Where should I go to short Kickstarter? I know they didn't go public so I'd like the next best way to invest in their likely outcome.
Kickstarter launches Drip, a Patreon competitor
71–80 of 87 posts
Re: Kickstarter launches Drip, a Patreon competitor
#72Earlier quoted context omitted.
Facebook only turned into such a hostile entity because it got big enough to exert real political influence. I'm not a fan of putting the future of content creation into the hands of the founders or eventual investors when Patreon inevitably goes public because they are just as likely to turn just as evil as Facebook if you gave them the same colossal war chest Facebook has, and Patreon has a much more reliable reven…
> Facebook only turned into such a hostile entity because it got big enough to exert real political influence. This evaluation is very shallow. Facebook has been a manipulative and unethical corporation for years, maybe forever. It's true that lots of companies start out fine and then start abusing their power once they get big. But Facebook is that and is unethical in other ways also . By design, Facebook is about c…
Patreon has been pushing features to publish content on their platform. They already have correlated user data not only between what people like, but what they are willing to pay for, and have mounds of comments and pledge data about all that behavior.
Patreon isn't about collecting personal info, but people are giving them personal info by the boatload and Patreon remains a private corporation at the end of the day. If they get big enough they will be presented with an opportunity to exert Facebook class influence, especially if (this is my fear) content creators start using patreon as their only platform, where they don't release their creative endeavors on other sites and services, the same way a lot of people only interact with others online via Facebook. The difference is good content creators are making legitimately valuable information unlike what the vast majority of Facebook is.
The crowding out effects of Facebook just limit access to insular echo chambers. The crowding out effects of Patreon, taken to the scale of Facebook, crowd out the market for artists, musicians, animators, game developers, software creators, almost any creative profession that gets so centralized on Patreon that operating in that industry de facto requires using Patreon. We are not nearly there yet, but given Patreons growth curve (and with knowledge of the growth rates of other abusive centralized services like Facebook) it is not something to just ignore the potential of.
There is always the possibility Patreon can be using its data already for nefarious purposes. We have no idea, the data is private, and if they are violating their own data collection TOS thats only a problem if users find out about it. Bulk collection by dozens of web properties has been going on for decades without consequences despite bogus terms of service and data privacy agreements, the fundamental problem with all those services is how little people care or are aware of the dangers of giving information freely.
Re: Kickstarter launches Drip, a Patreon competitor
#73Earlier quoted context omitted.
The problem with this approach is that trivial libraries (e.g. https://github.com/visionmedia/debug ) that are widely used would get a disproportionate amount of donations.
That doesn't sound like a problem. If it's so widely-used, is it really trivial?
I mean... yes. Some libraries would be easily replaced if they didn't exist. Others took substantial effort and deliver substantial value.
Re: Kickstarter launches Drip, a Patreon competitor
#74Re: Kickstarter launches Drip, a Patreon competitor
#75Earlier quoted context omitted.
Believe it or not. I have looked at this and it's now on my roadmap. As with the business that I am launching, there are additional services to come online. I'll either start my own ICO or using another coin is part of that. Whichever is the path of least resistance! I have seen that no limit coin can be purchased by Visa and there are stores in the US that take that for physical products. So as Mike Tyson says: "Eve…
Why do you need your own coin? What value would your own coin bring to anyone else?
this guy sounds nuts
Re: Kickstarter launches Drip, a Patreon competitor
#76Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think the point is not to attract people willing to take money in drips, but people willing to give money in drips. The taking side is the easy side. Getting people to give is the difficult side.
Really? The music that some people make (in my case, Peter Hollens, Taylor Davis, Clamavi De Profundis) makes me so happy I am very glad to give so they can make me more. In this world, it seems a very easy thing to understand that they can only make music if they are paid for it. This is the ideal model, there is no greedy studio stealing most of the money, I am directly connected to the artist, it just makes so muc…
I don't really understand what your comment has to do with my comment.
> This is the ideal model, there is no greedy studio stealing most of the money
They don't steal most of the money. They are paid according to whatever agreement they have between themselves and the artist. Typically for services rendered, like providing recording, mastering and marketing services.
Re: Kickstarter launches Drip, a Patreon competitor
#77I would like to hijacked this post to also mention Liberapay ( https://liberapay.com ) which is a fork of GitTip and ran by one of the original devs. I like it because it is a small, independent competitor to Patreon. It seems more suited to things that are not "art" or "internet celebrity", e.g. open source projects or political initiatives. It is like GitTip before the name change to Gratipay in that you don't need…
Nice! Would be interesting to have sites accept payments from librapay accounts, so it can be used as an alternative to paypal too (without the fees!)
Re: Kickstarter launches Drip, a Patreon competitor
#78I haven't read the article, but the branding absolutely sucks. When trying to generate income, Drip, is hardly the connotation I'd want. They should have gone with Flood or Tide. Something big and powerful MADE of Drips. I get what they were going for, but it seems like a tone deaf misfire. EDIT: And, as u/aronarduino pointed out elsewhere in this thread, the name is already taken (and the TLD drip.com) by a well est…
It's worth mentioning they actually had the domain drip.com but sold it to the current owners. (For a six figure sum, informed a person at the buying company in a recent podcast, Art of Product.)
Re: Kickstarter launches Drip, a Patreon competitor
#79I had an idea for a competitor in the Patreon space a couple of years ago, but with a twist that I feel would have made "patrons" much more comfortable with the whole thing. I even registered a domain, started on some coding, and consulted with some designers. But it quickly became apparent that financial gateways (credit cards, Paypal, etc) are hostile to the idea of allowing me to charge customer A, keep a cut, and…
I was going to write the exact same response. One day I'm going to write a blog post because the overwhelming response has been very hostile. Even when companies advertise that they do it. Here's my experience so far: Adyen. Overwhelmingly hostile to startups. All telephone numbers get routed to support. So if you call sales, someone in support answers. The individual who answers the phone also has very basic knowled…
Sorry to hear you didn’t get a straight answer from us by phone.
While we generally work with many high-growth startups, our solution for marketplaces is designed for enterprise merchants. We are currently streamlining our processes in order to support startups on our marketplace solution.
-Lucas
Re: Kickstarter launches Drip, a Patreon competitor
#80Is this something that be automated by a sufficiently advanced smart contract? It seems strange that energy is directed towards creating yet another market with yet another moat to capture money when such a service should be forced as close as possible to commodity pricing.