Patreon passes fees to Patrons - dramatically increases the cost of small donations

[WYP]

More transparency but higher costs for Patrons.



Read more on Patreon's changes to their fees/donations system.

 

[notcool]

I'll still use it alot of the channels I watch which are not PC(politically correct according to YT advertising) have been hit hard by recent monetisation changes. I pledge to about 6 or 7 with the top one being $5.

 

[MacLeod]

Yeah this is a stupid and shortsighted policy change. It's like I give you $100 and you charge me $1 to take it. I cannot see how that is a proper business model. Patreon doesn't give us squat. They're just a middle man that takes our donations and gives it to a 3rd party. Why would I want to pay them to support a site, they're a service we don't need and could easily do without? I'd rather just support the site directly. The geniuses at Patreon seem to think that WE, the ones giving money away, are their customers and are due to pay some fees. The content creators are their customers and should be handling the fees. After all, the money they get from us is 100% profit so even if they have to pay 10% commissions, they're still getting 100% profit from the donations because they're DONATIONS.

If Patreon isn't careful they're going to price themselves right out of business cause I'm paying money to support sites I like, not Patreon.

 

[NeverBackDown]

Never used this for anybody but I think people who donate should not have any fees. The person receiving them should be paying fees.

 

[MacLeod]

Never used this for anybody but I think people who donate should not have any fees. The person receiving them should be paying fees.

I like the idea of Patreon because it supports sites out there that offer up information that you really can't find anywhere else but they don't get the traffic and ad revenue larger sites do. Gamers Nexus for example has some of the most in depth and technical while still being understandable to the average Joe SixPack like me but they've got only a fraction of the traffic Linus does despite having articles that are light years ahead in information. I bought my motherboard based on their video on the best AM4 motherboards which went in depth about VRM's and the boards durability and that was the ONLY place I was able to find information like that about any AM4 motherboard. That's why I support them with a couple bucks a month.

So yeah, there are a lot of review sites out there that basically just read off a products marketing literature but have zillions of subscribers but channels and sites like Gamers Nexus and OC3D even, have much more in depth, practical and informative articles but a 1/5th of the subscribers. Patreon is a good way to support those guys who aren't as mainstream.

 

[Kleptobot]

If you're donating to someone through patreon then a small increase in cost probably won't influence you that much, seeing as the spirit with which people donate is unlikely linked to monetary return

 

[SuB]

If you're donating to someone through patreon then a small increase in cost probably won't influence you that much, seeing as the spirit with which people donate is unlikely linked to monetary return

38 cents on a dollar donation is *not* a small increase.

Anyone paying for $1 donations is going to suddenly be charged $1.379

That is not an acceptable way to do business, it's a crafty move and I've switched all my pledges off until other means are available.

 

[WYP]

Never used this for anybody but I think people who donate should not have any fees. The person receiving them should be paying fees.

I agree with this. Yes, Patreon's new method is more transparent, but goodness it really hurts those who rely on small donations and users who give a number of small donations to a larger number of creators.

I like the idea of Patreon because it supports sites out there that offer up information that you really can't find anywhere else but they don't get the traffic and ad revenue larger sites do. Gamers Nexus for example has some of the most in depth and technical while still being understandable to the average Joe SixPack like me but they've got only a fraction of the traffic Linus does despite having articles that are light years ahead in information. I bought my motherboard based on their video on the best AM4 motherboards which went in depth about VRM's and the boards durability and that was the ONLY place I was able to find information like that about any AM4 motherboard. That's why I support them with a couple bucks a month.

So yeah, there are a lot of review sites out there that basically just read off a products marketing literature but have zillions of subscribers but channels and sites like Gamers Nexus and OC3D even, have much more in depth, practical and informative articles but a 1/5th of the subscribers. Patreon is a good way to support those guys who aren't as mainstream.

Patreon does offer a valuable service, especially when users want to see content that is otherwise cost prohibitive due to either time investments or lack of viewership.

If you're donating to someone through patreon then a small increase in cost probably won't influence you that much, seeing as the spirit with which people donate is unlikely linked to monetary return

I disagree with this, yes people who give will want to keep giving, but I know a lot of people who give small amounts to a group of streamers/creators. Having the cost increase will cause a lot of patrons to either stop some of their pledges to not be out of money or consolidate their giving to fewer, larger pledges to their favourite streamers to save on fees.

38 cents on a dollar donation is *not* a small increase.

Anyone paying for $1 donations is going to suddenly be charged $1.379

That is not an acceptable way to do business, it's a crafty move and I've switched all my pledges off until other means are available.

Definitely, the increase is substantial for those who cannot afford large pledges. There are also a lot of Creators on the platform that have no reward tier above $2, particularly musicians on the platform, which will no doubt hit them hard.

 

[MacLeod]

Patreon does offer a valuable service, especially when users want to see content that is otherwise cost prohibitive due to either time investments or lack of viewership.

It offers a service to the content creators who can't make it on ad revenue not to us contributors. All they do is act as a middle man for donations. I could easily give my donation to the content creators directly. I don't need to use a middle man to take my free money and so that middle man charging me to take my free money that I'm not even giving to them is an idiotic business model and one that's probably not going to last very long.

And are there really any content creators out there that can't make it without Patreon? Lots of the sites I donate to have been around long before Patreon. And honestly, if your business can only survive off donations, then it's probably not a very good business. That's how charities work, not business models.

 

[Dawelio]

I could easily give my donation to the content creators directly.

I'm sorry here guys, but could someone please explain to me what this service really does?... Since I don't really get it from the article nor overall.

Since from my time, a donation that I've made has always gone straight and directly to the user that I want to donate to. And they get the full amount.

Cause from everyone's posts and from MacLeod above, it seems like this isn't the case here?... What is this nonsense and completely unnecessary?.

Donations is simple (unless they have now been changed?); You pay/give away a certain amount of money of your own choosing, to another specific user. Plain and simple, this seems to have made it gone from simple to incredibly weird and complicated?.

 

[WYP]

I'm sorry here guys, but could someone please explain to me what this service really does?... Since I don't really get it from the article nor overall.

Since from my time, a donation that I've made has always gone straight and directly to the user that I want to donate to. And they get the full amount.

Cause from everyone's posts and from MacLeod above, it seems like this isn't the case here?... What is this nonsense and completely unnecessary?.

Donations is simple (unless they have now been changed?); You pay/give away a certain amount of money of your own choosing, to another specific user. Plain and simple, this seems to have made it gone from simple to incredibly weird and complicated?.

Patreon offers their users the ability to get all of their donations in a single monthly lump sum which they can easily label as income for taxes. Financially it is much easier to keep track of than individual payments/donations.

Patreon also offers their users the ability to send messages to each Patron tier, which is much simpler than an individual creator making a similar rewards tier system for themselves.

 

[MacLeod]

I'm sorry here guys, but could someone please explain to me what this service really does?... Since I don't really get it from the article nor overall.

Since from my time, a donation that I've made has always gone straight and directly to the user that I want to donate to. And they get the full amount.

Cause from everyone's posts and from MacLeod above, it seems like this isn't the case here?... What is this nonsense and completely unnecessary?.

Donations is simple (unless they have now been changed?); You pay/give away a certain amount of money of your own choosing, to another specific user. Plain and simple, this seems to have made it gone from simple to incredibly weird and complicated?.

In addition to what WYP explained, Patreon is basically a middle man for donations. I donate to HardOCP and Gamers Nexus. Instead of me giving money straight to them, I send it to Patreon and they give it to [H] and GN minus their commission. However Patreon has now decided to charge US, the guys giving free money to sites like [H] and GN for the pleasure of giving it to Patreon first. This is idiotic and ridiculous. I'm not wanting to support Patreon, I'm wanting to support HardOCP and Gamers Nexus. I don't need Patreon at all, they offer nothing to me so making me pay them a fee is a great way to get me to just stop donating altogether.

It is a very shortsighted business model and one I don't understand at all. Patreon offers me nothing so now they're going to charge me a fee to offer me nothing?