We're NOT moving from Patreon. Here's why! (Patreon)

Hey y'all! 

So I just posted a video detailing as to why and avoided a post because I thought the video would be quick, but...you know me :) 16 minutes long and for WHAT smh so here I am with a summary!

Now as most of you know, I was trying to establish a website to migrate over to in an attempt to make things more cosy, accessible, and to reduce some operating costs because I recently discovered as well that Patreon is almost charging me ~$800/mth in platform fees.

Whilst I'm pretty bummed that the website idea isn't working out, I'm glad we get to stay here. Here's why.

On the website, whilst there is the added customization option on my end along with reduced operating costs (but not by much, much to my surprise --> read the fine print!), the drawbacks outweigh the benefits by far.

I discovered that if we moved to a website I would:

• Not be able to send notifications for any posts at all. I could do a weekly newsletter but it would cost me a ton every month and also would rely on everyone remembering to sign up to it and subscribe. Even then, these might get auto-flagged by your mailboxes and sent right to the spam inbox straight away.

• Still have to use Google Dropbox and pay some pretty absurd payment fees anyway. I guess with more options comes more complications too, so the amount of surcharges for me would also wind up putting things in an almost identical situation to Patreon, albeit a little less.

• Not be able to have comments under posts. I would lose all interaction with you guys on uploaded content which is something I would absolutely hate. This community is the lifeblood of everything I do, and even being able to interact with and see your thoughts gives me joy, so removing that for me and for you guys I think would really suck.

• It wouldn't be as accessible as I'd hoped. I post an absolute shit-ton of content, and regularly too, so I need an effective an easy-to-access way for you guys to get to content. I was hoping that I could do this seamlessly through hyperlinks within the website taking you to different pages, but this functionality isn't easy to manage, and for the amount of content I post, would be far too much.

• You wouldn't be able to move up or down tiers in the same month. Whilst the full month and flexibile billing cycle would be great, if you make a mistake or want to change your mind on tiers and subscription pricing, you'd have to wait...and that sucks.

• And last, but certainly not least, as I would be selling a subscription on one of these sites, you are only entitled to THAT SUBSCRIPTION, not others. Here, if you sign up to the moon tier, you get the star and the planet benefits too. On a site, you only get the moon, and nothing else unless I manually inset and frequently duplicate the same content into those tiers every time I post. For the amount I do and the frequency, that's just impooooossible.

So long story short, there are a lot of things which would suck, and whilst it'd be a neat little saving for me, there's a lot of things that would worry me such as interaction and also just general stability, plus the fact that you guys would be really restricted as well. It could be simple and straightforward, but my vision is pretty specific, and so this brings me to my next point:

I'm currently working on a super-spreadsheet - an archive which is up to date with ALL of my Patreon content. Thus far, we've archived all K-Dramas and Survival shows, but we are working on each artist I've covered, and indexing their content. Once it's been completed up to date, this archive will link you directly to every Patreon post, categorised by tier, and will not only allow for ease of access for you guys, but will also serve as an overview for prospective patrons about what is over here. I want to make the spreadsheet look the best that I can in the website's stead, and also might even invest some time in creating a carrd as well. This sheet will be linked on all of my YouTube uploads, and also in every Patreon post too, plus pinned in each posting schedule we do here too, so that everyone can frequently access it.

I'm hoping that this works a lot better, and not only mitigates some problems Patreon has, but overall just makes things nicer, more organised, and just better in general.

ANYWAY that's my spiel, and if you made it to the end, great! Thank you!

I want to thank all of you for your inputs on the matter when I first raised it, and for all of your kindness, support, and love for such a left of field idea. It feels awesome to know I've got such amazing people like you guys watching my back with this stuff. Off to film some more content for me, but take care of yourselves and enjoy your day / afternoon / evening / night!

Until next time y'all,

~ Lok