So Patreon has annouced a new "funding structure". This has everyone up in arms. I can see why. It is a crappy thing to do, at a crappy time, with no real benefit to the patrons.
*EDIT AT THE BOTTOM OF THE PAGE WITH UPDATES!!!*
Basically, from reading thier blog post HERE, it looks like they are taking fees for themselves twice and adding an extra service charge. And this is not per account, this is per pledge. So if you pledge $1 to one artist and $1 to another artist, they will take nearly that much in fees. They are framing it like they are giving more to the artist, but I don't see how that would benefit them. They are taking double fees so they can make money.
Now, don't get me wrong. I understand they are in the business of making money, not helping people. Helping people is great, but it doesn't put food on the table or pay bills. (Hence the reason artists need this kind of thing). But this....
Well, thier timing sucks. This is the month people are going to be tight on money because of the holiday season. Even if a person doesn't celebrate the holidays, or do christmas or whatever, most people take the opportunity to travel to see family they can't afford to see the rest of the year. Because this upper hemisphere is cold during this month, heating and food bills go way, way up. And due to the economy salaries are not. They are completely and utterly not going up. Many companies in my area of the world are laying off everyone and shutting down completely. I don't know if they even considered that. While I have not heard directly if any artists have been hit hard by people leaving in droves, I suspect many will no longer be able to afford to patreon anymore. If it is between feeding kids and paying an artist, feeding kids will always win out. As it should.
It does seem, reading all their posts and responses, that it could have waited until Feb....after the holidays are over, and after that first month of "what the hell did I do and how do I budget for paying for this" is ironed out. What I am not seeing is a good and sound reason not to announce it now and implient it in February. That gives people enough time to learn about it thoroughly, figure out how it is going to effect them and plan accordingly. This short 8 day turn around is not fair to those who have to change thier direction mid stream. In many cases, this will mean re-evaluating current systems in place and figuring out how to change them to accomodate. That is not an 8 day process. *EDIT: It would a little over 8 days. I realize I was a little late to this game.* This puts undue stress on everyone. And it SEEMS right now that the only motivation is they want more money immediately. They are not coming across like they care at all how this is going to effect thier customers and users. And if you want your customers and users on your side for a change that is only going to financially advantage you, that is not the way to go about it.
I have seen a bunch of people ranting and raving about how they are going to just jump ship, both artists and partons alike. While I understand the sentiment, that action will not fix this issue. As an artist, you are abandoning your fans, your community. Without a replacement option to go to, you are leaving them high and dry. When it takes months for you to figure out a new solution, they will move on to other artists and put thier money there. As a patron, you are abruptly leaving the artist you support without the monetary support they were counting on, only because you told them they could count on it.
Please don't let your knee jerk reactions to this announcement jeopardize a good idea.
If we can hold out, and figure this out, we may be able to get through this. Whether that is convincing Patreon to wait a bit, or figuring out a better solution for them...or creating a new solution that works better and is not subject to on the fly screw-overs.
I LOVE how many wonderful and talented artists I have seen flourish and grow their business because of our support. I LOVE seeing people able to do the things they love without having to grow ulcers wondering if corporate America will deem them worthy of supporting. I love to see all the new, creative, wierd, awesome, gruesome, thoughful and otherwise art that gets to be made because this is a thing.
It would break my heart to see all this stop because our knee jerk reaction to a bad and poorly implemented decision left a bad taste in everyone's mouths. Because, believe me, if enough people get burned, this won't be allowed to happen again. Trust would be broken, and that is hard to rebuild. But if we work together as a community, I am confident we can turn this debacle into something good.
Because we are creators...we are creative....that is what we do.
Amanda Palmer wrote a wonderful post about why she isn't leaving Patreon just yet. I agree with her wholeheartedly. It is important we stick with our communities. It is important that we as a community decide with our artists what we will support.
I have a lot more I want to say, but I think at this point I have said enough. We as a community, and you as part of this community, need to step up.
*EDIT: So Patreon LISTENED! They actually heard all the comments, took them into consideration, and decided to do what is best for everyone, not just them. This gives me hope. See, I told you we should give them a chance. :) If you wanna see thier full statement, you can read it HERE.
Faith in humanity restored. And Patreon has proven they are not just a coporate entity whose main goal is money, and the people are secondary. It was a bad decision that was not though through completely. They do good things for the creative community. Now that they have proven they are behind us, let's get behind them and give am another chance.
*EDIT AT THE BOTTOM OF THE PAGE WITH UPDATES!!!*
Basically, from reading thier blog post HERE, it looks like they are taking fees for themselves twice and adding an extra service charge. And this is not per account, this is per pledge. So if you pledge $1 to one artist and $1 to another artist, they will take nearly that much in fees. They are framing it like they are giving more to the artist, but I don't see how that would benefit them. They are taking double fees so they can make money.
Now, don't get me wrong. I understand they are in the business of making money, not helping people. Helping people is great, but it doesn't put food on the table or pay bills. (Hence the reason artists need this kind of thing). But this....
Well, thier timing sucks. This is the month people are going to be tight on money because of the holiday season. Even if a person doesn't celebrate the holidays, or do christmas or whatever, most people take the opportunity to travel to see family they can't afford to see the rest of the year. Because this upper hemisphere is cold during this month, heating and food bills go way, way up. And due to the economy salaries are not. They are completely and utterly not going up. Many companies in my area of the world are laying off everyone and shutting down completely. I don't know if they even considered that. While I have not heard directly if any artists have been hit hard by people leaving in droves, I suspect many will no longer be able to afford to patreon anymore. If it is between feeding kids and paying an artist, feeding kids will always win out. As it should.
It does seem, reading all their posts and responses, that it could have waited until Feb....after the holidays are over, and after that first month of "what the hell did I do and how do I budget for paying for this" is ironed out. What I am not seeing is a good and sound reason not to announce it now and implient it in February. That gives people enough time to learn about it thoroughly, figure out how it is going to effect them and plan accordingly. This short 8 day turn around is not fair to those who have to change thier direction mid stream. In many cases, this will mean re-evaluating current systems in place and figuring out how to change them to accomodate. That is not an 8 day process. *EDIT: It would a little over 8 days. I realize I was a little late to this game.* This puts undue stress on everyone. And it SEEMS right now that the only motivation is they want more money immediately. They are not coming across like they care at all how this is going to effect thier customers and users. And if you want your customers and users on your side for a change that is only going to financially advantage you, that is not the way to go about it.
I have seen a bunch of people ranting and raving about how they are going to just jump ship, both artists and partons alike. While I understand the sentiment, that action will not fix this issue. As an artist, you are abandoning your fans, your community. Without a replacement option to go to, you are leaving them high and dry. When it takes months for you to figure out a new solution, they will move on to other artists and put thier money there. As a patron, you are abruptly leaving the artist you support without the monetary support they were counting on, only because you told them they could count on it.
Please don't let your knee jerk reactions to this announcement jeopardize a good idea.
If we can hold out, and figure this out, we may be able to get through this. Whether that is convincing Patreon to wait a bit, or figuring out a better solution for them...or creating a new solution that works better and is not subject to on the fly screw-overs.
I LOVE how many wonderful and talented artists I have seen flourish and grow their business because of our support. I LOVE seeing people able to do the things they love without having to grow ulcers wondering if corporate America will deem them worthy of supporting. I love to see all the new, creative, wierd, awesome, gruesome, thoughful and otherwise art that gets to be made because this is a thing.
It would break my heart to see all this stop because our knee jerk reaction to a bad and poorly implemented decision left a bad taste in everyone's mouths. Because, believe me, if enough people get burned, this won't be allowed to happen again. Trust would be broken, and that is hard to rebuild. But if we work together as a community, I am confident we can turn this debacle into something good.
Because we are creators...we are creative....that is what we do.
Amanda Palmer wrote a wonderful post about why she isn't leaving Patreon just yet. I agree with her wholeheartedly. It is important we stick with our communities. It is important that we as a community decide with our artists what we will support.
I have a lot more I want to say, but I think at this point I have said enough. We as a community, and you as part of this community, need to step up.
*EDIT: So Patreon LISTENED! They actually heard all the comments, took them into consideration, and decided to do what is best for everyone, not just them. This gives me hope. See, I told you we should give them a chance. :) If you wanna see thier full statement, you can read it HERE.
Faith in humanity restored. And Patreon has proven they are not just a coporate entity whose main goal is money, and the people are secondary. It was a bad decision that was not though through completely. They do good things for the creative community. Now that they have proven they are behind us, let's get behind them and give am another chance.
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