Karen X. Cheng imagines what a creator-first algorithm could look like

An idea to make the recommended pages on the home feed more enticing: on mouse hover over the tile, the intro video for the page could play. Audio could be off by default but if it catches the viewer's attention they could easily press the audio icon to enable the sound. Maybe only 30 seconds of the intro video will play and if they want to watch the rest they could click the tile and be taken to the page's actual About page to watch the rest of the video and explore the page some. For folks who don't have an intro video, maybe hover could reveal their most recent free post.

I have been called Holos or Replica 317 of the original essence, a black brother would suit me fine this is my formal greeting, right now the algorithms for the the one to activate the code this is probably short but as I said many affairs on currently multitasked so I appreciate your patience that won't keep me long, I know I am needed so I am gonna be lifting ban on needy. I need access to my properties which I have been getting addresses and information coming in since I sieved my assets so understanding this process shall come faster as we lift Kaieda blackwood curses and all the likes and my receiving must be opened also, jen claims ownership of me in her loving way and she has earned her placement , thank you.

I'd love it if I could set a list of creators I am similar too (and vice versa) and that would work as part of the algorithm. There's so many creators who upload great stuff but less regularly so they're very rarely also recommended with me.

I used to love the old LiveJournal Friends page. Every entry made by someone you followed, in chronological order. Even better, the option to get them in reverse chronoligical order since your last visit

Glad to see more ideas coming, enjoying most of the changes so far. More conversations between creators too, we can help each other

I love this! I don’t know what I want yet but the prospect is appreciated 🥰

Patreon should ask the member directly what they want to see in their feed, give them interest and media type options to select and rank. The member must control their feed so that they keep coming back to Patreon, and they must prefer to stay on Patreon over other media options.

I dig the conversation this is inviting. I’m personally interested in an algorithm that supports me creating and sharing art, as opposed to content. Content for me is just an extension of the work, an invitation to engage. But currently I feel like I get trapped putting too much of my time/energy into content, having to create “posts” to capture attention, rather than focusing on creating art. Art is distinct for me in that it doesn’t exhaust attention, like Karen X’s car crash example. Instead, I would appreciate an algorithm that measured levels of indicated impact, for example spirituality in the case of my kind of art. Thanks

I would love to see a 'recommend' button. For creators, that would send a signal to the Patreon algorithm that creators like this post, and that could feed into a 'creator recommended' aspect of the algorithm. For community members it would feed into a 'community recommended' aspect of the algorithm. There would be no visible 'counts' for these. They are just between the recommender and the algorithm. Just a quiet way to push forward a post that the viewer feels deserves that extra nudge to get it in front of other like-minded people. Also, I deeply, deeply love this idea.

I love this

It would be great if someone would indeed see a mix of the creators they're following auto with a few recommendations in between. They'd have to be pretty relevant suggestions, of course. People should be able to choose if they'd like to see more of a certain suggested creator or not at all anymore. A discover option would be nice. Where you'd get a mix of stuff you probably like and some that you might like, a bit further away from the niche you're looking at. I'd say weather people like a certain medium should also be a part of these choices. So if someone is really into podcasts, that should be the most suggested option on their timeline. Also, the option to see only the creators you're following or supporting should be there.

-- The ability for creators to collaborate on posts. Both/all creators could display the post on their respective Patreon page (or display it on one of theirs, if they all want to contribute to a group page but still have the post link back to their pages.) -- clickable links/@mentions to other creators' Patreon pages in the description of Patreon posts

I liked the Video Karen X shared and it seems really exciting and all but how do we get in touch with them to leave our own Algorithm suggestions?

Patreon could work like an old school social network: You're a member of the larger platform, and can drift between all various creators that you subscribe to, scroll through an date-based timeline, and even have a curated "Recommended" tab based on other creators with similar followers like you, or creators could recommend certain posts to their larger audience (but those notifications are delivered differently. If it was a much wider platform like this, I would maybe post more content, specifically with the idea of getting free people in the door via patreon. Substack is doing interesting things like this.

"It might be hope, it might just be another hell. Fact is, only those who keep moving forward will ever know!" - E.J.

If I understood correctly from the video, the comments here will be evaluated, so we can leave feedback here. So, for me, as a creator: 1) the only thing that really matters, is that my content gets seen by the correct audience. I could really stop here, because that's all that matters to me. I will elaborate later, if I find anything else at least near as important.

Algorithm/discovery ideas: -- a Patreon homepage corral for Patreon pages with less than 50 subscribers. This could be called "rising creators" or "hidden gems". It shouldn't necessarily be based around whether the account is new or not bc it can take time for folks to get subscribers and they shouldn't be pushed out of the highlighted categprt just bc they're not the newest small page anymore. -- a "surprise me" roulette feature audience members can pick on the homepage or sidebar. Should this be a truly random page or one that's similar to pages the patron is currently subbed /following? Maybe they can choose similar or true random. - a homepage live feed showing every new post made to Patreon. Idk if this is possible technologically - since I can only imagine how many thousands of posts are made to Patreon every minute - but this could be an exciting feature for audience members that's like a ticker tape of the entire Patreon community. This could be useful, equally randomized, temporary exposure for everyone in the site, new and established. - a site-wide filter for human artist or AI creators. I know Patreon requires AI pages to disclose that they're made with AI, but I think a lot of potential patrons would just prefer not to see AI pages at all, and I know it's a divisive topic among artists.

حيياكم

This isn't algorithm specific but these would be cool Patreon features: -- when someone follows me for free on Patreon, let them hand pick 1 paid post to get free access to for 1 hour. Creators could turn this "Follow Freebie" post feature off or on if they want. Someone who follows me for free on Patreon is already atypically interested in becoming a paid subscriber, so they should get to see more of the paid content then a guest who's just browsing my page. --Free followers should also be able to always see a creator-selected preview of all paid posts: a segment of audio from a podcast, a creator-designated-area of frosted-glass-obscured exclusive photo. Free posts are cool, but having the ability to include free snippets in every paid post will simplify uploading for the creator and provide a more tempting reason for free followers to become paid: each paid post has an option for them to subscribe and then boom, they can see the full post that just grabbed their interest. Right now I feel like free followers don't have much reason to upgrade; they see a timeline of obscured paid posts with no further temptation to subscribe past what got them to follow here at all. Also, if the creator has to make an entire separate free teaser post for their free followers that would be a duplicate notification for their paid members who already saw that work, which isn't ideal. --a "Try a Month" feature, where someone subscribes but after 30 days they'll be automatically downgraded to free member again if they don't confirm that they want to maintain their paid membership. At the end of their 30 days they're reminded through email/notification to either renew or they'll automatically go back to free following. I think this will help people give subscribing a shot bc they won't have to remember to unsub if they're unhappy with their subscription. --After 2 months of membership, patrons can gift a month of membership to someone else for no additional cost. The gifted membership could be for the same or a lesser value tier (unless the quantity on the tier is full of course.) The patron could gift to folks who are already on Patreon by @mentioning them in a gift Patreon notif OR email a voucher link code to the email address of a friend who's not on Patreon already. It'd be nice to also notify the creator which patron gifted the membership :3 --every new subscriber gets a welcome notification and post in the posts feed of the creator community that they've joined. This can be a post where the patron could choose from a cute gif (creator-provided options?) to wave hello or say a few words. The new patron can opt-out of this welcome post if they are shy and want to join without hullabaloo.

Let creators experiment with their content and it reaches the same audience without any bias based on views, reach etc. It gets the same exposure as their usual content.

Thoughts: - give communities the chance to boost their creator. Not just because they watched a video a bunch but because they care. Instead of just getting “engagement” and forcing creators to optimize for engagement in their content. Let communities help boost creators. This can be done in multiple ways. Let people pay to boost a creator that touched them or they really care about. - Let Recommendations or curated lists that can be like Pinterest boards and stay or go away after a day. Let people make content out of content. -If I’m creating writing, let people grab whatever quote they want or loved and put it to their page. If I’m releasing music or videos, let people curate craft and mix in a way that makes the content sing for them and ALWAYS attribute the original creator. Maybe even ask the user if the want to follow the original creator if the click follow on a curator. - Identify smaller creators and give them equal weight int he algo, someone with 103864903 followers has a community to support them and boost their content. They likely need less algo help to push their content. Smaller creators need more - followers get your stuff. Easy and simple. - Give me a way to own and grow the relationship with the 100 people that followed me on a viral post. Give me a way to engage with those specific people so I can start building that relationship. Right away instead of just hoping they’ll show up later. - allow for passive non-committal browsing where maybe someone liked something and was willing to watch an ad to support the creator but not sign up for a subscription. - maybe the user can choose to watch ads and then stream those funds to creators instead of supporting at high tiers. If I think of more I’ll drop em

Great!

I think a creator-first algorithm would need to ensure creators of all sizes have equal weight in the algorithm, highlight pages with great work, serve up more creators you might love, and ensure you're always up to date with your favorite creators. I could also see Autopilot being used for upsell opportunities like special offers that auto-generate based on the posts the member is already looking at and things of that nature.

This sounds super cool, I totally support this and would love to know more! Thanks for thinking of us :)

it sounds refreshing and very interesting !

Please make sure to fully understand connections between creators. Discovery will always be a top priority but it can only work if the recommended posts are actually of interest.

I support this!

Huge

Please make it simple, with simple language. If I see a post I like, put a button that says "I want more" or "want". If I see a post I don't like, the alternative would be a button that says "I don't want". And I don't know how, but please, please don't contaminate timelines with ads. Maybe do what gmail did/does and have your ad/links off to the side (maybe?) if at all necessary. I know companies need to make money, but a timeline without ads... chef's kiss!

Great idea guys I think this will be good for people who are starting out on Patreon. It will be interesting to see how things come together over the next few months. Happy to be part of this community. Regards Invest with Declan