Why I Don’t Patreon, pt. 2
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Hey hey and welcome back to my hopefully thoughtful decision to opt-out of Patreon but still show up for supporting creators. Today another aspect of Patreon I wanted to explore was acknowledging how much content, connection or engagement is enough? I ask this because one of my reasons for opting out of Patreon is the demand it places on the creator to constantly and consistently generate content in exchange of or as justification for the funding we are supplying. IMO this can exacerbate and amplify the need for creators to prove themselves and their values by measuring the metrics of their work by how many patrons they have or how much work they have been able to create to share. And this in itself is an act of dominant culture.
Story time. I am old enough to remember when landline phones existed at home and you were lucky if your home had two lines. You know one for the kids and one for the adults and real business. Then came landline phones and voicemail. Every time we went out for any extended period of time, when we got home my mom checked those recordings and place a new tape in the deck to record, that is until they became built into the phone and before we got, caller id! Yes, I’m that old. That’s when in Black households across the country we Black kids learned that it is not right to lie, unless it was a bill collector in which case we were to take a message because our parents were unavailable. No, just me?
It was the end of 8th grade for me when I started working during the summers for my mom’s friends food truck business and my mom handed me a Nokia. I wasn’t even in high school when I got my first cell phone. I learned that summer how annoyed I was to carry this thing around and be responsible for always being accessible. I didn’t have the language for it but I knew I didn’t like it. I would work during the summer at food truck events and then head over to basketball practices so we could prepare for the upcoming season. And when (in my teenage mind) my mother would get on my nerves, I would purposely leave my phone at home in my room on the charger. This is before ringtones y’all. I would feel better when I would come home (mind you, I lived literally across the street from my high school) and my mom would get mad and ask why I wasn’t answering my cell phone. I would smile internally (I wasn’t crazy, I knew better than to let it be external )that I had “outsmarted” my mother. As I got older I got annoyed even more with folks that constantly felt like because you had a cell phone you should be reachable at all times. Can I sleep? Can we be present in the moment? I mean our need for access is somewhat a topic for another day but exactly what we are learning through these social media apps. And Patreon.
One of the things that happens when you create a Patreon account, is Patreon itself prompts you on setting scales for prices and what to offer so you will be able to grow your followers and even hints what type of items do well at certain levels. There is no factor for creators that are neurodivergent, working full-time jobs or just needing a smooth $300 to sustain their work monthly. There’s no option to collect exactly what you need from your supporters and redirect funds from anything over that need to other places, creators or causes. Could we make that a thing? And even still the labor requires the creators to create and provide something for supporters.
How much is enough? Is one post enough for engagement for the month to justify donating $20? I mean how else could you justify in a declining and over inflated market, sending a $20 monthly donation for existing? I’m extending a side eye to the Boomer generation believing a $20 donation or $5 cup of coffee is why Millennials aren’t getting married, buying homes and wanting to work. Are creators on Patreon really in the driver seat and in control of how much they put out there to their communities they have cultivated? As supporters of those on Patreon, how is the work we are supporting impacting our lives and our work in life? I have absolutely provided donations to organizations who in the moment I cared about or aligned with their cause AND I didn’t need to signup for a Patreon account. When do we withdraw our support from spaces needing support but not practicing reciprocity or offering needed value to us as supporters?
Okay, one more story. When I was religious, I used to attend a church that often spent more time reminding us about robbing God via Malachi 3:10-12 and tithing than they checked with the members of the congregation and just asked how you were doing. I will never forget receiving an end of year giving statement in January and it telling me how much money I paid in tithes, how much I paid in offerings and how much I paid to the church in “other” funds. It didn’t annotate the time I donated or the ways I volunteered or served in the church. And yet, our Pastor proudly preached to us Sunday morning after Sunday morning that no one could approach the church asking. for help if they have not poured into the church. If they have not paid tithes and offering and it didn’t sit right with me. What else was a houseless person or widow to do? Oh, right pay the church your rent money so you wouldn’t be evicted and trust that God would deliver you.