We Need To Talk - Diamond Tier

Hey Billy, we need to talk.

Diamond Tier has always been a bit of a stresser for us. It's a tier that we launched a while back because we already would record pretty far ahead of silver tier since silver tier had a schedule. The $25 tier was a support tier that already existed and a handful of people we're on it.

We decided why not reward these members with the video's we already have scheduled and just make it a bonus for those who want to show extra support. We figured why not offer this, if we're clear and up front that there is no schedule and things just release as they are finished it should be obvious what the tier is and let's be realistic, not many people will join. After all $25 is a lot of money and people like having a schedule, right?

Well we were half right. People like consistency and people like a schedule. This much has been extremely clear through our exit surveys, discussions within the discord, comments, etc..

What we didn't anticipate was the support for Diamond tier. This tier has been more successful then we ever could have imagined and unfortunately with that, comes expectations.

Even with Diamond tier very clearly stating that there is no schedule and us doing our best to reiterate this in YouTube community posts, Patreon posts, Discord announcements, comments, videos, channel updates, our ads for the membership and even the video that auto plays when you try to join our membership something clearly wasn't clicking.

We honestly could not tell you the last time a week has gone by without there being confusion around Diamond tier.

Now this is something we have discussed countless times since the launch of Diamond Tier but unfortunately these last few weeks have been a really big eye opener for us. With Diamond tier being what it is and not having a schedule that means if someone on the team is sick, out of town, on vacation or has any kind of emergency it isn't possible to record those videos.

Without any kind of schedule or created buffer that of course results in instances like this past few weeks where a handful of videos can't release as they can't be recorded and therefore edited/uploaded.

Sadly we can't help getting sick. We're only human after all and seeing some of the things people say and accuse us of because we "missed" something that was never promised to begin with has finally taken a serious toll on all of us.

That being said we are going to be overhauling Diamond Tier. Building a buffer that can handle situations like this past few weeks with Bree getting sick, our daughter getting pink eye and then me getting covid and being bed ridden for almost a week is going to take time. Because of that we're going to work on building up this buffer and schedule during the rest of the month of October.

You will continue to get the videos you have come to expect throughout the month of October and once November hits Diamond will officially be on a schedule. Now I can't say for certain what this means exactly as we need these next few weeks of October to finalize this. What I can say is we will ensure that it is on par with what you have come to expect from Diamond, on average anywhere from 2-3+ weeks ahead of Sillver/Gold membership.

The only difference will be consistency. You will know what days videos release and they will release on that day as you have come to expect. You just won’t get large bulk drops of say 3 videos then none of that specific series for x amount of weeks. You can expect a video for what you want, every single week, Our silver and Gold members know that we have pretty much NEVER missed a scheduled post. This will become the norm for Diamond. We think you all will be happy with this decision and we believe it will reduce the stress for us and the frustration for you. Thank you for your time and thank you for your understanding.

- The Sorta Stupid Team