Author: Stephan

Are there alternatives to Patreon?

Update December 13, 2017: Patreon is sorry and will not roll out the fee changes.

Services provided by Patreon

Patreon is an intermediary between content creators and consumers (“Patrons”). The value-added functions provided by Patreon are:

  1. Payment processing and management (subscription / per creation).
  2. VAT handling.
  3. Low fees for micropayments (through payment aggregation).
  4. Content hosting and access regulation.
  5. Social networking.

Patreon has recently announced changes to their fee structure which will make it significantly more expensive to support a large number of creators with small amounts, effectively eliminating the third point. For further information, read this discussion on Reddit, this blog post or head over to Twitter to witness the shitstorm. There’s also an interesting theory that financial regulations might be the true reason why Patreon suddenly shot themselves in the foot .

Patreon alternatives

The only alternative providing all of the 5 functions listed above appears to be Drip (by Kickstarter). However, Drip is currently “invite-only” and not yet open to all creators.

All other alternatives I found may fulfill some of the functions, but not all of them. Nevertheless, they often charge higher fees than Patreon.

Snowdrift.coop maintains an excellent overview of crowdfunding and fundraising services  (there are several lists on that page, be sure to scroll all the way down). However, many of them won’t solve the micropayment problem (notable exceptions are Flattr and Liberapay).

You could also have a look at marketplaces for digital goods, particularly if your supporters expect to get something in return for their payments. Here are two lists to get you started:
12 Platforms to Sell Digital Downloads
Sell Product Online

The majority of creators I used to support on Patreon offer direct donations through PayPal or via bank transfer. Obviously, this only satisfies the first point on my list, but it might still be an acceptable solution to many small donors who removed their pledges on Patreon in protest against the new fee structure.

Updates: Other articles (chronological order):

Updates: Other possible alternatives to Patreon:

Alphabetical order, last updated on December 6, 2020

Java: Missing key codes on non-US keyboards

Java does not seem to have key codes for several keys on non-US keyboards. This does not prevent the typed characters from being recognized, but it makes it impossible for the Robot class to simulate pressing these keys.

Examples of missing key codes

On a standard French AZERTY keyboard, 2 keys result in a key code of 0 (unknown key code): The key above the tab which generates the character “²” and the much more important ù% key.

On a German QWERTY keyboard, the ß?\ key and the äÄ,öÖ and üÜ keys are undefined.

You can confirm this using the Java KeyEventDemo:
Percentage key on AZERTY keyboard

Workaround

Use the Alt Numpad input method.

 

Adsense referrer spam?

I made a whopping 0,12€ with ads on this blog over the last 30 days (and just disabled them entirely, don’t want to get corrupted by all that money). However, what really caught my attention in the report was a domain that doesn’t belong to me (or my company):

Adsense Referrer Spam

So, apparently t****4web.com used my Adsense code on their site, resulting in a single ad impression (and nobody clicked on it, otherwise, my ad revenue would have been at least three two times bigger). How and why did this happen?

The innocent explanation is that their “Web Back Machine” (which sounds suspiciously similar to the non-profit Wayback Machine) archived one of my pages, including the Adsense ads. That’s possible, but what is more likely it that this is Adsense referrer spam, meant to get me to visit their website. I’ve got to admit that it worked, so now I have to write this blog post to justify my actions to myself, see, it was all in the name of research.

For further information on Adsense referrer spam, let me refer you to this comprehensive, well-written article.

Create GS1 DataMatrix barcodes with Brother P-touch Editor

Create GS1 compatible DataMatrix barcodes in P-touch Editor by following these steps:

Insert the DataMatrix barcode

In P-Touch Editor, select Insert > Bar Code from the menu. Switch to the Protocol tab and select the DataMatrix protocol:

DataMatrix Protocol

Add the Function 1 Symbolic Character (FNC1)

This special character is used to differentiate GS1 DataMatrix from other Data Matrix barcodes. Go to the Setup tab and check the Specify Industrial Protocol (FNC1) box:

FNC1

Add the GS1 element strings

You must follow the GS1 rules when encoding data in a GS1 DataMatrix. I highly recommend that you review Chapter 2 (Encoding data) in the GS1 DataMatrix Guideline (PDF). P-touch editor won’t prevent you from making any mistakes!

As an example, I’m going to recreate the GS1 DataMatrix barcode found in TL A-0032 Part 1, Edition 7 (page 12).

It contains both a GTIN-13 (4012345000016) and a serial number (ABC17829). The corresponding GS1 DataMatrix Application Identifiers are 01 (GTIN-13) and 21 (serial no.). The GTIN-13 has to be padded with a leading 0 to match the expected length of 14 characters. Therefore, the concatenated string is  010401234500001621ABC17829:

GS1 DataMatrix data

The resulting barcode matches the example, though it seems that P-touch Editor cannot add the Human readable Interpretation (HRI):

GS1 DataMatrix comparison

You could, of course, add the HRI using the text tool.

For further information, please consult the GS1 DataMatrix Guideline (PDF)!