There’s this weird thing about milestones: they make you super reflective. Like “rethink the whole world order” reflective. And other things affecting the world order only tend to exacerbate that. So after a decade of blogging about the Portland startup community, I hope you’ll forgive my few moments of introspection. The topic this time? Patreon.
Not familiar with Patreon? Well, it’s one of the leading platforms for encouraging creative people to continue working on their work by allowing patrons to make micropayment toward their efforts. But uncreative people like me can use it too.
Actually, they put it better:
Our mission? Oh, nothing short of helping every creator in the world achieve sustainable income. We’re making this happen by building the best platform for creators to make money, run their creative businesses, and connect with the fans who matter most.
Over the years, I’ve received any number of nudges to do something like this for Silicon Florist efforts. And now, with 10 years in and with our community again struggling—or still struggling—with some of the same issues that inspired me to start the blog in the first place, it seems like a good time to start taking things a little more seriously. And getting more people involved. And putting some more capital to work to make things happen. Because this free stuff can only move the needle so far.
And with that, I’ve found the motivation to hunker down and start using Patreon. For reals.
But here’s the thing… if you know me or have at least encountered my “work” you’ll realize that I’m not a “hold your feet to the fire” type. So I’m going to keep doing what I do. Because honestly, it’s pretty much habitual now. I couldn’t stop if I wanted to. And you couldn’t stop me if you wanted to. It’s just how it is.
You see, sometimes it’s easy to forget that this is just my personal blog. It’s not really much more than that. It’s never been a business. Or a revenue stream. It’s just been me blathering about how much I love the Portland startup community. And the stuff you’re building. And every once in a while, it’s about me putting on my cranky pants and ranting about something.
But if you’d like to see more efforts, more engagement, and more creative solutions to the problems our growing community is experiencing—and you trust me with your hard earned cash—maybe consider chipping in. (You don’t even have to remember this post. There’s a little “Become a patron” link in the sidebar, now.)
If you don’t, no worries. Nothing will change from your perspective. In fact, nothing will likely change from any perspective. But if you do want stuff to change, we’re all going to have to get a little more serious about it.
Ugh. I don’t even ask for money well. Is this what they mean by “tortured prose”? Thank you for listening. You can know all return to your Eclipse Hysteria®.
For more information or to contribute, please visit my Patreon page.*
* NOTE: Please understand that becoming a patron will do absolutely nothing to improve my command of the English language or reduce my regular assault on grammar and good sense. There are some things that money simply cannot buy.
