DELTA GREEN PATREON SHIFTING SLOWLY FROM PATREON TO GHOST.IO

Crowdfunding has always been a strange beast. And when you marry that concept with tech (like Patreon), it requires careful consideration of the rising and falling of the market, the ongoing costs, the technical risks, as well as a million other things on a day to day basis. It is a lot to manage.

The truth is this, though it has served me well for almost a decade, Patreon has twice in as many years completely disrupted my business model with random corporate choices for which they took no responsibility, all the while taking more and more of the money my art earns. In other words, they've made my job more difficult for less money and have blamed others for their choices. I have zero doubt they will do it again, at increasing intervals, to goose their numbers for an acquisition.

I have years of experience in tech, and especially SF tech, and I can see the writing on the wall, there. Patreon are likely nearing the end of their investment runway (10 rounds of funding), and are almost certainly lining themselves up for sale. That alone dooms that platform. It will almost certainly not survive such a purchase. At least not in any useful form.

So my plan is this: over the next four months, I will migrate the Delta Green Patreon page over to Ghost.io; a much more reasonably priced crowdfunding service, which is, in a lot of ways, more creator-centric and creator-controllable than Patreon (and whose company is in much earlier funding stages). I will keep the Patreon running and in sync with the Ghost.io platform for as long as is needed, but keep in mind: Patreon is requiring all patrons to switch from per post payments to per month payments.

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN TO PATREON CONTRIBUTORS?

• PATREON WILL CONTINUE: I will continue to run the Patreon and will update it just as much as before. I am forced however, to switch over to the monthly fee by November (as opposed to the current structure, which is per post payment). Likewise, you will be forced to do so as well — I will update the Patreon when and how to do this. Since the current Delta Green Patreon minimum cost is $1, and I post 6 times a month (for a total of $6), the monthly fee will be a one-time $6 a month charge (the same). Of course, if you want to contribute more...please do!

• GHOST.IO IS LIVE: I am currently porting the content from the Delta Green Patreon over to the Delta Green Ghost.io site. I have all of 2024 over there already and will soon have all of it. You can go there and sign up now for the same price ($6 a month, though they offer a discount if you sign up yearly). There is also a $15 per month tier — to cover those high-rollers that have spent such things in the past (you know who you are).

• WHEN YOU FEEL COMFORTABLE, MOVE FROM PATREON TO GHOST.IO: By November, please consider switching over to the Delta Green Ghost.io site, but either way, you will be forced (by Patreon, not me) to switch over to a monthly fee on Patreon. I'd prefer to have everyone under one roof at Ghost.io (it would make my job easier). But I'll maintain the Patreon as long as any significant count of contributors are there.

• WHAT YOUR MOVING TO GHOST.IO MEANS TO ME: It means a lot of things really, but the most important is this: Patreon will not be taking a huge chunk of the money you are kind enough to pay me for my art, and Ghost.io's fees are a fraction of what Patreon requires (and keep increasing).