The thing about Patreon is that it sucks for users too (as in, the consumers). Both the website and the app really suck. They look horrible, have few features, and often work poorly. It essentially serves as a notification platform that I then try to bounce out of into YouTube or wherever as soon as possible. It's kind of mind boggling that they seem to leave so much engagement on the table when even a mediocre website would probably keep me on there longer and thus potentially get me introduced to other creators, vs. that being solely through YouTube or something else. Then again, maybe it's a better investment to figure out way to take 17% from creators than to figure out ways to get people to find more creators.
What features should Patreon have? I'm not paying for website features. I am paying to support creators I like. I'd actually be happier if the platform did even less. Just get the money to the people I want to support in a low-friction manner, and get out of the way.
Your experience with Patreon will depend on what kind of thing you're supporting.
For example, if you support a Youtube channel you might continue watching on Youtube and rarely need to visit Patreon's website at all.
But if you support an author who is releasing a book, three pages per day? And you're paying for early access? You'll notice there's no bookmarking / next page features.
And if that author has three price tiers, depending on how many pages of early access you get? Only the most expensive tier can get new-pages-uploaded e-mails - new pages being unlocked for lower tiers isn't an event that triggers notification e-mails.
The author is charging more for access to the feature you want. You need to pay more to get that benefit, just like you need to pay more for early access or whatever other perks are offered.
It's not impossible - but usually authors are pretty keen to advertise what the higher tiers give you.
Which is generally more advance chapters. Maybe discord benefits, extra side-story chapters, access to in-progress/draft chapters, or author Q&A sessions. I've never seen notification e-mails listed as a benefit.
Almighty coincidence that e-mail notifications are always reserved for the earliest access tier, but every author has forgotten to advertise the benefit.
Yeah, I think the sibling comment has a point that I hadn't thought of. It does seem to depend on what you support. I currently have about 10 Patreon subscriptions, and zero where I consume any content at all via the Patreon website or app. I get that if people need to do that, it would be frustrating. (In fact, for the vast majority of the stuff I support on Patreon, I don't really consume any exclusive content or use any benefits. I support them because I like the main thing they do and I want to toss a few bucks their way, not because I want any rewards or exclusives.)
