Earlier quoted context omitted.
Do you they not offer an unsubscribe option?
They do, but I don't like supporting services that opt you in to spam automatically.
I don't see how getting an email about the person you're supporting is spam.
Inside Patreon, the economic engine of internet culture
121–130 of 433 posts
Re: Inside Patreon, the economic engine of internet culture
#122Earlier quoted context omitted.
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
The whole point of money is that it's fungible. Saying there's no connection between incoming and outgoing revenue is is kinda nonsensical.
Re: Inside Patreon, the economic engine of internet culture
#123Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
Where did they say they wanted to block ships ? All I've seen is that they wanted to film & document the ONG's activities, to see if they are not engaging in human trafficking.
Here's a quote from her.
"If the politicians won't stop the boats, we'll stop the boats… and we'll be back with more boats..."
Re: Inside Patreon, the economic engine of internet culture
#124Earlier quoted context omitted.
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
This was a quote from Lauren Southern.
"If the politicians won't stop the boats, we'll stop the boats… and we'll be back with more boats..."
She was arrested by the Italian Coastguard for attempting to block a boat, she wasn't just reporting that someone else was doing it. She was clearly participating.
Re: Inside Patreon, the economic engine of internet culture
#125I 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://…
>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.
The pressure will always be to the biggest platforms, and those are conventional ones. Creators will be easier to discover on the bigger platform- if you already support someone on patreon, you can find similar creators, incentivizing creators to join patreon. Bigger platforms also have economies of scale and head starts on making beautiful, convenient interfaces.
The pressure towards established platforms will always be greater than the pressure towards permissive, decentralized platforms. Patreon just has to not fuck up too bad and they will still have the monetary advantage on 99% of creators (well... unless they kick off all of the camgirls).
A more interesting question is whether Patreon would ever switch to bitcoin. They could take a much bigger percentage. They could leverage their size to provide more stable prices, or even just force creators to accept bitcoin's volatility. The platform would still be central and moderated, and if someone managed to create a decentralized alternative with good bitcoin pricing, Patreon would be able to outprice them. There would be basically no path towards a decentralized alternative at that point.
The risk/reward is still too low for Patreon, I think. As is, a patron decides how much money the creator gets and is basically blind to how much they pay unless they check their statements. Neither party would really see an advantage to switching to bitcoin, since Patreon and the creators would still get the same amount of money, and the Patrons mostly aren't aware of the potential extra 30 cents. They're also very unlikely to care.
Re: Inside Patreon, the economic engine of internet culture
#126Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
Where did they say they wanted to block ships ? All I've seen is that they wanted to film & document the ONG's activities, to see if they are not engaging in human trafficking.
[deleted]
Re: Inside Patreon, the economic engine of internet culture
#127Earlier quoted context omitted.
The alt-right is not "middle-of-the-road conservative". The alt-right is literal-not-figurative fascism with memes and, occasionally, good dress sense. If you consider white supremacists (oh, sorry, white nationalists (oh, sorry, ethno-nationalists )) to be "middle of the road conservatives," there is a profoundly deeper problem in your calculus.
> The alt-right is literal-not-figurative fascism What gives you this impression?
I can give you fourteen words. Or eighty-eight, if you'd rather.
Re: Inside Patreon, the economic engine of internet culture
#128Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
I don't think AI really solves the problem. The question "What happens when sensible humans are no longer at the helm?" really means "What happens when people with different priorities are at the helm?" It's totally possible for a sane being, artificial or not, to take over Patreon and prioritize profit, or enforce their own values, or even shut down the site.
The core problem is that you're interacting with entities you can't control. It's almost tautological; if you can't control them, by definition they can do things you don't like.
I've only read the first Culture book, but I'm pretty sure the Idirans didn't feel like the Culture AIs were "sensible".
Re: Inside Patreon, the economic engine of internet culture
#129I 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…
It is about the entertainment, perks, and access. So depending on the creator how I go about it. For one person the highest level of perk is $5, and they also have thousands of supporters, so I only do $5, but for another they have much fewer contributors, and I really enjoy what they do, so I donate more. Which gets me email / discord access directly to the creator at a higher level. I get to be a part of it, and I enjoy that. But if I stop listening to a podcast, and start a different one, I may switch my support to them, as a way of balancing the budget. I will stick with supporting someone as long as I derive value from it, and feel they still need it. I have a couple I am thinking about reducing, but will see how things go over the next couple months before I decide for sure.
Re: Inside Patreon, the economic engine of internet culture
#130Patreon is starting to take off for open source, too, which is great. I set one up and it offsets a good deal of the infrastructure costs for my projects. Many FOSS Patreons have pretty low figures - please go looking for them and support your tools!
Let us be honest though, github is bad enough that so many free software projects are using a proprietary web service for project organization. Having the primary source of proceeds to keep the project afloat also on a proprietary web service is really, really dangerous.
It's a difficult problem for sure. I actually built an open source donation platform before I did a Patreon page [0]. Over the past 2 years, I've earned $1500 on it. I've always had an average of maybe $20-30/mo in recurring donations, plus anywhere from $0-$300/mo in one-offs (usually on the left of that scale). Until last month, I had been making $30/mo in recurring donations on the FOSS platform, and now I'm up to $50/mo.
I started the Patreon page two months ago and it was pushing $100/mo within a week, and without any noticable disruption to my FOSS donations - it effectively increases my donation flow 3x-4x. Patreon is a platform people already trust with their CC# and people are already supporting other creators on. Reducing the barrier of entry can get you way more money, which makes a big difference. Patreon also makes it clear that your support is meant to be recurring, which has a big impact on the long term viability of the income stream.
I still accept donations through the FOSS portal, and point people there first if they ask me directly how to donate. But it doesn't make sense to turn down Patreon, either.
Aside: I'm working on an open source git platform too, I feel you wrt GitHub.