000 UTCGood to know! I know the majority of $5+ patrons LOVE spoilers, but I DON'T want to exclude non-spoiler folk!
Ngozi
2019-01-24 16:29:40 +0000 UTCTime-management isn't the issue for me, I can definitely tackle streams in big chunks! It's kind of like energy and flow management. Smaller streams sometimes disrupt my productivity. (Stopping to set up stream, figuring out what material to stream, NEVER getting back to work after a stream, my excessive chatting XD.) And if I do small streams 8-12 times a month, that energy/flow disruption builds up!
Ngozi
2019-01-24 16:28:23 +0000 UTCThat's a fair point! I think a compromise would be a few short public streams and one long private stream for patrons.
Ngozi
2019-01-24 16:23:01 +0000 UTCThanks!
Ngozi
2019-01-24 16:20:31 +0000 UTCI've never used discord but i'll have a go - I've actually only just caught the last couple of livestreams due to time differences/bad luck, so don't have a strong preference either way. I love spoilers and extras and bits so whatever gets me those in the most convenient way for you! Thanks for asking for input though x
2019-01-24 10:21:40 +0000 UTCI'm very new to Discord, but it's pretty easy to use! The way she's described the setup, there will be separate channels for Ngozi-only content, and channels for patreon chatting. So if the overall Discord server feels overwhelming, it would be easy to mute everything but the Ngozi channel - which we'd be able to check & scroll through just like we did with the OT blog. Discord emails me occasional missed messages and things, so I think you might be able to control what types of notifications you get, if you aren’t regularly checking the channel to see if there’s new content. If I’m understanding correctly, the Kitchen Sink tier is a proposed way to cross-post all those smaller OT blog/Discord pieces over to Patreon - as a separate tier so people who don’t want half a dozen Patreon emails a day can opt out. Ngozi, can I ask a quick clarifying question about that? Is the Kitchen Sink the “everything” tier? So it’ll still have access to everything in its sister-tier (like the monthly summary blog post), just with all the extra bits added in?
painted
2019-01-24 02:40:38 +0000 UTCQuite honestly I'd be fine without any of the extras but would love to be notified when you post new content online! And I'd love to know when/if a full length book will be available to purchase or crowd fund when you do finally finish the current comic (and I'd love to know about new creative projects too!). I'm probably the exception not the norm in this sense, but that's what I'd ideally love from my Patreon experience backing your stuff -- awareness! :)
Ali Grotkowski
2019-01-24 02:24:10 +0000 UTCI definitely understand the need to start cutting back and adjusting things, because three streams a weekend is a LOT! I love your weekly streams (and plan my weekends around them), so I'd be sad to see those drop to only once a month. Like someone else said, it's nice to see more bits of the process along the way, rather than in one big monthly info-dump. That’s also why I miss the OT blog - it had fun little bursts of information rather than the polished, condensed Patreon posts. Which are great too! But a pretty different style of content delivery. Honestly, though, my favorite part of the streams has become all the silly chatting that goes on now that you’ve become more active in the chat. I love when you come up with ridiculous polls and talk about your superheroes and write funny banter on the fly. I think some of the options, like the mic ones, lose that spontaneity. But maybe Discord can become more of a space for occasional chatty sessions when you have the time/energy/willingness to talk with us about Bitty fighting Gritty or Titan wrestling Nick into his salon? On days when I can’t make it to a stream, I ask one of my friends to fill me in on any Ngozi-chat, so I don’t miss out on Jack being a Bitty-loving dork or Titan just trying to get Nick to tell him he’s PRETTY. Your brain is such a wonderfully creative place, and I love being lucky enough to see some of the less filtered glimpses into your process. So my vote’s for one weekly stream and discord, although I get if you need to cut back more on the streams. (But please make a superheroes channel! Or if it's easier for you to tell us stories via mic, I s'pose that's pretty awesome too!)
painted
2019-01-24 02:15:45 +0000 UTCYup! I would make a channel for myself/my updates--and then separate channels for patrons. Those channels can be muted!
Ngozi
2019-01-23 21:50:14 +0000 UTCI’m not one for interacting on live streams etc and I’m worried that on Discord I would be bombarded with other chats. Would it be possible to only see updates/messages from yourself without having to read/take part in group chats?
2019-01-23 21:47:33 +0000 UTCI'm like Laura Olson with respect to spoilers and the livestreams, so the main draw for me in the $5 tier was access to the Overtime blog. So I like the options that help bring back the Overtime joy. While I totally support you in eliminating platforms that are time-consuming for you and creating problems for your supporters, in practice I haven't found the Patreon blog, with its reduced frequency and tiny, tiny images, to be as satisfying. I now wait for new comics to be released to the public rather than reading them in advance, because I want to be able to see all the detail in your work. So I love the kitchen sink idea, to provide more frequent updates without creating more work for you. And maybe there is also a way to provide a higher-resolution version of the comics for the advance access???
Coldtoes
2019-01-23 21:31:00 +0000 UTCSo I'm one of those people who loves behind-the-scenes content, process, and extras, but HATES spoilers. I don't want to know what's coming, but I love seeing the process after it's done. So I love things like the OT blog and the weekly update emails because I can come back to them after comics have been posted and see how they were made, all while avoiding spoilers. I'll never join a livestream but I'll appreciate the crap out of an OT blog.
2019-01-23 21:29:04 +0000 UTCIf you plan to use Twitch more, let me know! I’ve been streaming on there for awhile now (and I’m also a twitch affiliate) and wouldn’t mind helping if you have any questions!
2019-01-23 21:09:01 +0000 UTCTrue, Discord would be a good place for mic'd chats! But I'll have to see how comfortable patrons are with discord in general?
Ngozi
2019-01-23 20:25:12 +0000 UTCYeah, they started off pretty irregular and then suddenly...I was doing them for hours at a time??? Gotta know when to cut off.
Ngozi
2019-01-23 20:24:25 +0000 UTChonestly I've been amazed at how much you do livestream - it seems to have become longer and more frequent as time went on?
2019-01-23 20:23:25 +0000 UTCSince I'm almost always asleep when you stream (damn those stupid time zones :P), and Discord confuses me (not sure I'd know how to navigate it/find stuff there D: ), I'd LOVE cross-posted updates on Patreon. It's a brilliant way for me to follow updates, and also receive notifications when there are new posts. <3
grasonas
2019-01-23 20:13:30 +0000 UTC
