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Dashboard page - showing the breakdown, analytics, customization options, etc.
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Chrome extension.
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Analytics and customization page.
Inspiration
Creators are now more than ever asking for Patreons, donations, and support. But the vast majority of consumers don’t partake in this. This isn’t because consumers don’t want to support their favourite creators - it’s just that the cost of doing so would be astronomically high. $10 for 15 creators per month leads to $150 a month - no one wants to pay that much… especially with inflation and the job market now. At the same time, YouTube and other platforms do not pay enough to support smaller creators. This led to us coming up with an idea for consumers to set aside a certain amount of money they would like to be allocated to their favourite creators. This could be something as low as $5 - $10. The application would then automatically allocate the money. The user, of course, will be able to customize everything. This lets consumers feel good about themselves for supporting their favourite creators while not breaking the bank.
What it does
Our project aims to help consumers support their favourite creators affordably. The browser extension pulls data (watch history, pages viewed) from supported platforms (such as, but not limited to YouTube, Medium, Facebook and Substack) and calculates analytics. To combat certain creators uploading/posting much more frequently than others, the application checks how frequently the creator uploads and weighs that against how much you watch that creator. A minute watch time of a creator who uploads 30-minute videos daily is worth much less than a minute of a creator who uploads a 20-minute video every month. Thus, a slice of the $10 pie or so would be allocated accordingly. However, with it being almost fully customizable, the user has the final say in where their money goes.
How we built it
We built it using a front-end built with HTML, CSS, and a Tailwind framework with the help of Flowbite. The back-end was built through Flask and Python. The chrome extension was built using the Google Manifest V3 API.
Challenges we ran into
It was difficult for us to come together as a team - we spent much of the first day of the hackathon looking around, trying to find people who complemented others' skillsets. We eventually came together, and we're extremely happy that we did - our skills meshed perfectly.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
Our Chrome extension is a feature that we’re really proud to come up with. None of us had any sort of major experience working with Chrome extensions, so it was something we were able to pick up over the course of this hackathon.
What we learned
We dived deeper into how to use Tailwind and Flowbite and how to integrate Flask and other products together. In addition, we learned a lot about coding browser extensions.
What's next for PatronPal
Calculating how to split up the “pie” using more metrics so that it could be better reflective of what the user would want to pay each creator if they had the time to allocate their dollars. In addition, the consumer being able to allocate a set amount of their “pie” to certain creators would be another upcoming feature. For example, a consumer paying $15 a month could choose a number of channels (let’s say two, and they decide they want to pay $1.50 each). This amount would not be adjusted by our metrics, and our application would work with the remaining $12 and allocates it accordingly.
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