Post-State of the Channel Patreon Changes

Hey, Rivans.

If you haven't seen my State of the Channel video yet, go check that out. It's embedded in the post before this one and it's on my YT, so I advise you watch that before reading this.

I outlined my PokéSins plan and those of you who've been reading some recent posts on here will find it familiar. I suggested it just after the New Year, but decided to try finding a YouTube-like monetised site instead. That search went terribly. I was gonna keep searching, but then 11 PokéSins episodes were blocked in a very short space. In total I have about 120 episodes believe it or not (including Generations, Johto, Specials & BTSFs), so 11 + the previously blocked ones is over 10% of the series. Not counting the BTSFs, that percentage gets a lot higher.

What this means is I *cannot* wait to find a site, try it out, qualify for monetisation, only then to discover it's shady or unreliable or the Ad Rev split is appalling... You get the picture. With how hard ShoPro is hitting me and how little YouTube is doing to protect me, I feel this is our only option right now.

As I say in the SotC video, alternating PokéSins episodes are gonna be $5+ Patreon exclusive. What this basically means is if, for example, PokéSins Episode 63 is free, Episode 64 will be $5+, Episode 65 will be free and so on.

The reason I'm bringing this up here is I already have a $5+ reward and it's Video Voting. Surely the logical thing would be to scrap Video Voting and replace it with PokéSins, but I don't think that's the best idea. I instead plan to reduce Video Voting to $3+ and scrap Early Access for videos. My reasons are as follows:

First: I really like the Video Voting. As things like First Impressions and Top 5s are so varying in interest for people, the vote gives me some idea of the popularity of the content. Also these days I'm only doing the one Top 5 a month, so without the vote, I fear I'd stop them altogether.

Second: I can't do early access for the PokéSins on my website. I'm sorry, but the privacy system just isn't compatible with such short term early access; what I'd need to do is post the episode with one password for early access then, less than a day later, change the password or remove it entirely. It'd just be way too much hassle.

Third: With no early access PokéSins, the reward gets you a single video a week; First Impressions. While some people may be happy with that, it'd feel like too little to have a reward on its own.

Fourth: And this is a bit of an awkward one, but early access on YouTube is just a ballache anyway. I use 'Scheduled' uploads for 90% of my YouTube videos, meaning I can post it an hour, a day, a week ahead of time and it'll be publicly released at the exact time and date I choose. That's why most videos go out bang on 6pm UK time. With early access stuff, however, I have to set it to 'Unlisted', copy you guys a link, then at about 6pm on the Saturday go onto YouTube and manually make it public. This is necessitated because 'Scheduled' uploads are marked as 'Private' until they're released, presumably so they can be put into playlists without leaking.
With early access videos, I have to be free and at my computer at 6pm on Saturday every week. I mean I don't have the most lively social calendar, but I'm visiting friends more, travelling and generally being an unmarried 25 year old. Plus I have a habit of forgetting. These things all make the Early Access reward rather inconvenient for me.

I don't plan on adding the PokéSins $5 reward until my website is ready to host new, never-before-seen PokéSins episodes, so you guys have a little bit of time to get used to the new rewards. I won't say exactly when they'll come into play, because I honestly don't know. I will be making this happen as quickly as I possibly can, but I suspect that it'll still be a month at least before any rewards change.

I know that some of you won't be happy with these changes, but please understand that my back's against a wall here. Even if I don't have your agreement or support for these changes, I hope that I can at least have your good wishes.

Thanks for reading.