It did take reading your link to realize you meant dealing with the effect, not the cause. Still, I think that’s one of the less likely possibilities since there are multiple solutions to pledge fraud and the one they chose is the one most harmful to everyone including themselves; unbundling pledges eliminates the incentive to use Patreon when multiple alternatives for supporting the creator are offered. I think abandoning that natural monopoly requires a serious crisis.
Though I suppose it could be indirectly that, in that support costs due to pledge fraud could be high enough to justify the change… Somehow. Maybe combined with supporting small-dollar supporters, but how many people donating a dollar for no perk would have a reason to contact support?
There’s speculation (linked to in the other thread) that it’s an attempt to avoid falling under some financial regulations related to being a money transmitter, but I find that far fetched given that they’ve allegedly taken a year to come up with this plan. Also, while there are regulations that can be applied stupidly, I would expect that Patreon being much more than a money transmitter would shield them.
I suppose we’ll find out more eventually; so far all I’ve seen that’s specific enough is the claim that they needed this to “keep the lights on”, but that’s not very specific…
1 Like
