If you may recall, I opened a poll to my Patreon subscribers last week.
The stakes were very low. Patrons were asked to choose the first ever Casual Ramble sticker. But it was also an ambitious ruse, a devious ploy to absolve myself of the responsibility of making a decision on which of the six sticker options I should go with.
Well, the results have filtered in and they were nothing if not conclusive.
Hey there! Casual Rambler here, just wanting to thank you for reading my blog. I try to avoid marketing myself and I don’t like paywalling content. That’s why most of this website, if not all, is free. However, subscribing to my Patreon helps me keep doing it. Patrons gain exclusive short stories as well as early-access to monthly poetry and photography posts. Thanks again and please enjoy the rest of the site!
Sometimes I forget just how plain silly I am in my ambition. It was silly to think that any one of the six different options would receive a critical mass of votes from six potential voters. But it was still ambitious.
Sample size notwithstanding, the poll has revealed them to be of equal quality and any one of them would be fine as a first run sticker. And even if I reduced the pool of viable candidates to just the four options that received a vote (and yes, all four received ONE single vote) I would just be asking Patreon subscribers to engage in another poll.
So what I’ve decided to do is something far more simple: I’m just gonna print ‘em all. All four of the options that received a vote that is.
I crunched the numbers for how that would work because I want to have plenty of stickers left on retainer without putting the Casual Ramble into bankruptcy. That means I’m going to have to stick to a limited set of each. That also means I can’t send five of each winning option to every patron.
It sucks, but I think I have another option to make up for it. Instead of sending five copies of one to each patron, I will be sending two of each of the vote-receiving submissions to all Patrons who subscribe before April 4, 2025*. For every new subscriber after that date, I will send them a welcome message and free stickers depending on the subscription.
New Caravanserai ($1) or Outstretched Hands ($3) can request one and two particular stickers of their choosing, respectively. New Borboletta ($5) will receive one of each. You can become a Patron here!
There are some infrastructure things to set up, stickers to order and a good night’s sleep to be had after spending all of it looking at spreadsheets and writing blog posts, but I’m absolutely excited; these are the next steps of the Casual Ramble. I hope you will join me.
*Editor’s Note: I should have clarified that I meant paid subscribers. Sorry for any confusion! I apologize to any free members, but the finances are just not there yet!
Thank you to my Patreon subscribers, including Jenny, Michael, Roshi, Zero and Phil for being such patient and supportive persons. Your support makes this enterprise possible and for that I am eternally grateful. If you would like to join our awesome group of Casual Ramblers, click on the button below! Patrons receive exclusive access to quarterly short stories, and early access to my monthly poetry and photography posts.
The Casual Ramble 