I dunno; people are already grabbing the torches and pitchforks when an artist does it as of late. I can't imagine it going much better when what people would basically be doing is paying a proxy to determine how that money's then spent. Probably be better off doing a GoFundMe or something similar when a project idea comes up and pitching the full deal.

Maybe. I tried that last time with the upcoming comic (still in process) and while I raised a fair bit, it fell shorter of expectations than I'd liked, but I blame the big convention that weekend and the short notice then.

I'd like to do it again but I'm not sure if the terms of service allow for that and I'd hate for that money to be seized and everyone else put out because I can't get a lawyer to review every little loophole. The idea, at least in theory is that if people contributed, they'd have much more of a say in my creative process, that is what my OC's wind up doing, and with who (opening up the first possibility of them interacting with others' fursonas). To use the corporation analogy again, the "shareholders" would have a say in how it was run. Does that make sense?

I think so, but it's definitely something that's going to have to be carefully managed so it doesn't put people off.

True. My thinking was most of my watchers might prefer to put up $5 and trust me to commission something they'd like rather than $50 for an artist to try and get *exactly* what they want (it's difficult to ever commission anything that comes out 100% like you see in your head after all)

Regardless, I would support you at least.

I appreciate it :) please do stay in touch!

I cannot - I'm all Patreon'd out, and given my Xmas budget this year is down 2/3 normal, cash is kinda thin these days.

I don't blame you. Common situation these days - the crowdfunding bubble has all but burst it seems. :/ I hope you'd consider it at a later date if your situation improves though.
Thanks for supporting the comic in any event. ^^

I would but... to a point. The problem with Patreon that I find is that unless you were fabulously wealthy, there is just no way to support all the artists and content creators that you want to. For example, of the 500+ people I watch, at least 300 of them have Patreon accounts. Even if I were to only do $1 a month each, that's almost a car-payment worth of funding! And that doesn't account for the fact that some folks don't even offer you access to nice stuff until you play $2, $5 or more. So that cost goes shooting up even more. :(

Some artists do it month by month, the slots reset each month with a concrete reward for that specific month (usually a commission at a discounted price from what I've seen). It's definitely a shame but then, sometimes fandom is an expensive hobby. :<

Certainly can be! Well, I support a handful of folks. It's all I can do.

If you clearly place it in the description what EXACTLY people are pledging for, your tail will be covered as long as you do what you say. People have the entire month to remove their pledge if they do not want to participate. With that said however, I wouldn't hold my breath for a lot of pledges there for something like this. Patreon's kinda more of a tip jar than a crowd sourcing project... deal.

Indiegogo and Kickstarter are more geared toward a set project, but this idea seems more up in the air than that. So I'd suggest maybe working it out with a couple of artists what you want to order and pay for, and post that as either the goal for one of those, or as the first 'reward' for the pledgers on Patreon, and once that order has been funded, update with the next sort of idea, and let those who want to continue to pledge remove or not. Might also be a good idea to let the patrons contribute ideas or vote on the next commission! :D

Good luck! It's hard to round up pledges... trust me. ;__;

Oh I believe it. It was hard enough getting investors for a comic even with a set date. x.x Though I blame a lot of factors there including hasty preparation, short time frame and TFF happening that week draining a lot of wallets. >.<

I'd like to give people something more than just "my thanks" for even a $1 donation. I can try coloring for people but I'd honestly rather do that for free (and I already have a few projects I promised people that have been sitting on my back burner since forever). I feel guilty enough about that.

I don't mind at all taking suggestions as long as it's not "DRAW ME" xP as I prefer to keep my storylines self-contained for now t. Also the problem with having people vote on content is that sometimes everyone really wants one idea, and trying to put them all together makes a chaotic and unfocused mess that tries to please everypony and ends up pleasing nopony. :u Not to mention that the investors who put in more money - majority shareholders, after a fashion - effectively buy more votes (which again is not a problem if you consider that yes, you are getting what you pay for, but it could leave a sour taste in some people's mouths)

Nothing's perfect, but I'd like to be able to give something while also have an incentive to keep content creating. Thanks for the good luck wishes. <3

If you created a poll like I recently did for my Patreon, it's anonymous voting where you have the options to let them tick off multiple votes instead of just voting on one single idea, or you could set it for just one. Then everyone's votes count the same. You could offer 'scene suggesting' as an incentive for higher payments, meaning they could say "I'd really like to see more [topic]." rather than "I want my character doing this!" That's the best way I can figure that would help please most everyone. ;v;

If I come across any other ideas I'll share with you.

That's a really good idea o.O Yeah, please stay in touch. I could also try an instant-runoff system where people rank their preferences from most to least and say how much they'd be willing to pledge to each, then tally the votes to see what is or isn't doable.
The 21st century sure is crazy. XD

Super late to the party, but here's my thoughts:

Someone above had said that it's going to be incredibly difficult to convince anyone to pledge to someone who then commissions another person for their own ideas. You're going to have to be super clear and concise about what it is people are actually pledging to and what they can expect in return. I cannot emphasize that enough, especially when you cannot account for the lack of reading skills on a potential pledge's part.

Not to knock your character, but if you want my 100% truthful thoughts on the matter, this sounds incredibly scummy. Perhaps I have misunderstood what it is you're hoping to do with this, but if it is just "support me so I can get artists to draw my ideas without you having any say in the matter", that's...yeah. That's a hard sell. Even harder will be if you offer something like "we get to work together on an idea for X amount", because the odds of you and the pledge agreeing on a general idea might not go over so well, or it might go over swimmingly too depending on the person.

I personally think this is a bad idea, there's a lot to cover and a lot to think about with it, but if you were able to draw up a sample of what pledging would entitle, as well as a more solid mission statement, I'd give it a look.

I understand and yeah that's a perfectly reasonable concern xD yeah I worded that badly lol. It was more like I'd use X amount of money to commission an artist for Y characters in whatever scenario, then let whoever was willing to chip in for Z amount of the bill to put a character of their choosing into the commish. Basically offering to split a bill on a joint commish but doing it more easily over Patreon.

The idea was to try and streamline the process so I'm not doing these on a case by case basis but I realize it could be taken the wrong way. It was more for bigger projects like that comic I was crowdfunding a while back (still in the works, btw). I was looking to launch another crowdsourced venture or two in the coming year.

Don't worry, I'm not looking to retire on monthly donations. ;)