Blocking Patrons Sends Email Notifications

Adding some thoughts here:

  • Is there no other way to remove patrons other than blocking them? I looked around and saw nothing on that. The patron in question wasn’t some problematic but more so that their payment was declined a few times over 18 months ago and yet when looking at them in the patron list it listed them as having been a patron for 25 months. They had only successfully processed for 4 months before the declines started. I didn’t like that it was showing that and wanted to remove them. However obviously doing so would cause some concern to the user- especially due to the email. I immediately unblocked them, of course- but it still feels like there should be a better way to remove people.

  • I don’t feel comfortable with the presence of an email notification being sent out to people I block. There are some toxic individuals who at one point were patrons. I’ve since cut ties with them and they have since dropped their pledges on their own free will. I would like to quietly block them just to prevent having to deal with them in the future. However, the fact that they get immediately notified of it makes me very afraid to do so: These people in question have means to contact me on other sites and the potential backlash makes me afraid to try blocking them.

You may say ‘Just block them on those sites too!’ - but it’s sadly not that simple. I host my comic and a handful of sites and the block features of each differ. One site will block them from accessing any of my content hosted there- which while I have no desire to interact with them, I think going that far is a bit harsh in most cases. Another site has a stupid block system that blocks them from commenting on your work- but not from messaging you. Additionally, I don’t often resort to blocking on all sites in case these people want to try to mend things between us.

I just want to block them from a being a patron because I don’t quite feel comfortable sending some more personal gifts to people who really rub me the wrong way. (Ex: For Christmas I made stickers of many of the characters belonging to my patrons and mailed them along with the postcards I send each month. This is something I’m not quite as comfortable doing with people who’ve had a toxic influence in the past.) I just don’t feel I can block them without feeling anxiety of “What if they decide to make a scene over it?” after they get the notification. Chances are without the notification they would never notice.

Maybe I’m just overthinking this and am being a bit too paranoid about things. But I would love to see the following changes:

  • The ability to remove patrons without having to block. (Cause someone who only processed for 4 months shouldn’t be showing as a patron for 25 months after continuous declines.)
  • The ability to ban people without them getting notified of it so there’s less fear of immediate backlash or confrontations.
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Any progress on this?

Nekomata said it best:
"Maybe I’m just overthinking this and am being a bit too paranoid about things. But I would love to see the following changes:

  • The ability to remove patrons without having to block. (Cause someone who only processed for 4 months shouldn’t be showing as a patron for 25 months after continuous declines.)

  • The ability to ban people without them getting notified of it so there’s less fear of immediate backlash or confrontations."

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There used to be an ability to delete patrons without blocking them. This was useful for patrons who were not disruptive or causing problems, but whose pledges were declining month after month. This feature was removed quite some time ago, and several of us have asked periodically for it to be replaced. So far it hasn’t been, and I don’t know why. But there did used to be such a functionality.

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Very long ago, yeah. It really doesnt make sense why it hasnt been put back in yet. Crossing my fingers for soon. :frowning:

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Just chiming in to say I’d also love for us to have more control over how we remove patrons. In my case I have a few people pledging for reasons which I think are more charitable than because they actually value my art, and that makes me uncomfortable. It’s my Patreon page, I should be allowed to choose who I want as my patrons, and also I’d like to be in control of how I remove any patrons if I choose to do so :sparkling_heart:

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Hey everyone - I put in a ticket for support on this topic yesterday but haven’t heard anything back yet. Someone who harassed me on other platforms signed up to be my Patron yesterday and sent along a nasty message as a bonus! I want to block her but I’m really afraid of this email she’ll get when I do. She is genuinely very dangerous and has a history of extreme behavior when challenged. I heard from many of her previous targets when it happened to me so I have a clear sense of how bad it could get. Both for me and for Patreon, given what I’ve seen.
She’s also an artist and I’m worried about her showing up here among us creators, as well.
I’m really hoping that in the intervening years from when this was first raised to now that there may be a way to avoid this potentially disastrous email.

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Hi @emily, I’m so sorry your message got missed in the mix. Patreon should be a space for creators to share their work and feel safe to do so. Sending you a DM to help.