samandfuzzy
patreon
December Art Vote
🕑 Added 2017-12-08 03:19:50 +0000 UTC Click here to vote in this month's Art Vote! All backers can help me pick some fun holiday dress-up stuff to draw, and Saucy Hippo backers can help pick a couple of historic Jess Star Christmas Burlesque outfits to reveal.I wanted to take a moment to talk about Patreon fees.
UPDATE: December 13, 2017: I'm happy to report that Patreon listened to everyone's feedback and cancelled the fee change plan! My original post about why I didn't like the proposed change is below:
As you may have heard, Patreon has announced they intend to start charging each of you a flat 2.9% +35 cent processing fee for your pledge to me, instead of deducting the processing fees from my share like they currently do.
In this new scheme, a $1 pledge would become $1.38, a $5 pledge would become $5.50, and a $10 pledge would become $10.64. I think this is dumb, so if they move forward with this change, I will be lowering the price for most of my tiers to account for the added fees. I was perfectly happy paying the fees myself, and I priced all my reward tiers with them in mind!
Unfortunately, I can't set an actual tier below $1, but backers are allowed to pledge lower amounts, and I will continue to share all $1-level rewards with all backers pledging more than 60 cents. Trust me, I am used to paying the disproportionately large fee that comes with small payments online and am happy to be the one one taking the hit. (I've been doing it on here this whole time!)
I'm sure there are some backers that would be OK with covering payment fees so I don't have to, but in my opinion it should be their choice, not a requirement. As always, I heartily encourage everyone to only pledge what they are able, and never begrudge anyone who needs to adjust or cancel.
I find this all extremely frustrating, because Patreon has been such an enormous positive change in my life. I hate seeing them torpedo goodwill with this kind of misguided change because, uh, I need this money to live, and I want my backers to be happy and feel respected. My hope is that they reconsider this decision based on our feedback, but if they don't, I will fix it for them.
Thank you!
-Sam Logan
Comments
mxwn
In the updated blog post they mention that they'll process pledges individually on the day they were set up, so there's actually "justification" to charge a fee per pledge. Poorly communicated and made them look greedy as hell, but whatever. The issue I now have with it is: why would they ever do that? I understand that a more predictable paycheck is desirable for creators, but who really benefits from this change are credit companies and paypal. I have a bunch of monthly pledges as do many people I imagine. So far, one processing fee per month was cut from my pledges overall. With the new system, it'll be ~12 per month. I'd much rather have unpredictably low than predictably high fees (as a percentage of the sum of my pledges). What's more, how does it work if I set up pledges on the same day? Will they charge my paypal a dozen times on a single day? Considering the public response, this really isn't a favor to anyone aside from the companies mentioned above.
Sam Logan
I've heard similar sentiments from a few people, who either don't care about the fees or just really don't want me to pay them. I appreciate that, although I also appreciate that for some people the fees would push things out of their budgets! I'll keep listening as I wait to see how Patreon responds to all of this next week.
Conscience Cat
Thank you for the update. For me it does not matter which way the fees are split, as long as it is somehow transparent (which I think they do well)
