Regarding Patreons 'Processing Fee' (Patreon)

Today, Patreon announced a change to the way they calculate fees in order to save Creators more money. I would like Patrons to know that I am vehemently opposed to this change. I believe Patreon is using you, effectively using emotional blackmail to raise your taxes. I will explain why below and let you know what you can do about it.

The change itself is marketed to you as a rate decrease for me. Patreon will tell you I can pay fees of up to 25%. In the interest of transparency here is the money I am paying Patreon every month. I have almost never paid more than a total of 11%. This is important to understand.

That 5-6% processing fee that they're 'removing' is about $160 that I currently pay. Here's the kicker. Instead they'll be charging you $0.35 + 2.9% for every pledge you make. Even being very generous with the math, the money they'll now rake in is over $330 from my page in processing fees alone.

This leads me to believe that the processing fee is a sham. The costs of processing transactions did not double overnight or in the last year or six months. This is a stealth increase to Patreon's service fee and they don't have the guts to tell you that. This is worse than 35 cents to me. This is a 40% rate increase to $1 Patrons. This is a shady underhanded moneygrab. I want you to know that I stand with you, my Patrons, not some service. I'm not 'excited' about a $160 paycheck if it bleeds my fans.

Patreon has disabled comments on this blog release. Patreon acknowledges that Creators like me might want to pay your fees for you, but they make it impossible for me to do so. I owe a lot to Patreon as a service, but the Patreon that uses tactics like these does not deserve what I calculate to be a 25% increase to it's gross income. Patreon is not Kickstarter. You cannot impose a 35 cent transaction fee on a service who's primary pledge is only $1.

If you feel as I do the best thing you can do is to continue to support your creators, but make your voice heard. I personally don't believe a microtransaction service can thrive when users have to worry about fees. I don't believe it's a good move when the lowest possible pledge on the site has increased from $1 to $1.40. I think at the very least Patreon has to allow me to absorb those costs for you.

That's all I got.