Here’s Exactly How I Signed Up & What Happened
So yesterday, I was scrolling YouTube like usual, wasting time instead of working. Stumbled across this artist, Caroline Konstnar. Her stuff is weird, kinda dark, but also funny? Weirdly captivating. Anyways, noticed people in the comments talking about her Patreon. Said stuff about extra videos, sketches, maybe music demos. Got curious, figured I’d check it out. Just a quick look, you know?
Opened up the Patreon website. Typed her name in the search bar. Bam, her page popped right up. Saw the tier options. Looked pretty straightforward: a few bucks for basic stuff, more for extras. I thought, “Eh, why not? Support an artist.” Picked the cheapest tier, the $3 one. Seems reasonable.
Click “Become a Patron.” Now it wants my payment info. Grabbed my debit card. Typed in the number, expiry, security code – all that normal jazz. Hit confirm…
Screen just hung. Spinning wheel. Nothing. Waited like a full minute. Seriously? Tried again. Same damn thing. Card got declined? Checked my bank app. Nah, funds were fine. Patreon just didn’t seem to like my card.
Got a little annoyed now. Saw they take PayPal too. Okay, let’s try that. Logged into my PayPal account. Went back to Caroline’s Patreon page. Clicked the PayPal button this time. Popup comes up asking me to confirm linking it. Clicked yes. This time… it went through! Got a little confirmation email from Patreon almost instantly. Success! Kinda.
Now, the moment of truth. What did I actually get? Logged back into Patreon. Went to her page again. Saw the “Unlock” sign on a bunch of posts. Nice!
- Scrolled down the feed: Found some extra video stuff that wasn’t on YouTube. Short, weird sketches. More abstract than her regular videos.
- Clicked on a “Music” tagged post: Got a link to a SoundCloud thing? It was… rough. Like, clearly unfinished demos. Interesting, but rough.
- Looked for the “Exclusive” content: Honestly, most things were labeled like “Preview” or “Early Access” to stuff that eventually hits YouTube. Not a ton felt TRULY exclusive-exclusive.
Felt a bit… underwhelmed? I mean, for $3 I saw some stuff a few days earlier, got a couple extra bits. But it wasn’t like a huge vault of unseen material. Just little extras sprinkled here and there. Nice if you really love her style, but maybe not essential.
Used it for a couple of weeks. Checked maybe once or twice a week for new posts. Sometimes cool, sometimes “meh.” After like 3 weeks, honestly? I kinda forgot to check. The Patreon emails started getting buried.
Fast forward another week. Saw the $3 charge hit my PayPal again. Thought, “Am I really getting $3 worth of value here every month?” Realistically? Probably not. I like her YouTube stuff, but the Patreon perks just… didn’t hook me enough to keep paying regularly.
Logged back into Patreon. Found the “Membership” settings. Clicked on my pledge to Caroline Konstnar. Hit “Edit or Cancel.” Scrolled down, saw the big red button: “Cancel Support.” Clicked it. It asked “Are you sure?”. Yeah. Yep. Confirmed. Got the “Sorry to see you go” email. That was it.
So there you have it. Full journey. Wanted to see exclusive stuff, signed up after a payment hiccup, peeked behind the curtain, found it decent but not amazing for me, ultimately decided it wasn’t worth keeping. Simple as that. Long story short: Fun artist, okay Patreon, not really my jam long-term. Kept following her YouTube though!
