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My Patreon got scraped - should I Charge Up Front? Opinions?
7 years ago
UPDATE: I blocked the first scraping account, and got two more within 36 hours. It is very disheartening to be excited about a new patron, then realize they are just there to take things from you. For that reason I bit the bullet and changed to Charge Up Front just now.
I discussed the pros and cons of going to Charge Up Front on Patreon today. If I did that, then new patrons would be charged immediately for the month, then again at the next billing cycle.
Right as I had that discussion, someone joined my Patreon at the $15 level for an hour, then left. My scraped content was put onto a website made to share such content from furry artist/author Patreons.
What would you do?
I see two significant cons in changing to Charge Up Front:
1) Anyone who doesn't want to pay on August 20th, then pay again on September 1st, might not join, or might decide to join in September and then forget.
2) Currently if someone signs up, I have time to communicate with them to make sure that I am willing to do their commission, then once they're charged I do it. Making the change would remove that buffer, and I might have to do some refunds.
The two pros:
1) Prevents content scraping. But, how many customers am I losing to scraping? How many people who would personally do the scraping, or would use a website like that to check out stuff for free, would ever consider actually becoming a patron?
2) I'd get a slight increase in income from people who join mid-month.
I'm really curious what other people think about all this.
I discussed the pros and cons of going to Charge Up Front on Patreon today. If I did that, then new patrons would be charged immediately for the month, then again at the next billing cycle.
Right as I had that discussion, someone joined my Patreon at the $15 level for an hour, then left. My scraped content was put onto a website made to share such content from furry artist/author Patreons.
What would you do?
I see two significant cons in changing to Charge Up Front:
1) Anyone who doesn't want to pay on August 20th, then pay again on September 1st, might not join, or might decide to join in September and then forget.
2) Currently if someone signs up, I have time to communicate with them to make sure that I am willing to do their commission, then once they're charged I do it. Making the change would remove that buffer, and I might have to do some refunds.
The two pros:
1) Prevents content scraping. But, how many customers am I losing to scraping? How many people who would personally do the scraping, or would use a website like that to check out stuff for free, would ever consider actually becoming a patron?
2) I'd get a slight increase in income from people who join mid-month.
I'm really curious what other people think about all this.
If you'd like early access to my stories and rough drafts, want to commission something for yourself, or would like to support my writing habits, please visit my Patreon. Thank you!!
My Patreon || My Tip Jar
My Patreon || My Tip Jar 
In other words: the pros sound minor and are not guaranteed to be worth it while the cons sound like a guaranteed pain in the ass.
Disappointed that people are that impatient they can't just wait for public access. For the opinion of a random watcher though I'd still put the thought of whether to charge up front or not as its own thought independent of this attack.
My gut feeling is that among the people who support artists like us, those who are in it -just- for the rewards and exclusives are the minority. It's the same debate as other piracy, some people pirate until they can afford it pay for it. (Not defending or advocating it though) Just depends on the person I guess. :C
Good luck with striking the right balance then!
Standard commissions are not really comparable.
I dislike the" subscribe to recurring commissions" model on Patreon, but it's no worse than a commission que if the artist or author can match the output each month.
The pay up front decision is yours to make; there are pros and cons to both. It wouldn't make any difference to me one way or the other about contributing.
I'm going to think about it a little longer. Currently I'm leaning toward changing to charging up front.
Though, having the monthly schedule does help motivate me to write things within a time limit. So, I'll have to keep that in mind. :o
Thanks for speaking up about this!
I'ma make you write some weird stuff >:3c