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The article feels a bit over the top, if I'm reading this correctly this is just Discord becoming a direct competitor to Patreon (as many Patreons already basic

The article feels a bit over the top, if I'm reading this correctly this is just Discord becoming a direct competitor to Patreon (as many Patreons already basically boil down to "get access to my Discord server")

MichaelZuo 3y ago
Definitely, and it raises an interesting philosophical/semiotic question as to what "exclusive memes" are.
jasonlotito 3y ago
Correct. Discord is building things that users of Discord already use Discord for. They are just making it easier to set things up and manage. This is them knowing their customers.
- jjulius 3y ago
  >They are just making it easier to set things up and manage. This is them knowing their customers. Let's call a spade a spade - this is them knowing their customers, yes, but I'd hardly say they're just making things easier. It's Discord saying, "Oh, people pay for this kinda thing through Patreon? We'd actually like that money instead, please".
  - Gigachad 3y ago
    The existing process is super clunky. They are making it better while also making money. Winners all round. Unless you are patreon.
  - noirbot 3y ago
    Sure, and if they can offer a better product than Patreon then it's good for Discord and for the people running the communities. Most folks I know who use Patreon loathe it - they've barely improved the product in the last few years, so Discord feels like they're in a good position to offer a better service for some users.
    - jjulius 3y ago
      I'd argue that the improvement for the users is just a byproduct in Discord's eyes. Pardon my pessimism, but I don't see Discord just deciding to stop monetizing more things. This is the encroachment of enshittiffication.
      - noirbot 3y ago
        Sure, but that's essentially just "we all agree capitalism sucks, right?" in more words. I'd rather I just get a free voice chat app forever, but given that that's not the way this current economy works, I'm going to take the wins where I can when a company is choosing to monetize in ways that are generally good for everyone involved. Discord, thus far, has generally been monetizing in ways I find pretty generally positive. I'm going to celebrate that until they actually start monetizing in shittier ways.
        jjulius 3y ago
        >Discord, thus far, has generally been monetizing in ways I find pretty generally positive. I'm going to celebrate that until they actually start monetizing in shittier ways. I'd argue that's why we end up in the position we often end up in, as users. We take it little by little until it's too late. The "Well yeah that's capitalism and it sucks so /shrug, right?" argument feels kinda weak to me. If Discord's profitable and users are happy, why beat them for even more profit? Why can't we just go, "Welp, this is working, let's maintain where we're at"?
        paddw 3y ago
        There's no way Discord is profitable.
        jjulius 3y ago
        Then, and I recognize that this is just my opinion, we should just let it die rather than going, "Thank you, sir, may I have another?".
  - rcxdude 3y ago
    Which is neutral or good for users, especially if it subsidises the free chat platform. Patreon doesn't provide anything meaningful to creators or users beyond a payment mechanism (seriously: it is so bad at hosting and presenting the actual content it's increasingly common for creators to just not use it for that. And even if they do post anything but a link on patreon it's still on discord before that)
    - jjulius 3y ago
      As I mentioned in the other comment chain, it's the slippery slope of enshittification encroaching upon Discord IMO.
  - jasonlotito 3y ago
    > I'd hardly say they're just making things easier. For users? 100% it just makes things easier. This just makes it easier for users and hopefully overcomes some of the issues with Patreon's integration with Discord. But from a user's perspective (which is what my POV was from and the only one that matters in this context), whether you are paying Patreon or Discord, it doesn't really matter.
mcintyre1994 3y ago
Yep, and "different Patreon tiers get different channels" is already super common too. Presumably people currently do that with something like Zapier and a Discord bot and Discord can make it way simpler if they just sell the subscription instead. Makes perfect sense for them IMO.
coldpie 3y ago
> if I'm reading this correctly this is just Discord becoming a direct competitor to Patreon Man, really? That sounds great. Patreon sucks really, really hard. It's one of those websites & apps where you're amazed someone managed to screw up that badly. Like, you have to put serious effort into making software as bad as Patreon is. Quibbles about their business model aside, Discord actually knows how to make functional software and a usable UI. I would happily start giving money to Discord if they make a full-featured Patreon competitor.
- sc00ty 3y ago
  Can you elaborate on the issues you're talking about? I support a couple of creators and my interactions with the site have been fine, so I'm curious what issues you have with it.
  - nodespace 3y ago
    I support a few web novel authors on Patreon, and the website on mobile is so bad that I read the new chapters in my email client. In fact, I am extremely hesitant about starting any new subscriptions because of how bad it is. (and I do not look forward to reading all the catchup chapters on that interface, not to mention trying to search through where I left off on the publicly posted content without getting spoiled by chapter titles.) It takes ages to load, content is not on pages, its all streamed in order, and there is just a ton of lag trying to scroll through and find things. If you click away and try to come back, welp, good luck finding where you left off, better hope you had that chapter number memorized. Did I mention the lag? It takes like 10 seconds to load a text only section. There is search, but again the lag is aweful.
    - pie_flavor 3y ago
      Seconded. The experience of reading book chapters through Patreon is utterly abysmal. I don't know why Royal Road hasn't added direct integration or at least password protection like pirateaba does yet.
  - nozzlegear 3y ago

MichaelZuo 3y ago

Definitely, and it raises an interesting philosophical/semiotic question as to what "exclusive memes" are.

jasonlotito 3y ago

Correct. Discord is building things that users of Discord already use Discord for. They are just making it easier to set things up and manage. This is them knowing their customers.

jjulius 3y ago
>They are just making it easier to set things up and manage. This is them knowing their customers. Let's call a spade a spade - this is them knowing their customers, yes, but I'd hardly say they're just making things easier. It's Discord saying, "Oh, people pay for this kinda thing through Patreon? We'd actually like that money instead, please".
- Gigachad 3y ago
  The existing process is super clunky. They are making it better while also making money. Winners all round. Unless you are patreon.
- noirbot 3y ago
  Sure, and if they can offer a better product than Patreon then it's good for Discord and for the people running the communities. Most folks I know who use Patreon loathe it - they've barely improved the product in the last few years, so Discord feels like they're in a good position to offer a better service for some users.
  - jjulius 3y ago
    I'd argue that the improvement for the users is just a byproduct in Discord's eyes. Pardon my pessimism, but I don't see Discord just deciding to stop monetizing more things. This is the encroachment of enshittiffication.
    - noirbot 3y ago
      Sure, but that's essentially just "we all agree capitalism sucks, right?" in more words. I'd rather I just get a free voice chat app forever, but given that that's not the way this current economy works, I'm going to take the wins where I can when a company is choosing to monetize in ways that are generally good for everyone involved. Discord, thus far, has generally been monetizing in ways I find pretty generally positive. I'm going to celebrate that until they actually start monetizing in shittier ways.
      - jjulius 3y ago
        >Discord, thus far, has generally been monetizing in ways I find pretty generally positive. I'm going to celebrate that until they actually start monetizing in shittier ways. I'd argue that's why we end up in the position we often end up in, as users. We take it little by little until it's too late. The "Well yeah that's capitalism and it sucks so /shrug, right?" argument feels kinda weak to me. If Discord's profitable and users are happy, why beat them for even more profit? Why can't we just go, "Welp, this is working, let's maintain where we're at"?
        paddw 3y ago
        There's no way Discord is profitable.
        jjulius 3y ago
        Then, and I recognize that this is just my opinion, we should just let it die rather than going, "Thank you, sir, may I have another?".
- rcxdude 3y ago
  Which is neutral or good for users, especially if it subsidises the free chat platform. Patreon doesn't provide anything meaningful to creators or users beyond a payment mechanism (seriously: it is so bad at hosting and presenting the actual content it's increasingly common for creators to just not use it for that. And even if they do post anything but a link on patreon it's still on discord before that)
  - jjulius 3y ago
    As I mentioned in the other comment chain, it's the slippery slope of enshittification encroaching upon Discord IMO.
- jasonlotito 3y ago
  > I'd hardly say they're just making things easier. For users? 100% it just makes things easier. This just makes it easier for users and hopefully overcomes some of the issues with Patreon's integration with Discord. But from a user's perspective (which is what my POV was from and the only one that matters in this context), whether you are paying Patreon or Discord, it doesn't really matter.

mcintyre1994 3y ago

Yep, and "different Patreon tiers get different channels" is already super common too. Presumably people currently do that with something like Zapier and a Discord bot and Discord can make it way simpler if they just sell the subscription instead. Makes perfect sense for them IMO.

coldpie 3y ago

> if I'm reading this correctly this is just Discord becoming a direct competitor to Patreon Man, really? That sounds great. Patreon sucks really, really hard. It's one of those websites & apps where you're amazed someone managed to screw up that badly. Like, you have to put serious effort into making software as bad as Patreon is. Quibbles about their business model aside, Discord actually knows how to make functional software and a usable UI. I would happily start giving money to Discord if they make a full-featured Patreon competitor.

sc00ty 3y ago
Can you elaborate on the issues you're talking about? I support a couple of creators and my interactions with the site have been fine, so I'm curious what issues you have with it.
- nodespace 3y ago
  I support a few web novel authors on Patreon, and the website on mobile is so bad that I read the new chapters in my email client. In fact, I am extremely hesitant about starting any new subscriptions because of how bad it is. (and I do not look forward to reading all the catchup chapters on that interface, not to mention trying to search through where I left off on the publicly posted content without getting spoiled by chapter titles.) It takes ages to load, content is not on pages, its all streamed in order, and there is just a ton of lag trying to scroll through and find things. If you click away and try to come back, welp, good luck finding where you left off, better hope you had that chapter number memorized. Did I mention the lag? It takes like 10 seconds to load a text only section. There is search, but again the lag is aweful.
  - pie_flavor 3y ago
    Seconded. The experience of reading book chapters through Patreon is utterly abysmal. I don't know why Royal Road hasn't added direct integration or at least password protection like pirateaba does yet.
- nozzlegear 3y ago