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Inside Patreon, the economic engine of internet culture

theverge.com

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Re: Inside Patreon, the economic engine of internet culture

#41

Post by billdybas »

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…

YouTube used to have a tip jar feature but removed it citing low-usage [1]. The best alternative now is to support a creator for one month and then cancel.

[1] https://youtube.googleblog.com/2017/01/can-we-chat-hello-sup...

Re: Inside Patreon, the economic engine of internet culture

#42

Post by PKop »

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…

I've seen Patreon kicking people off their platform for political reasons, so it is not decentralized, though certainly more so than alternatives existing before Patreon.

The evolution will converge towards content creators being funded through decentralized crypto currency platforms so that the money cannot be prevented from getting to creators if someone wants to pay them.

Something more along the lines of https://lbry.io/ and similar..

Currently BTC and the like are push vs pull payment systems, so until smart contracts are widely used to enable subscription payments, this will be a blocker.

Re: Inside Patreon, the economic engine of internet culture

#43

Post by biggerbistro »

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.

This is why we need a diverse ecosystem of these types of services. Patreon getting involved in policing the politics (not legality) of their users is annoying but not unexpected these days. What Patreon does as a service is absolutely nothing special and can easily be (and has been) copied, they just have what I assume is the first-mover advantage right now.

Re: Inside Patreon, the economic engine of internet culture

#44

Post by CaptSpify »

dgfgfdagasdfgfa wrote: post #30
fhood wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of the most important implications being that with services like this, creating content that a few people love is now as viable as creating content that many people like.

Of course, this also means you likely have much less in common with the person next to you.

Is that a problem?

Legit question, because I'm not sure why you bring it up

Re: Inside Patreon, the economic engine of internet culture

#45

Post by almonj »

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".

They banned a middle of the road conservative blogger, it has nothing to do with preventing harm. They got pressured by hardcore pro-government pro-mass immigration groups and caved. Very shameful and terribly stupid business decision making.

Re: Inside Patreon, the economic engine of internet culture

#46

Post by jblow »

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".

For this to be the case, they would have to be applying the principle to everyone equally, which they apparently don't.

This has given pause to some people -- for example, Sam Harris, one of the top artists on Patreon, is evacuating the service (even though this is likely to cost him a fair bit of money) to avoid the future potential to be financially pressured over ideology.

Re: Inside Patreon, the economic engine of internet culture

#47

Post by PKop »

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…

This could easily be solved (though I surprisingly don't see it that widely used) by including a BTC payment address alongside monthly subscription options or displayed within social profiles, for one off payments.

Re: Inside Patreon, the economic engine of internet culture

#48

Post by paulgb »

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.

Which case are you referring to? Lauren Southern was literally attempting to block ships (thereby endangering life) so that goes beyond "speech" in my book.

Re: Inside Patreon, the economic engine of internet culture

#49

Post by paulgb »

almonj wrote: post #45
yedava wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

They banned a middle of the road conservative blogger, it has nothing to do with preventing harm. They got pressured by hardcore pro-government pro-mass immigration groups and caved. Very shameful and terribly stupid business decision making.

Which blogger are you referring to?

Re: Inside Patreon, the economic engine of internet culture

#50

Post by blacksmith_tb »

patcon wrote: post #18
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…

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…

I often would like to tip someone without establishing an ongoing relationship with their site/work - and I'd think that they'd rather get something instead of nothing from me.

While it may be more sustainable, I have to say that personally I strongly associate the subscription model with all sorts of late-capitalist scams, from gym memberships to Juicero. Which isn't to say that I am opposed to supporting people creating cool, ongoing work, but that's the exception, not the rule, to that model.

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