Why SubscribeStar and not Patreon?

I thought it was worth saying why I'm using this service and not their very well known competitor.

It's been a real dilemma for me as I spent a while setting up a Patreon account last year and was all ready to hit the go-live button, but a few things happened to stop me doing that.

Firstly, reports started to pour in of adult content creators getting their accounts banned by Patreon, usually without warning. A quick Google shows a worrying number of verifiable examples of this. And while a lot of it can be blamed on prissy payment providers, the way Patreon handled it was just not cool. For many working hard to create hot, adult content, their entire livelihood was wiped out in one go, no appeal.

Remind anyone of our favourite blog site?

Yep, the Tumblr pain was too fresh and still is, to put myself at that risk again.

In comparison, SubscribeStar have a really positive attitude to adult content, and it feels like a much safer place to be building a following of this type.

Just for extra brownie points, SubscribeStar 18+ content specifically comes with the .adult third-level domain which is great because that gets blocked automatically on all internet family filters. Belt and braces, nice work SS.

Secondly, Patreon's payment model is kind of weird. The fact they still only gather money from subscribers at the first of the month left me with the dilemma of what to do for those who want to sign up, say a week before that. Do I charge them a whole month for a week's access, or give it to them for free until the month rolls over and so leave it all available without an effective paywall. Again, in comparison SS take payment when you sign up, and repeat that a month later. Seemingly an obvious solution, unless you're Patreon...
(I'm currently just charging at the start of the month to kick start the blog and give people a free taster, but in future it'll be just monthly from when they sign up).

Finally, Patreon is hacked. Like really hacked. I won't put the links up but there are a number of sites where you can just go and type in the Patreon name and boom, there's all their content free to download. Patreon are absolutely aware of this and don't seem to care. That's a problem for me for a couple of reasons. Firstly it's not great to have things you work hard on just ripped off and you can't do anything about it, although honestly if people want my content and can't pay, I'm not too bothered. They weren't going to pay anyway.

Secondly, a major worry is that it totally removes the intrinsic age filter that a paid account provides. I have kids, do I want them getting hold of the kinky shit I write? Hell no. And I don't want anybody else's kids to either. 

So yes, three good reasons I'm doing this with SubscribeStar. I know most of us may have a Patreon account already so thanks for taking the extra step of trying something new. I am too, and I hope it'll work for all of us.

James