I've written a little on the subject of tipping recently, and it's fair to say that over time my opinions on the subject have changed. It's true that one of the first things that drew me into Chaturbate was that it's free to watch. This meant that I could have a proper look around without coming up against the brick wall of having to pay to do so, but more fundamentally for me it signified a shift in dynamic of what it meant to tip - I could tip out of gratitude and appreciation, rather than because I wanted to 'buy' something; because I don't really want to buy anything from any cam model, ever - and that probably sets me apart from most people who watch cams, and probably also from the way most performers want to operate.
The appeal of Chaturbate, for me, was in its explosion of sexual expression and energy, and in the breadth and diversity of the range of performers on it. It was not the homogenised, generic experience that I expected a cam-site would be. It was bizarre, brilliant, strange, funny, diverse and gloriously, wonderfully odd and quirky - as well as being explosively sexually exciting. And it was a subversion of the gender sexual roles that I expected a cam site to offer. The rooms I liked the most were the ones where it felt like the woman was doing whatever the hell she wanted to do, rather than being directed by the whims and desires of her viewers. The female orgasm ruled, and with everyone chipping in whatever tokens they were able, it felt like a crowd-funded masturbation project, a kickstarter campaign, with the ultimate goal of helping a woman achieve her prized orgasm.
The breadth and diversity of performers on camera, and the sense I had of all the viewers contributing a little towards their sexual pleasure, was very appealing to me, like I'd stumbled upon some kind of online egalitarian sexual utopia.
Of course, in so many ways I was wrong about that.
I still love Chaturbate, but it's probably fair to say that my unbridled positivity about it has been somewhat tempered by the passage of time. I do still love it, though, and continue to have great experiences on it, and continue to see fantastic people on it, it's just that my opinions about it have evolved over time, which is only natural, I suppose.
Specifically on the issue of tipping, it quickly became clear to me that only a small percentage of people in any room at any time actually tip anything. And by a small percentage, I mean between 2% - 4% of people. Occasionally, it might be a higher percentage than that, but most of the time, from what I've seen, it is only a tiny minority of people who tip.
So 96% - 98% of viewers in a room at any given time will not actually tip anything, and won't contribute to the 'egalitarian crowd-funded masturbation project'.
This started to bother me, mainly because I felt it wasn't fair for the woman or couple on camera, but also because I felt it put an unfair pressure on those who can and do tip to tip more, and more, and more, to make up for the fact that others are not tipping. I didn't like the feeling of being in this 'pressured' situation, even though no one was putting me in that position other than myself.
In a strange and unexpected way, it was the musician Amanda Palmer who cured me of this point of view. I still think it's a terrible shame that so few people tip, but Amanda Palmer helped me to stop stressing out about it so much and helped me to chill the fuck out, and stop worrying about things over which I have no control and can't do anything to change.
It was a few weeks ago, when Taylor Swift announced that she'd withdrawn her music from Spotify. Amanda Palmer appeared on a UK news programme to discuss the issue, and she explained how her approach to her music was the exact opposite of Taylor Swift's. She said she wanted to get her music out there, on as many platforms as possible, in as many countries as possible, so that it could be heard by as many people as possible, and that she did so knowing that only a 'tiny sliver' of people would ever pay anything for her music. And she said all this with a huge smile on her face (Amanda Palmer always has a huge smile on her face), and she wasn't angry or pissed off about the situation at all. She accepted that only a 'tiny sliver' of people who heard her music would ever contribute anything towards her making a living from it. She didn't piss and moan about it. It's just the way things are, and she accepted it.
This 'tiny sliver' of people who actually pay for stuff is probably representative of a lot of digital entertainment across all media. I don't know the figures, but I expect that for many artists, illegal album downloads outnumber legal, paid-for ones. In porn, I expect that more non-paying people view popular scenes and movies than paying ones. In this sense I expect that Chaturbate is no different to anything else that is happening in the online world at the moment.
I might not like it, but it is folly to overly worry about it. and it is just silly for me to feel pressure to tip more than I am comfortable with in a room where few people are tipping - it just leads to me having a bad experience and not returning to that broadcaster's room, which is a shame, and there are no winners in that situation.
I wish there was a way to encourage more people to tip - a positive, encouraging way, rather than an angry, shaming one, which I don't think ever works and probably only aggrieves those who do contribute. I wish I could think of a way to encourage more of a sense of responsibility in more viewers, so that more people would contribute something, even it's only a few tokens if that's all a person can afford. A few hundred people contributing just 5 or 10 tokens each would make for a pretty decent return for most broadcasters, and I wish I saw more of this sort of thing happening on Chaturbate rather than what I usually see, which is the full weight of tipping expectancy being directed towards just a handful of people in a roomful of hundreds - this isn't really fair, and it isn't really the spirit I want to see on Chaturbate.
But I need to focus on the positive. I need to tip with an open heart, with the right spirit, because I want to, as a show of gratitude and support. It is a waste of time worrying about those who don't, and it is silly to apply pressure on myself to tip more than I am able, to make up for other people not tipping.
As much as possible, in how I tip and how I contribute to the chat, I need to try and be a force for good. There are plenty of other people who make far more glowing contributions in every way than I do - financially, in their support for the models, and in their involvement in the chat. But I try my best to only be a positive presence on Chaturbate, and make my own little contribution in my own little way. The more decent people who get involved and stay involved, and make their own positive contributions in whatever way they are able, all help to make Chaturbate a better experience for everybody. And each positive contribution incrementally edges the whole Chaturbate experience one step closer to the 'online egalitarian sexual utopia' that I initially imagined/hoped it would be.
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