High profile creators leave Patreon

High profile creators leave Patreon

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This article is at least a year old

  • Patreon, a crowd-funding platform used by many podcasters, has removed a number of far-right creators including Milo Yiannopoulos and Carl Benjamin, a YouTuber known as Sargon of Akkad, for what Patreon claims is hate speech. (Last year, the company’s CEO Jack Conte explained when Patreon removes creator pages, using “manifest observable behaviour”). However, Sam Harris, host of The Waking Up Podcast, one of the top-grossing Patreon creators, has deleted his account in response, accusing the company of political bias; and other Patreon creators, Dave Rubin and Jordan Petersen, have promised to build an alternative platform “that will not be susceptible to arbitrary censorship”. There are reports of many Patreon supporters leaving the platform in protest.


    Aug 8 2023: This broken link now points to the Internet Archive.
    • If any of our Patreon supporters wish us to bill them directly, we’ve worked out an alternative if you want it. Please mail updates@podnews.net and let us know.
  • Yesterday, we reported that Apple Podcasts has mysteriously removed many reviews and ratings from their service. Those that contacted us reported losing around half their ratings and reviews; issues were seen throughout the whole App Store, not just for podcasts. Some noted that review removals were seemingly at random, and not related to a purge on automated or spammy reviews. At time of going to press, podcasters report that their ratings are back to normal.

  • Are they actually important - do you need ratings and reviews to get into the What’s Hot section in Apple Podcasts? - Daniel J Lewis has been checking the data, and he knows the answer.

Stats and data

Radio vs Podcasting

  • Time-shifted audio demands some respect, argues Steven Goldstein, saying that “In many circles time-shifted audio is the Rodney Dangerfield of podcasting”. (Rodney Dangerfield was apparently a US comic famous for a catchphrase “I don’t get no respect”; he died in 2004.) The respect Goldstein wants for podcasting is from the radio community, who don’t always see the benefit of podcasting: he argues it helps them.


    This link is no longer available, as at Aug 8 2023
  • Is it radio, or is it a podcast? argues Francisco Izuzquiza. The Google Translate of this article includes the excellent phrase “Let’s turn this omlette around”.


    Aug 8 2023: This broken link now points to the Internet Archive.

Podcasts

    Melbourne Podcasters Keynotes
    The Melbourne Podcasters Meetup ended last week after 18 months. Former organiser Adam Jaffrey has posted audio of every meetup as a podcast - Melbourne Podcasters’ Keynotes even includes our Editor shamelessly hawking for new subscribers.
    Material
    Material is a weekly podcast about the Google and Android universe. (Might be useful for podcasters who live in an Apple world).
    2debate
    2debate features two people who take a topic, flip a coin, and then debate it. In the latest episode: “rating everything is a bad idea”. (Don’t tell Apple Podcasts, they’ve only just fixed the bug.)

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