Ever since SMYN began in 2007, the podcasting efforts across the various shows in our network have been and continue to be a labor of love. Financial needs for the shows have primarily come out of our own pockets. Yet, as we get older, we have now gotten to the point where we need to look into reliable ways for the network to make self-sustaining money. If we are ever going to get better as content providers for you, this is a step that we need to take. Kickstarter is an avenue that lasts for a limited time and we’ve also had talks for years about when to and if we should install a donation button. Whatever choice we made, we knew that it had to be as fan-centric as our shows are, in order to give contributors benefits for helping the shows in our network.

I am proud to announce the official SMYN Network Patreon channel.

Patreon lets fans become patrons of the content creators that they wish to support. Think of it as a kind of constant Kickstarter, where your monthly financial support will help us grow and provide you with even better content. What’s in it for you? Well, with EIGHT DIFFERENT SHOWS now under our network, depending on how much you give, you will find that you have access to a wide variety of rewards and extra content that only our patrons will receive. These range from a SMYNja Patron designation on the forums, to raw recordings of SMYN and RTM, to early downloads of The Questionably Roundtable, and more. Even higher, limited tiers involve Skype calls with hosts and guest spots on shows.

As far as group, collaborative rewards go, we also have incentives for reaching a total sum donated per month. These include paying off our website costs, procuring new audio/video equipment, and more. While this would certainly be a substantial help for us, donating for these long-term goals benefits you as well, as it would ensure that we would continue to provide content that is of an even higher quality than before.

Additionally, if you ever want to contribute directly to our Network fund, yes – we will finally add a donate button on our main page in the coming week!

To summarize today’s announcements, on top of our new SMYN Network Patreon, here are the shows that will now headline under our content umbrella.

Certainly, there are still further improvements that we need to look into – website updates, considering the merits of the Reviews page, merchandise designs, and much more. However, today’s upgrades are changes that have needed to be made for some time now, and we are happy to provide you with a bigger, better, stronger SMYN Network!

To Version 2.0 and beyond!

This Thursday begins a big extended weekend at “The Dojo” here in Michigan, as Super stops by.

This kind of “bro time” is going to be beneficial for you as well, since we will streaming regularly often on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday to celebrate 7 Years of SMYN.

In case you didn’t know, every broadcast will be on our Twitch account.

We will be active on Twitter as well with stream notifications and interaction, through our account @showmeyournews. Please include us in tweets and use the hashtag #7YearsofSMYN for engagement with this weekend’s SMYN festivities.

Perhaps this video will explain it all for you, but hit the jump after to see a text breakdown of the things we have planned to go LIVE over the next few days.

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The officially anniversary of SMYN falls on July 8th every year. On that date in 2007, we released our first episode. That means we are coming up on 7 YEARS OF SMYN!

Does anyone remember last year’s #6YearsofSMYN stream? Where we broadcasted shenanigans over the course of a few days?

Good. Because another year is upon us and we’re planning the event once again!

This year, Super and (hopefully) Tony will be traveling to our house, “The Dojo,” on Thursday, July 10th, 2013 and they will be staying for the entire weekend.

Now, we do have a weekend of fun “bro hangout” times to get up to, some of which may be livestreamed, but that time of year has arrived where we gauge your interest for what you would like to see in our ALL-DAY STREAM, which will take place on Saturday, July 12th, 2014.

For past reference, here was LAST YEAR’S streamed schedule.

WEDNESDAY-FRIDAY
New Super Mario Bros. U
Mega Man: The Wily Wars
Project M
Mega Man X
Gunstar Heroes
Shaq Fu
Sailor Moon (Genesis)
Sonic 3 & Knuckles

FRIDAY CARD GAME NIGHT
Cranium
Cards Against Humanity
The Metagame

SATURDAY ALL-DAY STREAM
9a-11a — Music Trivia with Youko’s iTunes
11a-12p — Pokémon Hour (HG/SS Battles through PBR, Pokemon Stadium minigames)
12p-3p — Super Smash Bros. Brawl/Project M online (wi-fi safe builds)
3p-4p — You Don’t Know Jack
4p-5p — NFL Blitz (2012)
5p-6p — Video Game Themed Sporcle
6p-7p — Nintendo Power Hour (Various NES, SNES, GB games)
7p-8p — Super Mario Bros. 3 (Youko’s first time, All-Stars version)
8p-9p — Sonic Adventure 2: Battle multiplayer
9p-10p — Rock Band 3
10p-11p — Mario Party (Hopefully 3)

The question remains: Which games or activities would you like to see livestreamed over the course of this celebration? Are there any that you’d like to see repeated?

We will take your suggestions and we hope to set up an official schedule soon. You can watch last year’s highlights HERE.

All current and future livestreams take place at our Twitch.TV account.