Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

How to compete with Patreon

siderea.dreamwidth.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

201–210 of 234 posts

Re: How to compete with Patreon

#201

Post by Trung0246 »

notpachet wrote: post #161
jp57 wrote: post #151

I think it's cute that he thinks someone could build and maintain well all the things he wants for less than 5% in commission and also not pass along processing fees, on what he admits is a micropayment processor. That said, I don't understand the motivation for Patreon's decision to stop bundling payments, unless they're being forced to by issuing banks or payment processors for some reason. EDIT: Thinking about it…

> I don't understand the motivation for Patreon's decision to stop bundling payments The way I understand it, the motivation is that they're losing money on bundled microtransactions until customers cross some monthly threshold (let's say that's the $14.29 mentioned in the article). So let's say a customer has a $1 monthly subscription to Creator A, and another $1 subscription to Creator B, adding up to a bundled $2…

So it sounds like "in-game currency" at this point (from the minimum $15 charge)

Re: How to compete with Patreon

#202

Post by hoofhearted »

Would anyone be interested in a self hosted version of what Patreon offers for creators?

I have been working on a free Wordpress alternative that is built with React, and removes the guard rails and burdens for creators that WP creates.

https://github.com/elegantframework/elegant-cli

I have had requests to include Twitch like features such as tipping, subscriptions, and power ups.

I started planning out these features to get them into the development pipeline and I realized that some of these features are the value that Patreon creates.

Would developers/creators be interested in having subscription tiers, tips, power ups, rewards, etc, on their own website alongside their content?

I am currently working with a local creator who recently switched over to us; and we are piloting ways to level up his content on his domain by linking his Patreon account.

But as the author of the article mentioned, this creator goes by a stage name when he’s connecting with fans.

https://mankini.tv/

https://mankini.tv/interviews/mankini-interviews-buzz-osborn...

Re: How to compete with Patreon

#203

Post by zem »

the section on "non quid pro quo" patronage perfectly sums up what i want out of the site, to the extent that i never even log in to look at "patrons-only" stuff. i pay to support artists who are sharing things with the world, so that they can continue to do so.

Re: How to compete with Patreon

#204

Post by olah_1 »

sebzim4500 wrote: post #160
olah_1 wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The biggest proof to me that nobody uses Monero is that something as simple as proving payments is like pulling teeth. Yes, you can go into advanced settings and copy a payment proof. But then how do you get it to a retailer? What does the retailer do with it. It's not part of the normal consumer flow use case, and that tells me that people still think of it like a toy and not a serious tool.

Generally people use Monero just to hide the connection between two wallets on BTC/ETH. Either for money laundering or just privacy. I don't see why you'd need it here, where you are purchasing something legal but unpopular with payment processors.

Why would anyone want to avoid the panopticon if what they are doing is legal? Leaving a trail of metadata on everything you do is just not always desirable.

In terms of privacy, I don’t see using Monero as different from using Cash.

Re: How to compete with Patreon

#205

Post by olah_1 »

teekert wrote: post #180
olah_1 wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The biggest proof to me that nobody uses Monero is that something as simple as proving payments is like pulling teeth. Yes, you can go into advanced settings and copy a payment proof. But then how do you get it to a retailer? What does the retailer do with it. It's not part of the normal consumer flow use case, and that tells me that people still think of it like a toy and not a serious tool.

Not sure what Monero has to do with it :) But to your point of not being able to use btc normally, in everyday life. Sure, but it's chicken and egg. If artists start to make some serious satoshis, they will naturally look for a nice place to exchange, it will come. Meanwhile, I can now listen to a music podcast, stream satoshis back, the satoshis are split between podcaster (DJ) and artist. If I boost (send some extr…

> Not sure what Monero has to do with it :)

The comment just got me thinking of crypto currency in general as an alternative. If someone had something to say about Monero, they could see my comment and engage

Re: How to compete with Patreon

#206

Post by exizt88 »

lolinder wrote: post #127
exizt88 wrote: post #74

Anyone who has tried to build a pay-by-work model for digital creators knows that it’s simply an awful business model. There just isn’t that much demand for creator work. And there are no “whales” among these customers to compensate. No one’s buying 10 copies of a math explainer video.

We're working in software, overhead is extraordinarily low. It might be a bad model for a VC-funded startup, but there's almost certainly enough demand to support a tiny bootstrapped team.

Yeah, but your customer acquisition cost becomes your overhead. And it can easily take up 30-50% of your unit economics. Anyone who's tried building SaaS for creators knows that it's a very tough crowd to sell to.

Re: How to compete with Patreon

#207

Post by majani »

mannyv wrote: post #148

There's a lot of talk about tipping, consumers, etc. Being a Patron (which is what Patreon was trying to do) traditionally meant supporting someone, no matter what their output. If your tortured genius put out one work a year, so be it. If they popped out Sunflowers then even better! There doesn't have to be any quid pro quo at all. It's what we now call Basic Income financed by someone's surplus. Don't overthink it.…

Exactly. The reason Patreon has been able to get away with a basic platform is because they served a basic need: giving your faves money.

They also had good timing since they allowed you to send your faves money before the creator platforms developed in-house solutions.

Re: How to compete with Patreon

#208

Post by mattdesl »

jowea wrote: post #77
mattdesl wrote: post #41

Crypto could provide a competitive edge to certain features in Patreon (and Bandcamp). - Instead of 4-7% payment processing fees, it can be effectively zero[1] - Instead of 8-12% fees (or 15% in case of Bandcamp), crypto industry standards tend to be in the 0-5% range. It’s not always clear to me as a creator and patron why such a significant amount of value needs to be captured for a digital asset sale. - Users of t…

> - Instead of 4-7% payment processing fees, it can be effectively zero[1] There are disadvantages to using Layer 2 of a blockchain, and you are ignoring the costs of on-boarding and off-boarding from cryptocurrency. > - Users of the platform could be given more control such as forking the OSS protocol if the core devs go off the rails or try to extract more than what users feel it’s worth. This is especially interes…

> There are disadvantages to using Layer 2 of a blockchain, and you are ignoring the costs of on-boarding and off-boarding from cryptocurrency.

Yes, it's not a panacea, but has the potential to be far lower than the current status quo.

> In this case you're speaking of doing Patreon on the blockchain, not merely using cryptocurrency transactions? How would that work and how wouldn't it be cheaper and easier to do with a public, possibly federated, server running a FOSS Patreon software?

It can be both; using smart contracts to facilitate payments and identity, and some form of federated or decentralized protocol for communication and discovery (e.g. Farcaster).

> Are settlement times going down with FedNow? And even CC transactions take seconds, do the content creators care that much about getting the money immediately and isn't that a greater fraud risk?

Not everybody lives in the USA, and yes creators would likely appreciate lowering payout schedules from days to hours.

> I admit to not being familiar with the situation but aren't all transactions public on the blockchain?

Yes, like Monero but with smart contracts and verifiable computation via ZK-SNARKs. It is possible, but in its infancy: see Aztec and Aleo.

> What about illegally acceptable revenue streams? How would such a platform stop being banned due to illegal content?

The primary hosts can choose not to serve the illegal content; it would redirect the behaviour to alternative platforms. Similar to a popular Mastodon server choosing not to allow NSFW, but other servers might allow NSFW.

Re: How to compete with Patreon

#209

Post by hoofhearted »

hoofhearted wrote: post #202

Would anyone be interested in a self hosted version of what Patreon offers for creators? I have been working on a free Wordpress alternative that is built with React, and removes the guard rails and burdens for creators that WP creates. https://github.com/elegantframework/elegant-cli I have had requests to include Twitch like features such as tipping, subscriptions, and power ups. I started planning out these feature…

I got downvotted lol.. I'll take that as a "Yes, build it" from the haters.

I'll set up a payment gateway with Stripe and whitelabel their subscription service to offer content creators a Patreon like experience on their own website, and post a SHOW HN for feedback.

Stay tuned : )

Re: How to compete with Patreon

#210

Post by Razengan »

By the way, regarding software, why isn't "donationware" more of a thing?

i.e. release the base product at a low price (or for free) and just give an option for users who really like it to donate you whatever they want, however many times they want.

Post reply on HN