For those who use Patreon, be careful of this (obvious) loophole

[NobleTalon]

Hey guys,

If you are using Patreon as a means for the readers to support your work and get access to premium chapters, don't forget to enable 'charge upfront billing' on your page. (page > edit page > getting paid > verify your account with phone number > enable charge upfront billing)

I recently opened a Patreon and I didn't know the point of this option in the settings. At first, I didn't activate it cuz I thought it wasn't fair for those who subscribe in the middle or at the end of the month, I thought they would get charged for only a few days/weeks before the monthly subscription.

I was wrong. This option is needed for webnovel writers or any other kind of work that requires to release stuff regularly : it is a means to ensure that your locked chapters don't get stolen for no contribution.

I'm writing this because someone subscribed on my Patreon to activate the highest tier, read all the locked chapters, and then canceled his subscription a few hours ago, just before today at 00:01, the 1st of march. (Patreon charges only the 1st of each month)

If you don't activate this option, someone can read all your locked chapters for a whole month before canceling his subscription a day before the 1st of the next month : he can basically read your premium stuff for free and never get charged for it if he keeps repeating this loophole.

I hope this post can help, in case some of you didn't know or just forgot about this option

As for those who read my post and think they can use this technique to get free chapters from the authors who didn't pay attention to this option and didn't activate it, please don't be assholes. Patreon is a means for readers to support their favorite authors, it is not fair to use a loophole to read all the premium chapters without subscribing when the author worked so hard to write and post them first on Patreon.

Thanks.

Nt. :
Also, another tip for other Patreon noobs like me : don't forget to change the tier permission every time you post a new chapter. If you have different tiers but you don't take the time to change permissions on each chapter when releasing, a tier 1 subscriber will have the same privileges as those with the highest tier of your page.

 

[ForestDweller]

Yep. Thankfully, I already thought about that when I first started mine.

 

[NobleTalon]

Yep. Thankfully, I already thought about that when I first started mine.

And you did good lmao

 

[XKARNATION]

Yea I did that change halfway into my Patreon career luckily I never experienced a charge backer.

 

[C_P_Tuck]

Hey guys,

If you are using Patreon as a means for the readers to support your work and get access to premium chapters, don't forget to enable 'charge upfront billing' on your page. (page > edit page > getting paid > verify your account with phone number > enable charge upfront billing)

I recently opened a Patreon and I didn't know the point of this option in the settings. At first, I didn't activate it cuz I thought it wasn't fair for those who join in the middle or at the end of the month, I thought they would get charged for only a few days/weeks before the monthly subscription.

I was wrong. This option is needed for webnovel writers or any other kind of work where you have to release stuff regularly : it is a means to ensure that your locked chapters don't get stolen for no contribution.

I'm writing this because someone subscribed on my Patreon to activate the highest tier, read all the locked chapters, and then canceled his subscription a few hours ago, just before today at 00:01, the 1st of march. (Patreon charges the 1st of each month)

If you don't activate this option, someone can read all your locked chapters for a whole month before canceling his subscription, just a day before the 1st of the next month : he can basically read your premium stuff for free and never get charged for it if he keeps repeating this loophole.

I hope this post can help, in case some of you didn't know or just forgot about this option

As for those who read my post and think they can use this technique to get free chapters from the authors who didn't pay attention to this option and didn't activate it, please don't be assholes. Patreon is a means for readers to support their favorite authors, it is not fair to use a loophole to read all the premium chapters an author worked so hard to write, and post them first on Patreon, without subscribing.

Thanks.

Nt. :
Also, another tip for other Patreon noobs like me : don't forget to change the tier permission every time you post a new chapter. If you have different tiers but you don't take the time to change permissions on each chapter when releasing, a tier 1 subscriber will have the same privileges as those with the highest tier of your page.

Gotta admit, I never thought of this. That explains why I had a user subbing and unsubbing repeatedly, then stopped being a Patron when I enabled that option.

The loophole is obvious now that someone points it out lmao.

 

[NobleTalon]

Gotta admit, I never thought of this. That explains why I had a user subbing and unsubbing repeatedly, then stopped being a Patron when I enabled that option.

The loophole is obvious now that someone points it out lmao.

That's why I took the time to make a post on the forum, in case someone else was in this situation.

It's not pleasant when someone steals your work without any remorses

 

[whitesculptor]

There's also those who buy the first tier, then upgrade into a higher one, and it doesn't charge them extra for it till next month even with that option enabled. Not many know of this luckily

 

[awgcoleman]

Gotta admit, I never thought of this. That explains why I had a user subbing and unsubbing repeatedly, then stopped being a Patron when I enabled that option.

The loophole is obvious now that someone points it out lmao.

Wow, that's such an awful thing for someone to do. I mean is it such a burden to pay a few dollars, even just once to compensate you for the work they OBVIOUSLY enjoyed.

 

[FallingLeaf]

This kind of thing seems like it should be able to be reported for fraud or abuse of TOS, especially if there’s a repeat pattern from a single user.

Note-this is just my opinion on the matter, not that it necessarily can be reported for fraud or abuse of TOS. Either way it’s a massive dickhead move

 

[Foodisbad]

There's also those who buy the first tier, then upgrade into a higher one, and it doesn't charge them extra for it till next month even with that option enabled. Not many know of this luckily

I do now

 

[whitesculptor]

I do now

Congrats on your first message!

 

[The_3rd_Book]

I do now

One of us! One of us!

 

[CypherTails]

I have a funny story about this actually. On patreon as far as I know, usually they can't do this repeatedly. I knew about this loop hole but I didn't want to enable it since my patreon is more of a donation gig anyway. I had like four of these guys in six months so I felt it wasn't that big of a deal and usually they can only do this once. But at some point I noticed one guy somehow could do this repeatedly so I enabled the pay upfront the day after the month was charged to avoid charging those leechers by accident. I mean they are leechers but I'm not a scammer and money is tight during this pandemic.

Anw the funny thing is after I enabled that, the repeat leecher actually subbed again the day after I enabled it. Then he/she got charged and ended up canceling the next day. I think he/she accidentally paid me thinking he/she could pull that shit again.

 

[Teanam]

There's also those who buy the first tier, then upgrade into a higher one, and it doesn't charge them extra for it till next month even with that option enabled. Not many know of this luckily

That was either fixed quite a while ago or you have to do something very specific for that. Whenever one of my supporters changes into a higher tier, they're charged immediately.

 

[K5Rakitan]

Great to know! I don't have any patrons at the moment, but I'll keep that in mind if there's any activity on my account.

 

[Ai-chan]

Thanks for the heads up. Ai-chan closed patreon because Ai-chan posts so infrequently, but will consider this if or when Ai-chan reopens patreon one day.

 

[whitesculptor]

That was either fixed quite a while ago or you have to do something very specific for that. Whenever one of my supporters changes into a higher tier, they're charged immediately.

Have you checked that every payment actually matched with that? I have some people that it is as you say, but like two were it didn't get charged like that. I have a theory about the reason behind this happening but I'll leave that a secret for the forums, before you and others start suffering from it!

 

[MR.DANTE]

there are others bugs that screw with the payment but are more inconsistent and I believe the author get the money anyway

 

[Teanam]

Have you checked that every payment actually matched with that? I have some people that it is as you say, but like two were it didn't get charged like that. I have a theory about the reason behind this happening but I'll leave that a secret for the forums, before you and others start suffering from it!

I had one switching to yearly patronage and someone else going from the lowest to a higher tier today, right after the new billing cycle actually, and I directly had access to the money (I would've been able to pay it out).

I don't remember my account balance not growing whenever anyone upgraded their tier, either.

 

[NobleTalon]

I had one switching to yearly patronage and someone else going from the lowest to a higher tier today, right after the new billing cycle actually, and I directly had access to the money (I would've been able to pay it out).

I don't remember my account balance not growing whenever anyone upgraded their tier, either.

it's probably because you already activated the charge upfront billing option