Best way to 'boot' patrons while on hiatus?

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To make a long story short, I’m starting a new full time job and have to put my Patreon on hiatus. I will not have time to fulfill rewards nor create exclusive content regularly.

I’ve deleted all reward tiers except my ‘tip jar’ in case anyone wants to casually support my creations without getting any promised rewards.

I hoped deleting my tiers would also boot my patrons, but they’re all still pledged at their original amounts.

This is super weird to me. It’s like if I put up a T-shirt listing in my shop, accepted a bunch of orders, and then deleted the T-shirt listing saying it’s no longer available but just…kept everyone’s money.

I wrote a blog post about my Patreon going on hiatus, and mentioned that my patrons need to cancel their pledges. I highlighted this part in bold.

I also sent each patron a private message that I’m no longer creating content or offering rewards and they should cancel their pledge or change to my $2 tip jar.

Maybe half my patrons have cancelled/changed their pledges.

Can I do anything else? Someone else suggested I block and then un-block my remaining patrons, but warned that they’ll get a note saying I blocked them and nothing else. This seems rude and unprofessional to me.

Am I allowed to just…keep accepting their money? Previously, I had edited my rewards to reflect their taxable status (e.g. early access rewards vs. physically receive something in the mail). Are my patrons still being taxed based on this even though I’ve deleted their reward tiers?

I wish Patreon UX designers and devs/engineers had thought of this use case. I don’t want to completely shut down my Patreon as I’m grandfathered in at the founders’ rate and don’t want to lose that, since I may be able to spin up my Patreon again once I get used to my new job. And since I’m still creating some content, I’m happy to keep my $2 tip jar open for those who are still asking how they can support me.

But maybe half my patrons are still paying larger amounts for stuff they won’t be getting for the next few months. I’ve written a post and sent them a message. What more can I do? Why can’t I boot them since I’m no longer giving them anything for their money? It seems unethical.

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In your creator settings, you can pause your billing cycle…

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and see:

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Thanks, I’ve used this feature before when I took a one or two month pause for vacations.

I’m currently on an indefinite hiatus. I’m hoping Patreon has something better than me having to return every month to pause billing.

1 Like
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Hi @zelaphas,

The best way to turn off your creator page but keep your Patreon account is to unpublish your creator page. This is not a permanent change and you can re-launch your creator page at anytime.

Once you confirm, your creator page will be unpublished and your account will be reverted to patron-only page. You won’t be able to receive new memberships or payments, and you will no longer have access to the creator tools or settings.

You can still use Patreon as a patron or leave your profile idle until you are ready to return.

Hope this helps! Best of luck in your new job :slight_smile:

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Reyna, doesnt doing this invalidate ones founder status? Or has that changed? Last I checked, unpublishing your page forces you into the new setup and you lose founder.

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Thanks for the reply Reyna, but I don’t want to lose my founder’s status and the fees/rate I’ve secured. I may want to return to Patreon in the future.

Would unplublishing my creator page end my founder’s status?

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Additionally, if my current patrons stay on at their current pay rages (e.g. $25 for what used to be a custom art piece sent to them each month), are they being taxed for something they’re not receiving? It’s one thing if they want to tip me that much, but another if they’re being taxed based on what their pledge used to offer but no longer does since their reward has been deleted.

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@reyna can you clarify my above questions?

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Hi @zelaphas, thanks for following up. I heard back from the team, and this is correct. If a creator unpublished their page, they will be subject to platform plan pricing if they choose to relaunch.

As for your second question, if you leave your patrons in their current tier, they would still be taxed on the benefits in that tier – but can you clarify for me if you deleted your tiers or unpublished them?

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@reyna Thanks for the update. I have fully deleted all tiers except my $2 Tip Jar tier.

I used to have tiers such as my $25 ink card tier where you’d get a custom drawing in the mail sent to you, and I updated the tax details accordingly. But these tiers have all been fully deleted.

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Ok, thanks for clarifying! If you remove and delete the benefits from your tiers, and then the tiers themselves, your patrons will not charged the tax on benefits (because the benefits have been deleted). However, deleting a Tier is not a substitute for cancelling a patron’s payment. Right now, even though you delete the tier, your patrons will still be charged their original pledge price until they go in and cancel their membership.

This is explained in more detail under #4 Delete the tier of this help article:

I would message your patrons and let them know you’re pausing your benefits and give them the option to cancel their pledge to you, or lower their pledge to your “tip jar”.

I hope all this helps!