thedroneracingengineer
patreon
Special offers for patrons
🕑 Added 2016-08-14 22:27:13 +0000 UTC f you look at any guide to "how to do Patreon", you'll see instructions to make special offers and tiers of membership open to your patrons. That approach doesn't really appeal to me. For one thing, I'm just not a fan of the whole "first class / second class" approach where people who pay more get more access or special privileges. My goal has always been to help as many people as possible enjoy this great hobby by teaching people how to solve the problems that might be getting in the way of their enjoyment. (Hey... that's actually a decent mission statement. Somebody write that down.) I want to make as much information as possible available to as many people as possible, not just people who pay. My reward is, first and foremost, knowing that I am making the world a happier, funner place in some small way, by helping people enjoy this hobby. The money is nice... don't get me wrong.I do think my content has value, and I appreciate SO MUCH those of you who agree, and who choose to support me financially. I think of your support as you deciding to pay me for something I have already done (helped you or entertained you with my videos) rather than as you buying additional services or content from me. I hope that you think of it that way too, and from conversations I've had with you, I think you do. I hope that most of my patrons feel that they get far more value from my channel than the money they put in. If you ever DON'T feel that way, I encourage you to reduce your subscription amount or cancel your subscription entirely--no hard feelings, really.
But let's be straight for a minute... most people COULD decide to become a Patron, and most people don't, and y'all DID, and that means something too. So I am always trying to think of ways to express my appreciation to you, without violating the values I've discussed so far. And I think I have come up with two of them that you are going to like.
First, I am creating a DRE Patrons Slack board. All Patrons are invited to join this board. If you don't know, Slack is a messaging app for businesses. Basically, it is like a private, invitation-only chat room (people who used IRC back in the day, please commence eye rolling). I am accessible to most anybody on the Internet via many different mediums (email, YouTube comments, FB messenger, etc...) and honestly, it can get a little hard to keep up with who is talking to me where. I hope that the Slack room will give you a place to interact with me more directly. And when the message comes in, I will immediately know it is coming from a Patron, and be able to pay just that little bit more attention if I am able. For example, I almost never do one-off Blackbox Log Analysis any more, because my queue on the RCgroups thread is so long I don't feel it's fair to cut the line. But for a Patron with a quick question, perhaps I would make an exception.
Second, I want to invite those of you who are interested to act as a sort of "inner circle" of testers for me. I sometimes get products that I am not able to test for some reason, or that I simply don't want to do a full test on. For example, I might get a frame, but not have enough other parts to fully build it out. Or I might get a product that simply doesn't appeal to me. In these cases, I would like to offer them to you on the condition that you will use them and give me feedback that I can use to make my review of the product better and more complete.
At least at first, I am going to make the "tester" circle available only to those who Patronize at the $5 level or higher. I realize that by doing this, I am flirting with the "first class / second class" situation that I want to avoid, but I hope that it will be okay. I am not setting this up as a "tier" on my Patreon account. I don't want you to sub at the $5 level because you want free stuff. Honestly, that would be a mistake, because this won't happen very often! But for those of you who have decided to sub at a higher level, I want to find a small additional way of saying thanks to you. I hope that you will think of this as an opportunity for us to work closer together to create more great content that helps others out, and not just as a chance to get Free Stuff.
Please let me know what you think of this in the comments. I'm still new to this whole "Running a Social Media Presence" thing, so I really have no idea if I'm making a big mistake. But as my Patrons, I hope you're the ones that will forgive me a mistake here or there, if I make one.
If you are interested in joining the Slack board, please comment below with your email address. I have to manually send you an invite; I can't just batch add you from your email address on file. Well actually, I could, but I don't want to spam you if you're not interested.
Happy Flying!
Comments
Lpabmendez@gmail.com
Slack invite please
Slack me please ;) robert.bailey@atomicpeach.com
Hi I like to check out the slack board sounds cool there's times when I wish I could get in touch with you lately couple builds I was doing I don't even remember what it was but maybe possible now
please send me Slack invitation, daniel.makra@gmail.com
Robert Craig Quillen
please add me to the slack board, craig@thequillens.com
Happy to support you, Joshua! shersan71@icloud.com
Yes please add me frank@wcs-e2.com
Slack! onerok@gmail.com
I would like to be involved as well. davidmac81@gmail.com
Zoran
I'm in: z.ziraldo@gmail.com
Count me in :) sietse_13@hotmail.com
Great idea! grano.filip@gmail.com
So long as there are clear expectations, I think having some people help with testing products/firmware/anything you don't have time for is a great way to get more information out there. Also I do not expect any special attention or faster responses to any of my questions. Add me to the slack group Mattbrozyna@gmail.com
I like it! Please add my phoenixFpv@gmail.com to Slack
Please add xoaster@gmail.com
I appreciate your wish to keep giving your attention to the community without biasing towards higher-stakes individuals, or at least defining higher stakes by an amount that they pay you. You're right that I (we?) don't feel that you're in it for that. You mention that you're going to make the tester circle available only to >= $5 patrons. Since you asked feedback here's mine: saying "all patrons are equal, but some patrons are more equal than others" (I'm sure I'm paraphrasing some significant book) may be slippery slope if you truly value the equal treatment of all in the community. Having said that: I won't hold it against you in the least. Just sharing my opinion.
Slack, please: johnnyjo@gmail.com
diehertz@gmail.com
Slack invite please: dustin@fivetechnology.com
Daryoon
Cool, slack group... daryoonone@gmail.com
Hayden de Dulin
hayden.dedulin@gmail.com Slack please
Carlos Martinez
Add me to the slack... txfieros@gmail.com You touched on testing various things and such....it's funny because just the other day I was thinking...man, I bet he is really busy with everything, I wouldn't mind helping out with exactly what you detailed; information, testing, etc.
Please send me an invite for Slack, and thanks for all you've done for the hobby. I really appreciate the technical deep-dives that you do so well. lillyste@yahoo.com
Dean Larson
Add deanlarson@gmail.com to the slack invite list. Add me to the list of testers if needed.
I'm game: danrhartley@icloud.com
Paul G
Great idea for Slack: gibsonpa2001@gmail.com
Marek
Yay, slack! Sign me right in: necloveksk@gmail.com !
Count me in on the slack: marcin@marcin.ca
Sounds good, let's give that a try Lpabmendez@gmail.com
Count me in for slack Josh. (bud_2121@yahoo.com). And I would love to help you test products....ill help you out any way I can to help prolong the enjoyment of this hobby. Thanks a lot Josh and keep doing what u do.
Definitely in for slack. Already using it too. bgfireguy92@gmail.com And I would love to help out with testing some stuff and providing feedback. Count me in!
I SLACK therefore I am. Great idea!
Damion Gundlach
I think you are currently the most helpful resource (and person) out there, at least from my point of view. The engineering side of this hobby continues to enthrall me and I really identify with the way you approach it all. I think having a little bit extra access to interacting with you is fantastic! I would try to use it sparingly so it hopefully doesn't become overwhelming for you. My email for an invite is xorvious at gmail, and again, thanks for all that you do!
I think it's a good idea josh. I only contribute a little I'm afraid as that's all I can justify to the Mrs to 'give away' as she puts it, so I'm not in this for free stuff (but always happy to help if you need it) but rather having another outlet to pick your brains if I need to is my motivation for signing up! Please feel free to send me an invite at your discretion. Miniquadracing@hotmail.com Cheers fella!
I'm definitely in for being a slacker,,, devin4922@gmail.com
I'm interested in the slack channel. I love slack. My email address is: tfogarty@gmail.com Thanks!
