If you’re involved with Patreon as a subscriber or a creator, you know by now that they’ve screwed the pooch. Again. For the umpteenth time. It’s unfortunate, because Patreon offers a lot of stuff that’s good, but they also have a lot of major issues that, quite frankly, shouldn’t be happening. There is a lack of communication that is both confusing and frustrating. Furthermore, I know that a number of creators and patrons both have jumped ship already because of Patreon’s policy changes and growing unreliability.
I am not dropping Patreon, don’t get me wrong. I don’t know how many of you here are patrons, but if you are, don’t worry. I’m going to keep it going.
However, I am investigating alternatives that I’ll be running alongside Patreon for a while. I’m early enough in my Patreon life cycle that I can expand and dabble a bit, then go where the money takes me. With Patreon losing both creators and patrons, I’m losing potential audience. So I want to diversify in case Patreon’s reputation tanks really hard. I want to make sure I have places that people will feel comfortable supporting me and subscribing to my work. Places where they won’t feel at risk of being screwed over. So here are options I’m looking into.
GUMROAD
Gumroad has been advertising a tiered subscription service for a while now. Its interface and setup are different from Patreon but the overall concept is the same. If you pay $2/month you get X, if you pay $10/month you get Y. When I set this up, the reward tiers will be as close to my existing Patreon tiers as I can get them. So if you have a Gumroad account you can join almost seamlessly.
It also has the advantage of a built-in storefront. Subscribers will have easy access to any products I want to sell and I can offer easy subscriber discounts and such.
Finally, if I understand this right, Gumroad also shoots emails when there are updates – or it gives subscribers an option to receive emails with the content. I’m not entirely sure about this but it seems to be what they’re suggesting. I’ll look into this more as I set it up.
KO-FI GOLD
Many of you have probably heard of Ko-fi, the tipping service for creators. You can “give a coffee” to someone at $3 a pop. The payments are processed through PayPal, with all the ups and downs that entails. I’ve never had a lot of luck making Ko-fi work for me, but I also make very little money on my art right now.
Ko-fi Gold is their subscription-based service. Regular Ko-fi doesn’t have recurring payment options, but Ko-fi gold does. I don’t think it’s a complete Patreon substitute but I think it will at least offer an option for people that don’t use Gumroad or Patreon. And those that don’t want to subscribe won’t have to. The single tip option is still available!
PAYPAL SUBSCRIPTIONS
PayPal itself allows subscriptions and recurring payments to be set up. I might not use this because with PayPal you have to use some kind of external thing to use it. Like, I have to tie it to a website or something, where you log in and if you’re subscribed, you can get the cool stuff.
I’m going to investigate and see if I can use this for some kind of email list with similar tiers to my Patreon. This one’s not a guarantee, and it’s kind of the thing I might do once I’ve set up Gumroad and Ko-Fi Gold.
DRIP
This one’s invite-only right now, but it’s basically Kickstarter’s version of Patreon. Same kind of tiered subscription thing. When it opens to the public, I’m going to jump on it.
I’ll update you all when I have these alternatives set up. Like I said, I won’t be leaving Patreon anytime soon. I’m just covering my bases so I have a plan if Patreon really goes to shit.
I don’t wanna like Kill The Joke but this brings up a really cool fact about swords in ~14th-16th century Germany! The only people who were allowed to own Real Swords were the royalty and nobility BUT! Everyone else was allowed to own knives. The definition of a knife, however, was based on not length but handle construction, and to some extent how it was sharpened. The handle had to be constructed Like So with 2 pieces of wood sandwiching the metal tang.
Only one edge was allowed to be sharpened, but oftentimes a small part (a couple inches) of the short edge (e.g. the edge that wasn’t sharp) would be sharpened, and weapon design often allowed for this
In this way, something that looked like This, a messer of just over a meter in length…
…would be legally considered a knife, and therefore allowable for non-nobility to possess. (you can also see the bit on the back of the tip that would be sharpened)
So @swordmutual, there’s a not definitive but certainly interesting historical perspective on your question
A lot of people already condemn and calling this teacher a bitch/monster on the comment/reblog, not knowing the whole story. It was actually the TEACHER who drew the beautiful art on the blackboard, and the teacher is a HE, he’s an accomplished artist who was trying to teach his students about the beauty of art and however changing it is. He will draw any arts by request from his students, the students will take some pictures, and then he erases it from the board, and make new ones. He’s not a monster. He’s actually trying to spark the students’ interest in art. Funny how a simple pic without context enrages people – and the people refusing to look beyond the story.
You can follow his artworks on Twitter @hamacream where he always posts/tweet his arts.
Just had a little look into it now and holy shit that an amazing idea. Talk about two birds one stone.
Now they use African honey bees, which are way more aggressive then the European honey bee. So the elephants have a pretty good reason for being afraid of them.
Now if you’ve ever been around / in countries with elephants you’ll know, that they are pretty damn destructive. They’ll destroy whole structures, and you’re pretty powerless to stop them. So the use of these bee hive fences is ingenious, and something I’m going to have to read a lot more on.
These are what they look like btw:
This is cool as shit and i love how they’re standing fearless next to African killer bee hives
GOD DAMN THATS COOL
‘killer bees’ are only aggressive if you threaten their nest – which elephants do by accident, since they are stompy guys who knock shit over all the time. i’m so glad people are finding a solution that doesn’t involve violence. elephants don’t want to ruin your things, they’re just enormous and easily spooked.
After spending a week with the 6.25“x10” Monoprice, my Yiynova and Cintiq remain unplugged and I gave my Intuos away to a friend. The Monoprice tracks subtle pressure variances and small movements with less lag and more crisp fidelity than any of the others. It is, put crudely, fucking awesome, in both OSX Lion and Windows 7 x64.
Duly fuckin’ noted.
I’ve had my $80, 3.5×5” gaphire 4 for 5 years now, and have been absolutely dreading the day it finally kicks the bucket. (Yes, every digital piece I’ve ever drawn has been on a live area the size of a postcard.)
I am so getting one of these when this thing dies. Or maybe when the stylus dies… thing’s hanging on by a thread. (Let’s just say it’s been without a grip or buttons for I don’t know how many years now.)
Yay for companies not having a veritable monopoly on the market.
I have one of these, 10×6.5 I bought about two months ago for 48 bucks. It’s a billion times better than my old Wacom Bamboo and works like a fuckin dream.
I gotta naysay here. Seatbelts do a LOT of harm. Not everyone can wear one and not everyone wants to risk it. Just among my own friends and people I know in general; 4 females had a breast cut completely or partially off due to a seat belt. 6 people had their throats cut, to an obviously non-lethal degree. 2 had their stomach’s cut open to a horrifying degree that I won’t elaborate on.
Not even counting the uncomfortably awkward belt locations for particularly large, small, fat, skinny people. Females with large breasts get the joy of holding the belt in place or adjusting it every couple seconds.
They’re awkward, uncomfortable, painful, and can often cause the injuries in an accident. Sometimes it’s just better to forgo the belt.
Those injuries caused by seat belts more than very likely would have been deadly had they not been wearing them. To have enough force to cut skin or cut off a breast in an accident is far more than enough to cause someone to go flying through the windshield of a car, to slam them into the steering column, or through a window resulting in deadly injuries or causing an even bigger accident for other drivers now that your body is in the road along with your crashed car. Are you really going to risk being a smear of ground meat on the pavement because your seat belt was a little uncomfortable or it might cut you? Then I got good news for you, there’s a wide variety of devices made specifically to make seat belts more comfortable and reduce that risk.
These make it so that your seat belt won’t cut your neck, a simple sleeve of padded fabric that velcros around it, meaning you can put it anywhere on the belt.
This one does something similar, by readjusting the positioning of the seat belt to move it farther away from your neck and hey, helps a bit with having boobs in the way.
They even make ones for children too.
Boobs still in the way? While it’s pretty silly looking, this helps keep the seat belt in place so you don’t have to keep adjusting it.
And if you’re overweight, they make seat belt extenders so you can still be safe.
But maybe you’re still unsure, then listen to the CDC and all of their sources.
“More than half of the people killed in car crashes were not restrained at the time of the crash.1 Wearing a seat belt is the most effective way to prevent death and serious injury in a crash.Seat belt use is on the rise. Laws, education, and technology have increased seat belt use from 11% in 19812 to nearly 85% in 20103, saving hundreds of thousands of lives. “
“Most drivers and passengers killed in crashes are unrestrained. 53% of drivers and passengers killed in car crashes in 2009 were not wearing restraints.1Seat belts dramatically reduce risk of death and serious injury. Among drivers and front-seat passengers, seat belts reduce the risk of death by 45%, and cut the risk of serious injury by 50%.4Seat belts prevent drivers and passengers from being ejected during a crash. People not wearing a seat belt are 30 times more likely to be ejected from a vehicle during a crash. More than 3 out of 4 people who are ejected during a fatal crash die from their injuries.5Seat belts save thousands of lives each year, and increasing use would save thousands more. Seat belts saved almost 13,000 lives in 2009. If all drivers and passengers had worn seat belts that year, almost 4,000 more people would be alive today”
The number of those who escaped injury [by wearing a seat belt] increased by 40% and those with mild and moderate injuries decreased by 35% after seatbelt legislation. There was a significant reduction in soft tissue injuries to the head. Only whiplash injuries to the neck showed a significant increase.”
Fifty-five percent of those killed in passenger vehicle occupant crashes in 2008 were not wearing a seat belt…”
“Wearing a seat belt reduces the risk of fatal injury by almost 50%. For children, the risk of fatal injury is reduced by 71% with the use of child safety seats.“
“Of those thrown completely out of a vehicle in a car crash, 75% died. Only one percent of people totally ejected from their cars had on a seat belt during the crash. Over 30% were not wearing seat belts.“
Conclusion? Wear your fucking seat belt. Tell your kids to wear their fucking seat belt. Tell your friends and family to wear their fucking seat belts. Time and time again it’s been proven that you are significantly more likely to survive a crash if you’re wearing one. Most people think they’re uncomfortable, but when you’re in a crash it can save your life. I’d rather be mildly injured than dead.
Wear your seat belt.
“uwu dont wear seatbelts bc some people got injured by them”
THEY SURVIVED. which is much better than dying bc you flew through the damn windshield!! fucking dumbass.
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