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Taking a cut from donations is a unetical business model imho.

• chipotle_coyote 6y ago
  "Donation" is not the word the OP should have used, because it implies Patreon is some kind of charity middleman. They are not. Patrons are not donating money to creators, they are paying them to create; creators are not receiving donations, they are receiving income. Patreon is charging a service fee to them, and they know this up front. It is no more or less ethical than any other similar business proposition like setting up an online store with Shopify or selling an ebook on Amazon.
  • masklinn 6y ago
    > they are paying them to create That’s really not true. Subsidising creation maybe, but for most patreon that I’ve seen most of the value produced by the creator is public. There might be some exotic sideshows (eg access to a discord server, time-limited exclusivity is also common) but I’d see it more as funding creation than paying to create, the latter implies much more direct transaction and benefits / exchange e.g. commissioned work, that is “paying to create”.
  • emptyfile 6y ago
    >because it implies Patreon is some kind of charity middleman They're not? I honestly thought they were a utility like PayPal. Bizarre that people think they can make big money off it.
    • LunaSea 6y ago
      Paypal also takes a cut.
      • z3t4 6y ago
        Paypal is a bank. I think its in the gray zone what Patreon is. Investors are probably buying goodwill.
• Shivetya 6y ago
  they are not taking a cut. if anything they are providing a payment structure to relieve the work of credit card handling including fraud work. Very similar to how twitch began selling bits to viewers who could then use them to tip streamers.