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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

#101

Post by nemothekid »

blacksmith_tb wrote: post #50
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…

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 cre…

In what way is a gym membership a scam?

Re: Inside Patreon, the economic engine of internet culture

#102

Post by biggerbistro »

eropple wrote: post #87
mrkrabo wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not a fan of the alt-right but the fact is that it's here to stay.

Probably true. So we fight them. It stinks and it sucks, but it's on all of us to do so to the best of our ability and those of us who were dealt a more fortunate set of life's lottery balls (and I say this as an affluent, straight, white, cis American) have a duty to use our good fortune to help others.

Isn't considering yourself lucky for being white a somewhat racist viewpoint? Perhaps you have more in common than you thought.

Re: Inside Patreon, the economic engine of internet culture

#103

Post by noir_lord »

burkaman wrote: post #97
EddieRingle wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What happens when sensible humans are no longer at the helm?

This question applies to every organization in the history of the world. It's logically impossible to design any kind of social system that can't be ruined by people.

Benevolent AI maybe?

More Iain Banks "Culture", that's the universe I'd choose out of all sci-fi to live in I think.

Re: Inside Patreon, the economic engine of internet culture

#104

Post by CaptSpify »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #80
CaptSpify wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess I'm not a big fan of too much social cohesion. I actually prefer societies that embrace differences. Though I would agree that can be taken to a dangerous extreme.

I'd be curious how, in your model, you'd moderate personal behaviors to tune macro results between social harmony and everyone being a low level sociopath. Historically, peer pressure and social moores provided that functionality. Isn't there a Black Mirror episode about this with social capital? [+] [+] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nosedive

> moderate personal behaviors to tune macro results between social harmony and everyone being a low level sociopath.

I guess I'm not sure what you mean by that. examples maybe?

Re: Inside Patreon, the economic engine of internet culture

#105

Post by fweespeech »

nostrebored wrote: post #66
paulgb wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which blogger are you referring to?

Lauren Southern. She was banned after throwing flares and attempting to block a ship (with no refugees on board) from leaving port to pick up refugees who she believes are being trafficked into Italy with the government's assistance. She was arrested for participation in this act of protest and then Patreon made the claim that her activities could have caused loss of life (which is ridiculous).

> She was arrested for participation in this act of protest and then Patreon made the claim that her activities could have caused loss of life (which is ridiculous).

You don't get to go into other countries, break their laws, and expect private corporations to back you to the hilt. They are under no obligation to put themselves at risk for your beliefs.

That isn't a reasonable expectation by any stretch of the imagination. Using the logic you are applying, you believe Patreon should be compelled to support the sales of "software" in the US even if its malware on the basis of free speech.

Re: Inside Patreon, the economic engine of internet culture

#106

Post by eduren »

blhack wrote: post #95
eduren wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1. There's currently only one creator I'm supporting, so its not that hard to justify for now. But considering that he puts out ~2 hours of quality video content per day, and I watch 90% of that, makes sense. 2. I like to compare it to my Netflix subscription. I'm pretty sure I watch this certain YT channel more than Netflix, so the $1 a month I give is a good deal IMO. 3. For most patrons, the goal is to enable the…

2 hours per day ? Who is that? That is a tremendous amount of video!

Relatively small video game channel:

https://www.youtube.com/user/ManyATrueNerd

https://www.reddit.com/r/ManyATrueNerd/

He puts out 2 videos a day, most averaging 45 min. Lots of good series plus frequent new game previews.

Re: Inside Patreon, the economic engine of internet culture

#108

Post by bluthru »

paulgb wrote: post #48
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.

First, she was just reporting on it. Second, she states that she hasn't given any Patreon money to Defend Europe: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rtImwK5TI4g

Re: Inside Patreon, the economic engine of internet culture

#109

Post by hwillis »

guelo wrote: post #91
PKop wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It can easily be exchanged for fiat currency, and what isn’t spent will appreciate. I see only positives in getting paid with it.

Bitcoin round trip fees are too high, cash to BTC back to cash probably averages 10-15%, plus the volatility risk. Patreon is not cheap, probably averaging 8-10%, but it is cheaper and obviously much more convenient.

And not very likely to get significantly cheaper than Patreon. Bitcoins etc still require a backbone of infrastructure to process payments through mining. Those people still need to be paid, and the computational overhead with bitcoins/alternatives is billions of times higher than raw financial transactions. The cost will never go to zero.

Even if it was as low as patreon dollars would be superior for 99% of people. When you need dinner on the table, dollars getting direct deposited into your account > worrying about bitcoin prices and selling coins. The only people who have any reason to switch are those who are producing content that is seen as intolerable, people trying to avoid taxes or the law, and people making moral stands.

Re: Inside Patreon, the economic engine of internet culture

#110

Post by mahyarm »

guelo wrote: post #91
PKop wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It can easily be exchanged for fiat currency, and what isn’t spent will appreciate. I see only positives in getting paid with it.

Bitcoin round trip fees are too high, cash to BTC back to cash probably averages 10-15%, plus the volatility risk. Patreon is not cheap, probably averaging 8-10%, but it is cheaper and obviously much more convenient.

10-15%!? Even coinbase with it's high fees is %3 + $0.50 round trip, which is pretty much equivalent to paypal. I would also think a crypto solution would probably take barely anything in management fees, unlike kickstarter and patreon. If your smart about it, you can use limit orders on something like GDAX and make it %0-%0.5.

Despite all of that, I don't think you need crypto for this. Patreon dropping people out of distaste is giving money to competitors who don't care. What would stop that is credit card companies refusing processing to these companies.

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