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Crowdfunding has always been a strange beast. And when you marry that concept with tech (like Patreon), it requires careful consideration of the rising and falling of the market, the ongoing costs, the technical risks, as well as a million other things on a day to day basis. It is a lot to manage.
 
The truth is this, though it has served me well for almost a decade, Patreon has twice in as many years completely disrupted my business model with random corporate choices for which they took no responsibility, all the while taking more and more of the money my art earns. In other words, they've made my job more difficult for less money and have blamed others for their choices. I have zero doubt they will do it again, at increasing intervals, to goose their numbers for an acquisition.

I have years of experience in tech, and especially SF tech, and I can see the writing on the wall, there. Patreon are likely nearing the end of their investment runway (10 rounds of funding), and are almost certainly lining themselves up for sale. That alone dooms that platform. It will almost certainly not survive such a purchase. At least not in any useful form.

So my plan is this: over the next four months, I will migrate the Delta Green Patreon page over to Ghost.io; a much more reasonably priced crowdfunding service, which is, in a lot of ways, more creator-centric and creator-controllable than Patreon (and whose company is in much earlier funding stages). I will keep the Patreon running and in sync with the Ghost.io platform for as long as is needed, but keep in mind: Patreon is requiring all patrons to switch from per post payments to per month payments.

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN TO PATREON CONTRIBUTORS?

• PATREON WILL CONTINUE: I will continue to run the Patreon and will update it just as much as before. I am forced however, to switch over to the monthly fee by November (as opposed to the current structure, which is per post payment). Likewise, you will be forced to do so as well — I will update the Patreon when and how to do this. Since the current Delta Green Patreon minimum cost is $1, and I post 6 times a month (for a total of $6), the monthly fee will be a one-time $6 a month charge (the same). Of course, if you want to contribute more...please do!

• GHOST.IO IS LIVE: I am currently porting the content from the Delta Green Patreon over to the Delta Green Ghost.io site. I have all of 2024 over there already and will soon have all of it. You can go there and sign up now for the same price ($6 a month, though they offer a discount if you sign up yearly). There is also a $15 per month tier — to cover those high-rollers that have spent such things in the past (you know who you are).

• WHEN YOU FEEL COMFORTABLE, MOVE FROM PATREON TO GHOST.IO: By November, please consider switching over to the Delta Green Ghost.io site, but either way, you will be forced (by Patreon, not me) to switch over to a monthly fee on Patreon. I'd prefer to have everyone under one roof at Ghost.io (it would make my job easier). But I'll maintain the Patreon as long as any significant count of contributors are there.

• WHAT YOUR MOVING TO GHOST.IO MEANS TO ME: It means a lot of things really, but the most important is this: Patreon will not be taking a huge chunk of the money you are kind enough to pay me for my art, and Ghost.io's fees are a fraction of what Patreon requires (and keep increasing).

FEEL FREE TO POST QUESTIONS BELOW.

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César

See you in Ghost.io. Good riddance to Patreon.

Nick Barosso

Done 👍🏻 very easy to transition - anything to help you guys out

César

We follow creators, not platforms. If they thought otherwise, they are going to be disappointed.

Lowell Prevost

Good on you for standing up for yourself and your business. You're one of my two remaining patreon subs as the othersl have jumped ship over the past 4 years for this exact reason. That being said, I'm happy to make the jump to ghost.

J. Tuttle

I'm glad you're doing the. Patreon doesn't deserve the creators that are here and I hope more do the same. I'll be making the switch to you stuff over yonder soon.

Bryan S. Taylor

Moved on over! Happy to support and cut my final tie with Patreon. Thanks for making it easy; it was simple and painless

Verity Contrarity

I'm so continually annoyed with Patreon, happy to switch, and thanks for making it easy!

detwiller

Oh, and for those who do switch over! (and many already have, I'm floored!) DON'T FORGET TO CLOSE OUT YOUR PATREON HERE. I'd hate to double charge you.

Mike Nusbaum

I’ll switch over next month, after this billing cycle ends. I hope this allows you to earn a little more money. I’ve used patreon for so long it’s a shame corporate greed will destroy it, but isn’t that the way of things today.

Breton

Done. You say it will mirror your posts on Patreon – do I unsub from the Patreon now or is there continued value in it? EDIT: You responded to a similar question already. Please disregard.

detwiller

No problem Breton. Eventually, all the back content will be up on Ghost (right now it's just 2024), but by September it should all be there.

detwiller

Hey Martijn! At the very least, if you can do the yearly signup (I think that's $66 USD) via paypal, I can manually set you up on the site for a year. I'll see if there are easier solutions first.

Ben W Bell

Dennis, with the target Ghost.io site of delta-green.ghost.io, does that mean it's incorporating the Arc Dream Patreon as well, or is it just your own work as on this Patreon?

neilb2001

If I could sign up by paypal rather than credit card I'd happily sign up for a year.

Damon Dorsey

Happy to make the switch! See you on the other side.

Grady

Just hopped over there.

Michael Bourgon

Well crud. I’ll be honest, I’m on several patreons, and everybody gets a couple of bucks. Yeah, I’m probably getting a heck of a deal from yours, but I’d happily give at a lower rate and get less. $6 is hard to justify, and it sucks that ghost doesn’t offer a per-post option. I’ll keep kicking in on the various fundable++s :(

detwiller

No worries. Never stretch yourself out over stuff like this. But $6 minimum is already what you’re paying now if you pledge $1 per post here.

Ols Jonas Petter Olsson

When using the link above to ghost.io I get a message that "this site is blocked due to a security threat". In other words, I would certainly make the change, but not sure when that might happen.

Steve

Roger that. Transferring now. Over and out.

Collin Burkhart

I'm not sure I'm familiar with Ghost.io, and this might be the only instance of a creator I follow relocating to another whole platform. I'm a bit torn on whether I should go over there or not, at least as long as this one continues to exist and posts content in tandem with the other site. Is that looking likely? I hate to be a stickler against change, but I'm not sure having the whole separate account would be worth doing if staying here isn't going to put me out of the loop with your work.

detwiller

Nope Collin. You should do whatever you’re comfortable with. (And yes this site will continue.) Either way however, due to the forced changes that Patreon will require, the DG Patreon will be a monthly charge ($6) — which works out to what it is now at $1 per six posts a month. Cheers!

Ed Robinson

I put a "items per month" cap on my Patreon, but since that's going away anyway, I'm switching over. I've seen a number of creators making similar jumps, and I'm behind it based on what I know about the this latest issue.

detwiller

Cheers, Ed. Yeah, Patreon seems intent on making random decisions until everything breaks. Ghost.IO is a way to hedge against their inevitable next fuck-up. ;)