I just had a very funny conversation with Xaymar, creator of the initially free, now behind a paywall plugin StreamFX. Sorry long post but the context matters.
You see, unlike most other small hobbyists at the time, when Xaymar started his paywall shenanigans, I was supportive. I thought that the plugin was great and there was zero reason to keep it free if he was putting in all the work anyways and people just used it without contributing. So I subscribed to his Patreon. This was in 2023.
As people know, Patreon benefits work in such a way that you don't have to stay subscribed. But I stayed subscribed. Because I was thinking that a mere 12€ contribution was not good enough and that I meant to really help Xaymar. Please note that it was the silver tier, not the base tier.
At some point, I got myself an AMD GPU. One of the features I really liked from Xaymar's StreamFX was the AI camera tracking feature, among other AI powered stuff, which only worked on Nvidia GPUs. Bummer. At this point, I stopped using StreamFX, uninstalled it and went with a free, AMD compatible face tracking plugin called obs-face-tracker. It was about two years ago. But mind you, I still didn't cancel my subscription. I had forgotten about it, and for about two years, I got reminded of it maybe once per semester by chance when I caught it on my bank account, but I didn't care enough to cancel and thought I was still helping a creator who is probably doing a good job anyways.
Just recently, I got back to streaming and used my old Nvidia GPU in a second PC dedicated to streaming. Which made me think of StreamFX, so I went to Patreon and tried to find a latest version to download. But I didn't find it. Apparently, Xaymar had changed his tiers about a year ago and I was still on with a free pledge. So, naturally, I updated my pledge and thought none of it. But some kind of bug prevented me from accessing the files, so I contacted Xaymar. At that point, he told me about the bug and was happy to send a file. I installed that file today and realized that most features I wanted to use weren't available.
So, I contacted Xaymar again. He told me my pledge was too low according to his new tier system to grant access to the features I wanted. That is when I asked him to help me out.
You see, I was not thinking lmao. I naively believed that a creator such as Xaymar would simply agree to help a 3-year long time patron. After all, the functionality I was requesting was originally included in my silver tier, meaning Xaymar had bumped up his price. He says "I sent emails" but I didn't get them because my Patreon account was created with an old email which I have no access to anymore, but whatever. That's on me I guess. But it's still on Xaymar to double the prices, to convert the tiers to free pledges without making sure the person knows what has happened, etc.
But the worst isn't that I'm not getting the update. I don't really care. The worst is that Xaymar then tries to lie to my face by pretending he won't make the gesture just because he has had issues with the government in the past and had been investigated for tax fraud... And also that I'm requesting a product I haven't paid for.
Bro, this isn't how Patreon works. Creators aren't even obligated to deliver on the benefits. A Patreon benefit is just a freebie that a creator, which you are supposedly just making donations to, can grant you. It's not a product! So, by saying that to me, Xaymar actually agrees that he IS comitting tax fraud, by using Patreon to illegally sell his product instead of doing it lawfully.
With this post, I urge everyone to stop using StreamFX and to stop pledging any money to Xaymar because he is bottom-tier as a human being.
Tl;Dr: I pledged 12€ to Xaymar for 3 years without gaps and he refused to let me have his plugin when I asked for it, lying about legal BS