To me, it's not so much that artists are slamming paywalls up left and right. My philosophy toward making money is: do whatever the fuck you want; just don't mislead consumers. So when you are putting up content with fancy titles, gesturing toward your content for tons of people to check it out, and then no one can see the content because you forgot to mention that it's only for $25 Patrons on your Patreon, that I see as problematic.

I understand the hustle. But people need to be honest and sincere about what they are doing, otherwise they are throwing their integrity under the bus. It was never about the platforms they use but the way in which they broadcast themselves while using those platforms, and many motherfuckers are getting it twisted.

Yeah I guess I worded it a bit poorly, But thats more or less what Im getting at :B

What's worse are the text posts! Stories that have about 3 paragraphs and then cut off and are like "Like it so far? Pledge to my patreon and read the whole thing!" And it's like fuck dude just tell me up front I'm wasting my time here instead of having enough text to scroll off screen and cheat me :/

If they display in the thumbnail of the piece that it is only a sample, I would be fine with that, as the whole point is to give viewers a taste of what they would get. Like most advertisements, as long as they divulge that it is just an ad beforehand, and not the whole piece, then it's just business practice.

Yeah I'd be fine with that too. But nah, usually it's keywords of fetishes which catch my eye and are why I click on it in the first place. And WHOOP!

Yeah sorta mostly

My thoughts are similar to xSini's on this. Promotion's great! Teaser images of "more on patron" are also good, if it's a full sample of something. A thumbnail that cuts out 90% of the picture, though, with the subject, "Join my patron to see the whole image?" Eeeeh just doesn't sit right. Like when I see an artists submission in my feed, i'm expecting to see either a full commission they did for someone, or something similar, a full piece. If there's alt versions on patron? Sure, that's fine! But pulling a bait and switch just isn't cool imo.

its also the whole, "Coming soon!" type posts of partial animations
only to reveal later with a still image that its "Coming soon to paid platforms elsewhere"
If I had a heads up before hand, it'd feel a lot less... Iuno, pay-wall-ey. But hyping people up for an assumed free piece that would bring in patrons anyways only to lock it behind said paywall seems disingenuous to me.

An example I guess would be if I invited you to my bday party, and on arrival charged you a dollar to enter. Its a small price, but its the principal of the matter that I didnt tell you.
Or letting you show up only to charge to actually enjoy a piece of cake or a pop. Idek

I just think there needs to be more deer/pony butt. Otherwise I agree.

110% more durr required. Most certainly.

Also, pledge only $1 a month and I'll let you see my full reply

Now this is some A+ marketing~

<3

My favorite, are those artists which censor all of their previous artwork, that was, you know, free to view in their gallery before, and then demand you pay to see it post patreon. Or after being commissioned a couple good hundred dollars by someone else, hold the image in bondage till they get even more shekels. The Mona Lisa is cheaper to go see, hue.

I literally just ran into that earlier today. Submission I know was there and free suddenly replaced with a still image / incredibly short choppy lowres gif (Still in the animation section though of course) with a paywall -w-;;

Yeah, gotta love it! FA's going from art gallery to free advertising for paywalls, wew.

Yeah, doesn't FA's search also use the artist's message as well in default mode? With this it would be hard to not appear in the results even if you paywalled the parts you described in the message under the user avatar.

Again, I think that you should release the things you advertise for free a few months after putting it on Patreon. Sure, advertise some exclusives but either do it in journals or your profile, not as cropped submissions. Added value is great but pay-walling things can either encourage piracy or cause the artist to lose relevance through a seeming lack of activity.