OPEN FORUM: About the $20 tier, Archive Binging, and more

Hi monster lovers! Today I'd like to have an open forum discussion about the $20 tier (BARA CLUB Members) and possible new tiers involving no print subscription in addition to the one we already have.

A lot of new patrons often ask how to read the comics in an archive format, and I have an unfortunately complicated answer as to how we arrived at the system we have now that includes Patreon's posts (WIPs, finished comics, pin-ups, designs, etc. all in a feed jumble) and another site BARA CLUB which has the clean archives ideal for binge reading (that I host on my own).

The $5 tier is meant to follow the comics as they're updating now - including WIPs to see a small behind-the-scenes on how each comic is made.
It would be quite difficult to read them backwards in Patreon in an archive format, and there have been issues with uploading several pages at once.

The $10 tier is meant to follow new NSFW one-shot pages and pin-ups as they're updating now as well.

The $20 tier was meant to be a BARA CLUB membership admission price, since it is a site I host separately to Patreon. I included the print subscription for a few reasons, of which I will outline here:

• Patreon doesn't support making a higher level tier that automatically lets you see lower tiers when subscribed to it, i.e. a $19 tier that lets you see $10 and $5 content.
  I could make a slightly lower priced tier like this, with the caveat that everyone has to be OK with ONLY receiving the BARA CLUB password access and not being able to see WIPs. All -finished- comic pages and pin-ups are uploaded to BARA CLUB anyway, so beyond some expectations needing to be set (since it's off-Patreon as well), it might be a good solution.
• I wanted the $20 tier to get a bargain on the single-issue print comics. The Canadian and International versions of this tier are also getting the comics at a low price compared to when they will be sold at the shop. After I catch up (because the holidays set me back a bit), I would hope that more would come to these tiers.

WHY BARA CLUB AND WHY NOT JUST POST THEM ONTO PATREON?

Patreon isn't a good format for reading long stories or chapters in one archival binge.
It takes something away from it artistically too, I feel. While my intent for the comics has always been 'the print version is the best version', I would prefer pages to be as big as they 'should' be, readable and able to be savored without needing to click on a zoom icon among other things. This is the reason I don't have my comics on third party webcomic sites anymore, it just ruins the atmosphere and visuals of the comics.

BARA CLUB archive view:

Patreon archive view:

I have been trying to finish pages in batches, but that can only do so much for people just starting to get back into the comics after years. Plus, they will find that Patreon has only supported 'batches of images in one post' for a year / half a year now, and that means anything before 2019 is definitely just one image after the other of a jumble of WIPs and pages and designs and more.

WHY POST THE FINISHED PAGES ON PATREON AT ALL AND JUST POST IT ALL TO MEN PLUS MONSTERS DOT COM?

It's funny this is mentioned sometimes, because ideally, I -would- like to do that, and I wouldn't need BARA CLUB, and we wouldn't be having this problem at all.

My ideal scenario was, with making webcomics, that I would update the longform comics for free (MEN+MONSTERS / ACE OF BEASTS / SWORD KINGS) and be able to support them + myself through support on Patreon, with Patreon exclusives such as the NSFW one-shots and WIP sketches for all the pages. 

Things didn't work out that way (remember, I have been doing this for 6+ years) and I wasn't being compensated for the hard work I did on the comics, including rewrites and redoing the art and paying for the hosting of the main site, so I had to change it to the system we have here.

TAG THE FINISHED PAGES THEN, PLEASE

I would have to reupload the old pages for this to work at all, because there are years of finished comic pages on this Patreon. I could do that, but I think the BARA CLUB Member folks would see it as stepping on their toes if I'm doing that for a whole $5-15 less than they're paying for an archive of the same. The reading experience would certainly be different (read: worse) on Patreon as compared to BARA CLUB, though - let me know if you think this is an acceptable solution.

TL;DR - SOLUTIONS TO ALL THIS:

OPTION 1 - We keep the system as is, things are fair now.

OPTION 2 - Make a new tier at $12 and reupload every comic page onto Patreon for a less awesome but readable comic binge experience. It will be understood that NO WIPs or designs or previous content will be visible on this tier, since lower tier content cannot be 'automatically' viewable (Patreon's rules, not mine).

OPTION 3 - Make a new tier at $15 with the BARA CLUB password and no print subscription. It will be understood that NO WIPs or designs or previous content will be visible on this tier, since lower tier content cannot be 'automatically' viewable (Patreon's rules, not mine). 

OPTION 4 - Take the print subscription off of the $20 tier and make it the regular BARA CLUB MEMBER tier, and make a $25 'BARA CLUB MEMBER + SUBSCRIPTION' tier, similar to the Canadian and International tiers which also don't have automatic access to the lower tiers. This would be the fair option for the BARA CLUB MEMBER tiers to be on the same page. (Current / past subscribers will still get the print comics I owe them, of course.)

OPTION 5 - Combine options 2 and 3 (or 2 and 4) and make both tiers for Variety and Flavor. Moderately high potential for new patrons to be confused that there are 'two' versions of non-print-subscription archive binging options.

OPTION 6 - Update MEN PLUS MONSTERS Dot Com for free again with 6-pages a week updates, and everyone promises to compensate the artist, and there will still be Patreon exclusives such as pin-ups and NSFW one-shots that will never go on the site. Last time I did this was 4 years ago and I got less than $100/month on Patreon, which I cannot live on, much less make comics for. Would be a dream if it could happen, but people lie about wanting to support and I think it is unfortunately not likely to happen as much as I'd like it to.

OPTION 7 - An in-between of what we have now and Option 6: I update the free site with at least one new page almost every day (or a bunch once a week), and we stay updating several pages ahead here on Patreon. NSFW one-shots and pin-ups are still exclusive to Patreon. Print subscriptions stay on the $20 tier. A new $12 tier for Patreon Archive Binging gets made. A new $15 tier for Bara Club Archive binging (no print subscription) gets made. 

OPTION 8 - ??? Something Else.  Ideas and solutions welcome in the comments below!

Please comment with your suggestions, thoughts, ideas, or anything constructive. I am always willing to listen to what you need {:^>

Thanks and hope you guys have a good time out there today,
🌺⚔️ Aero