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Patreon adjustments (things are fine, just some tweaks)
3 months ago
I learned yesterday that Patreon requires two forms of photo ID to maintain an 18+/NSFW creator account on their site. They do not disclose this on signup, but wait to slam you with it like a jumpscare after you are already up and running and taking in supporters. They do a number of non-transparent things like this.
I was, and am, unwilling to provide this information. Thus, I applied, and was approved, to toggle my page there to SFW. The Patreon page will now officially be a SFW tip jar. I am in a unique position to do this, because I am already using the SubscribeStar, and was planning to use the Patreon, in a 90% SFW way anyway. Unlike most creators, I don't upload regular content to those platforms, NSFW or otherwise. The only exceptions were/are discussion of the game and the pre-release/sneak peak of the games. These will now be snipped from the Patreon. To be clear, on Patreon there will now be:
-No game discussion
-No game updates (not a loss, as they've always been freely available on itch anyway, and will be available other places if needed.)
-No game distribution or sharing.
-No discord
-Officially, tiers on Patreon no longer "entitle" you to anything. They are all purely for support.
Unofficially, if I wish to discuss and share things with people I know outside of the platform, who happen to be supporting on the platform, at times and for reasons that are my own, that's between me and them.
If this change doesn't work for you, you are of course free to cancel support there going forward. I was originally simply going to delete the account entirely and refund the money, that's the alternative. But we'll give this a try and see how it goes.
Also, although the discord for Patreon is nixed, I have been playing around with setting one up, with some help, and may eventually still implement a general server, as one more way people can check news on the game. A lot of people just hang out in Discord, so I imagine just having the game news right there on the left with the other servers might be a welcome convenience for a lot of people. Probably something I'll get up and running eventually.
And finally, ho boy has setting up Patreon been an experience. Allow me to share:
A list of nonsensical broken shit on Patreon:
-Member count does not update in realtime (lol)
-Subscribestar provides a clear, chronological feed of people as they join, with a link to greet them. Patreon groups and subgroups notifications, often doubling up or combining things so "new" supporters actually aren't, and makes it extremely difficult to actually get to the point of messaging them. It's one click with SS, vs like 4 with Patreon.
-For some reason it is not possible to type j or k into some of their forms (what the actual fuck). The only way to actually get meaningful text into these forms is to copy-paste from elsewhere.
-The onboarding process is barely communicated. Their quickstart prompt covers maybe a quarter of what you actually need to do to get a patreon up and running. I was able to find the rest on my own without too much trouble, but if you're going to hand-hold, do it all the way.
-As previously mentioned, frequent compliance jumpscares, rather than just disclosing all requirements at the start. "Now you need to do this!" "Now you need to do that!" I feel like I'm playing a roguelike.
-The new monochrome design is incredibly dour and depressing. This isn't a trivial thing: people tend to spend more when they're happy and excited and having fun. Coloring something like a funeral parlor isn't a good way to court sales. Imagine if you walked into a McDonalds and it was all blacks and greys (actually I think some of them DO look somewhat like that now, and it's fantastically stupid there too).
-Patreon is FULL of "Dark Patterns", UI designed to obscure, confuse, and hide things away from you while still TECHNICALLY having them available. Using SubscribeStar feels like hanging out with a bumbling and slightly sketchy but generally chill, ok dude. Using Patreon feels like you're in a relationship with an abuser who's constantly trying to gaslight you.
In short, the busted, running-in-someones-basement site that is SubscribeStar genuinely has a better overall user experience, despite its flaws, than the god-only-knows-how-many billion dollar industry leader. Amazing.
I was, and am, unwilling to provide this information. Thus, I applied, and was approved, to toggle my page there to SFW. The Patreon page will now officially be a SFW tip jar. I am in a unique position to do this, because I am already using the SubscribeStar, and was planning to use the Patreon, in a 90% SFW way anyway. Unlike most creators, I don't upload regular content to those platforms, NSFW or otherwise. The only exceptions were/are discussion of the game and the pre-release/sneak peak of the games. These will now be snipped from the Patreon. To be clear, on Patreon there will now be:
-No game discussion
-No game updates (not a loss, as they've always been freely available on itch anyway, and will be available other places if needed.)
-No game distribution or sharing.
-No discord
-Officially, tiers on Patreon no longer "entitle" you to anything. They are all purely for support.
Unofficially, if I wish to discuss and share things with people I know outside of the platform, who happen to be supporting on the platform, at times and for reasons that are my own, that's between me and them.
If this change doesn't work for you, you are of course free to cancel support there going forward. I was originally simply going to delete the account entirely and refund the money, that's the alternative. But we'll give this a try and see how it goes.
Also, although the discord for Patreon is nixed, I have been playing around with setting one up, with some help, and may eventually still implement a general server, as one more way people can check news on the game. A lot of people just hang out in Discord, so I imagine just having the game news right there on the left with the other servers might be a welcome convenience for a lot of people. Probably something I'll get up and running eventually.
And finally, ho boy has setting up Patreon been an experience. Allow me to share:
A list of nonsensical broken shit on Patreon:
-Member count does not update in realtime (lol)
-Subscribestar provides a clear, chronological feed of people as they join, with a link to greet them. Patreon groups and subgroups notifications, often doubling up or combining things so "new" supporters actually aren't, and makes it extremely difficult to actually get to the point of messaging them. It's one click with SS, vs like 4 with Patreon.
-For some reason it is not possible to type j or k into some of their forms (what the actual fuck). The only way to actually get meaningful text into these forms is to copy-paste from elsewhere.
-The onboarding process is barely communicated. Their quickstart prompt covers maybe a quarter of what you actually need to do to get a patreon up and running. I was able to find the rest on my own without too much trouble, but if you're going to hand-hold, do it all the way.
-As previously mentioned, frequent compliance jumpscares, rather than just disclosing all requirements at the start. "Now you need to do this!" "Now you need to do that!" I feel like I'm playing a roguelike.
-The new monochrome design is incredibly dour and depressing. This isn't a trivial thing: people tend to spend more when they're happy and excited and having fun. Coloring something like a funeral parlor isn't a good way to court sales. Imagine if you walked into a McDonalds and it was all blacks and greys (actually I think some of them DO look somewhat like that now, and it's fantastically stupid there too).
-Patreon is FULL of "Dark Patterns", UI designed to obscure, confuse, and hide things away from you while still TECHNICALLY having them available. Using SubscribeStar feels like hanging out with a bumbling and slightly sketchy but generally chill, ok dude. Using Patreon feels like you're in a relationship with an abuser who's constantly trying to gaslight you.
In short, the busted, running-in-someones-basement site that is SubscribeStar genuinely has a better overall user experience, despite its flaws, than the god-only-knows-how-many billion dollar industry leader. Amazing.
Either way, you can thank FOSTA - SESTA for that, as well as some assholes who apparently used their patreon to exploit some women for video content. :/ So partially government being a nanny state again, partially asshole criminals who ruin everything for everyone else. Sucks ass.
I think FOSTA - SESTA is also the reason why a few years ago, GOOGLE of all things asked me to scan my ID to confirm I was a adult.
It is not "the assholes", however. It is never "the assholes". That's the propaganda that is constantly pushed to justify these things. No one in government actually cares about protecting women, children, or people in general to a statistically significant degree. They care about more money, more power, more career. Everything else is just grist in the mill for that. Is sex trafficking, all kinds of abuses against minors and women and more happening? Absolutely. Could laws be made that target that actual problem, while protecting sex workers, free speech and free commerce? Absolutely. Were those laws made? No. The laws that were made were, and always are, the ones that can use a crisis as an excuse to appropriate more money and power for those making the laws. It's just a giant, eternal grift.
Not an attack on you though, I just want to be clear on that, because that sentiment comes up unceasingly, and people need to learn to recognize it for the propaganda it is. Not about porn. Not about children. Not about women. They just want more power for themselves, and less for us. And they can't get it without pointing to some crisis and saying "see we need more power give it to us now and we'll stop this!"
Also yes though, FOSTA was a disaster, and I hope more people learn about it because of all this. The attempt to mass censor and control the internet has been going on for very, very long time. They try basically every year, and almost every year they get shouted down, but occasionally they don't, for whatever reason, and the noose ratchets one more click closed.