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Small change regarding the way pledges are charged
🕑 Added 2016-07-07 19:10:52 +0000 UTC I want to let you guys know about a small change taking place to the way Patreon will collect the monthly pledges.A short while ago, Patreon offered a new feature to some creators called "Pay Upfront" which changes when Patrons are charged for their pledge. Basically, the difference is this:
Previously, for a monthly Patreon like ours, you would, technically, sign up, and then be charged on the next first of the month. So if a Patron signed up on the 15th of June, they would receive immediate access, and their first charge would occur on the 1st of July, and then the first of every month thereafter.
With Charge Upfront, a new Patron will now be charged on June 15th for the month of June, and then they would be charged on July 1st for the month of July, August 1st for the month of August, and so on.
At first, I didn't really see a need to change the method of operation. However upon closer inspection, I noticed a handful of people that would sign up, receive the content, and then cancel their pledge before they were charged. Or, more commonly (unfortunately), they would temporarily increase their pledge to receive access to higher tier content, and then revert back to their regular level before being charged the additional amount.
I've spent the last couple of months sort of agonizing about whether, ultimately, this really mattered at all. I mean, I'm fortunate enough to get any support at all, and I'm thankful for the ability to create the content that I do for a living, so should I really be concerned about a little bit of gaming the system?
At the same time, the Patreon support that I receive plays a very big role in creating the content that I do. The pledges pay for the colorists to help me with The Starcaster Chronicles and Analog and D-Pad, and on a more fundamental level, help in paying for the other costs necessary to do my job, such as daycare for my son, my subscription to Creative Cloud, etc. So it's a core part of keeping me going.
Ultimately what nudged me over the edge was the idea that it simply wasn't fair to those Patrons who offer me their support at those higher tiers. When someone can pledge $10 a month and receive some extra desktop-sized wallpaper as a thank-you, and someone else comes in and just grabs that and runs, that doesn't sit well with me. That's something that I came up with to try and offer people some value for their patronage.
So the bottom line is, if you support month-to-month, you will see absolutely no change in the way things work. You'll be charged on the first of the month, and you'll have access to all your content for that month.
If you're at the $3 tier and decide, one month, you want to check out the Analog and D-Pad One Shots the $5 tier gets and you bump up your pledge, you'll be charged the difference on the spot. You can then go back down to $3 the following month, and that's no problem.
I think it's just a fairer and clearer way to operate this thing going forward, and I just wanted to make you all aware of the change so there were no surprises.
And while we're on the subject of value-for-patronage, I want to say that I am always open for a discussion on the topic of things you guys would like to see added or offered as a result of your support. Either restructuring of the existing tiers if you don't feel a particular reward is a good value for the cost, or if you've seen some other Patreon offer something you'd like to see me try to do. Ultimately, I want to be making stuff that people want to have, so I'm certainly open to doing as much as I can within the balance of work and life.
Thanks :)
Comments
Lisa
I wondered when I first Patreoned* if it was possible to game the sysyem this way, so I'm glad they closed the loophole. *that is a word, I made it up just now. :)
Brian Dickens
Perfectly understandable, Tim. Also... why haven't you broken the $4000/month limit yet? Seems like new subscriptions have dried up... perhaps advertise your Patreon account a bit more? :)
