I am in two minds about this "fan-funding" aka tipjar option that YT has apparently launched today. On the one hand, I think that if you're running a business, you should be making money by selling products and services, not by taking donations. I personally disapprove of tipping even having to be a thing in the US to supplement underpaid employees. This is unsurprising, since the UK doesn't do tipping, so we're on the "insane" bandwagon of fair wages for fair work. Generating money through ad revenue, paid subscriptions (a service) and merchandising seems like an honest enough way to go about things. On the other hand, who am I to say that you can't give me money if you want to? Not enabling that feature seems like it's leaving money on the table. It's also an alternative to those who choose to use adblock, if they wish to support the channel but not support the ad model. I personally don't agree with not supporting the ad model because I think it's the best way to keep a content creator unbiased while supporting him, but that's just my opinion and I recognize that others feel differently. I honestly don't know whether or not to enable the feature on my channel. Ad revenue has always been unreliable. The last couple of months earnings have been cut in half even though views have only gone down 20% due to putting out less videos (this is Youtube wide, everyone is supporting their lowest paycheques in a long time), so enabling an additional revenue source seems like a sound business decision, but at the moment the idea of taking donations doesn't sit right with me. I like the subscription idea, it's a service with tangible benefits that you pay for, it maintains the content-provider/consumer relationship in a healthy way. Are donations a step to far, even if they're by another name? Honestly? I don't know. For smaller channels I can absolutely see why you'd need something like that and I'm fully in support of it. Patreon has allowed channels to produce content that would otherwise not be viable in terms of making a living and that's good. Thing is our channel does make enough money through ads, even if there's been a big drop lately. It doesn't seem right to me to take more, even if it's completely optional and voluntary. What do you lot think?