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Inside Patreon, the economic engine of internet culture

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Re: Inside Patreon, the economic engine of internet culture

#31

Post by patcon »

TheAnimus wrote: post #24
patcon wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hate to sound pessimistic to your well-intentioned suggestion, but if someone prefers not to support a creator monthly/regularly, then they are unfortunately choosing not to support them sustainably. I feel strongly that to ask for one-off giving is to ask for a badly designed system. People can't dedicate their output to creating value for you when they're living off a tip-jar. Consistency is the key to backgroundin…

The thing is sometimes you find something helpful, but don't think they are exactly an artist. I'm slightly ashamed that I couldn't figure out how to put the batteries in the Amazon wand they'd sent me, a quick search and a YouTube video showed me what the instructions missing hadn't, tug it forcefully. That kind of thing isn't useful enough for patronage. But it would be nice to be able to throw a nice little tip.

Interesting: utility vs art. Maybe it's a similar distinction between commission and wage. Art by commission or art by wage... I'm sure there are studies on which type produces happier artists (heh, but in a twist, it's still prob up for debate whether happier artists make their best art, but that line of thinking feels a little gross ;)

Anyhow, guess I was being too simplistic. In the ideal world, I'd hope we'd all have more early (high school) literacy on what these approaches mean, and which works best for which sort of value creation...!

Re: Inside Patreon, the economic engine of internet culture

#32

Post by whipoodle »

Dude2018 wrote: post #27
pillowkusis wrote: post #7

I have seen so many content creators go full time and create awesome work because Patreon gives them a format to incentivize their followers to pay them. The economics are beautiful — turns out just 1,000 people (a pittance on internet mass media websites) donating $5 a month will totally change the way you run your life. And even better, these artists are independent in a way no artist has ever been before. You’re n…

You want Patreon to send you a CV and then you will interview them?

Sounds pretty good to me!

Re: Inside Patreon, the economic engine of internet culture

#33

Post by vinceguidry »

If anybody at Patreon is reading this, here's some feedback.

I spend maybe $20 a month on Patreon. The main thing keeping me from spending more is the interface makes artists appear more money-grubbing than they might want to.

I don't want to scroll down someone's feed only to find half of the content is locked. This is a negative user experience and makes me want to click off the site and go do something else.

Suggested fix is a checkbox or setting that allows me to hide content that I'm not at the right patron level to see.

Re: Inside Patreon, the economic engine of internet culture

#34

Post by wsrGoWkWeJ3i7w »

yedava wrote: post #28
mason240 wrote: post #26

Corporation caught in a scandal over censoring political speech against the right? Better have the The Verge write a puff piece on them.

There neither is any 'scandal' or 'censorship'. Patreon's decision was a textbook application of John Stuart Mill's "Harm Principle".

hate speech is free speech

Re: Inside Patreon, the economic engine of internet culture

#35

Post by kilroy123 »

nilved wrote: post #11

A lot of creators I appreciate use Patreon, so I signed up to donate to them. They started sending me spam emails. It was like I was paying extra (giving Patreon a cut) for the privilege of getting annoying emails. Now I just donate directly to the creators, and I have a checklist that I go through every month. I think something like Patreon is a great idea, but having a centralized company handle it and take a cut i…

Just create a filter and have those emails skip your inbox.

Re: Inside Patreon, the economic engine of internet culture

#36

Post by kilroy123 »

dugditches wrote: post #5

I asked this before, but it wasn't really the place: 1. To those who donate to Patreons, how do you budget/think about/justify your donations? 2. Do you have a set budget? What if you really want to support someone suddenly, do you stop supporting someone else to do so, or reduce how much you give them? 3. When do you stop/reduce Patreon support? How long do you typically support someone? Until you feel they no longe…

I just donate $3 a month to three different artists. Not a big deal to me, that's a cup of coffee in a lot of parts.

Re: Inside Patreon, the economic engine of internet culture

#37

Post by avehn »

dugditches wrote: post #5

I asked this before, but it wasn't really the place: 1. To those who donate to Patreons, how do you budget/think about/justify your donations? 2. Do you have a set budget? What if you really want to support someone suddenly, do you stop supporting someone else to do so, or reduce how much you give them? 3. When do you stop/reduce Patreon support? How long do you typically support someone? Until you feel they no longe…

1. I feel that I get value from the artist/podcaster/writer and in our capitalist society value == money.

2. I have a budget that changes. But if I cannot afford to support someone new I will wait until I have more income or less expenses.

3. I support people until I feel I no longer get value from them or can no longer afford to support them. Money gets tight sometimes.

Re: Inside Patreon, the economic engine of internet culture

#38

Post by egypturnash »

drewg123 wrote: post #16

Unless I'm missing something, they seem to only have a monthly contribution model. There are many times where I find a content creator helpful (for example a video tutorial on how to fix my broken washing machine), and I'd like to reward them. But I don't want to do it monthly, as I'll probably never watch another thing from them. So I'd like to be able to easily leave a one-time tip. Can Patreon do this, and it's ju…

Nope.

There are two flavors of monthly payments - $x every month, and $y for every post the creator marks as a paid thing, up to a maximum of $z - but you can't leave someone a tip for that one cool thing.

If a creator is on the $x every month scheme, then you could sign up for that, and then turn it off again. Patreon charges you immediately, so that you can't raid someone's paywalled content for free.

Re: Inside Patreon, the economic engine of internet culture

#39

Post by egypturnash »

SyneRyder wrote: post #22
drewg123 wrote: post #16

Unless I'm missing something, they seem to only have a monthly contribution model. There are many times where I find a content creator helpful (for example a video tutorial on how to fix my broken washing machine), and I'd like to reward them. But I don't want to do it monthly, as I'll probably never watch another thing from them. So I'd like to be able to easily leave a one-time tip. Can Patreon do this, and it's ju…

I've run into the same thing. Someone I'd been following launched a Patreon, and I really wanted to support them, but I'm uncomfortable about the monthly subscriptions. (One part of my thought process - I don't want to offend them if I unsubscribe/cancel at a later date, and maybe they're counting on that recurring money for their income.) Fortunately, that person followed up by launching a Kindle book, and then a pa…

As an artist supported by Patreon: we really don't give a damn about your particular contribution unless you are someone we have a personal interest in. Or if your contribution is notably higher than everyone else's. If you subscribe at $3 or whatever for a few months we're not really gonna notice you coming and going.

Re: Inside Patreon, the economic engine of internet culture

#40

Post by [deleted] »

Dude2018 wrote: post #27
pillowkusis wrote: post #7

I have seen so many content creators go full time and create awesome work because Patreon gives them a format to incentivize their followers to pay them. The economics are beautiful — turns out just 1,000 people (a pittance on internet mass media websites) donating $5 a month will totally change the way you run your life. And even better, these artists are independent in a way no artist has ever been before. You’re n…

You want Patreon to send you a CV and then you will interview them?

[deleted]
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