couldn't be more true

Yup seems how it all goes now...

FA started around 2004 though...

I thought it was 2001. :/ Oh well, point still stands.

2005 actually it seems, http://en.wikifur.com/wiki/History_of_Fur_Affinity.
But still, quality post!
Needs a joke about sending paypal to russia and getting your account flagged.

the unfortunate part about this mass exodus to patreon is the alienation of a huge number of potential buyers.

there are dozens of artists i like and i don't have enough money for a monthly subscription to all of them even at the lowest tiers. what am i supposed to do? juggle it around once a year per artist to mass download their backlog of paywalled drawings then unsubscribe?

and then there's the insidious business practice of patreon commissions where the commissioner isn't allowed to upload what they paid for on their gallery because the artist has to hold them over peoples heads to "encourage" them to subscribe. i know this because i have looked at every...single...commissioners galleries in search for the uncensored/cum/high res versions and not ONE of them ever uploads them (i looked through THOUSANDS of pictures). this holds true across hundreds of artists and it makes me wonder why someone would ever agree to that.

and the irony is that the "message boards" that dump patreons have exploded thanks to generous people who split a single monthly donation across 10+ people and share it online.

i really hope the future brings better changes...

luckily some artists get the picture and do something reasonable such as "patreon gets EARLY access, goes public at a later date" (though sometimes that date is something like 6+ damn months...)

Money talks.

No matter how much we bitch about it, we're still the ones at the end of the day who open our wallets and pay for this practice.

You're right, and artists are going to say, "I'm only asking for $5, you can't afford $5?" Not when 30 of my artists that I'm watching are asking for $5. I did the math on some of the "top tier" artists who have a Patreon and what they are making per month and YCH auctions is retarded. Hell there was one artist I figured was making more money than I do at my actual job, and I make bank.

But once again, I can't fault the artist, people are paying what they ask. :/

another reason why automation can't come soon enough. the end of money will be the best thing to happen to humanity. then you guys can draw shit for fun.

Patron the new FA lol

You know what's the funny thing? Right next to this submission i got two YCH auction submission. :)

Patreon is a cancer of art. It eats out the community, but unfortunately there are people rich enough to get it going. And the only way to get rid of it is stop supporting those people there. But here is the problem - would you stop supporting that "favorite" artist of yours? Probably not.

Hmm... griping about how things were so much better in the past than they are now... congratulations. You're officially old! :D

I have to admit that the patreon thing is getting a bit out of hand. Particularly if you consider that initially it was all about "you pledge to pay me if I do work" and it somehow turned into yet another paywall instead. Except instead of one big site with dozens of artists, you'd end up paying for each one separately.

"Hmm... griping about how things were so much better in the past than they are now... congratulations. You're officially old! :D"

Don't say that, me getting older already bothers me as it is. :<

*Nods* Damn straight.

All the comments about YCH are absolutely true... Of course, for the artist, it makes things easy. They don't have to please the customer. "This is the pose. This is the background. I'll color the character like yours, but it better fit inside this line."

It's sick and sad.

Meh. It's easy to hate on Patreon, IMHO, but artists need to make a living too, and if Patreon makes it so they can focus more on art than some crappy day job, I think it's positive overall. The paywall thing sucks, I'll grant you, and I don't think that it's always the best carrot to use, but I don't think it changes the underlying benefits for the artist. In any case, no one is entitled to an artist's output; if you don't like it, there are plenty of other artists out there to support instead.

i think it's about time i did a ych

Yeah, something I want to start doing now, too.

let's do it

Artists like eating, I guess.

I love how everyone who can draw even those who basically draw 2 pictures of quality from kindergarten art classes call them self Artist and wish to make a living out of it. But every other week start "EMERGENCY COMMISSIONS" coz rent/bills/sick/pet/parents. Get a normal fucking job - you will be able to buy yourself food without begging for money every week!

Tell em again!!

Nobody's twisting your arm to buy their stuff, you know.

Agreed. Additionally I know plenty of artists that have jobs and still take emergency commissions. Few artists actually live entirely off of artwork.

that is too true. couldnt tell you how many artists I have wanted to commission but couldn't because of the YCH auctions and Patreon.

Patreon is one of those things that's a great idea on paper. But in practice just becomes exploitative a lot of the time....*sigh*

YCH is a fucking plague. Exploiting the buyers and making them fight each other for slots where they may not even be allowed to have their characters look like their characters, I can't believe people pay for it.