Thoughts on Patreon's New Fees

BTW, thank you for sharing the info and your thoughts, Tim. It is greatly appreciated.

I'm torn... If you (and the other creators I support) were to offer an alternative, I would jump immediately. But, I want to keep supporting... So, I am going to stick with it for now, but I am not happy with this, and honestly it is more the sleazy way this has come down than the change itself. Giving 11 days notice on something they admit they worked on for over a year is just not something I feel is above board... So, I am ready to move elsewhere, but I know there is really no other alternative at the moment, making it feel even more sleazy from Patreon.

As mentioned in my previous comment this won't really hurt me too bad but it does sting a little. I'm a bit iffy with the idea of a separate payment system as I do like the idea of having everything in one place. That being said I wish Patreon would allow more customization's or create a method of logging in to Patreon on an outside website (like we log in here then click your name to log into an ad free version of your website with the extra content). I'm hoping that they don't actually charge processing fees for each creator, if they applied the new charge to the total it wouldn't be that bad but my faith in humanity isn't all that strong these days.

The worst thing to me is that I'm not in the US and I don't get paid in dollars. I'm Brazilian, I live in Brazil and I get my salary in 'Reais'. So I have to deal with exchange rate, and US$ 1 = R$ 3.28. So every increase by Patreon gets multiplied by 3.28. And if the rates changes, it could get even worse. I started as a US$ 5 patreon, and as the exchange rate went up and my finances changed, I had to go down to US$ 3. Now, since I have multiple pledges, I might have to lower even more or even stop some of those pledges. I don't believe Patreon was considering pledges from people living out of the US. I don't think they care either. One thing Patreon could do is leave it for creators to decide what they want. If they want to keep the old way, or if they want to switch to the new way.

I'd love for Patreon to become the Hub for reading your comics. Right now it's kinda odd that I get the comic a few days early, but the related blog post and alike only the day it's public (so I end up following both).

Based on Patreon's actions I've stopped subscribing to several creators that I was pledged at the $1 tier for them, but I'll still follow you, for now. If you decide to move, I would probably follow. I want to support you, but don't support what Patreon is doing, especially since they never consulted the actual creators, nor does it seem as though they thought it through because they will be losing money due to this as well.

You are currently the only patron I pledged for. I was considering another guy on youtube but I won't now. I am not paying much (< 5$) so the increase is visible. Even though the end of year is financially rough, I won't stop supporting you because of a few cents difference a month. But if you ever turn to other services or find a viable solution, I'll gladly follow :) People suggested a yearly pledge. I agree it could allow to "soak" a bit of the fees, but you can't live with a yearly income. I wonder why companies like Patreon do not accept yearly subscriptions, then equally dividing and redistributing it monthly. I don't think the fees at the redistribution level are that high...

I'll be sticking with you here, but I have removed a per submission sub I did have.

Monthlies like you don't bother me much. I do have a pair of per-submission Patron subs, though, which is plausibly going to be an issue with this change...

When I lost my job I dropped down to just supporting this comic. If I had been still supporting all the creators I uses support, it would have had to eat over $40. That is because I was around $150 pledged with 15 creators.

You’re my only Patreon pledge, so I can afford to stick around and hope that Patreon gets enough negative blowback on this to make some changes before it hurts you and other creators. But it has certainly deterred me from thinking about supporting other creators on this platform, and it means I’m ready to jump ship if you are.

I'm okay moving to another service, especially since Patreon doesn't make a good "archive". I still go to the website to read old comics, not here. I think a service with an annual fee is a good suggestion too.

I only support you.... I will not cancel over this but yes it pisses me off.... definitely would join you at kickstarter....

To re-clarify: i cancelled to make a statement. Not to you, but to patreon. I hope the spike is steep and very very visible for patreon. If you try anything else like patreon, I'll probably be coming along. Even if it's just to make a point.

I cancelled. No fault of yours. I suggested converting to a 15$ per year tier in the cancellation poll. Or something along those lines. I don't really want to pledge much more than I already do (again, not because your stuff doesn't deserve it - it does! - I try to spread money over a few things I like, so I pledged at the 1$ tier everywhere).

One suggestion though Tim, don't get your pledge levels but add underneath it what the cost would actually be as a note. For example; $5 pledge, would cost the supporter $5.50. Do agree that will hurt a lot of the smaller people more as more of them will choose to leave. I mean most of us made plans for how much we give here each month and I can see any pledge less than $5 being gone before the end of the month

That is what they are saying they are doing though Patron seems to forget that supporting multiple people and having one transaction a month actually lowers the cost of each transaction for it bundles it up and than does the fee.

I'm going to wait and see how this shakes out. I can't believe they're going to charge the fee for every pledge when we're only charged once per month. At this point I don't plan to change how I'm supporting the various content creators that I support.

While I can’t say I am fond of the change (especially because I support multiple people), it’s not going to change my behavior. As long as I have a way to directly support without purchasing items I don’t really want/need, that is all I care about. I think any switch would really have to balance the additional work it would cause you with any added value you would get from that. I have a feeling it would be more work for little, if any, more benefit.

Man, that's a difficult spot they put you in. I think it would make a lot more sense if they just said "we'll take 5%, and we'll pass on the exact CC processing fee to the supporter", that would at least avoid screwing over per-post and $1-to-10-creators supporters.

I'm not against the change personally, but I'm only in the "I only give to Tim" boat. If I had a bunch of small donations I'd have to cut some. In terms of alternatives, a "members only" site or version of the existing Cad site would be cool, but also more work on your end. It would also be totally awesome to be able to make it your own image, instead of relying on what Patron gives you. Overall though, I think this will probably either mellow out in a couple weeks or Patron will roll it back.

Just playing devil's advocate for a few points here... Services like Patreon and PayPal provide not only the service of transferring money from one person to another, but also some semblance of anonymity and security, for both ends of the transaction. Compare to e-transfers, which can be used directly from one account to another for free* (depending on your bank), but lack privacy. Tim is the only creator I'm pledged to, and I'm at the Chef's helper level, also living in Canada (so with the exchange rate it's close to $10/mo already)... so this won't be a big deal for me... but I DO see the issue with the lower pledge tiers.

Like you found I cancelled almost all of the $1 pledges because it's not worth it. In total the amount pledged to artists has gone down by about 40%.

Another creator I support is having a live discussion about right now on her page, Amanda Palmer, she's really digging intro the issue if you're interested in what she and her patrons think. I'm still going to be keeping up my pledges like I was but it does seem like this people only pledging a dollar are getting a bad deal, getting charged processing per pledge even though patreon only charges individual cards once seems shady

First of all I'm curious if this post will stick ... my 2 other recent posts just disappeared :( I made a lengthy post about my reactions to this but sadly it is all gone. The major part of it was that I feel Patreon suddenly is not a platform for a creator to get support but now they are trying what record companies managed to do - be a full partner in the middle. For me Patreon is a place that helps the creators to get attention and support and in my book anyone getting benefits also pays the bill. If we look at it from my side - if you set up a Paypal or something else I would change how I support you to that in an instant wihtout thinking - I support YOU and not Patreon - seen from your side you need a platform that is easy and gives you the functionality you need .. that is a service and as such cost money. .. it is a bit like if you rent a store space and suddenly the customers have to pay some of the rent directly to the owner .. that is a weird model :)

I'm one of the lucky ones with enough disposable income to absorb Patreon's attempt to give themselves a raise, but I understand many people are not. I do want to agree with and emphasize Tim's point that Patreon's new price model is very similar to Paypal's, so there's no escaping to another platform in that context (maybe Drip will undercut Patreon, but it would have to be enough to make the move worth it, don't know about that). I normally advocate trying to change from within rather than leaving, but when Patreon balances the complaints of people pledging $1 (the smallest and weakest donors) against the benefit of becoming more profitable, they may not be disposed to listen. It's a tough situation!