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Comment by proto_lambda | Hacker News Reader

Ben Eater makes amazing educational videos, unfortunately he's been MIA for half a year now. His patreon sneakily got updated from a "per video" to a "per month" payment model a couple months ago (this has since been reverted) and I cancelled my membership after I didn't get any explanation for over a week, and there have been no other signs of life as far as I know.

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Yeah, I'd wondered what he's up to. At the same time, people have their own lives and sometimes shit happens. Changing the terms for existing patrons though does sound slightly shady. I'm surprised that is allowed without some kind of confirmation on the platform.

I'd give Ben the benefit of the doubt and assume it was a mistake since up to that point he has been a class act.

As for the radio silence, I'm afraid that this could be something bad. I've seen other examples of creators doing great work who are seemingly impossible to dislike, and STILL receive harassment to a point of not wanting to continue (e.g. Handmade Hero)

Well, nevermind anything nefarious, life can throw unexpected things in the mix too. This Old Tony was similarly away for a while recently (now back) after a family member died. I imagine it only gets more difficult to return too, once people notice and maybe you see them asking in comments, on Reddit or HN, etc. 'where' you've gone, and start to feel some need to not only return but explain your absence.

I check occasionally for new videos, I enjoy them and hope there's more to come, but I don't need to know 'why', it's none of my business, and he doesn't owe me anything. (I'm not a Patreon supporter, that apparent change is a bit different of course, perhaps just a mistake as you said.)

All I want is a simple "channel on hiatus for personal reasons" post somewhere.

Def. agree on this one.

I'm reminded of the closure viewers of the YouTuber Bosnian Bill got about his disappearance, by Lock Picking Lawyer doing an explanation video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ASQQboFg98

But I do also understand not all creators have a relationship with another creator which as much overlap of audience that it is possible.

> I've seen other examples of creators doing great work who are seemingly impossible to dislike, and STILL receive harassment to a point of not wanting to continue (e.g. Handmade Hero)

Are you saying that Casey Muratori is "seemingly impossible to dislike"? Isn't he still doing HH?

What kind of harassment did Casey receive? Was it if the “this is stupid because he’s not using an engine variety”?

He didn't go into details of harassment when speaking about it, which is understandable, except that it was about things he said on stream.

I'm very surprised Patreon would let a creator switch that without asking for existing patron's consent, it seems ripe for abuse and borderline illegal.

They hope their creators will inform them it seems, although maybe there is a patreon-initiated email informing backers when they make this change (I just can't find any evidence of it).

> Letting your patrons know about billing changes in advance is most important when switching from per creation to another option. Patrons may want to upgrade their subscription if they know that their pledged amount will be x 1. Say Patron F is at your $5 tier with a monthly max of 2 creations per month. When you switch to monthly, their subscription amount defaults to $5 a month -- they may want to increase to $10 a month to account for the change.

https://support.patreon.com/hc/en-us/articles/115000118666-C...

IANAL, but this still looks very suspicious to me. Agreeing to pay someone $5/month is not the same as agreeing to pay them $5/video (or vice versa). Charging me for something I never authorized is a form of fraud, no?

I'm sure the ability to do so is buried in 50 pages of terms of service.

If their class action waiver holds, that's fairly irrelevant.

He was around for sure in Feb, I was emailing him and he replied.

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