This is something of a milestone moment for Lost in Anime, so I wanted to take a few moments to share my thoughts on why it’s happening.
As anyone who followed the most recent fundraising campaign knows, it wasn’t as successful as I’d hoped. In the challenging environment LiA is operating in, it certainly achieved results, and I’m incredibly grateful (as always) to everyone who supports the site. But each successive campaign is more difficult. I’m always trying to expand my user base but that’s a damn hard thing to do. As such, I needed to do something both to more meaningfully reward LiA supporters and encourage more reader/viewers (and the YouTube page is a big part of the brand now) to become one. At the same time, I don’t want this to be a gated community and I dislike paywalls on a visceral level.
I’ve given a great deal of thought about how to reconcile those two seemingly contrary (but in fact not contrary at all) imperatives. What I’ve decided is this: I’m going to make certain content available to supporters first, for an exclusive window. How long that window will be is subject to experimentation and the manner of the content, but I’m envisioning a range from three days to a week. As for what content, we’re talking about “special” posts – commissioned LiA Bespoke articles, season previews and check-ins, and the like. For now episodic posts won’t be part of the trial, and I really would prefer to keep it that way. But again, this is a work in progress and I’ll adjust on the fly as events warrant.
As to access, I’m not going to do anything fancy – the content will be in the form of password-protected posts on the front page. Monthly subscribers (Patreon, Ko-fi, and PayPal) as well as one-time donors of $25 or more in the past six months will be eligible. I’ll DM the password to the Patreon and Ko-fi folks and email it to the PayPal supporters. If you’re part of one of those groups and don’t get a notification when you see a Patron Preview post, please let me know – I’ll try hard not to overlook anybody but mistakes can happen.
Once more, my sincere thanks to everyone who reads and watches, comments, and supports LiA financially. This initiative is part of the larger effort to try and keep LiA viable, and at the same time keep the LiA user experience as available and consistent as possible. As always your feedback and suggestions are greatly appreciated – I have several other options I’m researching, including an LiA Substack and an LiA Discord server, so if you have ideas please share them. And once more, my sincerest gratitude to everyone in the LiA community.
Stay frosty,
Enzo
The post Patron Previews – An Introduction (and an Explanation) appeared first on Lost in Anime.
