Yup, they just take a little off the top... And what you get is Patreon taking care of all the back end for you... Such as the costs associated to money transfers, tax reporting, page hosting costs, etc... I'm sure their overhead is probably not that high... So they are making bank...
But they also carry some of the risk... Their member agreement indemnifies them in many ways, but they have a reputation to maintain (via their strict rules) and business partners they don't want to lose ties with due to reputation hits... They are also not 100% protected from law suits, even with their tight membership agreement...
Zip
Yes, but they also don't give any explanation which is super frustrating. And deep down I'm sure that my account was canceled and similar accounts were not, just because I contacted them once or twice for questions I had as a new user of Patreon, so they looked at my page manually and flagged it suspicious, when their automated procedure didn't find it so. Same for others with similar pages who didn't ask questions and are still there.
I also told them I could do any change they wished to comply with their rules, answered honestly to their questions but they fired me anyway. Lost a good amount of money, and my Patrons too, nothing fabulous, but it was not a $10 thing. And now the only thing I can do is share the loss with my patrons, making what they paid for for half the price. And work on another solution so they can pay without any middle man other than Paypal or something similar.
Would have been fair for my patrons if Patreon left me cancel their pledge before canceling my account, this way they would have been refunded. And Patreon could just keep their 8% or something if they wanted. All the money is still pretty close to thievery in my mind. And they know perfectly well than no one in their right mind would sue them unless there's a class action or if you are extremely rich. But then why would you be on Patreon ?
