Summary

The author discusses the impact of Stripe's fee increases on Medium users and proposes alternative methods of supporting writers, emphasizing the importance of direct connections and relationships over financial transactions.

Abstract

The article addresses the concerns of Medium users who are also Stripe customers, particularly regarding the announced fee hikes for international card transactions. The author expresses dissatisfaction with the increasing costs and questions the necessity of such measures, suggesting that it may be driven by greed. The potential negative impact on smaller earners is highlighted, with a comparison to PayPal's fee structure. The author advocates for more payment options for Medium users and criticizes the prioritization of profit over people's livelihoods. To counteract these issues, the author suggests bypassing traditional payment platforms by using Amazon wish lists or social media to foster direct support and strengthen community relationships. The piece concludes with a personal commitment to prioritize people and connections over financial worries and the pressures of an increasingly profit-driven digital landscape.

Opinions

The author believes that Stripe's fee increases are unnecessary and motivated by greed.
There is a concern that increased fees will disproportionately affect smaller earners on Medium.
PayPal is criticized for its fee structure, which the author finds excessive and unfair.
The author calls for Medium to provide more diverse payment options for its users.
A preference is expressed for direct support methods, such as Amazon wish lists, to avoid platform fees.
The author values building relationships and community over financial transactions.
There is a call to action for readers to support writers through alternative means, such as social media connections.
The author is committed to exploring new social media platforms to enhance direct engagement with their audience.
A strong stance is taken against the culture of greed in digital platforms, with an emphasis on prioritizing human connections.

Stripe: Changes Are Coming

What I am Choosing To Do Instead of Worry About It

If you’re a Medium user part of the MPP you’re also a Stripe user. Maybe you’re one of those people who doesn’t love it and would love to be doing things any other way?

Either way, if you have checked your email you may have seen one from Stripe about the changes coming in October 2023.

Some of us Medium users are Stripe users by force. They decided to use it to pay us and we accept it because we need the pennies.

International card transactions are going to go up 0.8%.

I know at the end of the day Stripe is a business, but I can almost guarantee whatever the increase is they could take it and not even notice it.

I’m pretty sure it’s coming down to greed.

What worries me about this, is the little people.

There will most likely be a hit somewhere for those people. How many are going to be forced to make do with less because more money is going out to fees?

It’s not just Stripe either.

PayPal is terrible for it and I wasn’t even aware of it in the beginning until a beautiful soul came to me to see if there was another way to send money because half of what was sent was being lost to fees.

PayPal charges people to send you money. They also charge you to send money from your account to the bank.

Greedy much?

It’s pretty gross. If there was another option I honestly would consider it to move away from all those fees.

PayPal does have one advantage. You can shop using PayPal and you can avoid paying more fees using the money that way, which I tend to do.

Why give them even more money when I don’t have to, right?

I would love for Medium to give people more options.

Stripe, PayPal and companies like Medium are big enough they could I’m sure do things in a way that actually helped people make money instead of taking it.

But greed wins, over people every time.

It’s not right but it is the way.

How Can We Counter All This Greed?

I’m seeing a lot more talk on Medium about how to support writers in a way that takes middle man out. One of the most common ways mentioned is Amazon wish lists at the end of your post.

I first stumbled upon it when Jenny Lane recommended Christopher Robin to me and I found this hilarious post.

I’ve seen a lot of Amazon Wish lists popping up since but never really jumped on putting my posts out there. (I’ve kinda had a LOT going on!)

What if we took out the middle man?

It’s an interesting idea. Hey I like this writing, I’m going to pop over here and support them and grab something off their wish list.

Maybe you just want to brighten someone’s week and you decide to pop over and send them a box of something they need or maybe just something fun they want but they can’t seem to justify buying for themselves.

I’ve had a lot of conversations with unhappy Medium people lately and it makes me sad. Seeing so many people who are struggling. I’ve seen so many disappear and even more thinking about it lately.

So what if we changed the Medium experience ourselves?

What if we started changing the way we supported people?

Choosing options that put people first? Whether that’s embracing their desire for people to use the tip feature or even supporting them by sending an item of their wishlist?

What if Medium became more about relationships (and the words) instead of the pennies?

Medium isn’t going to change their ways, but we can change ours.

It’s not just Medium of course.

All platforms are going to do what they can to make it difficult to get on the earning side of things. YouTube changed things and made it a whole lot harder to earn over there. I’ve also heard Twitch isn’t making it easier.

It reaffirmed my thoughts lately to make it about relationships, and the words and worry about the rest of it later.

We’re not all able to run out and support all the people we love in big ways. Amazon also doesn’t have the option for people to join together and fulfil items on a wish list together.

What else can we do when we’re struggling to support people?

It was actually Jan Sebastian 🖐👩‍🦰That gave me the idea. She has started sharing links on her social media, which I think is genius.

Her preference is Twitter, but I have embraced Mastodon (both Medium run Mastodon and none Medium run)

If you’re a Mastodon user feel free to add me on either (or both) accounts.

If you prefer other social sites like Twitch you can also find me here. Those who prefer YouTube can find me here.

Stripe may be increasing fees, and Medium may be making it harder to find the people we follow. But we can counter all of that by choosing to live in a way that lets us put people first.

I’m choosing other ways to connect. Now that things are settling, I am exploring social media and new ways to use it.

I’m putting people first and letting everything else fall where it may.

I am choosing people over worry.

People over greed.

I am changing my human experience.

Living a life where I run the show instead of letting the world run it for me and taking years off my life stressing out about the things I can’t control and trying to find a way to just survive.

I am saying fuck it.

If you’re making that same choice, we can make our choices together.

Hopefully you’ll join me on one of my many networks and we can share the experience and support each other.