Hi, Mello here. Iām sorry youāve found the comic to be unfriendly towards new readers. Please understand that this was never the intention, and I want to address your concerns for the sake of anyone else who may have just started reading.
The Red Strings Archive is not mandatory reading. Itās meant to be a pretty simple arg type puzzle for extra lore. All it involves is looking for three sets of numbers in some early posts and putting them together in order to create the password. It is still solvable to this day, you did not have to be there day one in order to solve it. Itās just there for fans to get additional lore, accessing the archive is not required to enjoy the comic. Itās all extra. There has never and will never be one time events that lock out information from you.
As for the Discord, itās been closed for years because it isnāt a fan server. Thatās how it started, yes, but then I realized public Discords are hell to keep up with, because Iām not a moderator, Iām just the guy who made the comic, and I started only letting in people I trust. It hasnāt been a fan server since 2021, itās just a server for my friends and family now. And they donāt get any extra information, the details about EtCās original characters arenāt exclusive to them. The only reason theyād know more is if theyāre the ones who made/helped make said characters, or if theyāre my co-writers. And I donāt even tell my co-writers everything, because theyāre readers too. Just reading through the main plot will tell you everything you need to know about them at this point in the story, I promise.
And concerning a Patreon/Ko-fi, I wanted to make one for years. But the circumstances made it difficult to impossible to do so. This blog will have been running for five years this coming October. I couldnāt make a Patreon early on into the comic due to bank complications, and now, I just donāt post nearly as much as I used to. I have a lot going on outside of this comic now, itās something I can really only work on in my free time, and even then, thereās other things I want to do than constantly work on panels. A Patreon would add another layer of things to keep up with, and I just canāt.
All this is to say, this comic isnāt perfect. I started it on a whim when I was 18 because I needed something to do while locked inside due to Covid. Iāve done my very best to make this comic as accessible as possible for everyone, but please remember, at the end of the day, that this is just a Tumblr ask blog, and that Iām not perfect either.
New readers, you donāt need to read all the extra blog posts, you donāt need to be in the Discord server, and you donāt need access to the archive. You are not missing out, I promise you. All the extras are just that; extras, for you to find and read through only if you want to. It is not necessary for your enjoyment of the story. Just read through the main plot, as you would with any other comic, it is its own standalone experience. I wouldnāt recommend just jumping in anywhere, it is definitely best to start from the beginning, but that is all I will ever ask of you as the reader. Everything you will ever need to know will be presented through the course of the main story, and Iām sorry if it has ever come off otherwise.