Alternatives to Patreon - Maybe for Adult games

Agent HK47

Active Member
Mar 3, 2018
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Highly doubt it, they probably aren't even taking it as serious competitor, maybe not even aware it exists. Not to say it's bad or not future platform, that's just the reality of things.
Funny how "the big guys" never seems to view something smaller than them as a "threat".

Reminds me of this fun little story:

1998: Yahoo refuses to buy Google for $1 million
2002: Yahoo tries to buy google for $3 billion. Google demands $5 billion, Yahoo refuses
2008: Microsoft offers $40 billion for Yahoo. Yahoo refuses
2016: Yahoo is sold to verizon for $4.6 billion


Also remember that Blockbuster never viewed Netflix as anything remotely close to a threat, and Nexflix basically became their complete doom.

People are lazy, that is true. They would prefer if they didn't have to make new accounts for new shit. On the other hand, if something suddenly offers something new or simply gives them something that the popular guys doesn't, then it will only take a small falling rock, to start a landslide.

People were loyal to Myspace, Yahoo, Blockbuster and many other things, until something better/more interesting came along.

I agree that Patreon probably doesn't view Sponsorion (or any other start-up with similar ideas) as a legitimate threat to their business, but it might only result in further damage to themselves in the long run. You should never underestimate your opponent.
 
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gamersglory

Xpression Games
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Aug 23, 2017
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Problem is like I've said before Mastercard causes them to ban content. No way around that.

Document I got before:


COMPLIANCE DEPARTMENT
BAD WORD CHECKLIST - BRAM
MasterCard runs a Business Risk Assessment and Mitigation (BRAM) program which
restricts merchants posing significant fraud, regulatory or legal risk from using the
MasterCard system. In other words, any violation of the BRAM categories, will most
likely lead to termination of your account and potential penalties from the card
schemes.
To fall in to the BRAM merchant monitoring program is not something you want to
do and is seen as a ’deadly sin’. You want to do whatever it takes to stay out of that.
Once your site has been flagged by G2 who is operating the BRAM scanning for
MasterCard, your site will be on a watch list which can be compared to the
chargeback monitoring programs.
In the adult industry, the BRAM program monitor the following BRAM violating
categories which is strictly prohibited by Visa, MasterCard and Zombaio:
• Drugged/Incapacitated
• Rape/Brutality
• Bestiality
• Blood/Mutilation
• Pedophilia
• Incest
• Necrophilia
MasterCard (G2) and Zombaio perform web crawling, monitoring merchants’ online
content, as part of a continues effort to shut down merchants which are caught
violating any BRAM category.
Penalties can be up to USD $250,000 per site!
The web crawlings first part is automated based on specific regulation in the words
found in text and pictures (OCR scanning). The second part is manual wher an
compliance officer review the result found in the automated process.
An previousley flagged site will ALWAYS be manually reviewd so that ”hidden”
descriptions in JavaScript etc. can be found. This is done daily, weekly and/or
monthly
 

gamersglory

Xpression Games
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Sponsorion Won't be a legitimate threat. If Patreon is Friendster then Sponsorion will be Myspace. I'm working towards the Facebook of these sites minus the creepy amount of info they have on everyone.
 

HiEv

Member
Sep 1, 2017
384
778
Sponsorion Won't be a legitimate threat. If Patreon is Friendster then Sponsorion will be Myspace. I'm working towards the Facebook of these sites minus the creepy amount of info they have on everyone.
No offense, but you're a bit biased in your opinion, considering you plan to compete with Sponsorion.

Honestly, if you're basing your service on bitcoin the way it sounds like you are, then you're more likely to be the "Ello" or "Google Buzz" of these sites.
 
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Fake438

New Member
Oct 30, 2017
10
3
From what I can tell the problem is that BRAM is outdated in its specificities. The thing is that it sound like something specifically made and woven around filmed pornography with real actresses and actors, that is sold per piece(a.k.a one clip/dvd for X amount of dollars) .Under those circumstances their rules and conditions make perfect sense, as all of the listed "bad words" are pretty bad if performed on a real person. To be perfectly honest if I were in charge I would have imposed similar if not identical rules.

Problem is that patreon creators and adult game makers are not exactly the same as filmed real life action. Usually they are a singular person either drawing or rendering images that usually are... well a lot of things but definitely not real people. Their products are in no way linked to anyone with real/physical presence. They are pure fiction and their effect in real world is about as harmful as 50 shades of grey, if there is any at all. The only real difference is that 50 shades of grey is text only and the patreon stuff has images(sometimes).

I also assume (although admittedly I have no data to back this up) that chargeback is much less of an issue on patreon than on other sites.

But as far as I can tell there is no delineation between these two groups. The purely fictitious is judged by the same standard as the factual and that is the problem here.
 

OhWee

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Jun 17, 2017
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There was a minor update on the Sponsorion tumblr page

From:

Hey Everyone,
Let’s talk about uploading! The screenshot-with-blue-”circle”-added is from a recent behind-the-scenes development chat. Namely, I made it to show where we wanted the devs to put the multi-post button. You may have already heard that multiple members of the Sponsorion team have worked / currently work in the hentai comic industry, so it should come as no surprise that we’d be well aware of how important mass uploading / tagging can be!
Many of our new users are going to have a lot of old material to transfer over, and we will be facilitating making that moving process as easy as possible. The multi-post function will be of great use whether you’re uploading 10 or 100 posts at once! Yes, there will be per-upload and per-day limits on posting/uploading to avoid abuse, but those limits will be high enough to not effect ordinary site use or the moving process of all but the largest of operations.
Site capabilities will also include tagging multiple posts at the same time, of course. We know what it feels like to be faced with updating the tags of dozens of posts one..at…a…time.
As for progressing towards the beta, there’s a few more browsing / creator page tweaks left to make before updating the public facing version of the site. You’ll also be able to see our full Community Guidelines, Terms of Service, and Privacy Policy at that time! See you next week!
- The Sponsorion Team
 
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OhWee

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Not sure if they've been mentioned already in this thread, but there's another thread here on F95Zone about them...



Discussion thread here:
 

Mwanted

Well-Known Member
Oct 1, 2017
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I don't want them to become as big as Patreon and then just starting banning left and right, I want a real alternative for adults. Sponsorion for now seems the best option, we'll soon be able to see what they got. And maybe there will be other options soon. What I already know is that as soon as one valid option will be ready I will deleting everything I have on Patreon once and for all.
 
U

User_920791

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Sooner or later, any service that accepts payments via PayPal or credit cards will always have rules similar to those that exist in Patreon.

The ideal would be a service that only operates using cryptocurrencies and is not hosted on an american or european server, but this would require a greater popularization of cryptocurrencies among ordinary people.
 

gamersglory

Xpression Games
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Aug 23, 2017
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Sooner or later, any service that accepts payments via PayPal or credit cards will always have rules similar to those that exist in Patreon.

The ideal would be a service that only operates using cryptocurrencies and is not hosted on an American or European server, but this would require a greater popularization of cryptocurrencies among ordinary people.
Crypto is a good answer the problem is most of the market adult content serves does not know how to use it plus you can't really do a good recurring subscription modal with it. don't need to get into the gray or black market with this. As long a governments get their taxes out of it there will be a way. We just have to be creative
 

OhWee

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I posted up in another thread that Subscribestar appears to be back in business. Apparently, they have resolved their payment processor issues, and are easing back into things.

The latest blog entry is here:


As for Sponsorion, yeah they are taking their sweet time. Right now I'm looking a bit harder at Subscribestar, and am curious to hear some feedback from devs once things get rolling again.
 

W65

Active Member
May 31, 2018
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Via little birdie osmosis, I happen to know that a certain furry artist takes money for their furry babysitting-age incest sex VN on ko-fi, whatever that is. I dunno if that happens to be a not-caught-yet situation or what, but if those folks are okay with something like that they oughta be okay with just about anything that folks around here might want to do.

(Disclaimer: didn't read pages 2-23 of the thread)
 

HiEv

Member
Sep 1, 2017
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Via little birdie osmosis, I happen to know that a certain furry artist takes money for their furry babysitting-age incest sex VN on ko-fi, whatever that is. I dunno if that happens to be a not-caught-yet situation or what, but if those folks are okay with something like that they oughta be okay with just about anything that folks around here might want to do.

(Disclaimer: didn't read pages 2-23 of the thread)
Well, you don't want to do that on Ko-Fi. A few months ago .

So that sounds more like a "not-caught-yet" situation.
 

siXXXi9

New Member
Dec 14, 2018
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I looked into Sponsorion but it's still a small platform. I don't think creators can get much success compared to Patreon. I know Patreon was cracking down on adult games or anything adult related but they've been approving most adult creations these days, right? I haven't been up to date on it but adult creations are still up and running on there.
 

OhWee

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The problem with Patreon is that they are a fickle beast. Nothing sucks more than to have your revenue stream suspended suddenly based on Patreon's whim. While most developers then do their best to jump through Patreon's hoops to appease the content review panel/board/whatever, some simply do not make this cut.

As the review process is rather arbitrary and capricious, while Patreon is one of the largest platforms of this type, yeah there have been some pretty high profile bannings on Patreon as of late, that were not related to adult content. If they have no qualms about cutting off people who's political views rub Pareon the wrong way (besides extremists of course), why should we expect them to treat adult content creators any better?

As an example, when your Patron account ends up getting suspended because of some youtube video that as a developer you didn't create or promote on Patreon... but that someone else did...

You are of course free to roll your dice and take your chances, but adult developers really do deserve a more stable and less fickle option. Especially those that like to live on the edge.

Sponsorion isn't up and running yet as far as I can tell, but Subscribestar is (once again). The thing that bothers me about Subscribestar's TOS is the 'obscene material not allowed' mention in their TOS. Most adult porn games can be considered as obscene, but I did find a few adult game developer accounts on Subscribestar. Just not with very many subscribers as of yet. Hence my question to developers that have Subscribestar accounts r.e. how their experience with Subscribestar has been so far.
 

skipper_kowalski

New Member
Oct 18, 2019
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Patreon still works for even the worst, most illegal fetish even F95 won't touch. Like CP/loli porn.
Just make patch for stuff Patreon doesn't like. Then host patch in friendlier site.

Take jack-o-nine-tails. Notorious for graphic cannibalism, lolis AND BOTH.
Got itself a patreon account.