A Much Needed Kyle/Patreon Update...
Hey folks,
I'm sorry for not posting some kind of update sooner. I've been meaning to make a post here for a while. It can be difficult to do these updates under the best of circumstances, but it's especially hard when there just isn't that much to update you on, or when it's any news other than "I've just got 97% of the hull done in 6 hours."
More House Work
Despite my hope to jump back into substantial structural work after organizing THG's research, I ended up getting diverted [again] to more house work.
You may recall I was left with a great hoard of stuff after my father's passing over a year ago, as well as an apartment that was in dire need of work. Last year involved going through and organizing a massive amount of junk, throwing things out, cleaning, etc. That work took months but was never fully done, just paused while I worked on THG for a while. This latest work involved going through an entire room full of all kinds of things - largely toy trains - that I had not touched in all this time. After that, I started fixing up the space - cleaning, painting, repairs, redecorating, etc. Consequently, I have not gotten as much done here as I would have liked.
I am, unfortunately, the sort of person who gets into one track or another and stays there until I either finish the task or get sick of it. Sometimes it's because I just get the motivation and HAVE to do it, either because that motivation is overwhelming or because a given task may never get done otherwise. That's happened with plenty of things from THG itself, to the Gantry, to 401 and other past projects, and that is certainly true of all this house work. And the fact is I need to get my environment in order before I can be happy and focus as much as possible on THG. It's always been difficult for me to balance work/life as well as managing time/tasks - working on THG has pretty much always meant getting nothing done elsewhere in my life, which is a problem when there's just so much to do (don't look at my kitchen sink).
On the plus side, the worst of the house work - going through literally a hundred+ boxes, thousands of papers, etc. - should be over. Work on that room and a few other tasks around the house should also be nearly done, maybe in another couple of weeks. The rest of the house will need more work (painting, repairs, cleaning mostly), more periods of downtime for me, but I will leave that for a bit later on so I can get more done here.
I look forward to the day I am no longer burdened by the seemingly endless list of tasks I keep telling myself I have to do around here. But I do need to do those tasks when I feel up to them, or else they may never get done - even if that means getting sidetracked from THG again. I understand the frustration that brings given the one-man approach to the structural model, but it is what it is.
But enough about that.
ETC
You probably saw Derek's "recent" update (check it out if you haven't) and that our own James Penca has been on the Dino Chouest for RMS Titanic, Inc's latest expedition. I'll leave it to RMST and James to talk about that more when the time comes. Between my thing, Derek's thing (a wince-worthy injury and subsequent day-job catch-up), and James' job with RMST and the expedition that has only just wrapped up after nearly a month, this has sadly been another one of our famous THG slow periods that have often plagued this project. It doesn't help that our slow periods are also the worst when it comes to updates.
I really am sorry for that, and can only say that I hope all our stars align soon enough. Believe me, I'd love nothing more than to get this current house work finished and just have whole days where I can sit down and work on THG and not have to worry about all that other stuff.
Patreon Changes
In other news, and at the risk of burying the lede: We will be making some changes to our Patreon, rewards, and how you guys are able to communicate with us/the team. This will be discussed more in-depth in a separate post I need to make ASAP after this, but the gist is this...
We have hyperfocused on keeping our Officers happy while largely failing to do so with the rest of our Patrons. Our Officers are cool folks, but they aren't the only ones supporting us.
The Officers have their own Discord server, and that has unfortunately caused a massive imbalance in how much info the rest of you get. Officers regularly hear from us, but the rest of you have no idea what's happening much of the time, even the other higher tiers. That's a huge problem.
We have not done enough to keep our Patrons in general - the people financially supporting our work and us - in the loop on THG goings-on.
We have not done enough to create a community for our Patrons.
Our rewards really need work to make them less confusing and more worthwhile.
Our tier selection is slightly bloated.
In the next post, I will go over - as briefly as I can - what we intend to do about all that.
Thank you for your patience, and I'll see you in the next post in the next day or two...
Comments (17)
From twitter looks like you are busy building lego and making a dedicated lego room instead of cleaning the house
Sorry for your loss, Kyle. Thank you for an update and, just like everyone saying, stay strong.
Thanks for the update and honesty. I believe in you guys and this amazing project. Sending best wishes and I'm continuing my support...
Stay strong. I love what you do.
Wow, im so sorry for your loss, my grandpa died earlier this year, and while i didn't know him much it still hurt, i can only imagine what you're going through, stay strong!
We don't know each other, but any individual with many responsibilities will understand your feelings. Look at your magnificent THG project from an outside perspective like mine and you will realize the work and the invaluable tribute you have paid to the Titanic. Don't listen to the amateurs, the dissatisfied!I was 10 years old when I discovered the Titanic, I am 36. Thanks to THG I can explore this liner whenever I want, do research, move forward with my modeling projects and above all find myself with myself. If I had a magic wand, like other dreamers I would make up for what you lack, but life is otherwise. I am only a grain of sand in the contribution, I can only encourage you and thank you once again!
Other than the few things you pointed out regarding Patreon, You guys really are doing amazing work. Slow or not. Thank you for all you do. Also, do any current demo modes support VR? I know that was available at first but it seems like it isn't available anymore? Thanks again.
Kyle, I'm so sorry for your loss. Hopefully you have some great memories and that, while difficult, the work you've been doing has reminded you of some of those! Take care of yourself. We'll keep the faith! This is a massive undertaking and it will be worth it, but will take a long time to pull off. You guys work very hard and it's not always easy to see, but it's there.
Thanks! Absolutely, I've found tons of great stuff in those boxes. He was a bit of a photographer, so lots of photos I had never seen before, as well as interesting papers and all that. I think most families just toss the boxes of stuff left by loved ones into the trash, but I wanted to take a more thorough approach and make sure I went through everything, and photographed many of the records I did discard. It was very time-consuming, but it meant being able to move on to other things that needed doing. And we sure that faith can be repaid many fold - this isn't the first time we've had slow periods and communication lapses, but it doesn't get any easier when it happens.
I have stopped my patreon because of the lack of communication. I have been with this project since the beginning and it seems like a waste of money to me for a project that doesn’t look like it has an end in sight. I gave up once before but came back and joined patreon because THG apologized and said they will do better. It’s now back to the same void. Sorry but fool me twice ….
when y only have a handfull of people who can do all the magic ... i was afraid another set-back might happen, well it is what it is - we are used to slow progess over the years, but there is still progress and i hope P401 will be out on steam soon to get the attention it deserves.
I hope everything gets fixed up. I was still waiting for my 3D printed perks, etc. I have never received a response on this issue no matter where I tried to write; and the email doesn't work on the website either.
Hi, I'm sorry you've been having trouble getting into contact with us. This seems to keep happening no matter how much we try to fix the site. It's annoying, and it seems messages easily get missed elsewhere. All the more reason to bring in someone to handle these things. At any rate, I'll forward this to Matt and see what's up. It may be that the perks just haven't shipped yet (12 months is the minimum time, but it may take months after that before they ship) or something else.
For me, I would rather see work on the project rather than worrying about Patreon rewards and the items mentioned at the end. I think (if the officers were OK with it) I think one discord server is a good idea to help unify the supporters. I'd also consider ways to open up some of the project work or administrative tasks to qualified volunteers?
The Patreon reworking is small beans compared to everything else. The server is already ready and the details worked out, Matt just needs to make a few changes here and then it's done. That is part of the goal of the new server: To unify Patrons. We've slowly been trying to bring people on for volunteer modeling work, but that's been kinda slow while the fine object reference archive is being put together and James is busy. We have been considering someone to handle other tasks, especially for handling socials, community things, Patreon in general, and perhaps some admin. We're all doing our things and so some stuff just gets dropped.
Is P401 still happening or even close to release? I love what you’ve all done but I’m losing faith again, it seems like it’s been all quiet on the P401 front for quite some time. If work has stopped I’m happy with what we have available but it would be nice to know the status. I’m sorry for your loss, I lost my dad a year ago and still not fully recovered. Take it easy and remember the good times you had with him, I hope you get the things accomplished you need to.
Project 401 is still happening. It's not really close to release yet. Derek suffered some injury on his organ-repair job back in late May. I won't go into details here. Sufficed to say, try not to fall the better part of 10 feet onto a bunch of organ pipes. He needed time to recover after that, and then to play catch-up on the massive amount of work he missed on that day job. I believe he's more or less out of that pit now, but it definitely meant another delay in P401 work. And thanks. It's been over a year for me too since it happened. At this point I'm just looking forward to getting all this other stuff done.