Long-Term Plans

[writerkit]

Apparently I need a new long-term plan for how to have financial success from writing, because Patreon has just laid off its entire in-house cybersecurity team and I'm not so much as creating an account on a site that doesn't grasp the concept of why the cybersecurity team is not where you cut costs.

And sure, with the upcoming new job I'm significantly less dependent on the notion of financial success from writing (there's no longer an element of rather desperate "get me away from this place!" involved), but I'd like to have it regardless, and "you liked my fanfic, purchase my original work" is less consistent than "you liked my fanfic, join my Patreon." Sure, there's Ko-Fi, but that's just a skin over PayPal, and therefore still shows you the real name of whoever has the account when money is actually sent... and PayPal does not permit pseudonymous money transfer, so I'd have to tolerate my legal name showing up to anyone who wants to send money. If I were willing to do that I wouldn't be bothering with the pen name.

I am annoyed. (My best option here is that public backlash is so strong Patreon reverses course on this, but that's not the most likely thing in the world; companies tend to get stubborn when they realize they have done something extremely stupid.)

Comments

[writerkit]

I know! They claim they're outsourcing but the laid off security team members say they've been understaffed for a while and there was no transition plan, and this is all happening *quite* publicly so Patreon is definitely about to be a target.

[siderea]

Oh, ducky.

[squirrelitude]

Fascinating. I'd heard about the "hey, we're, uh... all available for hire now" from the former security team, but wasn't clear if it was a policy dispute or what.

I mean, if everyone walked, they'd definitely have to outsource for a bit, but if outsourcing was a *planned* move then that would be a horrible sign indeed.