2020 Patreon Changes

Hey everyone,

It's Jackson here. You may have noticed a few sections in recent episodes where we briefly mentioned changes coming to our patreon. I'd like to very briefly go over all the changes we're making and when you should expect this to happen. I'll also be happy to elaborate on why we're making these changes and I'll be happy to answer any questions you may have about the changes as well.

First thing's first, the major change we are adding that you will almost immediately notice is that on the 1st of August we will be locking all tiers apart from our $5 tier. This means that any NEW patron who signs up must do so at the $5 tier. That means that the $1, $15, $50 and $100 tier's will no longer be active tiers. You may remain in these tiers for as long as you want, as you will not be kicked from these tiers automatically, but there will be no rewards associated with them any longer (though those in any tier above $5 will still get the benefits associated with the $5 tier).

The reason as to why we are doing this is because we like the idea of having a singular membership tier that has ALL the rewards for a fair price. Everyone who pledges to support us on patreon will then get a singular set of benefits that we can more easily manage AND the $5 tier itself will get a major value boost. We think it's a perfect price point to drive new patrons and, ultimately, it's a fair price for a weekly podcast show. 

To sum this up, every tier apart from the $5 tier will be locked. All other tier's will remain in locked form, meaning no one else can join, but there will be no benefits assigned to these tiers (though people who still pledge at above the $5 tier will get all the benefits in the $5 tier as well). 

The $5 tier will receive the following benefits: 

- Early Access (listen to main episodes 2 to 3 days before everyone else) 

- Bonus Episodes (listen to our bonus archive of 50+ bonuses, as well as a new bonus episode every fortnight)

- Discord Access (join our Patreon discord and listen to all episodes live as they're recorded)

- Merch Discount (get a new merchandise discount each month between 10% and 25% off)

- Discussion Threads (get access to patreon threads where you can ask questions that we may read on the show)

All of these benefits are pretty self-explanatory, and have already existed in some way or capacity before, apart from the discussion thread. Let me go into that a little bit more, briefly. Hardcore listeners of the show may remember we used to do shoutouts in our episodes, where people could send in messages and we'd read them on the show. We stopped doing that segment a while back because it got tired and old. Distance and time makes the heart grow fonder, however, and we thought that perhaps this would be a good time to explore that idea further while making necessary changes. 

Each month I will be posting a Patron discussion thread where you can ask questions, discuss recent episodes and make suggestions. We will then take two or three comments and discuss them on each episode of the show. There is no guaranttee your question or message will be read on the show but it basically gives you (and us) a place to directly dump your thoughts so that we may source them for the show. 

Those are all the changes coming to the patreon. We hope that this makes the patreon a more active place and adds substantial value to it. We are extremely happy with the current growth and income generated by patreon and we are very thankful for your generous support and, primarily, this is a way for us to mostly add value and de-clutter the confusing nature of having multiple tiers. The only thing that is outright being removed is the $1 tier benefit of having your names in an episode -- but at this point, that benefit is getting too cumbersome to manage with Patreon's annoying interface and the names flying by in each episode at a breakneck pace make it impossible to read. Other than that removal, we're only adding and moving other benefits around. 

Remember, these changes take place on the 1st of August but you will start to see intermittent changes and tests here and there in order to make sure everything goes smoothly. 

That does it for this post. If you have any questions, suggestions, statements or messages to leave me below, I'll be reading every message and will be happy to respond transparently. 

Thanks again for your support, 

Jackson (and the boys)

and yes the cum poster is still available