Patreon Donation Charge Salt - Patreon Changes TOS; Lolcows Apoplectic

[Jaimas]

Fucking apocalyptic amount of salt incoming.

Recently, Patreon changed its TOS so that instead of being charged from a lump sum of what a content creator earns on it, the charge is now per donation. This amount is apparently a 2.9% plus $0.35 PER PLEDGE transaction fee.

In addition, Patreon announced that they plan to essentially cut out the ability to circular donate from your patreon donations alone in accordance with Paypal's demands.

Suffice to say, the Rat Kings are fucking livid.

SHORT VERSION:

For many standard Patreon users (specifically the successful ones), this is actually a decrease in how much they're paying Patreon itself, often lowering the amount to a take-away of about 95% per-pledge.

But this change also means that Patreons that are almost entirely $1-5 donations en masse (like many, many Rat King clients) and/or are bolstered by circular donators are going to be absolutely butt-fucked by this change.

And you'd best believe that they aren't happy about it:

Keep your eyes open, because there is every possibility this will brew up in a big way over the next day or so.

 

[KM 749]

Patreon users should be conditioned to getting ripped off considering the kind of people they are willing to throw 50 bucks a month at.

Namely, every "artist" featured on this forum.

 

[SteelPlatedHeart]

Is circular donations when people donate to each other’s Patreon to artificially inflate it?

 

[Jaimas]

Is circular donations when people donate to each otjer’s Patreon to artificially inflate it?

Yep. Extremely common in both the Rat Kings and the professional victim circuit.

 

[Ichimaru Gin]

Oh this shit has potential. If it screws over both Dobson and Zoe Quinn it's bound to be funny.

 

[SteelPlatedHeart]

Oh this shit has potential. If it screws over both Dobson and Zoe Quinn it's bound to be funny.

Nash is getting just as salty.

 

[Robotron]

Oh this shit has potential. If it screws over both Dobson and Zoe Quinn it's bound to be funny.

This has the potential to brew into a massive saltstorm if Patreon going down from this, considering how many noteworthy people and lolcows use this as their main source of revenue.

 

[The Manglement]

So Patreon is trying to punish people who get 1-2 dollar donations by people out of pity, people who donate so they can virtue signal that 'they're supporting these important issues', and people donating to their own patreon to get the biggest e-peen.

Is Patreon retarded? Those three categories are like 95% of all Patreon donations.

 

[Tame Sake]

I've looked over this again and again and I'm not entirely certain what the problem is. But I'm also not good with words or math.

Patreon Users themselves get a clean 95% of the pledges they are given, rather than a bouncing around of 80%-88% by rule of averages on the fees.
Patrons themselves pledge say... $1, but they also have to pay a 2.9% fee plus a flat .35 cents. It's not even a full blown .40 cents extra.

Aside from needing to inform your Patrons of this new change and maybe advising the lower brackets to abandon that position for either a full removal or a small upgrade so the percentage doesn't hurt as much in the longrun.... what is the problem I am missing here?

 

[Jaimas]

So Patreon is trying to punish people who get 1-2 dollar donations by people out of pity, people who donate so they can virtue signal that 'they're supporting these important issues', and people donating to their own patreon to get the biggest e-peen.

Is Patreon exceptional? Those three categories are like 95% of all Patreon donations.

This wasn't done by Patreon. Paypal wanted their pound of flesh and basically made them do it.

 

[Ichimaru Gin]

I've looked over this again and again and I'm not entirely certain what the problem is. But I'm also not good with words or math.View attachment 329542

Patreon Users themselves get a clean 95% of the pledges they are given, rather than a bouncing around of 80%-88% by rule of averages on the fees.
Patrons themselves pledge say... $1, but they also have to pay a 2.9% fee plus a flat .35 cents. It's not even a full blown .40 cents extra.

Aside from needing to inform your Patrons of this new change and maybe advising the lower brackets to abandon that position for either a full removal or a small upgrade so the percentage doesn't hurt as much in the longrun.... what is the problem I am missing here?

Okay so basically now you have to pay around 40 cents more if you're pledging 1 dollar per month at a flat rate.

And everyone is freaking out for having to pay 40 cents extra a month.

Yup, this has potential.

 

[Tame Sake]

Okay so basically now you have to pay around 40 cents more if you're pledging 1 dollar per month at a flat rate.

And everyone is freaking out for having to pay 40 cents extra a month.

Yup, this has potential.

So I'm not going crazy.
People are freaking out over nothing.

The amount of needless panic people have never ceases to amaze.

 

[KM 749]

Movieblob is reacting rather indignantly to Patreon's decision. How ironic considering he was the one who wanted capitalism to weed out the weak.

 

[Tame Sake]

Maybe if your content and ethics were worth your salt, people would pledge more than $1

 

[BubbleButt]

Oh no, 35 cents.

And I really wanted that gumball this month.

 

[tehpope]

Some people aren't super salty about it (Clint from LGR):

https://www.patreon.com/posts/annoying-patreon-15763777

Spoiler

So yeah, Patreon is planning to change the processing fee for pledges as they've laid out here:
https://patreon.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/115005631963

Someone posted a better explanation of the actual details here:
https://www.reddit.com/r/patreon/co...start_charging_patrons_a_credit_card/dqvrb9d/

In my opinion, this is a boneheaded move that arguably hurts more than it helps. I would MUCH rather eat the fees myself than have you charged more. This especially bites if you're pledging a few bucks or less (which is the vast majority of my patrons.)

I know I'll be losing patrons over this, I've already lost a few dozen since this morning. And hey, I don't blame you, it's a bunch of junk.

That being said though, I've made it so that every single patron will see videos early, regardless of what you pledge. Even if you pledge under $1. So if you feel that lowering your pledge to compensate for the fees makes sense, then feel free. I'd rather have more people watching then have a few cents more on the dollar.

Thanks as always for the support!
-Clint

 

[Tame Sake]

That's really the best way to go about it. Sure, it sucks, but at the end of the day it's still their platform and you're using it for free to some extent.

A proper content creator will see through this their own way that may benefit in the long run and show their true colors.

Throw a fit and provide more salt.

or

Inform your Patrons of what's going on in layman's terms. Maybe retire the $1 bracket because it kinda sucks to have to pay nearly half a dollar extra just for fees.

Sit back, do some math, talk to your supporters, and figure things out.

But ya know. That's the smarter method.

 

[Ichimaru Gin]

Movieblob is reacting rather indignantly to Patreon's decision. How ironic considering he was the one who wanted capitalism to weed out the weak.

View attachment 329552 View attachment 329553 View attachment 329551

Okay the outrage from Moviebob is particularly delicious. Knocking such an undeservedly arrogant fatass like him a couple pegs has really put a smile on my face.

 

[Shokew]

So that means instead of $1-2, the minimum should be raised to $2-3 or $3-5... But only if the content being donated to doesn't suck. It's tough, but yeah - this may be for the best, especially if it means weeding out the SJWs and no-talent hacks dominating the site. It'll suck for newcommers, however - so, double-edged sword, sadly.

Either way, these neo-hippies need their asses kicked in the wallets, honestly.

 

[Ruin]

Is E-begging getting better?