Re-introducing the Patron Zone (beta)

Some of you old-timers remember the days of The Patron Zone a couple of years back or so. It was a WordPress-based system that used a Patreon plugin to give patrons access to downloads. It worked so-so.

I want to give it a try again because when something like it works, it works really well. There's a place where you patrons can go to grab the releases, get a good overview of what's available, and there's no need for me to juggle between OneDrive/Dropbox shares.

This time, however, I'm using the open source Discourse community platform with a Patreon plugin being maintained by the Discourse people, themselves, and some limited testing has proven pretty successful. If you want to give it a try, do so here:

Click here to check it out.

You sign up and log in using your Patreon account (you are re-directed to Patreon's website, you don't enter any login credentials on my website), giving you instant access. The only significant quirk the system has is if you delete your Patreon pledge, the system instantly thinks you are no longer a patron, and you have to re-pledge (at no cost, of course) to access the site.

Though to be fair, I don't this is completely unreasonable to expect. So-called "hit and run" patrons who join and immediately delete their pledge and download everything, and do the same thing again after 6 months have never had much sympathy from any Patreon creator :) That's why many creators have a "you must have been a patron for 3 consecutive months to access everything" policy, which is something I have wanted to avoid and hope to continue to avoid, even though many of my fellow creators (rightfully) say it's stupid.

Anyways, check it out, see if it works, and report back any issues as a comment in this post (or on the patron zone itself, if I have set up a section for it by the time you read this). I will keep the OneDrive/Dropbox running until I'm confident the new system works.