We Did It, Patreon! (Patreon)

I'm sure everyone on Patreon is joining me in the current sigh of relief. I really hope this means that Patreon can stay a healthy, positive home for artists. 

It seems that fee-fees have, for once, been valued over fees. Thank the mighty Fee Gods.

I'm also pretty impressed with the way they phrased their apology, which included some of the terminology I used in my post--it seems, right now, that they do actually understand that the problem is inserting their business concerns into the relationship between creators and patrons. They are a middle man, and the successful middle man makes himself as unobtrusive as possible. 

I know some of you may still be looking for alternatives to this platform, because there is an amount of trust that was broken, and may not ever be fully regained (see Livejournal--turns out that first break was the beginning of the end). I certainly will be watching Kickstarter's Drip with interest (although I suspect that dreadful name will be a serious stumbling block. Imagine saying "I have a Drip" out loud in public and expecting people to know that you're not talking about an embarrassing medical problem. Branding matters, son).

But for now, I am happy with this result and happy to stay and happy at least that Patreon has shown itself to be responsive to its user base and willing to own up to mistakes. The turnaround seemed long to us, but in Corporate Time, it was lightning-fast. 

Thank you to all of you who wrote and Tweeted and otherwise contacted Patreon to protest this change. I know it often feels like it's difficult to make your voice heard right now, but this one time, for this one issue, we did, and it mattered. That is enough for me to plow forward.

The sad part is, I had SUCH A COOL HOLIDAY PROJECT for you guys! But I put it on hold in order to see whether I was even going to be on Patreon much longer. I'm deciding whether to go ahead with it at this later date over the course of this week--in which the Laboratory will be graced with the presence of Heath's mum, who is ever so much better than the Lab deserves.

Either way, look for live-tweeting and live-stream QA over the next many days, once I finish up my Great Space Vidya Book.

I could stand a few more days waking up to Alabama Democrats and companies rolling back bad decisions. Happy holidays, every one.

Keelah Se'lai, my friends.