Binkov's Newsletter, November 2019

Hi, my dear patron!

Updates from Binkovland! No, it's not a new theme park. Though one, day, who knows... (daydreams about snow-covered workcamps and non-heated tiny barracks for visitors. And Borscht. Lots and lots of Borscht, instead of burgers and fries)

Anyway. First an apology. We had some temporary health related issues preventing us from working, so this newsletter is several days late. 

Still, here's the future release schedule: Tomorrow, on the 22nd of November, we should be releasing a video covering the following topic: What if a US supercarrier got whisked away in 1942, replacing the entire then-year US navy in the process?

While whimsical in idea, the video does cover quite nicely just what carriers need to operate, how they're part of a larger system and what sort of difference does high tech make, when used against opponents decades behind technologically.

Sometime after that video, we will be doing the winner of a Patreon poll. South Korea and Japan duke it out. A classic Binkov video with no outside interference. Just the brawl of two Pacific neighbors.

Sometime by mid-December, we will also release "When and how could Turkey get a nuclear bomb?"  While it may not end up with that same title, the idea remains. The video will cover not only Turkish ambitions but also go a little bit in-depth on what does one need to get a bomb, and how did other countries get their bombs.

On another note - did you notice some of our videos are a bit different, visually? That's because we have two separate people animating videos. So some videos are done by one person, and some are done by another person. It's sort of a research project as well, so we can see what sort of visuals are better for the channel. Perhaps we will conclude we like both and will keep both. Or we will go into a whole new direction. Who knows.

Talking about new directions, we can finally announce what sort of changes will we bring to Patreon rewards. We think it's an improvement over the old rewards, so feel free to comment and tell us what you think.

We will introduce a new tier. $1. Everyone gets to see a special version of a video, which we will host somewhere else, not on YouTube.  The big difference is that we'll be paying for the hosting and thus there will be no ads, whatsoever. That also means that any sort of sponsor's ad burnt-in the YT variant of the video will here be cut out of the video. So - zero ads for Patrons.

We will retain the $2 tier in name but we will move the poll, which is now in the $5 tier, to that lower tier. So more of you will get to participate in the monthly poll. 

The newsletter reward will get split up. the $2 tier will still get the upcoming monthly video schedule in a post. But other news stuff will get distributed when there's a real need for news. And will be announced to every patron, regardless of their tier.

The $5 tier will get to see videos early (again, without ads). So far we've been uploading those 2 days earlier, on average. We hope to increase that to more days but when we'll get enough ready-made videos to be able to operate with such buffer - who knows. It's more of a wish than a promise.

The $12 tier will remain to credit those specific patrons in our videos.

The higher tiers will get deleted and perhaps a single tier will be put in their place. Don't hope for a meaningful reward there, though. It'll be more of a prestige thing. :)

We hope to start implementing those changes sometime in December.

Quick update on the Binkov plushie issue - problems persist. Boxes of plushies are ready, waiting in some warehouse, while we keep getting rejected by Amazon in our tries to set up a store there. 

Well, that's it for now. Please do tell us what you think!

Salutations!