Many creators mentioning they lost hundreds of their patrons suddenly and patrons confused as to why their payments are being declined. Patreon is such an old company that hasnt done anything to improve their service for years while the CEO makes youtube videos and seemingly nothing with the company. I hate how much of a monopoly they have in the space, they clearly have no vision for improving their website or app.

    • 3l3s3@feddit.de
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      1 year ago

      I hate their entire policy around what you can and cannot say or do, on their platform or somewhere else.

    • MHLoppy@fedia.io
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      1 year ago

      A number of these alternatives exist but the reality is that if a creator advertises Patreon vs advertises Liberapay (or another alternative) you get more people signing up for the Patreon because it has better name recognition / marketing / whatever. In my opinion they got to their dominant position mostly* because “we” let them, and they also stay there because “we” let them.

      *And partly because they were one of the earlier platforms (but by no means the first option for crowd-sourced financial support for creators), and they also started with lower fees than they have these days.

    • Dark Arc@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Is it actually better? There are things like open collective and GitHub sponsors too… Choices are great, but the choices aren’t clear

      • rah@feddit.uk
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        1 year ago

        Is it actually better?

        No idea, I don’t use either. I don’t even know what you mean by “better” in this context.

        • Dark Arc@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          I mean, does it pay creators better/does it actually do the job of funding someone better? i.e. what’s the advantage? Is it just kind of a meaningless difference or will creators benefit?

    • PeleSpirit@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I’ve also bought “coffee” for someone on ko-fi before. I think that’s a different concept though.

      • gamermanh@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Nope, same thing, different words used

        The idea is it’s more personable, instead of subbing to a Patreon or doing a one-time PayPal or what have you, you “buy them a coffee” or “buy them a pencil” or some other low-cost item that most people both understand helps people AND are cheap/something they might get themselves, so they’re more likely to donate

        Also I’m p sure Ko-Fi has a better revenue split with those who use it than Patreon does

        • LetMeEatCake@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Also I’m p sure Ko-Fi has a better revenue split with those who use it than Patreon does

          This line made me curious so I looked. Best I can find is that Ko-fi charges either 0% or 5% on donations, dependent on the type of donation and the type of account the receiver has with them.

          Patreon used to charge 5%, but now has: 5% for grandfathered pro accounts, 5% for lowest tier accounts, 8% for non-grandfathered accounts on a pro plan, and 12% for a higher premium tier.

          So yup, Ko-fi has a better split.

          • mnemonicmonkeys@sh.itjust.works
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            1 year ago

            There’s also Liberapay, which doesn’t take any cut for themselves. The only charges you get are for the payment processors