Raising Prices, Removing Tiers, Discord Changes

   Effective January 1st of 2023, I'll be redoing all of the tiers here, removing most of them, raising some prices, and changing up our Discord server. This isn't something I do lightly, and I haven't messed with them much since January 1st of 2019, when I changed this Patreon page from a tip jar to a $1 paywall for my writing content.

    I don't value my own writing very highly. Whenever one of my author peers tries to argue with me about my pledge tiers being comically low, I justify it by saying my writing speed is a lot slower than most other writers. While true, I haven't achieved the best balance with keeping myself out of depression and poverty stress because of all my bad decisions in relation to how I monetize my work.

1) Removing vanity tiers completely.

   The Guest and Waifu tiers were about submitting characters to appear in the sidestories, but I spend so little time working on the sidestories and struggle so much with incorporating changes that patrons ask for that it's simply not worth what people have been paying. I will continue and complete the sidestories in play, regardless of whether or not those tiers still exist.

   The $10 tier was for thanking readers by name at the end of posted public chapters, but when I implemented that way back then I thought it would be five or six names. The list of names grew out of control, I don't think anyone found it as meaningful to be one word in a giant paragraph block of names, and I had a lot of problems tracking which of those patrons wanted me to not use their account name or real name or wanted to not be mentioned. Patrons come and go a lot month to month, and it turned into a mess.

2) VIP tier will not change.

   $5 is fair to follow the game project as it progresses, and I have no qualms with the VIP patrons also having access to all of the writing.

3) $1 Fan and $2 Attendee tier will both be removed.

   Everyone will receive another warning notice before 2023. The $1 is too low and not particularly feasible with the flat transaction fee cost that gets appended anyways. I honestly grew to hate the $2 tier that gave access to draft work in Google Docs, because I don't write or organize the sections in progress in a way that's meant for reading. 

 4) New tiers for advance writing content.

   Likely will be $3, but I'm still arguing with some friends about it. RE: Trailer Trash advance chapters will become available, while before they were simply a random bonus whenever I had sections okayish enough to put up before posting the public chapter. I wasn't keen on monetizing RE: Trailer Trash at all, as it was my fun hobby side project, but going forward I will begin to give Trash and AnimeCon (or actually AnimeCon's sequel Renfaire) equal attention. Ready or not I'm going to post the AnimeCon conclusion public before 2023, so Renfaire will be starting off with more of a clean slate when it comes to all the chapters I tend to hoard.

5) Discord Server.

   As for our discord community, starting 2023 all pledgers will automatically be invited (pulled into the discord against their will by the Patreon bot). Up until now I've only had that pledge incentive for the tiers above $1, which make up roughly half of my patrons.

   Our discord has played fast and loose with moderation as there's rarely been any issues that require addressing intervention; in 2023 we'll be introducing written rules and actual moderation. Right now only Irony and I have powers there, but I'm also going to extend invitation to Montugar and Rose. I trust them with my life, and they're active. If one or both of them decline, I'll just pick all the meanest patrons I can find and stick them into a gu jar until only the most aggressive and cunning ones emerge. I'm pretty sure that's how selecting mods works.

6) Please comment here with your thoughts or concerns.

   The feedback I'd like from everyone is what you think is fair pricing when you weigh my writing quality against its poor rate of completion, and perhaps even more importantly—should RE:TT and AH be segregated from each other tier-wise. While I've enjoyed a lot of overlap and cross-pollination between readers, the simple fact is that a lot of Trash readers have zero interest in AnimeCon and do not want to receive those email updates, and likewise a lot of AnimeCon readers feel that way about Trash.