There's some content creators that I get value from and watch on Youtube. From time to time I get the desire to donate a couple of euro to them, however, most of the times they either have Patreon or nothing at all. Sometimes they have Ko-fi - then there's no problem.

I try to avoid giving money to US businesses as much as realistically possible. But I'm wondering whether I should make an exception here. What are your guys' thoughts on this?

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[โ€“] 14 points 1 month ago
[โ€“] 13 points 1 month ago

Do whatever you feel like doing.

Take buy european as a best practises not as law from god, you could end up renaming lakes and shit.

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  • [โ€“] 7 points 1 month ago (2 children)

    I never really thought about it but there are patronage and crowdfunding options from Europe such as Liberapay.

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  • [โ€“] 2 points 1 month ago (1 child)

    I heard Liberapay and OpenCollective uses Paypal in the backend, but I would need to verify.

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  • [โ€“] 0 points 1 month ago

    Oof. I might even consider a bitcoin wallet over paypal.

    I wonder if Kofi or Steady use american backend systems? Most of the world's fintech is built on some ancient proprietary IBM COBOL libraries, it's kind of annoying at times.

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  • [โ€“] 4 points 1 month ago

    Maybe, but perhaps contact them and say you'd prefer to suppport another way... they just might not be aware

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  • [โ€“] 3 points 1 month ago

    It's a bit like credit cards, there is seldom alternative.

    I take it practically. I use android instead of sailfish mobile device, at work need to use windows, and I use credit cards. So I use also US based platforms to support content creators when there is no alternative.

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  • [โ€“] 3 points 1 month ago

    Message them to use european platforms and reward the ones that do.

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  • [โ€“] 3 points 1 month ago (1 child)

    Is the content creator European? Does the US-based payment processor take fees? Those are the questions I'd ask. If you don't like the answers, I'd reach out directly to the content creator and ask if they'll take a donation via a more acceptable payment system. Though, be warned, that's kind of a red flag. "Hey, sign up for this thing you aren't using, link your bank account to it, and I will send you money." I'd probably ignore that message. So, maybe if there are a few you use, ask them if they take any of those.

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  • [โ€“] [S] 6 points 1 month ago

    Just checked Patreon's fees:

    on Patreon's standard plan you pay a 10% platform cut on everything you earn plus payment processing of 2.9% + $0.30 per charge.

    So if I donate 5 eur roughy 1 eur will be going to Patreon.

    I also thought about reaching out but I feel it's a bit... weird asking them to do such a thing for a small donation.

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