Well then, it’s been a long way coming. I have setup a Patreon page for TFT here:
https://www.patreon.com/touchfluffytailorg
So far I have been running the site completely on my own, but I have to concede that we’re getting a little too large for me to fund solo. Note that I will always keep the site running to the best of my possibilities, however some of my decisions turned around to bite me in the arse a little bit.
I am still adamant that I want to keep the site ad-free. I personally hate advertisements and even though a lot of you told me that I should try running ads, I am still not really on board with that. TFT was originally intended to reflect what I like in a site – reasonably easy to use and nothing intrusive, no ads or popups.
Yet even with the pretty solid hosting package I am paying for which is enough to keep small to medium companies up and running, we’re kinda hammering the hosting a little bit. The reason for that is this:
So the bottomline is, this is amazing. We’re still somehow managing to grow and I think it might even go beyond that.
Now the Patreon comes into play. The Patreon will allow me to upgrade the servers even further if necessary (and to be honest, the hoster could actually poke me any month now if they get fed up with it) and also it will finally allow me to fund events and tournaments again, which is something that we dropped almost completely in the last year but that’s a bloody shame.
If you have some spare cash around and want to throw it at this site, by all means. I am grateful for anyone who wants to support the community. If you cannot afford it, please don’t. I am happy if you enjoy using the site, reading or scraping the galleries for pictures that would make your grandma scratch you off the inheritance.
Thanks for being awesome,
SnowDrakE
*Throws $5 at the screen*
And I’ll keep it coming.
About how much would be a recommended amount?
Recommended? Anything. 2$ is perfectly fine if you can spare them. I will say again, the servers won’t go down if you don’t donate, so only do it if you really want to.
This site has become the HQ/Home Base of western monster-girl fandom, and as always, at some point it takes cash to keep things we love alive.
corporate and state censorship are constantly taking potshots at any kind of entertainment related to sex – their overreach frequently either kills projects like this, or ends up bringing down a hammer of item-by-item censorship.
monster-girls are a concept that include several unfavorable topics today – underage and non-consensual sex to start with. That makes sites hosting related materials a potential target for over-zealous activists and even law authorities – if the site has to start relying on ads to keep itself running, it will make it significantly more vulnerable to such events in the long run.
So to the rest of the fans here, a reminder – if you can, support this site and whatever other stuff you like with more than just words, because unpaid volunteer efforts can only go so far, especially when trouble starts.
also, to the admin – i currently don’t know of other alternatives to Patreon for receiving semi-anonymous crowdfunding.
Last year Patreon seems to have become uncomfortable with their status as the go to platform for funding of initiatives to produce sexual materials. They have updated and started harder enforcing of their policy regarding sexual materials.
So take care to step carefully around that, maybe keep any art you post on Patreon to pg-13 variety etc… because maybe that update to their policies is where it will stop, or maybe this will be like TVTropes fiasco and this is step 1 of new re-branding campaign.