Patreon Update
Transcript:
TL;DR
"So to summarize this update, Let's Plays are uploaded far in advance, but scheduled for release on specific days, but Youtube won't let us show it to our patrons early unless we manually go through each video and flip a switch, which is very tedious work. With some our Let's Play series being long and posted regularly, we hope that it's okay that the early access is left to content like skits, songs, and other creative work. Thank you for your understanding."
"Hey, Everyone. Darby here, with a recent update to our Patreon policy. We have had the Patreon active for a little over a week now, so this video is being released before the initial Patreon charged takes place. Anyway, wehave discovered some issues in the implementation of one of our Patreon benefits, and I'd like the take this time to let you guys know where we are, and to talk with you about how we'll be addressing this issue with as much transparency as I can. I hope you'll belive me when I say that this decision didn't come lightly for our group.
Like any entertainment company, it's our hope to bring as much happiness to our fans as possible, and for those who support us financially, we want to offer special incentives to show them that we appreciate their patronage. We wrote our Patreon Tier rewards with that in mind. In practice, however, one of these rewards has proven overtaxing for an already heavily-worked staff.
That reward is Early Access to all of our videos. Let me preface the rest of my statement by saything that we will be continuing early access for our original content. Songs, skits, vines, etc. will still be available to our patrons a full day before they are released to the public. What will sadly be affected are long-form series videos, like our Let's Plays. To explain why this is, I'll explain a little about how Youtube video uploading works. When you upload a video onto Youtube, you have the option to choose between 4 status settings for your video: Public, Unlisted, Private, and Scheduled. Public of course means that the video has been publicized and is available for anyone to see on Youtube. Unlisted means that only people who have access to the video's URL link are able to see the video. Private means that Youtube has not released a URL for the video, and therefore it cannot be seen by anyone who doesn't have access or connection to the Youtube channel. Scheduled is Private but with video release scheduling privilages.
Because of the massive amount of videos that we have to upload for most Let's Plays, we use Youtube's "Schedule" feature to set specific dates and times for the publication of our videos. For example, if I have 30 videos in a Let's Play, I can upload them all to Youtube in a day or two, using the Scheduling feature to automatically publicize each video on a different day, at a specific time each day, effectively automating the release of a video series on a reliable timeframe and reducing work and stress for our staff. The alternative to this method is having each video in a series set to Unlisted, where we could share the video via private link. However, for this to happen, we would essentially have to deautomate the release of long-form series videos creating more work and more stress to our staff. Basically, because Youtube doesn't allow for sharing on Scheduled video, and because series-style videos like Let's Plays need to be Scheduled, this means that Let's video cannot be a part of early access going forward.
We realize that this news might be upsetting, and we understand if it causes any of our supports to decide to stop supporting us, and we wanted to get this message out before anyone was charged on Patreon, so nobody felt like they weren't getting what they paid for. We want you to know that we really appreciate all of your support, but we understand if you decide to unsubscribe. We want you guys to know that we're out here every day trying to make amazing content for you guys to enjoy. But, to do that, we also need to be happy. This doesn't work if we're unhappy doing it. So, we hope you guys can understand where we're coming from, and it's our commitment to quality that's pushed us to be open and honest about this. We want to make the best content we can for you guys, and we appreciate you all whether you decide to continue supporting us or not. It's your enjoyment of our content, your belief in what we do that keeps us motivated, so thank you guys for tuning in."
Credit where credit is due:
A big thank you to h3h3Productions for their brave example in how to genuinely apologize to their fans. Your video really inspired me (Darby) to be as real as I could with this announcement. Keep it up. Proud of you. =)
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