I just wanted to say how cool I think it is that so many people made a contribution and that total is pretty impressive. Glad the Patreon is so successful.
I also hope that people who troll Tom’s reviews watch the Patreon video. It does a great job showing Tom’s sincerity.
I am a chowderhead. It appears one must have a balance to backstop. But victory is mine!
Made a small contribution and will also leave on the ads as they really aren’t that bad here.
Hey, so a question–If my Patreon contribution is paid for via Paypal, does that mean less money for Qt3?
I thnk Tom has mentioned that PP take a greater cut for transactions <$5. If you are donating $5 or more, it should not matter, if you are donating less, use Patreon.
That’s if he pays Tom directly via PP. but if Patreon deducts from PP, that’s the same, right (edit: I mean PP pays amount to Patreon and then Patreon deduct the percentage, thus using PayPal to pay Patreon is the same as using credit card in Patreon)? Assuming he’s sending money to Patreon via PP gifts.
Ah. So using Paypal to fund a Patreon means the subscription, so to speak, gets double-dipped?
Well I guess it does mean both PayPal and Patreon take a percentage. Maybe Tom can chime in.
I suspect it’s Patreon who eats the fees at that point, rather than Tom (Steam doesn’t charge you more when you buy via PayPal, for instance), but yeah, Tom probably has access to the documentation to share more.
hey Tom:
Not sure if this is the proper place for this, but it’s a thread that’s getting a lot of attention, and the subject is related. By way of showing my support, I’ve whitelisted Qt3 on all the broswers I use, and I’m going to sign up for Patreon in the next day or so (I was waiting until after they charged for the start of the month since your support had to be added to the budget). I just wanted to establish that I’m not a freeloader, and that I am happy to support you.
However, a couple of things bug me with respect to ads:
First, this obnoxious ad showed up on my iPad this afternoon :
this is the first time I’ve seen this type of ad on the iPad (and I use my iPad on Qt3 daily). So this is new. It’s horrible - especially considering the ‘Hide’ button was not respnsive for at least a minute or two after the ad showed up. Also, the ad reappears each time you switch pages.
I am happy to support you but this is too intrusive for me. So I installed AdBlocker on iOS so I wouldn’t have to put up with that again.
Second, I have been visiting the front page more the last few weeks. I don’t mind most of the ads I’m getting served but one type really frosts me - it’s the type which shows a video window with a mute video playing. I really really really hate those types of ads… I never click them except to pause the video, since the motion is distracting (and I guess that’s why they do it, to get some attention). I’ve even gone so far as to drag the ‘video’ portion of the page offscreen so I never have to think about it.
Take all that for what you will.
Charlatan, yikes, I’m seeing it, too. That pop up is well outside the parameters of where ads are supposed to appear on the forum. Very uncool. I’ve sent an email to the ad guys telling them to nix those, but since it’s the weekend, they might not get to it until Monday.
As for the video ads, I know they’re distracting, but they pay far better than other ads. For what it’s worth, we will never allow them to automatically play audio, which is something that pays even more. So while I completely understand your complaint, it’s unfortunately just this side of the line of what I’d consider abusive. But I appreciate that different people have different thresholds for what’s annoying, so thanks for the feedback. And especially thanks for the heads-up about that pop-up.
I don’t want to make any promises, but depending on where the Patreon campaign stabilizes, and pending getting the front page fixed and how much it will affect the site’s ad revenue, I’m absolutely willing to reconsider stuff like how many and what sorts of ads we’re running.
-Tom
Tom, the video ads don’t bother me at all as there’s no flashing and no sound (I appreciate that). If that’s where the money is then I’m all for them! I may even click on one eventually. I might do that on my ipad right now.
Lurking member for the last 6 years (you can see from my number of posts), but been lurking for much longer. I have always enjoyed Qt3 and it is one of the site I visit almost everyday. I have no problem supporting this and hope the site will last as long as it can!
The take rate is the same, but as PP charges a percentage and a fixed fee, then the fixed fee portion becomes a larger proportion as the donation gets smaller. For small transactions, PP has a microtransaction rate which has a higher percentage take rate but carries a much smaller fixed fee, but that would require a separate arrangement.
On Patreon, I would speculate (ie talking out of my ass) that if Patreon is paying PP for the transaction, Tom would not get charged another transaction fee simply for receiving money from Patreon but any money Patreon sends would be less PP’s transaction fees. Patreon would then take its cut before handing the funds to Tom. However, if Patreon is doing large volume, then they may get preferential merchant rates from PP which Tom may not receive. All in, it may not be any cheaper.
Better than guessing, here is how Patreon fees are calculated, directly from the horse’s mouth: https://patreon.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/204606125-How-do-you-calculate-fees-
Note that they don’t actually say what the processing fees are (at least for domestic stuff).
True. It’s not their place to tell you how much money PayPal or your credit card company skim from a payment. Simply that Patreon try to keep them to a minimum by aggregating your payments.
But the Patreon fee itself is listed and is 5%.
Wendelius
Wait, so this benefits QT3 and the charity I’ve identified on Smile? With one not taking from the other?
Sadly that link does not seem to work in Germany. They do not offer that donation service here.