A new patreon policy ( Important ) (Patreon)
Content
This is rather sudden....
I just received a newsletter from Patreon where they decided to change the patronage system and make it completely transparent from now on.
This means the number displayed is the exact revenue a creator receive from his patrons based on the last cycle, removing all the fees from paypal, cut from the site and pledges that weren't honored ( especially from fake patrons who were really starting to become a problem - more on that further down )
Here is the bulk of it ( there are some pictures embedded in that make some parts of the newsletter strange without it ) :
Howdy, creator!
Admittedly, I'm all up in your inbox lately. Thanks for sticking around!
I come bearing a very exciting update about the change we made today to the public-facing numbers on your creator page one that many of you have been asking about for a very long time. For some creators, this announcement might feel like a bit of déjà vu as you were in our AB test for this feature last month. The feedback was incredible and we're here to release it to all creators, sitewide.
Let me break it down. You know those numbers on your Patreon creator page that looked like this?
Yes, those old things. Until today, those numbers showed your total number of patrons and the amount of patronage in total that is pledged to you.
As many of you know, those numbers don't accurately reflect the amount of paying patrons you have, or what you're actually making on Patreon. Unfortunately, it doesn't reflect what you're really walking away with after credit card and Paypal fees, Patreon's 5%, and declined pledges.
This stinks. It gives you an inflated expectation of what you're earning and shows potential patrons that you're making more than you really are. This bums you out, and bums us out. Now we're both bummed. So...
The adjusted dollar amount you'll see will do just that this public-facing number will now show an amount much closer to what you'll be getting on payday because we've factored in:
Your estimated transaction fees
Patreon's 5%
The pledges that declined in the last pay cycle
etc...
I'm a little mixed on this ^^; The strong pro is it make the system entirely transparent and healthier and completely remove that rapidly growing headache I could see many creators -including myself- having from "fake patrons" who are basically bots that keept being created again and again in order to cheat, inflate numbers and push toward the big milestones ( I wrote an entry about that several weeks ago ) The big problem with them is of course you couldn't distinguish a bot from a real patron before a couple months.. and when you would identify and remove one, then three more new names would pop up with you having, again, no idea who is real and who is fake... again big headache...
The con is it's .. brutal. It's going to be big a size down for every creators on the site. And the numbers can indeed looks quite discouraging ...
Right now In my head I'm trying to weight what Patreon did here but the more I think about it and the more I think it's better for everyone.
Sure it's quite a big and rather painful sizing down ^^; But I believe it will simply be much healthier for the whole site in the long run.
As for me I'm going to continue working on the comic. It's advancing well and I'm going to show you a new, flat-colored version of it tomorrow :) ( for now I'm going to go crash into my bed XD )
Thank you from the bottom of my hearth for your very real support and kindness, everyone. ^__^