TFBTV Updates

I have a lot of updates for you with what’s happening at TFBtv, including this Patreon nonsense. Let’s start with some great news. By the way, if you are reading this on Patreon DMs, I can’t post pictures, so you’ll have to head to SubStar (I made it a public post) to see the full post with pics. 

OK gents, keep it together, but I have a new manager at TFBtv and she’s going to help me out with responding to messages/DMs/and handling giveaways. You all may remember Kelsey from the “Are Single Stack Guns Obsolete?” and the Mossberg Maverick 88 Burndown vids (linked below):

Thus, you all may already be a little familiar with her, but I thought I’d ask her to answer 10 questions so you’d get to know her better, since she will be running shit around here. Without further ado:

1. Describe yourself in one sentence.                      

oof. A humble b*tch who is part wild child, part old man’s soul in lady’s body, and is usually the most positive person in the room.

2. How did you get involved with TFBTV?               

I started working at St. Bernard Indoor Shooting Center and got to hop in a few videos. Now here we are.

3. What’s your favorite gun, and why?              

A classic pump action shotgun, like a Remington 870 or something, nothing fancy. Only because I have the most fun shooting clays.

4. What’s your favorite book and/or movie, why?                                                                      

Book: Emotional Intelligence 2.0, about self-awareness and utilizing its powers, because I think too many people lack self-awareness.                                           

Movie: the entire Harry Potter series…Huge nerd.
 
5. What’re your favorite alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks?                                                  

Ain’t nothin’ like a cheap bottle of Moscato. RedBull and/or canned Brisk Tea...never the bottled.

6. The Zombie Apocalypse is coming and you have to make a 4 person team including yourself. Who are the other 3 you enlist and why?                                            

First up, Keanu Reeves because it’s Keanu Reeves. The bonus with him is that at some point we have to add to the population again… 

Second, Steve Rinella because I want to be west when the apocalypse happens and we need a hunter/gatherer. 

Third one would be Joe Rogan because I just think he’d bring the right morale to the occasion.
 
7. You are on death row. a) What did you do to get there? b) what’s your last meal?

Wrong place wrong time, OR guilty by association because I’m innocent. If I did it I’m not getting caught. Last meal request would be a “one of everything” from the McDonalds menu. Before I pass through the golden gates up there I have to say goodbye to my favorite Golden Arches down here.
 
8. You were a paramedic in the Chicagoland Area. What’s the most f*cked up thing you ever saw on the job?   

Burned body probably takes the cake. The whole experience is hot garbage (no pun intended lol), because like…people aren’t supposed to look like that...the smell sticks to your nose hairs. It’s just gross.  Or, not necessarily the most f*cked up but something that is funny is that men shoot themselves in the dick more often than you’d think, and then they lie about it and say it wasn’t them who did it, though.

9. Other than phone/texting/ basic phone apps: If you could only have 3 apps on your phone, what would they be?                   

Spotify, Pinterest, Instagram

10. What’s your most prized possession?          

Dudley, my dog, I have had him since he was 8 weeks old. He’s 5, he’s a Chow Chow/Shepard mix and he’s the coolest guy. Named after a Harry Potter character of course.

Everyone welcome Kelsey and feel free to shoot her an email at [email protected] to say “hi.”

I continue to work through the appeal process with Patreon but what is clear is that, even if we are reinstated, there will be no more giveaways on Patreon. You still qualify for patches, and I will make regular posts and respond to DMs (or Kelsey will), but giveaways, promo codes, and the like are done on Patreon. They will continue on SubscribeStar and Utreon as normal. Giveaways, especially guns and gun parts, seem to be Patreon’s major issue right now. Also, my DMs do NOT work on Patreon desktop anymore, although they worked fine a few days ago. I have to now email to my phone and then use the app to send a group DM to you all. Perhaps it’s a technical error, or perhaps Patreon noticed that hundreds of you left for SubscribeStar and Utreon and shut my messaging down. I don’t know. But I cannot DM Patrons (or read their DMs) from my desktop at work or at home as of now. 

We are working with Patreon and hope to have Patreon restored this week but it’s unclear if that will happen, ever.

Relatedly, we started an account at Utreon! 

Our page is here: https://utreon.com/c/TFBTV

I had an hourlong conference with Utreon’s CEO yesterday and he assured me that they are a pro-gun platform and that they have no issues whatsoever with TFBTV’s content or giveaways so long as they comply with the law, unlike Patreon, which sets its own laws for giveaways, which rules are applied differently to gun channels than other channels. We are excited to be on Utreon. We’re still learning the ropes, but content will begin posting soon. 

We’ve discussed a $25 tier in the past but I’ve never done it because I don’t know what benefits to offer that would make it worthwhile. When I previously suggested it, 148 Gold Tier members weighed in on a poll and the two most popular options for a $25 tier exclusive benefit were a trip to SHOT and an exclusive gun giveaway. While not as popular, a monthly Q&A was well-taken, also. 

Utreon requires creators to have a $25 tier (as well as $5 and $10) so the decision has been made for us. Thus, the OD Green $5 tier and Gold $10 tier will be treated the same as SubStar/Patreon tiers of the same level, but the $25 tier will have a monthly exclusive gun or TGS gift certificate giveaway. Because of raffle laws, we cannot make the benefit for this tier higher than $250 if we want it to be exclusive (otherwise it has to be open to the public), so it will be limited to guns with a dealer cost of $250 or less, or a $250 gift certificate. But we are limiting this tier to only 100 members of SubStar and on Utreon, so your odds are good. Moreover, we will have a monthly Q&A from myself or Hop that will be exclusive to this tier. Further, if a $25 tier supporter wins a gun giveaway, they get first choice of available guns over other tiers. Finally, we plan to have exclusive giveaways in this tier – whether or not SHOT Show is one of them – we’ll see depending on how many members we get, but it’s certainly possible if this tier ends up being popular.

Full giveaway rules, terms, and conditions can be found at: http://tfbtv.gun.team/

If you switch to Utreon or SubStar from Patreon, we will still have a record of your lifetime contributions. Just email Luke at [email protected] when you hit the $30, $60, and each $100 level to get your patches.

-James