Why, Patreon, why?

I’ve been looking at the stuff that the fandom is making and so far, it definitely looks a little different than a year ago, and I’m seeing patreon logos everywhere.
 
I’m having mixed feelings about the quantity and quality of stuff produced. Things suddenly seem different as all the stuff looks like shallow fap material
 
Anyone feel the same, or… am I looking at clop with a fresh pair of eyes after not dealing with it for ~1.5 months and that it suddenly looks weird now?

I do see what you mean. It’s the only stuff people comment on. It’s not bad art, but it’s all anyone cares about. I have been drawing and uploading stuff recently, and while not the best, is not what people want to see unfortunately :( I’m trying to create a fan comic, but it may as well be a porn fic…

@MegaHerts  
If art is your forte, don’t give up on it. Unless you wish to move one, I won’t protest.  
But you have a unique style that isn’t found in any other artists in this fandom.
 
So…. is there something wrong with your Patreon or something?

@SeraphimDawn  
Oh no, I wasn’t aware of Patreon to be honest. I just felt the same about how there is a lot of random fap material that gets more attention than other art that is just as good.

@MegaHerts  
Just like when you compare video games from the 80s-90s and present.  
When the industry was relatively new, you’ll see a large selection and variety of types of games, companies, and consoles back then than now. Some ideas succeed, others fail. Ideas that fail gets eliminated from the picture while the ones that succeed go on. Eventually, everything is just stabilized to the same few variations of each other and the games are similar to each other. It’s just how the market for things and demands for the type of things standardize over time.
 
It’s like a Darwinist natural selection kind of thing.

@SeraphimDawn  
I don’t have a patreon. The idea is actually worrying because I honestly believe making porn into a major source of income being something that will greatly interfere with what creative freedoms I want to enjoy from my art. I started clop art as artistic freedom for sexual expression. If I want to sell my soul, it would not be for porn; I would rather sell my soul for video games (which I already do with no issue). I am rather opinionated about porn to a point where you can probably consider it political.
 
I honestly believe that if I were to sell my soul to porn via patreon, I sacrifice artistic freedom and flexibility to do new things for doing the same things over and over. It’s what has to be done if you’re gonna do patreon - people must have a reasonable expectation that you will regularly produce content at the quality which you’re known for.

@MegaHerts  
You decide what you want to commit yourself to.  
You can do porn on your own terms and other stuff as your main source of income if you wish. Customers expecting more of such content is the nature of a business.

Patreon is a weird thing. I’m not sure if it’s better for artists or worse, but it certainly does feel different than a year ago.

The thing about Patreon people have to admit, it’s either going to be setup as a tip jar, VIP commissions (sort of) or as a paysite. You can’t “move” all your work to patreon, and expect everyone to pay you for what you already do, content that isn’t even tailored for them specifically, unless you fully aim to become a commercialized business when it comes to art work.
 
Now, there is flexibility with the tip jar thing, and it’s a bit more than that. This is usually when the artist has a clear goal or project in mind. I like this. Like for comic artists or flash animators of whom it takes a lot of time and money to get what they need to do what they do or want to do.
 
Though I’m subbed to an artist friend, but the thing is, he has it setup so it’s X amount of money sent for each thing he uploads, which is only 1 or two things a month. It gets him enough money to pay bills and he posts a nice pinup each time, I can go with that. And the pinup is released just afterwords anyway, it really is just a thing for an artists friends sometime to help out.
 
Otherwise, yeah it’s basically a paysite. Walling off content to a minimum payment amount per month. I dunno I don’t like this. I never did. Pay sites suck, and the idea only works if you’re given a consistent amount of content each month, otherwise, you are getting ripped off.
 
It’s a fickle thing and honestly I’d prefer straight up donations if you want to help an artist out, or anyone.

The percentage of shallow fap-material has always been pretty high. But the biggest problem is the total saturation. The ecosystem can only support a certain number of patreon accounts and “pay what you want” art packs.