There seems to be an issue with the way yearly pledges are being shown on the patreon home. Instead of adding the monthly portion of the yearly pledge to the monthly income section, it is adding the full yearly pledge to the total.
This is very misleading, as it appears as if we are making much more money on a monthly basis than we actually do. For example if all of our patrons switched to a yearly pledge, then it would show that we make as much money in a month as we would be doing in a year.
For me this is a huge deal breaker, and I’ve already had to explain to a couple of patrons that the numbers are wrong, but at this point I’m seriously considering removing the total amount shown so as to not cause any further misunderstandings.
Adding yearly pledges is a great thing, and I really hope that this is going to be fixed soon.
Perhaps you can just turn it off for one month? The month you turn on annual memberships will just be kind of a strange month Next month everything should normalize and show the regular growth.
Was that confirmed somewhere? I would like to verify that before I make any changes, because I don’t see why it should change once the new month starts.
Also, what about people that get a yearly subscription in other months, are they immediately going to be shown as the right amount, or will I have to wait for the next month? That would just be an endless cycle.
Once the new month starts, all the monthly pledges will add up minus the yearly pledges of this month of course. Any new yearly subscriptions will get added again to the monthly number. So right now you’ll have a very high pledge amount and it’ll be lower starting next month. With a couple of yearly subscriptions each month it should stay kind of steady though.
Is it very important to you to show the amount pledged? I have always kept it turned off to be honest.
Personally I like keeping the amount we make public, because I think it gives everyone a good idea of where we’re at, and what is reasonable to expect from us. I also feel like it makes people more confident in supporting us if they can see how much we make each month, instead of just how many patrons are subscribed.
As a side-note, I actually did the math, and if everyone switched to a yearly plan then it would show that we’re making $30.000/month (instead of $30.000/year), which is absurd.
You’re right, there was a bug with the creator home that altered how the public facing number was displayed. The public facing numbers has been corrected now! It’s calculated by annual pledge $ divided by 12 + monthly pledges.
Hope this helps! Let us know if you notice anything else that may seem off.
Next month everything should normalize and show the regular growth.
You’re right, it sure would look ridiculous.