BoLS IS NOW ON PATREON!!!

Hey Belfry!

We're rolling out some of the changes we've told you about recently, which is really exciting for us! We're moving over into the Patreon space, so we can offer bonus videos and extra content to you all. We're hoping to expedite the process of funding a new camera to replace the ****ty third camera of DOOOOOM, as well as some special effects and video stuff.

We'll be launching the Creator page in the next day or so, rolling out goals, donation tiers, benefits, etc. Take a look at the page, and feel free to become a Patron if you're interested in that!

As always, there's never a requirement to contribute, but we appreciate every single cent you choose to donate.

[url]https://www.patreon.com/belloflostsouls[/url]



Best,

Jenn
"Mayhems_Muse"
Video Producer and Community Manager, BoLS

So how does Patreon support stack with Twitch support? Will the bonus Patreon content and etc be exclusive to Patreon supporters?

I mean, I'd like to support the stuff you guys put out in every way I can (because I think it's great), but my subscription level on twitch is about my limit. Do I have to drop my level of twitch support (and lose my Chaos Lordship, boooooo) to throw some money at Patreon?

(also should mention I'd like the support I give you guys to actually get to you and not be eaten up by middlemen. If it turns out that a $5 sub on twitch, just to keep it active, and $20 via Patreon gives you more, then so be it.)

We were discussing that exact thing. As I understand, we get a bigger cut of Patreon stuff than we do from Twitch.

Patreon supporters are gonna get actual BoLS swag, once we get that up and running: Dice, mugs, t-shirts, tape measures, etc. Twitch supporters will get the emotes and if/when we get subscribers streams going again.

The general overall concept is Patreon will go towards our YouTube edited content while Twitch will go to our stream stuff. So if you want more edited content, use patreon. If you want more better streaming stuff, go with Twitch. If you want to support us as an entire entity, probably use patreon since I think we keep a bigger cut of that. Doing both seems redundant (but we won't stop you if you wanted to......)

If it helps, I know we were discussing having the higher level of Patreon supporters also getting Chaos Lord status with rerolls and all.

Just a bit of my 2c here, is there any way a 'total' contribution can be taken into account?

What I mean is this; (boring story time incoming) When I first started with twitch - which was with the BOLS channel, not-so-coincidentally, I was under the impression that bit-donations counted as much as a subscription when it came to levels of support.

There I was, I was happily subbed at the $5 level and making bit donations for 'the rest', so to speak. So I was a little surprised at the time (and taken aback) when the emotes were added and I could only use the lowest one - having, at that time, contributed well over $25 that month, counting the subscription level and bit donations.

I then made the mistake of wondering aloud why that was while my wife was in the room, and the long and the short of it now is that [URL="https://78.media.tumblr.com/6b61065e3a49173807419b6403ff94c2/tumblr_ojawgim8px1ue779no1_r2_400.gif"]I deftly negotiated[/URL] my subscription to be the higher one while being expressly forbidden from making bit-donations (unless it's a special occasion :D). It also means, over the long term, I've actually contributed less money than I planned, if sub and bit-donations were added. :(

The point is, I wouldn't like to see people think they're doing their bit to support the channel and content etc, but end up losing out on a reward or whatever because they chose to fling money at you in the 'wrong' way.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Icendar

is there any way a 'total' contribution can be taken into account?

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Not a terrible idea. We'll discuss it, I guess. It's certainly not my call, nor really any one of us's. We'll try to come up with something clever for that tho.

About the bit donations + subscription stuff. Also not a terrible idea. We can't grant emotes for bit donations. We physically don't have that capability. That's a fully Twitch controlled element.
We could grant Chaos Lord rerolls and perhaps some other fun chat interaction stuff. We're actively working on getting some stream element stuff up and running. I'm pretty sure that will grant us the capability to better track everyone's donations + subscriptions + bees, potentially into one overall score or whatever. If that goes as smoothly as I hope it will, granting whatever sort of bonuses for people who donate often will become much easier for us and for you guys. And don't think I'm being dismissive on the "definitely totally actively working on that". We got this new software addon last night and I was supposed to go in today to play around with it. But I forgot and didn't lol. oops.

But overall, yeah, we do want to reward or whatever people who support us the most. Some point we'll have a sit down and figure out the best way to do that.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Icendar

So how does Patreon support stack with Twitch support? Will the bonus Patreon content and etc be exclusive to Patreon supporters?

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We've struggled with this issue any time we've talked about any time of subscriptions/donation. Like Matt said it is something we are working on. We'd hate for our supporters who keep us going to feel left out or unsure how best to be involved. And we really want to make sure our people get the value out of their gifts so I totally understand where you are coming from.

One of the issues we run into is that we put out content on a number of platforms and few of them have overlapping infrastructure to support keeping track of stuff across all of them. We also always have to think about building for scale.

While its pretty simple to keep track of a small group "Icendar gave X in subs, X in bits, and X on Patreon and that = Y level. Dax gave x in subs, etc.." its gets a lot harder when you try to build something to support hundreds of people giving in multiple formats (and maybe going by different names on different platforms).

Anyway, its something we are working on streamlining and getting worked out. You guys are important to us, and we want to make sure you taken care of.

For now, I would like to make Patreon perks available to people subbing on Twitch as well. My personal opinion. If you have a choice though of donating either on patreon OR Twitch, it's better for US if you donate on Patreon, because we get 95% of all donations there, versus I think 50% of donations on Twitch. So, of your $24.99 donation, we only see $12 come to us each month.

I don't mind keeping track of the list of people who donate on Twitch, and forwarding them the links for our perks like videos and newsletters. That's an easy enough list to compile and keep track of. No issue there.

I'm also ok with keeping track of people who donate to Patreon, and allowing them to have their Chaos Lord rerolls on Twitch as well. That's easy enough for me to do with a post-it.

I hate that you see so little of people's donations through Twitch. That and the seeming disdain Twitch has for dealing with technical issues and whatnot.

Patreon is definitely going to be the way to go for me, assuming that what Jenn said is the final word on how it's going to work.

Edit: Well, I'm all in on Patreon now. It cost me, but I was able to get the $50 support level there. Hooray!

Let it be written!!!

Thanks Icendar.

In general Twitch is a real uphill struggle for everyone who isn't an UBER channel with tens of thousands of followers and thousands of subscribers.

Patreon basically ensure that only a small fee is removes from what the creator's get. Twitch takes half of all subs, donation and lets channels share in half the ads only after they become partners.

There is also no technical automatic way to "link" Patreon and Twitch accounts, so we are working on finding tiers and costs that flow into each other and ways we caneasily track stuff so our Patreon supports also get special treatment when we are streaming.

Mars and Jenn are heading this up, so we have more news shortly.

Lots of updates and big things happening here at BoLS HQ - more news coming soon.

-Larry

Looks like I have another doc appointment this arvo, but I just wanted to share that I signed up to support you guys on Patreon :D The bad news is, I guess, that I stopped my Twitch sub but, as you've all said, that doesn't seem to be all that much of a loss.

What's more, I convinced my wife (who really is the best) to do the "proper" Patreon amount, even if we had to juggle some stuff around. Hooray! Anyway, have a great show today and I hope (damn being ill... I hate it all the time) to see you tomorrow.

You da best Icendar. Hope you feel better real quick!