Patreon users?

[Nojh]

Just out of curiosity, has anybody here used the Patreon system/website? (http://www.patreon.com/). Some of the webcomics I regularly read have made some pages but I'm a little wary of jumping on-board stuff like this.

Best I can tell, it's essentially a system where people pledge to tip a certain amount to a creator everytime they release new content, or subscribe monthly if the creator offers that option. And there's an optional monthly maximum set by the pledger, in case the creator decides to pump out 100 things in a week or something. Certain pledge levels are supposed to come with extra perks.

I bring it up here because it seems like it would be another good alternate source of income for LRR if they just wanted to release odd-ball stuff every now.

[AdmiralMemo]

Yeah, it works for several content creators I know of.

[AdmiralMemo]

Necro-ing a little bit to see if anyone has any favorite Patreons that they want to hype. Tally's is clearly relevant to our interests.

[Antitonic]

And there's Featherweight's as well.

Other than those two, I'm supporting a couple web comics: Grrl Power and El Goonish Shive.

[AdmiralMemo]

EGS's Patreon is actually what made me dust off this thread.

That, and it reminded me of Chris Hallbeck's Patreon (Maximumble, Minimumble, Book of Biff)

Edit: Just found out Smooth McGroove has a Patreon.

[Master Gunner]

Megacynics!

Because seriously, Ash's comic is great.

[Hepheastus]

I support a few that I think are deserving

[Nojh]

Since posting this way back when, I've come to support a few, especially after a friend of mine started on. She's an artist who does portraiture, particularly focused on celebrities and animals. You can see her work here: LacyJae.

I also support various comics: Gunnerkrigg Court, Dumbing of Age, H0leyhandgrande's Mokepon/Rumplestiltskin, Grrl Power, and El Goonish Shive

[Jenelmo]

I support Kiri Callaghan and Molly Lewis

Forgot about Kris Straub who could be interesting for some

[Sakurazaki]

Hardcore Gaming 101 has recently started one.

http://www.patreon.com/hg101?u=153376

Considering how much time I spend reading their articles, it's well worth the support.

[2stepz]

I don't have the link for it, but Erika Moen had one for Oh Joy Sex Toy, too. Hers was the first one I had seen.

[Dominic Appleguard]

Best I can tell, it's essentially a system where people pledge to tip a certain amount to a creator everytime they release new content, or subscribe monthly if the creator offers that option. And there's an optional monthly maximum set by the pledger, in case the creator decides to pump out 100 things in a week or something. Certain pledge levels are supposed to come with extra perks.

I bring it up here because it seems like it would be another good alternate source of income for LRR if they just wanted to release odd-ball stuff every now.

Yeah, Patreon is a cool thing. I'd be interested to hear if LRR would like to try a format like that for the weekly sketches. But then again, they probably are better at estimating the cost of a year of LRR than that for a single sketch. Plus, considering from one week to the next whether the new video is worth the Patreon pledge is a strange thing.

But maybe I'm the weird one for thinking about those considerations. I'd rather give them a little while to branch out and collaborate with various entities a la Strip Search, Friday Nights and Tabletop Deathmatch than ask that they toil in semi-obscurity for the promise of a fan stipend, but surely they produced a lot of outstanding content in the past with no promise of reward.

Being creative for money is very strange.

[Nojh]

]Yeah, Patreon is a cool thing. I'd be interested to hear if LRR would like to try a format like that for the weekly sketches. But then again, they probably are better at estimating the cost of a year of LRR than that for a single sketch. Plus, considering from one week to the next whether the new video is worth the Patreon pledge is a strange thing.

But maybe I'm the weird one for thinking about those considerations. I'd rather give them a little while to branch out and collaborate with various entities a la Strip Search, Friday Nights and Tabletop Deathmatch than ask that they toil in semi-obscurity for the promise of a fan stipend, but surely they produced a lot of outstanding content in the past with no promise of reward.

Being creative for money is very strange.

Being creative for money can feel strange. We don't put nearly as much value on it in modern society than other societies have in the past, unless it is top form entertainment such as cinema or television, which is paid for indirectly by advertising. Since mos pay with their time, or indirectly by buying related products, idea that artists deserve to be paid for their work directly, even if it wasn't specifically ordered, can feel strange.

But the Patron system is an old practice, and Paetron has effectively revived it. It is less about paying for individual pieces of content or for commissions, as it is a for patrons, like us, to say "I would like to give you money to continue doing what you are doing". A distributed patron system comes with very loose strings. I wouldn't prohibit a group like LRR from growing towards a more common system where they receive money from advertising and collaboration with other media conglomerates (Wizards, Penny Arcade, etc), save in that, if free content began to dry up, they might see the Paetron revenue dwindled as well. But that would be a business decision on their part.

Right now I subscribe to LRR's Twitch channel. I also purchase DVDs and the occasional t-shirt. I don't really watch Twitch often (I usually catch YouTube replays), my girlfriend tends to steal my t-shirts, and I can't remember the last time I actually popped a DVD into a player, but I do this to support LRR. Paetron would just be a more customizable and easier way for me to do that.

[AdmiralMemo]

This just in: Schlock Mercenary now has a Patreon

[Graham]

Having just noticed this thread, it's definitely something for us to consider for more ongoing malarky.

[ch3m1kal]

I would strongly suggest everyone here take a little time to listen to what Totalbiscuit has to say on the matter. He starts talking about Patreon/Subbable at around 06:20 if you want to skip the first part.

https://soundcloud.com/totalbiscuit/maybe-subbablepatreon-isnt-the-magic-bullet

I think he has some great insight and is definitely worth listening to.

[Merrymaker_Mortalis]

It's definitely a website I might be using in the future for income. Just I don't think I have anything to offer.

I don't produce webcomics.

I don't have a regular feature that's potentially infinite. So... I don't know.

(Feel free to browse my website for my work and suggest anything I could do that's Patreon worthy. I mean, people tell me my work is good, but no one has really ever told me with gold coins online. Which means I presume my work isn't marketable online)
---
I find it weird when Youtubers use Patreon to get additional funding for the content they're doing anyway on Youtube. They're monetizing their content on Youtube or are partnered with some thing. They're getting an income. It just feels a little cheeky that they're now adding their Youtube work onto Patreon as well.
I suppose it's a more elegant way of asking for donations. I understand the human need for money to provide for their family or to keep a roof over their head. I find it weird. It's like Youtubers who have multiple adverts on their videos. I guess at least with patreon it's transparent. I suppose, that's a good thing?

It's less weird for content that is very labour intensive, like animation. Where the time input and what you yield is much less fair compared to someone who can vomit an ignorant opinion on a topic with a random slide show going on. Perhaps the videos has to be works of art themselves.

[Deedles]

Depends on what Youtuber you're referring too, actually making good game-play/game-review/whatever else videos of a high-standard can take a very long time.

[Merrymaker_Mortalis]

I know. But there are some Youtubers who I follow and are using Patreon to fund what they do and their videos... well, the overall production quality isn't great. And I'm thinking, "So you're really going to use Patreon to fund you doing more Pokemon Build guides?"

[Master Gunner]

If there's a market for it, then sure.

[Graham]

We make diddly from YouTube, compared to other sources. It's all important, but if it was all we were making money from... OOF.

[DissonantNight]

Friend of LRR and occasional stream/DesertBus guest Maya/Felix Kramer now has a Patreon to help fund them showing off indie devs at conferences. Posting here for the LRRfan exposure. http://patreon.com/legobutts

[Sakurazaki]

I'm not sure the exact rate, but I've heard that ad-only funding is pretty slim unless you're pewdiepie and have millions of subs. It always surprises me when I see a content creator with 100k-500k subscribers and is able to make ends meet using only ad revenue.

In all honesty, I'd rather give someone $10 a month then waste hours of my life watching ads.

[Merrymaker_Mortalis]

Patreon is more of a direct way to fund content creators you like isn't it. A cleaner version of donations.

I do agree with TB's concerns. You don't want to accidentally sell away executive control power.

[AdmiralMemo]

Alex started one.