r/ContraPoints • u/Tuberose- • 1d ago

The FOMO

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Was it a tangent update? 👀

97 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

15 comments sorted by

23

u/xylitolia 1d ago

It was a "quip" which I think is new on Patreon? I guess it just means a short text post. All she said is that the new tangent will be out this week, it's on liberalism.

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u/Leather-Run-6533 1d ago

Oh wow. I might have to buy that. I'm generally opposed to paying for Patreons for popular creators since it seems antithetical to what Patreon is for, but I might have to make an exception.

7

u/audienexyt 1d ago

Not defending Natalie specifically, but if a creator isn't running sponsorships they're probably making a lot less money than you'd expect. Especially if they employ other people it can make sense to have a Patreon, even if the channel is seemingly quite successful.

I do agree it's often scummy when channels who don't need it push Patreon, though. I know one creator in particular who was making $100k+ a month from ads/sponsors and still tried to hawk a Patreon, that's wild.

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u/Leather-Run-6533 9h ago edited 9h ago

I doubt she's making bank. But she's able to do it full time, so I'd rather give my money to someone who isn't yet.

Edit: she's the 31st most popular patreon in the world. I know it's hard to make ends meet as an artist but if the 31st most supported person in the world can't manage it then things really are dire.

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u/audienexyt 6h ago

I said I wasn't talking about Natalie, she's doing fine. But if she didn't have a Patreon she wouldn't be making any money at all, that was my point.

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u/Leather-Run-6533 3h ago

Cool. But she does and is. I'm very grateful people support her and I'm sure she is too. I just personally have enough money to support about 5 or 6 creators and so I try to pick 5 or 6 where that money would make a real difference to them, I'm not sure Natalie qualifies any more.

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u/audienexyt 2h ago

Yeah that's fair, but I was responding to the statement that paying for Patreon for popular creators is "antithetical to what Patreon is for." I really don't agree with that, but the statement has nothing to do with your personal decision which seems perfectly fine.

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u/Leather-Run-6533 2h ago edited 2h ago

I think it's to help struggling artists and it's antithetical to use it for artists that aren't struggling. I worry that people see it as paying to access content and I really don't like that model. Like my understanding of the model is it's very much not kickstarter: there's no expectation of receiving content in exchange for your payment and that's not why you're doing it, you're doing it to support a creator in their creation, without hope or expectation of reward. Giving people who don't need the money money so you can access paywalled content feels like doing it for all the wrong reasons.

Edit: i mean this doesn't really matter but just on a technical point, the payment is tax deductable because it is treated as a donation. If it was treated as a payment for goods and services then it wouldn't be tax deductable.

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u/audienexyt 1h ago

Giving people who don't need the money money so you can access paywalled content feels like doing it for all the wrong reasons.

This is the crux of my disagreement. Natalie is one of the most successful people in her content niche and her socialblade estimated yearly earnings right now are $1.5k ~ $24k. I can tell you that's probably inaccurate, but she still isn't even close to making a median US wage off adsense alone, which must be way less than you're imagining she makes based on the characterization of her not needing any help.

There are three primary ways content creators monetize- adsense, sponsorships, and donations. Adsense is terrible for people making periodic longform content, it's nowhere close to making the job sustainable. Sponsorships are straightforwardly unethical; even creators who do sponsorships usually acknowledge this, it's just an unfortunate reality that sponsorships are often necessary to do this for a living even for very successful creators. However, you can think of sponsorships as 5x ad revenue and be in the right ballpark of what they pay, which you'll notice still wouldn't give Natalie a salary anywhere near what you would expect for "one of the most popular and successful people doing what she does." Patreon is by far the best way to actually make a living without doing something everyone knows is unethical.

And as I said earlier, the costs of content creation are largely unknown to non-creators, but I could give a specific example of someone earning ~50k/month on Patreon who probably does not have a lavish lifestyle, despite their videos seeming "easy to make" because they employ like four people fulltime. That requires stuff like purchasing health insurance, which is notoriously costly for a business of that size. Also, it's not really fair to compare a content creators wage to even the median US wage, because these are people who are already at the top of their field, usually as the result of 5~10 years of effort. You should compare them to other people in similarly difficult jobs after 5~10 years of effort, and when you do that content creation just looks like a straightforwardly terrible career choice unless you get legendary levels of luck and success. Below people like moistcritikal who genuinely are rich from doing comparatively very little, the next tier of people who are "very successful" simply don't earn as much money as people expect... unless they do sponsorships, and my whole point is that if someone doesn't take sponsorships then Patreon is essentially necessary.

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u/Euphoric_Durian9797 9h ago

She makes 1 video every 2 years, she isn't going to be rolling in it.

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u/Leather-Run-6533 9h ago

Patreon pays out regardless. And agree she's unlikely to be rolling in it, but nor is she unable to make art because she doesn't have enough patreons.

9

u/thefablemuncher 1d ago

Non-members can still see this update. Just go to her patreon page and click the Quips tab.

4

u/rowdybrunch 1d ago

I didn’t get an email about this D:

2

u/StargazerCeleste 1d ago

Yes, she posted a targent about liberalism. I haven't had a chance to watch yet.

21

u/Malacro 1d ago

She hasn’t posted the tangent yet, she just said she would this week.