faq

Why do I need to give my email?

Two reasons: Stripe requires an email for all payment processing. In addition, as a fallback and for those who opt out of using passkeys, email is used (via magic links) for logging into slowclap.

What sorts of emails will I recieve from slowclap?

slowclap doesn't send promotional email. The only emails you'll receive from slowclap or regarding slowclap are Stripe's required emails for subscription renewal reminders, payments, and authentication requests via magic link.

Why is each clap only a penny?

To reduce the friction of applauding and encourage supporters to spread out appreciation, even in small amounts. The hope is that people stop thinking about each individual applause event as a monetary contribution and more as a sign of appreciation. Thousands of people clapping once would still translate to a meaningful contribution to a blogger / podcaster / etc. Especially given that the content being applauded is, for many people, currently impossible to monetize at all. Right now, due to the nature of other patronage platforms and the friction, cost, and overhead involved with supporting people, meaningful financial support often ends up consolidated amongst very few people while the rest struggle to gain subscribers. The design intent behind making applause start at such a low threshold is to enable the opposite.

Why is applause auto-allocated at the end of the month?

Paradoxically, the reason is to encourage an environment where people are applauding deliberately more frequently. If supporters are regularly in a situation where they both: have more applause than they know what to do with and have an incentive to use that applause immediately, the friction in making that decision is reduced. Auto-allocation also ensures that creators are recieving applause in a more consitent manner and means more passive supporters can still feel their money is being well spent even if they aren't actively deciding month to month how to allocate their support. That being said, in an ideal world, a signficant majority of applause will be given deliberately by supporters to the creators they are actively choosing to applaud.

How do I find creators to support?

Hopefully you're able to find these organically, the old fashioned way, via people sharing links to stuff they appreciate. The kickbacks system was built to enable this. slowclap was built in part to make it easier for people to create in public, on self hosted sites without relying on user hostile ad tech. Although kickbacks are currently restricted to content shared on sites people manage themselves, the hope is that slowclap enables communities to support each other in ways that allow creators to own their own audience rather than being regulated through another centralized platform.

Do I need to subscribe in order to recieve applause

Nope! You can sign up for an account accept the terms and start recieving applause immediately by sharing the link in your settings page. In order to recieve payouts you will need to setup Stripe Connect, but you can do that at your convenience. Please note that pending payouts over a year old on accounts that have neglected to set up Stripe Connect will be forfeit.

When do I get paid?

slowclap reconciles applause on the 1st of every calendar month. At that point any creator that has accumulated payments exceeded the payout threshold will have a payment scheduled. Processing times may vary slightly based on volume but slowclap strives to provide this information to Stripe as quickly as possible. Depending on how you have configured Stripe's integration with your own personal accounts, Stripe may hold your money for an additional period.

What's your payout threshold and why is it so high?

slowclap currently has a $100 payout threshold. This is because of the way Stripe manages charges on payouts and not wanting to pass those charges onto creators. In the future slowclap may offer the option for creators to pay this Stripe fee in order to recieve their payouts prior to reaching the threshold, but it will never be required to do so.

How do kickbacks work?

Kickbacks happen automatically under the following circumstances: People share links prepended with a slowclap referral (found in account settings). The link being shared is using the javascript snippet to track where applause is coming from. A supporter applauds the page being referred within a day of being referred to that page from the referrer. Currently the only time a kickback will trigger is when a link is being shared to someone's personal website, not content they share on other platforms.

How much of a cut do kickbacks recieve?

Kickbacks grant 10% of applause recieved to the referrer and the remaining 90% to the content being supported.

What sorts of data do you store?

slowclap stores data necessary for tracking account authentication, applause events, and payments. This includes required identification / keys for interacting with Stripe and your email, transaction history (what subscription tiers you subscribed to and for how long, when stripe received payments associated with your account etc.) For applause we store at most: the applause amount, the recipient, the sender, any kickback recieved, and the url you were applauding along with a datestamp for when this occurred. slowclap's approach to data management is to store as little data as is necessary to maintiain the functionality and operability of the platform.

What is secure mode?

Secure mode is an optional extra layer of security that prevents your account id from being associated with applause events. The applause is still recorded and your applause pool is still deducted accordingly, but because applause deductions aren't date stamped on their own, it effectively makes your applause untraceable via our logging. Any applause recorded prior to activating secure mode will be unchanged, and there is no way to re-link applause performed in secure mode back to your account. This means secure mode applause will not contribute to month end auto-allocation and if all of your applause history was performed in secure mode, unused applause will be lost at the end of the month.

Why would I want to use secure mode?

Most of the time, for most people, you wouldn't. slowclap's default settings are still privacy respecting. However if you are very privacy conscious and don't want there to even be a possibility of linking who you applaud to your account, it is available for you.