Patreon account closure, "claimed" violation of ToS

As I was going over proofreading of the last post, I got an email from Patreon stating that they were closing my creator page under the claim of violation of ToS:

Note that certain details have been censored in this screenshot of the email

 

The expectation of this action is they were looking at what was being supplied directly over Patreon (the game giveaways) & not at the offsite content that the page was originally created for (namely, my Twitch channel).

Even though I was intending on doing a stream, this closure of my Patreon creator page (as well as the negation of funds & rewards that would have been assigned by account for funds that were donated to other creators on Patreon, an indirect penalty after the actions that were taking against my creator page, seeing as they were on the same account) sidetracked my plans to do that stream on Twitch & instead I spent over an hour writing & proofreading the response you see below before sending it to them:

Note that certain details have been censored in this screenshot of the email

In this response to Patreon, I stated that the benefits were better if subscribing to my Twitch channel through Patreon rather than directly through Twitch.  The reason for this was you got 1 channel point (via StreamElements) per cent spent on Patreon (while I was considering lowering this in response to transfer fees, I never did take this step), where you only got what was calculated as streamer revenue on Twitch (which was less than 50% of a Twitch subscription unless it was a Prime subscription, Prime subscriptions gave a flat rate of 250 points back for a tier 1 subscription; Twitch cheers still gave 1 points per bit cheered, there was no deduction here).  Additionally, if you were paying an additional $5 over what a subscription would cost on Twitch, you were allowed to request a gift subscription (from myself) to the channel (which gave more points back over subscribing directly to the channel over Twitch, seeing as gift subs gave a higher cut towards the streamer than a paid sub paid directly by the viewer).

With the termination of the creator page, the final month's perk of being able to request a gift sub is also negated, however points gained by those that were supporting the channel through Patreon will remain on those accounts (with no deductions or lowered rate prior to termination of the account).

Even though specific details were given regarding offsite perks in the response to their termination email, I doubt there will be any reversal in their decision, so all that will remain at this point will be the lower point rewards on direct subs to the channel (as well as tips through StreamElements once I get my account set up for them again, which will be lower points back than cheering directly on Twitch).

On the off-chance that Patreon does decide to backtrack their decision & choose to reinstate the account, I will be making changes that should have been done some time ago, that meaning that points back to subscribers over Patreon will be taking a cut to account for transfer & collection fees (points back to subscribers will still be higher than it would be for subscriptions directly on Twitch however...that is, if Patreon realizes they made a mistake in their decision & choose to reinstate the account, not that I expect they would with the response I sent them).

While the response to their team only details what was to be expected on my personal site, this blog & my channels, it did not detail other publications that I'm intending on publishing once the main articles are published to my personal site (with all evidence I can gather together regarding what has happened, as well as their part in supporting creators committing illegal activities & have yet to be held accountable for their actions...).  There are plenty of other sites that also allow reviews from the public (Google Maps, Google Play, the Better Business Bureau, the Federal Communications Commission, among others that may come later).  They have a choice at this point to look at the additional information that has been provided to them thus far & take another look at whether their actions were correct, otherwise their actions will be made a public matter to inform the public as such, which I can only expect a cover-up to hide these facts, which will only result in further publications in response to their actions, only to lead to what I can expect as building distrust of the Patreon platform, which will only lead to less income for them through those creators (as well as possibly an ultimate shutdown of the platform).

Remember Patreon is a platform that benefits by providing a funding platform for "creators", however in providing this platform, they also pull the reigns on who is considered a "creator" through restrictions they set, even if the termination of those that were following the rules are a misunderstanding on their part where they didn't have all the details.  Patreon only benefits through providing this platform by taking a small portion from the creators that choose to trust their platform & not to be taken advantage of or to be incorrectly penalized (remember my account did get incorrectly marked as adult-content back on 10/19/2019 & never did get corrected).  If people lose trust in Patron as a legitimate "creator" funding platform, that word is going to get around & any potential income that Patreon could be putting in their pocket will dry up.

Do I think this will be enough to push Patreon to the breaking point & force a shutdown?  No, not really...  It's clear the termination of my creator page was a hair-trigger decision where no additional research on offsite rewards was done prior to the decision being made (people can claim free games with those points, not that anybody has actually taken advantage of what's in my StreamElements shop yet) & much like big name gaming companies feel their decisions take priority over their customers when developing their games, I fully suspect that Patreon will continue terminating creator accounts, regardless of the reason for the decision may have originally been made & not looking back on their decisions, even in the case of litigation...

If the account does get reinstated, I will give an update at that point, but otherwise it should be expected that I will no longer be seeking to be doing any form of business through Patreon or anybody else who may be running through them...

UPDATE:

Video response to account termination: