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Each month I produce extra content for my supporters on Patreon, from Q&A videos, to comic strips and wallpapers. And next month we’re about to launch a big new fantasy comic series for all of my Patrons, where everyone gets to help influence the story, so there’s never been a better time to jump aboard!

Rewards at verious tiers include access to a Patron-only comic series, videos, early access to the comics before I post them on the website here, and a monthly Analog and D-Pad One-Shot like the one above. The Analog and D-Pad One Shots are not part of any ongoing storyline, and not required to understand or enjoy the ongoing plot on the website here.


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Ven
Ven
4 years ago

Guessing the ad revenue wasn’t enough to make ends meet, huh?

Atomika
Atomika
4 years ago
Reply to  Tim

How dare you give people a choice to financially support you, and incentivize that support, you heinous villain! It’s like you actually want to make enough money to live for providing your art and writing, you terrible human being!

Bill Gilligan
Bill Gilligan
4 years ago
Reply to  Tim

Maybe you can also remind people that most ad blockers allow you to whitelist specific sites/pages and that your ads are not as intrusive as most other sites.

Thortok2000
Thortok2000
4 years ago
Reply to  Tim

How does ad revenue even work? If you only get money from when people click the ads, then I can whitelist you all day and you still won’t get a cent from me cause there’s no way I want to infect my computer by visiting any of that trash. If you get revenue from the ads loading on the page, then it’s weird that they can detect adblockers. I would actually suggest that the adblockers allow an option to ‘invisible whitelist’ so the ads are still hidden but the page still gets the revenue. In any event, knowing the patron… Read more »

Flanker
Flanker
4 years ago
Reply to  Tim

I use a clear 64-bit Firefox (Windows 7), no adblock or anything at all installed, but still many sites warns me bout adblockers, and some webpages do not display ads at all. Any idea why this happening?

Pierre
Pierre
4 years ago
Reply to  Flanker

The last versions of Firefox ship with an ad locker that’s on by default. You can turn it off globally in your settings or turn it off for a specific website by clicking on the shield shield icon (at the left of the url, it’s in the same info box as the certificates, permissions and all that stuff).

Flanker
Flanker
4 years ago
Reply to  Pierre

Thank you, it worked 🙂

Michael
Michael
4 years ago
Reply to  Flanker

Probably the „do not track“ feature is enabled. I see the same behavior

Aldoro
Aldoro
4 years ago
Reply to  Tim

The NYT can go fuck itself for all I care. They are *literally* part of the problem: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/mar/16/major-sites-new-york-times-bbc-ransomware-malvertising and that not for the first time: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2009/sep/25/malvertising I’ve bought the CAD box and was very happy with that purchase, so I am willing to fork over cash for your content. I sincerely hope there’s a possibility to get Analog and D-Pad and (especially!) Starcaster Chronicles as [hardcover] print at some point. But there’s a snowflake’s chance in hell that I’ll randomly whitelist any kind of ad network as long as they don’t have their shit together. Why should I take the… Read more »

raven0ak
raven0ak
4 years ago
Reply to  Tim

just fyi, if site starts force lock if adblocker is enabled, no-script plugin is circumvent way to not have adblock nor ads

Thortok2000
Thortok2000
4 years ago
Reply to  Tim

The main source of bad taste in the mouth was that this was in place of a regular, free comic. Somehow I also got the implication that this storyline was moving to patron-only. It’s the same reason I didn’t like playing runescape…everywhere, constantly, was advertising the parts of the game that weren’t free. One of the things that lets people be okay with ‘paid DLC’ is when it can be out of the way. There’s a very similar vein here, especially since you’ve touched on this subject with your comics in the past and this is literally your audience…the kind… Read more »

Thortok2000
Thortok2000
4 years ago
Reply to  Tim

I can see this from your point of view and you’re not wrong, I’m just giving you the reader’s point of view. I am a very casual reader. This site is a bookmark that I check daily. I read several webcomics and I don’t memorize their schedules…I just check them daily and there’s either a new comic or there isn’t. Therefore the day of the week alone is not enough to immediately tell me that this is an ‘extra.’ Also, when I said “in place of” I meant…it’s front and center, on the main page, and loads right where the… Read more »

twentylvliam
twentylvliam
2 years ago
Reply to  Tim

i think you could just add to bottom of the comic text or to the place where you put your usual comments like now you have: Each month I produce extra content for my supporters on Patreon, from Q&A videos, to comic strips and wallpapers.  for: ads help us, so please whitelist us on your adblocker so we can continue or if you are already supporting us via patreon then feel free to continue adblockers since your donation via patreon pays more than our ads.

Andy
Andy
4 years ago
Reply to  Tim

A pretty sweet way I’ve seen done in the past is to set a background behind the ads with your message. That way you don’t have to do any fancy detection–if the ad doesn’t load, you get the message. If you’ve whitelisted the site, the ad covers it.

Tanek
Tanek
4 years ago
Reply to  Tim

I do not use an ad blocker, but for security reasons I do block Javascript by default. Even though cad-comic.com is whitelisted there, some of the ads show as blank black panels. Probably because the java in them comes through an untrusted source. Not sure how much this affects your revenue, but usually it is something that needs to be passed along to whichever service runs the ad choices.

Stephen Nagy
Stephen Nagy
4 years ago
Reply to  Tim

Every so often I try to whitelist your site, but then I get a video ad that starts autoplaying immediately. Those things always drive me up a dang wall. :/

FyrBridd
FyrBridd
4 years ago
Reply to  Tim

I’ve had bad experience with those, a lot of the time they pop up, I whitelist the site and reload and it still won’t let me in.

Foxhood
Foxhood
4 years ago
Reply to  Tim

I’ll just point out. They don’t work well either. My browser has this addon that lets me use scripts to change the way a site behaves in my browser. Mostly used to augment a site a bit to have features otherwise not there. One script i run is an anti-detection script. It bypasses/removes any script that tries to detect if i’m running an adblocker. This script was made as a response to some sites who would try to force adblockers to be disabled, else the site would refuse to load. I do know of an example that got past this… Read more »

anonymous contribution
anonymous contribution
4 years ago
Reply to  Tim

Heya Tim, i happen to glance over this discussion and see you wonder how to ask people to white list … well, can’t you just make say ‘a comic’ about the topic? Surely there are various angles to approach this issue which would make for some hilarious comics for sure, as well as moral questions, etc… F/e What if a criminal is criminal just to feed their family, would your heroes ‘white list’ said criminal based upon moral grounds? This also because the comic before this one is one about ‘loot boxes’ and ‘pay to win’. So for a moment… Read more »

Luke Sprong
Luke Sprong
4 years ago
Reply to  Bill Gilligan

yeah guilty my bad.

piratemunky
piratemunky
4 years ago
Reply to  Bill Gilligan

Good tip! I hadn’t even thought of this. As soon as I read this, I went ahead and whitelisted this site.
Tim, thanks for all of your hard work over the years to keep us all entertained.

RemoteScholar
RemoteScholar
4 years ago
Reply to  Tim

Ugh, I didn’t even realize I had adblock on for your site >.< though I have disabled it now! Ok, here is a question that I hope isn't burdensome to answer: Are there specific scripts that I should always allow to run on your site? I use a browser addon called NoScript to avoid long loading times for webpages (it shows all the scripts a given site runs, and allows the user to allow/disallow a given script to run (it vastly reduces loading times for sites that have multiple video ads that run in certain sidebars). Are there specific scripts… Read more »

Sergi
Sergi
4 years ago
Reply to  Tim

Hey Tim, is this add-on harming your ad revenue?

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/duckduckgo-for-firefox/

It’s not an ad blocker, but a tracker blocker. I’m aware that you have gone to great lengths to offer your readers good ads, but the add-on still tells me that it blocked
googletagmanager.com (Advertising service) and google-analytics.com (Analytics service).

If that’s the case, I’m fine with disabling it for your site.

Sergi
Sergi
4 years ago
Reply to  Tim

Uh… I didn’t think about that ?‍♂️.

Unfortunately yes, I was not seeing them. Add-on disabled.

Deadly-Bagel
Deadly-Bagel
4 years ago
Reply to  Tim

My adblocker is disabled for this site, however I still don’t see any ads.

A bit of fiddling and I’ve just discovered that Firefox’s built-in tracking protection is somehow blocking everything. No autoplay video and no images. With the adblocker disabled this is basically core Firefox, no other add-ons or anything.

Ven
Ven
4 years ago
Reply to  Tim

Well, it’d be a damn shame if you moved all your content to Patreon. I’ve been reading this strip since the time of the original Xbox, but, while I’m more than happy to white list you on my adblocker, I have really no intention of anything to do with Patreon. There’s also just the fact that I really have no money to give you, so it looks as though we are rapidly nearing the day where we must part ways.

Killiak
Killiak
4 years ago
Reply to  Tim

You’ll be glad to know that I have whitelisted your site. Thanks for the reminder.

Hinek
Hinek
4 years ago
Reply to  Tim

I turned off my ad blocker for your site, but turned it back on, after the second video ad, that started automatically with sound on. That’s a no go for me.

Lucas Edward Westfall
Lucas Edward Westfall
4 years ago
Reply to  Tim

Every time I go to the address listed it states that I’m lost with a fox floating in space.

Casra
Casra
4 years ago
Reply to  Tim

Yeah I block ads, on everything. Cause ads have been used to infect PC’s. I’m sure you’re diligent and all, but that’s a risk I don’t take. I’ll guess it’s time to step up and Patreon.

Bryan Porter
Bryan Porter
4 years ago
Reply to  Ven

I’d much rather throw a couple bucks a month at him via Patreon than give up my ad blocker. I haven’t signed up for his yet, but it’s on the list. I hope this really takes off for him. One of my favorite writers (Seanan McGuire aka Mira Grant) does something similar with her patreon. She puts out one short story a month on hers that is available at the $1 level. Some are standalone, some are part of her existing book series. They aren’t required to enjoy the series but they add neat stuff. She’s now up to where… Read more »

Eshmael
Eshmael
4 years ago

I never visit sites that try to make me disable my adblocker. Ads are a serious security issue (more specific loading of external elements). As far as there are options to donate money I do it (patroen since month 2 or so).
Easy as that.

GooeyWizard
GooeyWizard
4 years ago

I removed adblocker for your site for a while, but I kept getting video ads that auto-play. Sorry, I draw the line at auto-play video ads. If you got rid of those types of ads, I’d remove adblocker.

I did just sign up to support you on patreon though. I’ve enjoyed your work since near the beginning, and it is past time I gave back for all the enjoyment you’ve given me. Thanks, and keep up the great work!

pyrodice
pyrodice
4 years ago
Reply to  GooeyWizard

same here. 🙁

George
George
4 years ago
Reply to  Tim

Personally I block ads because they are just making everything slow and they are in general just not nice. This is the case especially with mobile phones. I feel that whitelisting one site wouldn’t in the end make sense, it is the same for all sites, everyone needs the money from ads. The solution is to make ads appear in a way more users would accept them but I don’t think there is much study on that in the industry. I would be OK with an add that I have to click and then view the comic rather an add… Read more »

Brunch
Brunch
4 years ago

Hey Tim! I’ve never installed any ad blockers but I have tracking protection enabled and I block all cookies. I do this for the same reason the EU created GDPR. I honestly wouldn’t mind seeing the website enveloped in ads. I would even click them. But we’ve come to a time in which ads aren’t used to announce products but rather track users with the side effect of making websites load awfully slow. It’s not the pictures of the ads nor the ads themselves. It’s Google Analytics. It’s the poison of the internet and I feel it’s a crusade well… Read more »

James Rye
James Rye
4 years ago

Welph, time to allow ads in. FOR MONEY! FOR COMICS! BUT ESPECIALLY FOR MONEY! xD

Patrick
Patrick
4 years ago

Would it be possible to label the comic itself as an ad? At least in cases like this one where the intent appears to be to remind people the you need to pay bills? If they’re on Patreon they can access it that way, if they’ve whitelisted the site then the comic will come through. If they haven’t whitelisted or are not on patreon then no comic. Granted I suspect that a single patreon subscriber is worth quite a bit more than a whitelist so they’ll probably always get more than whitelisters.

Vedrit
Vedrit
4 years ago

I wish you well on Patreon. Personally, I will never use Patreon on principal, but if you have no qualms with them then by all means.

MacLeod
MacLeod
4 years ago

…. FUCK *goes to white list your comic* sorry..

I don't know how to register
I don't know how to register
4 years ago

I honestly thought the Pokemon Go fad was over, and nobody played these kinds of games anymore. I had no idea they were being played and no idea they were even making new ones (I see in the Twitter feed to the right that there’s a Harry Potter one now?). I suppose I learned something today.

Tumbleweed
Tumbleweed
4 years ago

So I have to pay $5 a month if I want to see the comic for today?

Jsn
Jsn
4 years ago

Well not all of us can afford patreon. You know we live on a budget, so it feels like if you cant contribute you will hold the comics hostage till we do contribute.

Thats jus my opinion.

Tumbleweed
Tumbleweed
4 years ago
Reply to  Jsn

I’m in this situation. I can’t afford $5 usd plus the exchange rate, plus whatever patreon adds on top. I have been reading since near the beginning. If there isn’t a cheaper option, waiting (hopefully not forever) or $1 usd, I guess Tim will have lost another loyal reader…

Tumbleweed
Tumbleweed
4 years ago
Reply to  Tim

I have been supporting the content by having my adblocker whitelist this website. That is what I did do to support you. It seems like you have started to resent not being paid for your work. Fair enough, but in the process, it seems like you are screwing loyal readers who can’t afford the content (patreon tiers $5). It is easy to forget not everyone has loads of money when you do. All you have managed to do here is antagonize one of your readers.

Nice going.

Brunch
Brunch
4 years ago
Reply to  Tumbleweed

Have some empathy, man.
By the same rule of thumb I could point out you’re feeling entitled to free content. But we all know it’s not so black and white.

Paul
Paul
4 years ago
Reply to  Tim

Heh. Some of us whitelist as well as support two of the CAD patreons. This is pretty much how most media works now – a few people support the free content for the vast majority. Major podcasts like This American Life, Radiolab, etc, get most of their revenue not from ads, but from the less than 1% of people who support each month to give the other 99% free content. Some of those I support, some I listen to for free (freeloading off others). But I also know that means that if everyone else stops supporting, I lose my content… Read more »

Lola The Destroyer
Lola The Destroyer
4 years ago
Reply to  Tim

Or… maybe… you know… DON’T RELEASE SOMETHING THAT MIGHT BE CONSTRUED AS A FREE COMIC AND THEN WONDER WHY PEOPLE ARE MOANING ABOUT IT WHEN IT SAYS TO SUBSCRIBE TO PATREON FOR THE REST #logic-is-for-all It is also against FTC law to disguise ads as content just by the way. That’s why you see “#ads” in some posts on insta/facebook etc. So whatever “influencer” can make it “clear” that this wasn’t part of the normal posts they make, but indeed an advert. A lot of people, including myself, went “WTF?” since this doesn’t indicate anything that it’s not part of… Read more »

Tumbleweed
Tumbleweed
4 years ago
Reply to  Tim

Then perhaps you needed to make your intentions more clear. How is a reader to know you mean to block just the one-shots behind a paywall, and not everything?

Lola The Destroyer
Lola The Destroyer
4 years ago
Reply to  Tim

And in all 3 of those instances, it was very clear that you were doing a push/ad to your patreon page on those comics as they were clearly marked. However, with this one, the “get extra” bit wasn’t in the comic strip, and one had to scroll down quite a bit (even on mobile devices) to even start to read the entire post about how you can get extra comics on patreon. If you really can’t see, by the response of your readers, that what you did here wasn’t as simple and logical as you thought it was, then you’re… Read more »

Nekopanzer
Nekopanzer
4 years ago

OK, fine! I became a patron!

B-but don’t m-misunderstand! I-it’s not that I like y-your art that much or anything! D-dummy!

Barry
Barry
4 years ago

Throw me in the camp of blocking ads, sorry but ads are an evil that I don’t accept (I’ve had high server costs in the past myself – but still didn’t restort to ads), and like others I won’t do Patreon out of principal (I dislike how people use it these days) – I’m on a fixed income and if I was to support everyone I like I’d be beyond broke. I’ve supported you in other ways (brought the digital copy of the CAD book set – then the physical set when I could afford it). sorry if this wasn’t… Read more »

Barry
Barry
4 years ago
Reply to  Tim

Hi Tim, For the throwing patreon in my face comment I should of mention it happens mostly on youtube videos, sorry about that. (this site is one of only 8-10 sites I frequent these days – and my only webcomic these days since the only other one I followed has been wrapped up by its creator) But yeah, I’ve been burned by ads one to many times, so no ads and because of how some people I’ve followed have hidden stuff behind patreon after teasing/showing what it is – again this is mostly youtuber’s I follow (you say what supporters… Read more »

Ketsueki
Ketsueki
4 years ago

Guess I’m sol and i don’t even use ad blockers. I only check on my iPod, no need for blockers. Sucks.

Chris Kemp
Chris Kemp
4 years ago

Bit a double dip for those who have patreon for the StarCaster Chronicles but can package it all up in one thing..

Timothy
Timothy
4 years ago

I don’t use Adblock on anything but my email (which really doesn’t work anyway) and some of my more, er, private sites, I’ll check later since I’m typing this on my phone, but I’ll whitelist you if I haven’t already

Brian Glenn
Brian Glenn
4 years ago

First, I want to say thank you. for the past 8ish years iv read your comic and yours over that time has been the only dependable strip that I read that’s up 3 times a week every week. I think you have missed like twice. and I don’t think the birth of your kids even caused delays you go above and beyond. Second, while I can understand some peoples distaste at whats above I understand the need to advertise as this is a capitalist country and your well past the “doing it as a hobby” stage gotta pay the bills.… Read more »

Justin D Page
Justin D Page
4 years ago

So no friday comic without Patreon? Just wondering, your site your rules. Long time reader, bought some of the earlier collections, love your work.

Paul
Paul
4 years ago

Is the Ethan and Lucas comic that the $5 level a D-pad and Analog or a continuation of the 2012 strips?

Pulse
Pulse
4 years ago

left my adblocker off on twitch, anti-virus stopped an ad from trying to hijack my browser. more then enough reason to keep them on. you can watch over ads alot, but there will be bad apples. and it only takes one getting through to do serious damage. ive had my previous computers infected multiple times while visiting only what should have been safe sites. until that danger is gone, adblocker stays up

Shadowfury
Shadowfury
4 years ago

Some people are getting mad because you didn’t make it clear enough that you aren’t going to stop posting your usual comics for free. Hell, it took me more than 5 minutes to understand it (by going back and forth from the description to the comments…)

Tumbleweed
Tumbleweed
4 years ago
Reply to  Shadowfury

Exactly.

Thomas
Thomas
4 years ago

I understand why you need to protect your income, but would argue that people would continue to support you even without the bribe- Dwarf Fortress has proven this quite effectively. With you creating quality content and hiding it from the public at large, you reduce the amount of people willing to fund you by them not being exposed to it to begin with. It’s also frustrating to people like me (disabled vet on a fixed income here) who can’t afford to pay extra to see what our favorite characters are up to- as you pointed out, you reminding us that… Read more »

Thomas
Thomas
4 years ago
Reply to  Tim

Whoa there, didn’t mean to ruffle your feathers so much, just voicing an opinion. But sure, let’s go point by point. I suppose “bribe” is unfair, due to negative connotations. I was being a bit superfluous to reflect my feelings on the matter; my bad. Dwarf Fortress has been developed by two brothers for over a decade now, entirely on donations, and has given birth to an entire generation of rogue-likes.. it is now and has always been in ASCII, so I’m not sure how you think screenshots might have helped their cause. Can’t remember a single DF comic from… Read more »

David Jones
David Jones
4 years ago

And with this, you have lost a long time reader. I don’t know the exact length as it was, at least 5 years before your reboot of the comic.

Atros
Atros
4 years ago

So I get that it’s legit, no biggie, gotta keep the lights on and make your money somehow I gotchu. Real talk though, with EA shenanigans lately I really thought this comic was a joke about DLC and content passes until I got down to the comments.

Spoot
Spoot
4 years ago

So just a heads up, but I came here at 1:00 am Monday morning and saw this half comic and instantly assumed this was Monday’s post. I took the time to look through the comments to see what was going on and I saw you said this was posted Saturday. Before I realized what was going on I was a little taken aback. Maybe consider putting Monday’s comic up a little earlier if you ever do this again just to avoid confusion. I’m certain there are less reasonable readers out there who have no idea whats going on.

Tim
Tim
4 years ago

Wow. Reading the comments after reading the Patreon bump, I really don’t understand the butthurt. It’s not complicated, folks. The man’s running a business, and between merch, ads and Patreon he’s trying to keep the lights on and the family provided for. The same thing all the other webcartoonists we follow are doing. This Saturday post was nothing but a gentle reminder that he does offer extra content for those willing and able to throw a few dollars his way, and is a great way to offset ad revenue losses from adblock (intentional or no). It’s not a paywall, it’s… Read more »

Tim
Tim
4 years ago
Reply to  Tim

Absolutely. You’ve been whitelisted. Incidentally, I’m loving these downvotes. Someone, somewhere is so upset over facts, logic, and support in general that almost every comment supporting what you say is getting downvotes. Making trolls on the internet angry is a treat 😀

Erik B
Erik B
4 years ago

Wow. I did not realise how thick lots of your readers are. Several things indicate this is not a regular Mon/Wed/Fri comic. 1: Posted on a Saturday (forgiveable if people don’t check the friday comic on friday, but maybe you are not as serious a reader if you don’t check each comic the day if comes out. I dunno. 2. Really obvious italics at the end that say “…NOT PART OF ANY ONGOING STORYLINE…” 3. Rest of the news post that says “…extra content for supporters on Patreon…” 4. Newspost headline that says “Support us on patreon for EXTRA comics”… Read more »

Travis
Travis
4 years ago

Now if only I had money to donate. I’m living paycheck to paycheck here xD Seriously though, I really would if I could. Been following this series since highschool back in 2008 or 2007. That first comic with Ethan suggesting a watermelon be the 3rd character 🙂

nope
nope
4 years ago

one problem: even on your website, there appear adverts that highjack the browser and take it to a different site. usually one that tries to install malware.
as long as those are still around, blocking indiscriminately is necessary to keep your computer safe.

i’ve whitelisted your site, but when i open it i’m regularly greeted by malicious external content.

nope
nope
4 years ago
Reply to  Tim

bookmark. directly on the main page. happens with both chrome and firefox on both win8.1 and linux mint.

TimeRyder
TimeRyder
3 years ago

…aaaand a paywall. great.

Awesome
Awesome
1 year ago

Ah yes, microtransactions in comic strips. 😉