Obligatory Post Regarding New Fees (Patreon)

Several of you have already messaged me apologizing for having to cancel pledges in light of Patreon's questionable new fee schedule, which includes a 2.9% service fee as well as a $0.35 per pledge - in effect, the fees are now being shifted more to the patron rather than the creator. 

First of all, no one needs to apologize for having to make changes or cancellations to their pledges. At the end of the day, you give what you feel is worth it to you for as long as you can, but I do wish people wouldn't apologize for it. It's you who is helping ME create content, not the other way around. 

But the other truth is, these fees have always been there - the reason my pledges start at $2.00 instead of $1.00 is because of that nearly 40% that gets eaten on $1.00 pledges. I imagine Patreon thought they were helping creators that rely on large amounts of $1.00 pledges by making it so they get 95% of their pledges instead of the ~60% they were getting before. What they seemed to fail to take into account was how this would effect patrons who support large numbers of creators with small pledges. 

So, as Hank Green pointed out in a series of now-deleted tweets, there was no way patrons could know what the fees were that creators eat. Thing is, I don't think the onus is on the patron to know about these fees--creators like me have simply factored that into our monthly budget. If people pledge, for instance, so much per creation to me, I budgeted to see about 85% of that. That's just a part of the deal we accept by using this platform.

I think they wanted to be more transparent about just how much goes to fees and maintenance (like that would be a good PR move), but if the intent was to give "more" to the creator, all it did was just show how much of small pledges gets eaten up by fees. Hey, not only do you know, but you've incurred the fees! Aren't you thrilled.

The thing is, even though I'm not happy with this decision, there's not much I can do about it other than whine on Twitter like everyone else. If there is one thing PatreCon really impressed upon me, it was how much they do not care what I think about the way they structure their platform unless it's blind, effusive praise. Even if Patreon assumes that some patrons will make some choices about who they want to support. (i.e., if they supported ten creators at $1 each, they now support 6 creators at $1.35 each), I think the vast majority of creators would rather patrons don't have to choose who matters more to them because of a new fee system.

But if you do need to make changes to your pledges or jump ship on the platform altogether, you don't need to apologize for it. This is a voluntary service built on mutual goodwill, and I always appreciate what you can contribute, for as long as you can. It would be right shitty of me to start having ~*~expectations~*~ now. 

In short, I'm not surprised, Patreon. I'm just disappointed. Platforms are not your friend, no matter how much they try to position themselves as such. 

Yours in dead-inside-ness,

Lindsay