Patreon Donation Charge Salt - Patreon Changes TOS; Lolcows Apoplectic

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repentance

True & Honest Fan
kiwifarms.net
Vordrak can suck a mean dick.

Nothing else makes sense for why financial transaction companies shit on @Null 's ability to run this place.

A couple of days back Jake Alley claimed credit for getting Patreon to dump 8chan. Jake really, really hates us so it wouldn't surprise me if he's another one who harasses the fuck out of any payment processor Null tries to use.

Vordrak openly threatens the CEOs and their families, though.

From GAF

upload_2017-12-11_7-45-40.png


It's interesting how whenever a company does something people don't like people claim it's going against what it was "meant" to be/do.

So many people are attributing this change to "greed" and failing to address the issue of Patreon's brand image being in the toilet because it's got an excess of e-beggars who don't create a damned thing. The idea that companies may have demographics they don't want as customers totally eludes these people.
 
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Splendid

> Moderating KF for free
True & Honest Fan
Retired Staff
kiwifarms.net
This sounds like a double edged sword. A true and honest Financial Succesful Creator™ could grow to the point of no longer needing Patreon (either by breaking through mainstream media or running his own crowdsource and keeping that 5%). Meanwhile, the no name e-beggars are complete hopeless slaves to Patreon. It makes sense to prey on them, not tell them to fuck off.
It would take a ton of time and effort to set up and attract attention to your own custom Patreon alternative instead of just making an account.
 

Jaimas

I'M GONNA SPAAAAAAAAAACE
True & Honest Fan
kiwifarms.net
Honestly, it sucks that this change is going to catch a few Patreon users who genuinely put out good content, but in exchange for all the fucking leeches using it as Hipster Welfare? Yeah, I think I can be convinced to see that as a net gain for the entire internet. Hell, I'd be convinced to boost a donation or two to make that happen.
 

repentance

True & Honest Fan
kiwifarms.net
Maybe I'm way oversimplifying things, but wouldn't the solution be to just not have had $1 donation tiers in the first place?

Not really. Until you've been up and running for a while, you really have little idea of what's going to work and what's not. The option to be billed after the fact was probably their worst decision - it's should always have been a pay in advance service, but I suspect it was easier for them to bill everyone on the same date when Patreon was small.
 

Angry New Ager

Farting for God soon
True & Honest Fan
kiwifarms.net
So Patreon's new policies shook her out of her complacency and got her to do some work that might actually expand her income so she doesn't have to rely on $1 donations?

HOW IS THIS EVEN A BAD THING?!
Honestly, it sucks that this change is going to catch a few Patreon users who genuinely put out good content...

I don't think these changes are going to hurt those people. In the short term, maybe, as they see a drop in $1-3 pledges. But as patrons re-prioritize where their money goes in order to avoid fees, they will probably choose to support fewer creators with larger donations. So they'll stop supporting the creators whose work isn't that great, or who don't update often enough, and instead channel those funds to creators who actually deliver.

What this will probably do for a lot of donors is break inertia. It's really easy to let a dollar a month keep going to someone you're not that invested in anymore. For a lot of patrons, it may be easy to let $10 or $20 go that way every single month. But now that there's all of this controversy, those same donors may say, "Hey, I can just give the few creators I actually give a shit about more money, and save on service fees."

And if they are putting out good work, they might not lose many $1-3 donations at all, and since they will be keeping a higher percentage of all donations, they will still at least break even, if not come out ahead.

ETA:
Maybe I'm way oversimplifying things, but wouldn't the solution be to just not have had $1 donation tiers in the first place?
I don't think they anticipated the volume of fee-evading incest donations that were happening, and that these could potentially be used as part of money-laundering schemes.

I can understand why they have the $1 tier, however--it's pulled in a lot of new patrons without much money who might initially have balked at donating $5/month to any one person. Giving $1 lets people dip their toe in, and gradually they wade in further and deeper as they've grown accustomed to the patronage model. Making patronage as easy and low-reach as possible has helped build both traffic to the site as well as the brand itself.

The Patreon model was new and weird and unheard-of just a few years ago, and now it's fully established, with lots of people using it. There's no longer a need to lure new patrons in to try it out with a $1 level, and I would not be surprised if they eventually did away with it. But it's long past time for them to pass the costs of processing all of those small donations to the donors, and by doing so they create the incentive to consolidate lots of small donations to underperforming creators to bigger donations to the ones who actually have their shit together.
 
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repentance

True & Honest Fan
kiwifarms.net
What this will probably do for a lot of donors is break inertia.

Yep. I've noticed quite a few people saying that they were pledging $1 to people they didn't really follow. They're just going to reroute that money to people they actually do follow

To complain that you're going to lose a lot of patrons is to admit that you know you're depending on broke ass people for your livelihood.

fwiw, there are a shit ton of other platforms out there - including some which run on donations themselves and charge no fees other than those charged by their payment processor. Alternatives already exist, but the whiners want to stay on the best known platform - just like they whine about Twitter but won't move from it.

https://wiki.snowdrift.coop/market-research/other-crowdfunding
 

Water-T

STARVING TO DEATH...FOR ATTENTION (AND CAKE)
True & Honest Fan
kiwifarms.net
Maybe I'm way oversimplifying things, but wouldn't the solution be to just not have had $1 donation tiers in the first place?

But...but...that's classist and racist....somehow.

fwiw, there are a shit ton of other platforms out there - including some which run on donations themselves and charge no fees other than those charged by their payment processor. Alternatives already exist, but the whiners want to stay on the best known platform - just like they whine about Twitter but won't move from it.

Bingo. One of the biggest ego strokes for these fuckwits was letting others see how much in pitybux they were raking in. Other sites don't have the same "prestige" and some other similar sites don't let them show off how big their $-peen is, so they'll avoid them like the plague.
 

TheQueerion

kiwifarms.net
First 3:35, he doesn't screech or anything, but hearing him go on about how Patreon has kept a roof over his head and then announcing he's leaving the platform is just lol.

Lmao. Sargon makes $8,000+ on Patreon and he's going to chuck that all away on some site no-one knows that may well end up lasting about 5 minutes? I mean it's probably smart to have an alternative because he's the sort who'd end up banned for "promoting hate speech" or something along those lines, but as far as him actually pulling the plug goes? Yeeeaahhhh. I'll believe it when I see it.
 
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