PATREON IS NOT CHANGING THEIR FEE SYSTEM!

Dec 13, 20178 min read

Deviation Actions

Published: Dec 13, 2017

1.2K Views

UPDATE:
SO, apparently they're NOT going to change it -- Patreon is NOT changing their fee structure?! -- blog.patreon.com/not-rolling-o…

_{Well, as suspected with this new change to Patreon it appears I've lost quite a few Patrons within the last week (10 be exact) -- which as you can imagine leaves me wondering whether or not I should just shut down my Patreon or make it more like a tip jar.

At the moment I'm really feeling very discouraged from keeping it going since it seems very very pointless now that people don't want to support due to these new charges put on them. While I understand Patreon is doing it to help creators, it seem to be doing more harm for me than any good. Part of me knew I'd lose a few Patrons but 10? That's quite a lot considering I didn't have that many to begin with and many of the Patrons I've lost thus far were clearly upset at the changes Patreon has made.

From a personal standpoint -- On the surface this change looks good and yeah, 95% as opposed to 85% of sounds better BUT it's definitely not fair by any means to make a customer pay the fees that a business should be paying. No other company I know does this as its technically illegal once you get down to it; they shouldn't be allowed to do this but somehow they can.
I didn't mind paying the fees myself every month as it wasn't that much and I was just grateful to have the support -- However, now I'm losing that support so even with 95% coming to me in the end -- when you consider most of that end profit will be paid forward to the creators I support on there I'm making 80% less now thanks to these changes.
Not to mention I've got to keep posting work up there for my Patrons who remain to keep up my end of the bargain but again, I'm doing most of this for nearly free when all profit margins are considered at this point. The losses do not make up for the increase in profits since the profit itself is minimal by comparison.
Patreon pretty much shot Creators in the foot with this change -- While they admit "Some creators my lose Patrons in the long run, we believe this will be better" -- because most complaints I'm hearing are that Creators are seeing a decrease in a desire to support them, even from new would be Patrons because most can't swing the extra fees being paid by them.
$1.35 is still more to pay than $1.00 even -- no matter how much you try and make it out like it's easier, some people can't afford that and when they pledge $1.00 they expect to PAY $1.00. Not $1.00+tax which should be paid by the one earning the funds.
It's akin to going to the shop and when you buy an apple the store asks you to pay the shipping costs for that apple -- it makes no sense.

Anyway, as I said before -- I'm not sure what to do. I got several emails this morning, all telling me more people had dropped their pledges from my Patreon and at this point it just seems pointless and hopeless to keep it going. It's more work for me and while it's nice when I'm working for the purpose Patreon was initially made for, I cannot afford to lay more work on my shoulders for basically no turnout -- MORE so when considering most of what I make gets taken from me and sent to other creators that I'm willingly supporting. Even now, I'm not sure I can support them with as much I was anymore since I too cannot afford these extra fees... I'm not happy about this.
Not at all, it's not going to help me as a Creator in the long run because in the end most people don't want to pay more!
When they see "$5.00" to get the perks, they expect to pay $5.00... not $5.35 -- It's a cheeky bullshit move and I'm not sure I can support it tbh.
This is all around not good for the Creators who do not make in the 100's as in the end most people will leave and not return thanks to seeing they're being lied to with the payment bracket.

I'm debating on whether or not I shut down my Patreon and take the loss of that little bit of money and just depend solely on commissions or maybe some other means. I know there's alternatives but they, like Patreon, are likely not going to remain on the same page for long and will wind up making these same choices or worse. I don't have much faith in any 'free' service anymore as it's rarely ever free for you or anyone else. They always change things to 'benefit' you but really it seems to hurt you in the end lol This is annoying.
I know why they did this; with the best of intentions -- but it's not really going to help since it only makes things harder for me to try and reel in new Patrons to pay extra money to see things.
I'm not sure if anyone else feels this same way but all the same -- I've lost a lot of support on Patreon within the week; help I could really need considering I'm unable to open more commissions at this time. So in the end I'm pretty sure this is my goodbye to Patreon within the week I will make my decision.
Right now it's not looking good that I'll keep it open.
Thank you to all of you who supported me and to those who supported me up until now -- It's been a good run and I've enjoyed it. I'm sorry for this unfortunate situation that's happened to us both but it's beyond my control. I know many if not all of you know this and in your messages you have told me of your regret in being unable to support me further due to the financial stipulations based on this change.
$.35 may not seem like a lot but it's still quite a price hike; if anything else increases by that much in the shops it's considered a price hike and in this case it was unnecessary and unwarranted. Most were fine with paying the fees out of their wages; I didn't lose than much really -- I'd of sooner paid $10 in fees than lose $100 in Patronage. However, it is what it is and I'm just not okay with this.

That being said, I haven't got many options other than Ko-fi and Digital Tip Jar which seems to be ignored these days so I'm not sure what I'll do in the end as due to this situation I'm out of any spare funds.
So I've got a lot of debating in my mind to do as to what I'm going to do from now on... This change puts a huge dampener on my financial future as I had hoped Patreon would grow but it seems to have just fallen apart for me. I was hoping to engage it more but due to these changes a lot of people aren't thrilled with it.
"Why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free" -- people just don't see a point in paying more to see an artists work when that artist posts some of that work on a site that's free to view. I understand that, believe me, but that really discourages me when that's the reason.
Either way, I won't ramble anymore... I'm not upset with anyone so please do not get mad at me or think I'm singling anyone out with this. Last time it appears it seemed like I was having a go at my Patrons for not paying more but I wasn't -- Not by a long shot.
It was more about myself and my not being able to engage people more -- then all this bullshit with these fees happened and now it's just another knife in the spine.
So it's not you, it's not even really me anymore, it's a change made that does not really benefit everyone anymore.
We'll see what happens but right now I'm not very happy... Not by a long shot.

- Kato}</s>