i do not believe you understand how it works!
patreon provides a service for suporters so they may suport the art music content or whatever they want to see more of!
your argument makes sense down the line on the distribution of resources,
but your approach would 9 out 10 times only result on the destruction of creation instead of suporting it
its like all the ngo´s and unhumanitarian aid provided to helpless people...
90% ends in the hands of burocrats warlords thieves politicians and swindlers ...
but at least 10% reaches those in need, without it those people would be without anything!
at the same time without those resources those who keep them oppresed would have less resources to work with
thus your instinct to provide a helping hand extends the oppression and suffering of those you want to help in the long run
so teach a man to fish that costs 10 times more resources and times and he will eat for a lifetime
but to learn when you are hungry its kind of hart and they need fish today and tomorrow perhaps if they are still alive...
I understand with complete and utter clarity how it works. What I am pointing out is that when you enter a contractual agreement there has to be reward for recompense, it
absolutely has to be fair to both parties. So if for a dollar a month you can access patreon posts most people have no fall back, only if after say six months there are no new posts then they could likely tag a class action suit. However if you are paying for something for each month and don't receive it then there is a clear breach of contract, you paid for something and the other party never met their obligation, it is far from rocket science.
To follow your mantra, if you kill every homeless person it will solve the homeless problem, however you are left with a whole bunch of murderer's. Having homeless people is uncomfortable, having loads of murderers is also not high on my list of good neighbours. Therefore I don't use those extremes but point out the contractual obligations of parties.
Patreon taking money means they have an obligation to protect all parties they are profiting from, no matter how big or small, they have terms and conditions that everyone they make money from have to agree too, it is really simple, and again, not rocket science. Patreon are actually the party with the most to lose, they should be enforcing their terms and conditions (they are not) and if they continue on the way they are then how many creators are going to be lost when Patreon doesn't exist anymore?
You can teach a person to steal, he may feed himself for a short time, however when he gets caught you can't teach them how to avoid jail. He may eat well but he will have no personal freedoms.
I care about the great many honest creators out there, they should not be tarnished by using a companies services who do not look after their interests and only look to make money, this is unacceptable. As far as creators go, HoneyGames has molded my view of how I would pay a creator, I will only do it now at the end of a game for a set amount of money - I think my attitude probably sucks in the eyes of creators, however, I hold the right to how much that final payment is and I will always give what I perceive as a fair amount (not $5 for a full game ffs before anyone cries. Please read above about contracts and fairness).
Joop501 thank you for the kind words, I honestly just want everyone to understand that it isn't just ok to pay a creator and get nothing in return. Our community has to do something about this. I'll finish by saying that I'm not a lawyer but I do have a lot of experience with certain contract law (construction jct80 etc etc) and arbitration.
Hope everyone had a great Christmas and New Year, obviously HoneyGames is still recovering and we'll see him in August