@phildini
Generally neutral to positive feelings based on the people I know / know of who use it.

@phildini Short answer tonight long answer tomorrow: yes, good things, bad things. Not sure what they do with their %. They are improving slowly but consistently. Except that new icon of theirs.

@phildini When it works, it works, but it isn't a magical answer that will get people to follow you. It sill requires a fair amount of work on your part; if you do nothing, it won't. do anything for you.

It is good for adding abstraction if you do naughty things.

The UI is somewhat painful, it can't be automated, and writing posts can be painful. Otherwise, is is fairly easy to use.

@phildini
My feelings are pretty positive.

@phildini

Good. I use it to support people whose mind-share I rely on.

It doesn't use tech you don't already trust, like your credit card or paypal.

The interface is easy; it is as simple to start a subscription as it is to stop it, no fuckery.

Honestly, I feel this automatic skepticism of proprietary software is understandable, yet mindless.

Not everything in the world shall be free, nor transparent, but many will be good and necessary.

@phildini Its how i live

@phildini While I'm not on your server, I'm +1 to a clear and transparent message / system to support said services.

@phildini as a concept? very positive, although not a magic bullet. You need to come to patreon with an existing audience or you're not going to do well. But it's great at engaging people and funding projects/people/communities that otherwise would be stuck with a much more complicated, inconsistent, and hard-to-justify donation system.

as a company, I don't know a ton about them other then that they seem to care about creators and are mostly doing the right things product-wise.

@phildini It may be worth asking Mastodon user @sargoth about this. :)

@phildini I think that even if it's a bit evil (?), it's got to be a great way of getting an income stream.

@phildini - I think that the idea of long time funding between creator and audience is good, but Patreon charge too much, in reality regressing to the system they should replace.

I also prefer an open source model, so even though I have a Patreon account I prefer #Liberapay .

@phildini It works for me. There is an issue over past 6 mo where they are presuming that donaters are customers, which is playing merry hob with some people's understanding of how tax law will be interpreted, as some people have been using it more as a GoFundMe model.

Also I hear they just banned porn, which is going to really rustle some jimmies.

@phildini Patreon I feel like can be good or bad, like kickstarter campaigns. People can seriously abuse the system or misinterpret how to use the system, but when it's done correctly I think it's an excellent way of supporting creators directly, since it allows them to have an actual stable income that they have to work for by continuing to impress their customers.

@phildini it seems like a good way of turning reputation into money for folks doing ongoing creative work that doesn't fit the Kickstarter "one and done" model.

@phildini Oh Patreon, I... I sort of hate that it has to exist, that funding for artists (etc) has to be part of a model in which art production fits so neatly into capitalism, when art itself does (and should) not. To me individual patronage systems, and NGOs too, are the mark of a failed state. In this case a very *hip* mark of a failed state, but still.

@phildini It brings me more income than I would otherwise have. I don't like living in a world where it's needed, but I think it's better than many options.

I started my Patreon when I had a small audience, so it's been a long process and lots of patience to get to even $45/month, but that's on me, not Patreon.

@phildini Good feelings. Haven't used as a creator, but I love being able to support the things I want to see more of even in small ways. It makes me feel like I'm part of it and have more choice in what I consume.

@phildini in general i like it, from both a creator and customer perspective. conceptually it's great! i've heard some complaints from artists about flaws in the system, but the developers have actually tried to address their issues at least

@phildini Patreon has enabled me to pay my bills by drawing a comic about a lesbian robot with Philip K Dick problems. I am all for it.

@phildini mostly good though they capitulated to neo-nazis which is a pretty good reason to not use them if you're inclined that way

@phildini It's a corporation, and as such it exists to make money. This means there are things they do that can't help but be supportive of the status quo. If you can live with that, they won't mess things up too badly.

@phildini Patreon is Perfect for Creators in my opinion! The only person a creator needs to please is the customer, not the companies that put ads in his/her content. And patreon allows them to do so

@phildini Mixed, mostly good. Things I don't like:
Not available for one-time donations
Pledges are on a fixed schedule, instead of when the donor chooses
I've seen users not understand how it works and advertise "donate any amount, as little as a penny" when in reality the way they have it set up is a minimum $8 pledge per month
Some get in the mindset that it's a way to sell a service and get stressed over providing valuable backer rewards or even come out in the negative

@phildini After typing that out, I guess I can say all my criticisms of it are more people not understanding it or trying to use it in ways it wasn't intended. Know its limits, and have other services for other use cases.