thanks for the comment and the perspective.

As an artist, I feel like Patreon is a good way for artists to find support and helps them complete projects that would normally be unrealistic to continue alongside a job and commission work while still being able to eat. Versus Kickstarter and other crowd-funding sites, this serves better for artists who make a lot of small projects rather than few large projects, since the support is ongoing.

That is a really cool aspect to it yeah. I'm sure if I had a regular project that I could devote a steady amount of time to I would be much inclined to use it.

I love it. If only because it's so versatile in what you can do. Patreon only content? Can do. Funding for public content? Also can do. Supplementing income? Definitely can do.

I noticed you had a patreon. I also heard there's a "by update" option, or clause, or something. how does that work?

Like if an artist does nothing do they in turn get nothing or what?

Oh, Patreon lets you set a limit on how much you will spend per month. So if you choose to do $5 per image, and the artist uploads like 10 images in a month you can tell Patreon that your max per month is $30 and it won't charge you any more than that. It keeps track of how much a contributor uploads and then charges Patrons once a month.

Yes, there's one that goes by the image! It's generally for people who do periodic videos or comic updates, so they're paid by the upload. I've seen it work for folks like  ritts and a few of the youtubers that upload content on a bi-weekly to monthly basis.

The by the month option is for folks who plan to update more often to avoid overwhelming their Patrons with numerous charges through the month.

I like it 'cause it gives the artist a more stable and regular income and makes it feel like a real job, as opposed to having to rely on commissions which you don't know if you'll have or not, and barely surviving if that month's not particularly busy.

Yeah, that's the really nice thing about it, and I like what it's doing for much of the artist community that can then actually put time and effort into some nice work rather than pump out a lot of iron artist stuff to get by or something.

I know a lot of my work has stagnated in part because I am too busy but also because what time I do have goes to commissions. not to say I don't work hard on them, but you get stuck in a rut. I draw certain types of characters, so customers with those types of characters will then come and request similar types of characters, so I draw more of the same time.

It's reasonable for customers to do this, but it does make a cycle that can be hard to break when money is tight.

I think it's a silly name, and I choose to use that as an anchor bias against it. If only it had a better name it could have been a decent service, but it had to be 'Patreon'. So that makes it awful.

I...don't get this position? what about the name bugs you?

I get it as a reference to a patron, a regular customer, someone that is going to support you and back you up consistently.

It's working pretty good for  DragonTalon and his comic. Couldn't hurt to try right?

I suppose if I had some material that I wanted to regularly update or a comic to work on.

I love Patreon. I think the people who take issue with it don't understand that they are not paying for a good or service, they are donating to allow an artist the time and living protections needed to pursue personal artworks and projects. Just like during the renaissance where patrons paid to keep artists fed and sheltered so that they had the time and protection to freely create. It boggles my mind where flurries today get the idea that artists are some sort of commission vending machines- put money in receive art. Or worse, that they are entitled to art for free at the cost of time, money, and training on behalf of the artist. Without considering that this is a person who needs to make rent, buy groceries, pay health insurance. We don't expect doctors and plumbers to give us free things, and we shouldn't leech from artists without supporting them. If that's through commissions, tips, donations, or Patron it doesn't matter. In fine art this is never seen. Artists get grants from cities and governments and nonprofits, they make sales from gallery (at far higher prices than flurries will pay), and often have community services available to them (business networks, museums, other artists, studios, galleries, etc). Furry artists don't get that, so I see doing furry art as a lot more of a labor of love, no respect and the clients tend to be shitheads. I think we seriously need to respect our artists more and support them. The furry fandom had a bad habit of paying dirt cheap prices which nobody can live off of, whining, harassment, verbal abuse and even emotional manipulation of artists.

I find fandoms in general have a terrible habit of being shitty toward artists. I also see where the consumer mentality comes from in regards to artists. Average user doesn't have experience with a patron type situation or grants and such. They are used to services/goods=money. So even the shitty ones aside people get used to paying for a good or service and then get confused by the aspect of a stipend or something.
For instance i've had people confused and angry when they find profs bought something personal with gov grants, thinking "the grant is for x, you are taking tax money for personal reasons" they don't know that grants in part can have a chunk set aside as a stipend, something the person working on the project will use for their personal lives (n the same way you will spend your paycheck on personal life stuff) because the person will be working for an extended amount of time on said project rather than other work that will give regular paychecks (or whatever)

So I get why it is foreign to the average person, so patreon is good for bringing patron possibilities to fandom artists. I can also see a lot of people that are used to getting free art and free smut material being annoyed by patreon because now artists aren't just giving everything free, and may even be too busy with personal works which are on average better than the average commission. However such a person wants their personal art and how dare an artist not feel honored to take their pittance of a payment to draw another sparkledog.

Yeah Patreon looks better for the art community and not as good for that sort of customer that only wants free (up to date) stuff and personal art.

I'm not a big fan of it personally because I enjoy doing what I do because I enjoy it. I feel if people started paying me to produce content the love for my work would dwindle. As much as I'd love to have people support my work I'd rather see it in subscribers and watchers rather than people paying me money to make stuff. It's the same mindset behind why I don't do commissions or requests.