Changes for 2022

Hello everyone!

I was thinking of adding this post to the monthly report but in the end, I decided to create a separate post for this because it might be too much info to add to the report.

I know that the poll is open but even still It's pretty much decided.

• Monthly releases

I want to keep releasing them as I finish sculpting and test printing, however, I want to have time to promote all the monthly releases as the final push of the month to get more support (and show exactly what people are subscribing for). So doing things like this month is out of the question, and I am eager to share and see some prints, meaning sculpting a month earlier and releasing in the following month won't work.

To solve this problem I will start the month miniatures around the 20th day of the month (starting with the Patron Commission model) and end on the 20th day of the next month doing a group render of the releases. The time I will have to hold a miniature ready for release will be something less than 10 days. Meaning 2022 March releases will be sculpted from the 20th day of February until the 20th day of March.

Those miniatures will be given from 2nd day of the month until the last day of the month.

File names will be YYYY_Name_A, where YYYY is the Theme name, A is additional info for the model, like Hand, body variation, etc.

I will make this transition slowly removing days from the current month so I don't affect too much the production of the following month, but once normalized, this change will not affect anyone subscribed or new subscriber.

• Welcome Pack

The current welcome pack will cease to exist but I will keep the current miniatures in the welcome pack and remove them at the promised time.

I will pick miniatures from past releases and create a fixed welcome pack, every 3 months I will add 3 new miniatures from releases to the welcome pack. Due to MMF current structure, I will create Welcome Pack 1, Welcome Pack 1.1 (containing only the 3 extra miniatures) and after having many additions to the welcome pack I will create Welcome pack 2 (containing all miniatures in the welcome pack 1. X), this will save me time when giving welcomes in the MMF user groups.

This change will affect some of the current Patrons, if you do not have access because you lost the releases of those miniatures you will have them.

•  Patron Commission

Patron Commission models will still exist! I really enjoy this process, the excitement of the request post, who will reply and ask, what will be asked, the thrill of the poll. These are just the tip of the Iceberg that is the Patron Commission. But unfortunately giving those models once a year seems kind of unfair (since I want to see them printed lol).

To fix this, Patron Commission Models will be added to the monthly release and after the month's end, given as Loyalty Rewards.

Due to MMF user group structure, I will create a Loyalty 03M or 06M Pack, and add miniatures to them, similar to the Welcome Pack.

The file name will be LRXX_Name, where XX is the number of months of loyalty.

This change will not affect current Patrons

• Patron Discount

I am still uncertain of how much discount or how to do this but it is something I want to add next year. I want to add a certain discount and I want to add more discount the more time you are supporting me.

Applicable to MMF and Minihoarder stores

• MMF and Minihoarder support

Minihoarder is a growing website for miniatures and also has low fees for artists, meaning it's easier to enter the market using their support (not very profitable because of the user base) but a good starting point.

On the other hand, MMF is really popular giving me visibility. 

Starting this month I will be using MMF to make the releases but I still want to support Minihoarder, in order to do this, releases will also be given on Minihoarder.

Due to those websites structures being different MMF will be given as soon as the miniature is released and Minihoarder once by the end of the month.

• Supporter Tier

When I created this tier I was expecting a lot of supporters to come but, in reality, it took me a while to have at least 1. Having a user in this tier is confusing when giving rewards because I have to make filters or sometimes manually remove users.

To save management time I will end this Tier during the next year.

This change will affect 1 patron.

Those are the main changes of Imagine Minis Patreon for next year

I will change the main page over the first days of the next year with that info.

Best regards,

Ivo