I knew there would someone out there just as passionate as I am about how much this T&C is hurting their channel/patreon page. Its been a major problem for me. Your the first one that gets it. I thought there would be hundreds. The other replies telling me to check patreons advice and stuff like that… no disrespect but its not really any use.
What patreon need to understand is if they dont listen to their customers, then those customers have no loyalty and will be gone when the first alternative becomes available. This is a really bad T&C, they can remove themselves from liability with waivers etc… Or help by providing a middleman service and charging for that etc… all sides can win… instead patreon loose, creators loose, and ultimately patreon supporters loose as well…
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thanks bshavers appreciate your experience on it.
I have to say though. I had no idea on the guidelines. I was doing giveaways. Patreon just contacted me and told me about the terms and conditions and I needed to change it. So I have a slightly different experience to you from this side. they were pretty nice and polite and reasonably contactable to discuss it. Although like I say they agree’d in writing to my preposal or solution to this. So I put in place the solution then they changed their mind and said it was not acceptable.
ultimately I also have no problem, or let me say it like this, its their service. So they can have any terms and conditions they like. I also felt the same way as you though about how valid this TandC was. AKA they dont need to have this, they “could” allow giveaways. the “could” solve this problem.
So as always in life the best thing I can do is respectfully let this company know as a customer that this self imposed term and condition has horrible consequences for me as a creator. And if they dont fix it, they risk loosing me as a customer. companies which dont listen to “reasonable” customers typically dont fair well long term.
By the way what alternative crowdfunding platforms allow the giveaways please?
It’s not the personal opinion of Patreon to ban giveaways. I recommend reading about giveaway/sweepstakes laws. I’m not an expert but from what I’ve understood, different restrictions apply the moment you pay money to enter a giveaway/sweepstake. Goodreads can only do giveaways because people can enter without making a purchase which is completely legal (other restrictions also apply). I’m not familiar with Amazon giveaways? Patreon is a paid platform and therefore giveaways cannot be legal because you need to pay to access a giveaway - unless it’s free and accessible for everyone.
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Hiya 
Not sure if this has already been mentioned anywhere, but what I do is I make the giveaway public on my Patreon page, so no one has to join a tier. Since no one is paying money to enter the giveaway, this is not considered gambling.
It is an incentive for non-patrons to check out my feed, and the prize has a higher chance of going to patrons since they’ll get a notification for the giveaway post, and also for the post where I announce the winner. If the winner doesn’t contact me within 2 weeks, I draw for a new winner.
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