[Raion]

Hello everyone,

I'm currently gearing up for VCF East (virtual) but I wanted to briefly take an aside and talk about the patreon!

We have introduced 4 tiers, which are all-inclusive (meaning you only need to buy the top tier you want to get all the perks!)

https://www.patreon.com/irixnetorg

Because of their recurring nature, I can't currently accept Paypal as a substitute to buy in (I'm sorry) due to Paypal's restrictions on personal accounts. We'll find another method if you guys have any major suggestions. 

I'll let DefaultRouteUK elaborate on options, but we've already spun many of these up, and those that aren't are easy to manage. 

I want to be clear that the community at large, not just contributors, are valued and important to the staff here. We are not looking to paywall content, but we are a group that relies on the unpaid services of volunteers (chiefly me, Kaigan, DefaultRouteUK, Dodoid and Axatax) to continue to offer our wide arrays of services. Thankfully, I do have enough money to keep us going for years at this point, but we do need to grow. We need to expand, and increase our "rank" so to speak.  I want to eventually be able to hire devs and pay them a stipend for Nekoware II. I want to be able to create projects of considerable production quality. 

I think we've demonstrated anything in the community is possible. Therefore, I also want to ensure we have value-added services for this. 

I hope that those who find these services useful will at least discuss this below! I enjoy having everyone here, and I've preferred how we've done this year by comparison. Things are getting better and can only go up from here.