Patreon

I like the Patreon platform, where it came from, and where it is going. I like being both a creator and supporter of other creators. I like being part of a system where even a modest amount of funding can make a huge difference.

That being said, here are some areas which can be improved.

Patreon Platform

The Patreon Platform has been having a lot of issues and outages. Major incidents are visible from their status page and Twitter but minor incidents are not.

The good news is that Patreon has acknowledged their growing pains and are working on fixes.

Sprucemarks Access

A small percent of users seem to lose their access to Sprucemarks every few months. It is possible the fault for this is purely due to Patreon but I also want to investigate ways to make authentication and ongoing access to Sprucemarks more robust.

In the meantime, if you have an access issue, open Sprucemarks, use the logout button, wait a few seconds, and then use the login button. You can always contact me for assistance too.

Membership and Tiers

A large percent of users join the membership tier intended for one-time donations and then forget to cancel their membership. Even though the tier description, initial email, and text within Sprucemarks mention the need to cancel. Messaging users who seem to have overpaid was the obvious solution but some users take weeks or months to respond which can adversely affect my ability to give them a refund.

I believe the root of these problems come from my attempts to use Patreon in a non-standard way. A monthly membership based platform? How about a one-time option. A platform based on tiers with different perks for different tiers? How about all perks for every tier.

The more I think about it, the more it seems obvious that I need to alter my non-standard approach to Patreon. The one-time membership tier definitely needs to be retired. Existing Sprucemarks users will not be affected so no worries there.

I will do some more thinking on tiers and perks but for now, expect the $7 one-time tier to be retired sooner than later.

Questions, comments, or concerns? Please let me know via Patreon or Twitter.