Creators are already getting nickel and dimed. One of my big things when I was managing musicians (really my friends whose work I loved) was I continually refused to step into the that thick miasma of profiteering others in the industry practiced.
Many musicians, for example, make less than 50 percent on distribution deals with their labels. I'm leading with this because 5 percent on top of CC payment processors' 30 cents + 2.whatever% is completely unethical from where I'm standing. You can integrate Fosspay [1] with fewer bells and whistles but totally free except for CC processors' cut (exorbitant as that in itself may be).
We need to stop inserting ourselves between creators and their money. It isn't worth whatever valuation we're fetching and it doesn't justify making us rich while creators gratefully accept their pittance.
EDIT: The word "free" is tossed around so frequently on https://www.buymeacoffee.com/ko-fi-alternative I feel I have to re-check my own reality of what free means. The service is very much not free when the price is being extracted from every purchase a customer makes.
This is essentially a Luddite argument. This particular product isn't going to be "inserting" itself anywhere, it's just a new way for creators to get paid. Over time, products like this expand the number of "creators" who actually get paid and make it easier to scale to bigger audiences.
Nobody is stopping you from putting your hat out on the street or signing with a huge label like you'd likely have to do a few decades ago.
> I'm leading with this because 5 percent on top of CC payment processors' 30 cents + 2.whatever% is completely unethical from where I'm standing. You can integrate Fosspay [1] with fewer bells and whistles but totally free except for CC processors' cut (exorbitant as that in itself may be).
In what way does the existence of BuyMeACoffee stop anyone from using your solution? There's a reason someone does choose BuyMeACoffee instead of Fosspay. What you suggest is removing options for the creator, in what way is that good for them?
> You will need a number of things set up before you start:
> 1. An approved Stripe account
> 2. A mail server
> 3. A domain name and an SSL certificate
> 4. A web server to host fosspay on
Are you going to give theses creators the mail server, the domain name and the web server for free? Are you going to offer the maintenance of theses servers for free too? Let say they find a managed server for 10$ per month (which would be amazing), they would need to make more than 200$ a month in donation for it to be equivalent to 5%.
> It isn't worth whatever valuation we're fetching and it doesn't justify making us rich while creators gratefully accept their pittance.
Then they shouldn't take the offer... BuyMeACoffee doesn't own the market, they doesn't seems to have any monopoly tendencies, Fosspay will keep existing while BuyMyACoffee is there.
Why don't you start offering a platform for free to artist? Maybe do it for 2.5% instead, there not that many artist that can make 400$ of donation a month! If you believe that the valuation of 5% is that outrageous, it's because you believe the same can be done for much cheaper, than do it for much cheaper and offer it!
Hey, this is Jijo from Buy Me A Coffee. Thanks for the feedback! We believe 5% is a reasonable fee to build and maintain a platform that allows creators to connect with their audience and generate more income.
One way to look at it is the % of additional revenue they earn because of Buy Me A Coffee.
Many musicians, for example, make less than 50 percent on distribution deals with their labels. I'm leading with this because 5 percent on top of CC payment processors' 30 cents + 2.whatever% is completely unethical from where I'm standing. You can integrate Fosspay [1] with fewer bells and whistles but totally free except for CC processors' cut (exorbitant as that in itself may be).
We need to stop inserting ourselves between creators and their money. It isn't worth whatever valuation we're fetching and it doesn't justify making us rich while creators gratefully accept their pittance.
[1] https://github.com/ddevault/fosspay
EDIT: The word "free" is tossed around so frequently on https://www.buymeacoffee.com/ko-fi-alternative I feel I have to re-check my own reality of what free means. The service is very much not free when the price is being extracted from every purchase a customer makes.