Facebook Publication Date: 9/3/2018 15:09

A community member asked me, like I am asked every time I do an ask about ‘easier’ payment platforms.

Her query: ‘Lace, have you thought of making a patreon? That way people can sign up and have an automatic monthly donation.’

This is an important question, which merits its own post, rather than being buried in the thread. My answer to her is below. I am actively asking for engagement and discussion. This is part of the work. We need to do it, and do it well. I am not weary of the work, but we need to really confront what contributing to the community really means.

———

We have thought of that. A few thoughts. Not to put too fine a point on it, but people have been recommending Patreon for the last 8 months, ever since Lace on Race was launched. Here are the hurdles.

One, there is a gulf, a wide one between what people promise, and what they actually do. If I take on an additional admin time and effort beyond the 30-40 hours I spend to service LoR to manage two payment platforms, and little comes from it, it becomes just another burden.

Last month, people were pushing Patreon in a big way, so we floated a trial balloon; wanted to see how many people would commit. We asked for 300 (out of 4000 on all platforms), would have been ecstatic for 200, and have would have been pleased at 100.

7 responses.

Just because you offer a new platform, and people pledge to use it, does not mean they will. Which goes to something else.

Become a person who makes a tangible commitment is a discipline. The lessons we are learning at Lace on Race are not just about gleaning knowledge you can find easily as I do (if you had the time and the inclination), but about internal shifts as well. One of those shifts is to do the work with people you say you stand with, instead of being spoon-fed. As with here. It’s not hard to set a monthly reminder on your phone; you prioritize what you care about. This space is a microcosm of sorts; what you are or are not willing to do in this space correlates with what you are or are not willing to do in your offline life. There is something to be said about ‘set it and forget it’, and, were I only about the Benjamins, that would work just fine (except that people’s mouths almost never match their actions, regardless of payment platform).

But Beloved Community, I want more. I want you to be thinking about this space long after you log off. I want you to think of your contributing to the health of this community. I want you to weekly, monthly think about the change in your practice and praxis that leads you to contribute. I want this to be intentional practice. I want you to feel this is your space that you are tangibly co-creating.

And this: people who contribute, and remember that they are partnering, and why they do the act, are exactly the people who engage the most in the community, who join the fray in discussions; who *take it outside* which is why we do this work. We do the work here in this lab, but this is not where the magic happens. And all of this takes disciplined focused resilient reliable praxis. That’s the Lesson, my freinds.

Yes, there is so much I want to do. I promised we would start the intergenerational trauma series, but I need to be able to purchase the resources. I want to do a deep dive into the upcoming elections. I want to really take a look at what relational ethics look like. And it’s money that gets us there. I can’t shoulder this responsibility alone. The people who come to this site and like and heart know that; having Patreon might help, or it might be one more appeal that they ignore. It’s not that people don’t know. This is about volition. We need to confront that.

In a given month, out of 4000, about 1% of that donate; even fewer are monthly sustainers. (edited to add; these last three or four months, it’s been about half that, and i have increased the boosted posts till i simply could not afford to anymore.)

Let’s talk about why. From the start, I and the Gaggle have been committed to keeping this place free, or, more accurately stated, ‘free’. The hope was that a lot would give a little, and bills would get paid, and I would be able to have a small stipend so I wouldn’t have to write during breaks at my second job at Del Taco. We believe in this site, and both the original and the aggregated content we provide, and we deeply believe in the deep and thoughtful engagement we have fostered and curated. We did not want finances to be a barrier, so we decided not to go behind a paywall, which is exactly what Patreon is. Our compromise is that we do put the longform posts up on Medium.

We still believe in the model. We still believe that as people shift, how they conceive of living their convictions will too. It’s only been 8 months. Still that shift comes with a big clench. But when it happens, praxis blows right open. Amazing things happen when you put skin in the game. And when you walk as a partner not expecting to be handheld or cajoled or coddled. This is a discipline. That I still believe in, and will continue to push. I deeply feel that there are places we cannot go in Lace on Race till this nut, is cracked open.

Now, having said that, I am seriously considering Patreon, and, as I said last month, we are definitely going to be doing individual asks, which I am sure some of you will take issue with then angrily unfollow, because I dared the unthinkable. Which will be totally ok. The work is vastly more important than the numbers. If I had 500 people who truly were ride or die, that would balm my soul and galvanize my writing and teaching more than seeing 4000 as a number. What we have right now is about 100 people who engage regularly and 3900 observers–and I said in my very first post in January that this is not a place for lurkers; there are no cheap seats here. It has worked out differently. This needs to change.

So.

If I do indeed try Patreon, it will be for the sake of those 7 (and I think my memory is generous) who stepped up and pledged. Would be interesting to see.

Everything done at Lace on Race is considered. Nothing I have said here is new information; I have been saying it for the last 8 months since we have been walking together; it’s just been ignored by 3900 of you. This needs to change.

Or, perhaps this space has run its course. People vote with their feet (although not so much here, every month we have seen significant net gains in likes and follows), *and with their wallets*. If this is not something you all feel is worth supporting, again, as I have said before, I need to rethink this initiative.

I hope not, though.

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