Thanks for being a Patreon!
Patreon is an excellent website which can allow creative people to (attempt to) make a living from their work. It is popularly used by animators, YouTube content creators and artists as a means of funding their work. There is, however, one area of the ‘arts’ which Patreon isn’t too keen on supporting. That is the adult entertainment market.
The format in itself does work slightly differently to a straight up donation. With Patreon a person/s offers a service and for a monthly ‘donation’ you help assist that person while at the same time gaining access to their work. It’s kind of a combination of Twitch Donations and a Netflix Subscription.
Patreon for many can be massively helpful. For example, projects such as the Wii-U emulator is in part funded by donations.
In fairness, although a strange concept, there is no reason why the porn industry has to be big. There is (legally) nothing stopped you deciding that’s how you want to make your living and if you prefer to do it independently then so be it. In a report via the BBC, however, people who wish to use the medium to fund their ‘activities’ feel that the crowd-funding support website unfairly excludes them.
If we can all calm down for a second…
While you can understand that Patreon doesn’t necessary want to get involved with this industry, there is a reasonable point these ‘independent films-makers’ have. Ultimately they are providing a service to which certain personalities do have fans. The current structure is clearly intended towards such a market and not solely for gaming or traditional artists.
The outcry has been caused due to Patreon having changed their rules last week to rather explicitly ban pornography of any description. This has affected a number of people who do use Patreon for their ‘adult entertainment’.
In fairness though, since the comments regarding the ban, the CEO Jack Conte has promised to look into the matter and issue a response over the next few days.
Personally, I’m conflicted. I think that crowd-funding is, by it’s very nature, ironically well suited to this low-level homespun adult entertainment. Yet, at the same time, I can entirely understand why Patreon would want to avoid being associated with it.
What do you think? Is Patreon better off avoiding this market? Given that it wasn’t substantial were they better off with their blind eye? – Let us know in the comments!
