Reasons I Don't Like Patreon, Part Two

I like when people use Patreon as a tip jar.

Some of the most talented and prolific webcomic artists and indie game developers I know do this. They’re like, “All of our content will always be free and open to everyone, but leave a dollar if the spirit moves you.” They then use the platform as something resembling a development blog, with all posts unlocked.

(If I were ever going to set up a Patreon – which I’m not – it would be like this, I think.)

What I don’t like is when people use “reward tiers” to incentivize people to give them more money each month. That’s gross capitalist bullshit, and it makes scrolling through your feed on Patreon distinctly unpleasant, like, YOU AREN’T RICH ENOUGH TO SEE THIS POST LOLOLOLOLOL.

I like when people use Patreon as a subscription service.

I support a few people who come out with a new set of postcards or LINE stickers every month, and they use Patreon as a way to distribute them. I also support a few people who do this with their zines and use Patreon’s option of charging supporters by “work” instead of by month.

(I’ve fantasized about doing this, because I love designing paper goods and sending things to people in the mail, but it also kind of seems like a full-time job.)

What I don’t like is when people use Patreon as a subscription service according to reward tiers. This can go wrong in two ways. First, if someone shows something cool to people in lower tiers but then says YOU’RE TOO POOR TO AFFORD THIS, IT’S ONLY FOR PEOPLE WITH MONEY HAHAHA, that’s kind of shitty. Second, I’ve known people who say that they’ll send you their zines if you give them, like, $20 a month, but then they only come out with maybe one or two zines a year. I love zines, but there is no zine in the world that’s worth paying someone more than $100 on Patreon.

Basically, I hate capitalism. It’s not that I think independent creators don’t deserve support; rather, I think it’s disgusting how Patreon normalizes using exploitative methods to extract as much money as possible from people who want to support independent creators.

Reasons I Don't Like Patreon, Part Three

There's no way to filter content on Patreon.

Probably the less said about this the better, but let's just say. For example.

Let's just say, for example, that there's someone who's into a certain fetish that many people might not be comfortable with, like explicit age gaps, and that they make repeated requests to the artists they're supporting on Patreon to draw content of their fetish. I'm a hardcore believer in "don't like, don't read," and I stand behind the idea that everyone's fantasies involving fictional characters are valid, but I also don't particularly want to see, for example, impish ten-year-olds happily being molested by forty-year-olds if I can help it, nor do I want to see "soft" versions of the same concept while knowing why that specific person requested it.

I also feel bad for people who rely on Patreon for financial support, like, how comfortable would they be turning down a request for fetish porn if it meant possibly losing a longterm supporter?

2019 Weekly Writing Log, Part 1

- As of a few days ago my book has a page on the publisher’s website and a listing on Amazon, and they just asked me to pick out a cover. Apparently the official release date is September 10. I feel weird, like, are we really doing this thing?? I guess we’re really doing this thing. *nervous laughter*

- I finally finished an academic article on Ganondorf that I’ve been working on since August. This essay means a lot to me, so I sent it to a friend who generously agreed to help me with proofreading and formatting. He just sent it back to me, so this week I’ll go over it one more time before I submit it to a journal called Games and Culture.

- I finished putting together my Haunted Haiku zine. I’ve been working on this every day during the month of March, and I’m starting to get excited about showing it to people. The cover, which was created by Sarah Winifred Searle (whose graphic novel Sincerely, Harriet is phenomenal, like easily 15/10 stars), is a true work of art, and I’m playing around with her design in Photoshop so that I can make a bookmark to send out to people along with the zine.

- I finally got around to translating the third page of Nintendo Dream’s Wind Waker developer interview.

- I posted the second story in the A Hero’s Inventory fic series. For some reason it hasn’t been easy for me to put these story ideas into words, and I’m only averaging a sentence a day. Thank god these stories are supposed to be short by design.

- I posted the first two chapters of that Contemporary AU Zelgan idea I wrote about earlier, which I’ve decided to call “Malice.” I’m already super emotionally invested in this story, and I contacted dark fantasy artist extraordinaire Monica Doss to inquire about commissioning character designs and a cover illustration.

- Speaking of commissions! I just discovered the work of the indie game dev Bynine, and I like their style a whole lot, so I commissioned them to draw Yunobo from Breath of the Wild. Because why not? Yunobo is my secret favorite character from the game, and this artist has a talent for drawing Gorons.

It seems like I got a lot done now that I’ve written everything down, but you know the funny thing? I feel as if I accomplished nothing because practically no one is paying attention. I keep hearing that there’s a minimum seven-year line to breaking into any given field or market, but it sure would be nice to have some external validation right now. I’ve been feeling super worthless for the past few months, so I’d like to start up these writing logs again. We’ll see how this goes, I guess.