Why I did not care for having a Patreon account

The kind @ttraband asked me about why I chose to discontinue use of Patreon.

It’s not that their fee structure was exorbitant. It’s not. They seem to have developed a pretty successful cottage industry around an aspect of modern life that is needed and not immoral.

I did not care for the sense of burden of owing a continual stream of content to the patrons, in exchange for their support. This sense was sometimes more noticed, but almost always nagging.

I think it’s perhaps also why Ryan has his Patreon set up for only a $1 / month being a qualified tier. “Just a little something” given would equate to “just a little something” owed. Less burden owed / guilt about not coming through.

Most of the content I design, gets given away free (Printables).

I have personally benefitted immensely from content shared with me free of charge, and I feel a sense honor and duty in continuing to pay that forward.

Continually trying to think and scheme about how to “divide” my meager stream of created content between “free” via Printables and “paid” via Patreon, was a mental gymnastics exercise that I grew to despise. For others who manage this, I don’t fault them at all. Nevertheless, for me, it reeked of “gimmicks” and “commercialism” and crass marketing, and it’s just not who I decided (in the end) I want to be.

Compared to, say, the burden of continuing to come up with video content for YouTube; no one who watches my YouTube content pays me for it directly, so I don’t feel bad if I cannot “consistently” crank out new stuff.

Whenever I finally get my YouTube channel monetized, which apparently is not far off, time wise — I’m now well beyond 90,000 views overall, over 820 subscribers of the 1,000 required (82%), and over 3,180 hours of watch time (within the last 365 days) of the 4,000 required (79.5%) — presumably any money that comes in will be from YouTube/Google forwarding a portion of advertising dollars. I would not feel a direct sense of obligation to viewers to desperately crank out content, because they are not directly hiring me.

Somewhere along this path of realization and consideration, I read about a new, upcoming YouTube star in the field of woodworking, who (among other of his fellow YouTube stars) had correctly realized that the best path to YouTube success was to not come across as “gimmicky” or “commercialized” or crass in a marketing sense. The guy made it to monetization practically over night, and then shot past that to amazing subscriber numbers and monetization success. I liked his approach of always being grounded, non-commercial, not-gimmicky, and, in a word, not “sold out.” Actually that’s two words.

I figured the best time for me to escape from the Patreon “prison” of guilt and sense of burden, was sooner rather than later.

My Etsy store is a commercial enterprise, so to speak, but there I’m not in some vague, nebulous territory of owing everyone all the time. I get specific orders, which are like commissions, and they are carefully limited engagements in which I build / make something for a serious return for payment given, each in its own well defined agreement, with clear terms. I don’t feel so pressured by that.

Bottom line, I did not want to wake up one day and have 800 or 1,000 bosses, feeling like I always owed them “something” more.

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I used to kinda feel that way. I actually do not like most of the current social media platforms, and all that stuff either. I did not even accept donations for a very long time.

Here is what I learned.

The people that WANT to give you something only want to do it on their platform of choice. If someone wants to support you don’t make them come to you when going to them is only a few clicks, one time. If you are honest and say you never or rarely use that platform, then if they want to still donate they can. I never use those as a motivator. People are supporting me because they like my main focus, I am sure they would not appreciate me taking time away from that to make cute special content. I can say it can be fun to share something you are working on outside the regular channels to get less input on things sometimes.

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I appreciate that perspective and understand that approach.

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I support V1 on Patreon bexause it’s a no-brainer. the cost of a McCoffee comes out of my account each month and I’ve remembered to maybe check my “exclusive” content 3 times, I think.

I think Paypal has an option like that too, and if the Patreon thing wasn’t there, I may have done that.

Ryan isn’t going to get rich on what I donate, but I hope he gets to crack open a semi-annual beer on me.

I don’t monetize my designs at all. It gets shared, and if people dont like it, they don’t have to use it.
All the same to me. That means I don’t owe them anything, at all. I design stuff for the way I want to do it, and I’ll answer questions about whatever. I have made changes to some designs by request, but mostly, if you want it “like that, but just a little different…” I’ll tell you to modify it yourself.

Of course I’ll take a perfectly good design someone else shared and make mine “like that, but just a little different…” sometimes it seems just because I can. (I can’t say with confidence that I’ve ever actually used the extra 50mm height on my LR3, for example, other than hopping the gantry over the stuff I have piled on the table.)

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I think the points above are kinda on the money, here. For me, it comes down to being open about what’s going on and providing flexible methods for supporting people who are doing things you like and benefit from.

From the Australasian perspective, it really doesn’t make a whole lot of sense for us to support European/American creators by buying directly from them. Shipping and import fees can easily be 25-50% of the total cost of ordering something, so it’s a remarkably inefficient way of showing that support, unless your goal is to support UPS or Fedex…

I’ve been a patron of Octopi for years because I liked what they were doing and liked the idea of it being a more direct approach of ‘support to continue working on the project’, as opposed to a retroactive ‘here’s a donation to say thanks for what I’ve gotten up until now’. It’s also sometimes a lot harder to determine what an appropriate one-off donation should be vs something like Patreon where the tiers are spelled out more explicitly and you can just choose from a list. On the other hand, I might think differently about it with something like the LR3 where a donation as part of the build cost might seem more appropriate as a ‘thanks for this designing this thing’. Ultimately maybe it’s just a form of expression and the cool thing about expression is how different and nuanced it can all be. Just my 2c from a weird little island halfway around the world.

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@SupraGuy

I hear you.

Re. the extra height on the gantry: I’ve appreciated having it if for no other reasons than what you mention here, and primarily that I can raise it up higher to get at bit changes!

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@jono035

I totally get that. My situation was that my contributions are not at the level of V1E offerings or Octopi development, and the support, while I’m sure was with the very best of intentions, left me feeling burdened and obligated. It may have to do with the fact I’m wearing a lot of hats and carrying a lot of loads. I don’t fault or blame anyone for doing Patreon however they see fit to, from either giver or recipient side of things. I just did not feel it was right for me.

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For sure, and ultimately it’s down to you doing what seems right for you, of course. I’m just saying that as long as you’re clear about what you’re getting for the money (even if it’s nothing other than a warm fuzzy feeling and your name in the end-card of a YouTube video) then at least one outside perspective on it is that it’s a fair trade.

Hopefully the YouTube channel gets monetized and then you’ll see at least a few cents of YouTube Red revenue from me.

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I dispute that Sir, I’m by no means deeply involved in this forum and community but it is very clear even to me you add significantly and uniquely with the work you put in to designing new things as well as helping people.

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@Dreyfus
You are too kind sir.

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No he’s not. I may be the resident jester/shady drifter/drunken uncle, but I see what you’re doing here day to day, and the good you do. You’ve become a pillar of the community, whether you like it or not. Which, of course, means Banksy is probably lurking around somewhere…

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@DougJoseph

As I’ve said before: Do you ever SLEEP!!??

I also appreciate the support and original designs you share with all of us.

Mike B.

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@DougJoseph

I believe you are a massive support here on the forum and that was my reason to support you on patreon. When I needed help you jumped right in and remixed a part for me same day! And I have seen you do the same for several others. My support there for you (and @vicious1) isn’t going to make anyone rich by any means and I did not feel you owed me anything for it. I do it just to help out a little bit. I know that while one doesn’t mean much, many add up to a lot. I understand your reason for not wanting to be a part of that particular deal any longer. But don’t sell yourself short by any means. you are a massive support here on the forums!!!

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Thanks, all, for the encouraging words. It means a lot to me.

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