Seeking feedback on idea: alternative to Patreon

[perldiver.livejournal.com]

Hi folks,

I messaged a few of you about this already, but was just given mod permission to post it at top level.

I’m a Patreon creator (http://patreon.com/davidstorrs), and a web developer. My business partner and I are frustrated enough with Patreon that we’re building an alternative. We’d like to make sure it does what people actually want so, if you have a minute, I’d really appreciate your feedback.

We think the site should have:

* No percentage taken from your pledges
* Charge patrons immediately to avoid in-and-out “pledge-dodgers”
* Content management for all your content, past and present
* Specify when things should become visible (a.k.a. a publishing queue)
- ...to whom
- ...and for how long
* Ban abusive or exploitative patrons

As far as creators go, our current plan is that early adopters would receive as much storage as they need (within reason!), and future creators would get 1GB of storage for $9.99/month. Again, these are tentative plans and might change as we do more research.

All comments appreciated; a few questions I'd love answers to:

1) Does this sound like a service you would use?

2) Are there any other features you’d like?

3) What is particularly good about Patreon?

4) What issues do you have with Patreon?

Comments

[dodger-greywing.livejournal.com]

Gonna agree with a bunch of other folks here about the flat fee. When this post first went up, that was the one thing that made me immediately wary.

I have zero problems with paying a percentage of my payments or pledges; I consider it just the cost of doing business. But that's the thing with paying out a percentage: it's only a cost when I do business. I pretty much universally shy away from subscription services at this point, because I can't guarantee I'll make at least that much a month from my art.

With that said, I welcome any solution to the problem of patrons who grab content and flee before paying anything. I've had several friends mention this happening to them on Patreon, and it's definitely driving people away from that site.

Now, people here may seem like they're being critical and distrustful, but quite frankly, we've all been burned by promises of Bigger and Better sites. We've gotten our hopes up for something better many times before and we're pretty jaded about grand ideas with nothing substantial to show. That's why people keep asking for something more than just an "I'd like to do this" statement. The fact that you have experience with running businesses in the past is a huge point in your favor.

There is a desire for something like Patreon but with better artist protections and control. If you build that, and it works, and looks good, you will have users.

[perldiver.livejournal.com]

> Gonna agree with a bunch of other folks here about the flat fee. When this post first went up, that was the one thing that made me immediately wary.

Based on the reactions we've gotten here, we're moving back towards a percentage model. There's more money to be had in it for us, and it apparently sits better with the community, so it seems like a win all the way around. We made an incorrect that subscription would be more appealing because it would cost less to anyone making $200+/month; I'm glad that you guys were able to straighten me out on that.

> Now, people here may seem like they're being critical and distrustful

Oh, that wasn't the sense I was getting! No, I've really appreciated the feedback here -- people have been very open and helpful.

> There is a desire for something like Patreon but with better artist protections and control. If you build that, and it works, and looks good, you will have users.

Thank you, it's great to hear this. We're kicking around ways to be more helpful to the users; early today we were talking about finding ways to help creators grow their revenue...nothing clearly defined yet, but we're trying to come up with ways to help people get general exposure and/or direct commissions. We'll see what we can come up with.