Have an idea for a new feature or some feedback on an existing one? Share it here! Please make sure to check if a similar idea has already been posted and upvote it instead of creating a new comment. Ideas with a high number of upvotes will have a greater chance of influencing product decisions at Patreon.
4 Likes
Hi Ellie,
I would love to have some kind of button or widget that I could share with my community. Most of my audience are schools, teachers, and students around the world who I interact with through my Skype Classroom (Microsoft Education), if there was some way that I could take Patreon to that platform I think it would help enormously.
5 Likes
The layout of this community board is fantastic. If this functionality were available on creator pages so that we could communicate better with our patrons, that would be amazing.
It would also give creators an alternative to āSecret Patron Facebook Groupsāā¦ I love the layout of this community board way more than the layout of Facebook groups.
18 Likes
I wish there was a search feature in messages so I can see if Iāve already messaged a patron before without having to actually message them first to bring their session up.
Along those lines as well, I unfortunately have to spend a fair amount of time tracking down declined patrons every month, so anything we can do to streamline that would be great. Perhaps a section at the top of each creation showing the declines first so that I can mass message them easier?
And finally, between Home Free and myself weāve been harping on this for a long timeā¦having a ālockerā system would be really helpful. That way I can just place into a patrons locker their content rather than having to keep it available forever on the stream. I.e. if a patron wanted to they could sign up at say $15, scroll down and get every content for that level, then bail out. Also, it would be easier to restrict certain content to only those who havenāt capped, i.e. if a patron caps at 1 video a month, they should receive perks for just one video, not two+ (If I so choose as a creator to do it that way)
Those are my wants off the top of my head!
-Chris
10 Likes
Iāve suggested this idea before via email, but what Iād love to see is a new ability to donate to ALL creators at once. Basically, create one digital pot that anyone can become a monthly patron to, and each month the total amount collected is distributed to every single Patreon creator equally. That way it could be possible to make sure that every creator here on Patreon always gets at least something each month, and no one gets nothing.
3 Likes
Iām not sure if this could be called a product but I wonder if there is a way to create a buying co-op or something for creators to get Medical and Dental insurance.
I know very little about the mechanics of this but I do know that part of the reason I have been keeping by day job is knowing that it I have dental and medical insurance covered for my daughter and I and I donāt have to go out and figure it out in the marketplace. And I know how much it will cost more or less from year to year.
This would also be a great point of positive interest for Patreon if it could be figured out. Iām sure it could attract great press and maybe bring in new creators??
5 Likes
Iād love it if there was some more variety in the creator page categories. For example, Iām publishing a magazine which also has a podcast associated with it. Our current categories are Writing and Podcasts. They should be more like Publishing-Periodicals and Podcasting-Fiction. Another route would be to allow tags for our pages (rather than just the posts). Both of these could go a long way to the discoverability problem on the main site. Itās not always easy to find like-minded creators or specific types of projects I might support.
-Neil
2 Likes
If this happened, it would be incredibly easy to scam. Anyone could come make a patreon account and make some money from the pot. Even if there was a hardline-enforced rule that anyone in the pot had to be making content, if they were making something that no one cared about/wanted to exist, then theyād be getting paid just for the fact that theyāre making something at all, which is contrary to the point of patreon (fans voting with their dollar for what art they want to see in the world).
2 Likes
This should be an easy one. My backers want the ability to view tags in oldest-to-newest order. Currently, itās a default newest-to-oldest order. Since I post ongoing stories, viewing oldest-to-newest would enable my backers to read the stories in order.
8 Likes
I have some logistical suggestions related to posts/updates:
- An autosave feature when writing a post would be a lifesaver
- The ability to embed images and/or videos in a post would be awesome
- Line breaks appear twice as large when looking at the page of an individual post as they do when browsing pages - Iād appreciate the formatting being more consistent.
Also, sometimes I want to send out an update with some things for $1 patrons, some things for $3 patrons, some things for $5 patrons, etc. The only way to currently accomplish this is to send out three separate updates, meaning that $5 patrons would get three separate emails! There are several ways this could be remedied that I can think of - the ability to create a multi-part update with parts for different tiers, the ability to create a post that was only visible to a single tier (and not all those above it), or the ability to mass-message everyone on a specific tier (though I would prefer posting to mass-messaging because itās easier to see and easier to find)
14 Likes
Some kind of sort/search function would be great. The tagging feature could help with this.
Iām purely a writer on Patreon, so Iād like to see something like a featured post, where you could pin particular works to the front so your best stuff doesnāt get lost in the shuffle.
6 Likes
Iāve been soliciting feedback from some of our readers and one of the things that came up is several like having a NO REWARD option. Patreon has it, but it isnāt always obvious to them. A few couldnāt find it. Could we have it listed as an option right on the profile page? I think the people who look for that donāt think to click on the orange BECOME A PATRON button. Also, if they do click on that button the NO REWARD option is second. Given that it is the lowest reward level, it should be first.
6 Likes
Thatās a very good idea. Weirdly the reward part is the bit that I personally get excited about, but that my patrons donāt take up, all signed up as āno rewardā. So that would definitely be good to have more obvious before people sign up.
1 Like
Love this, Brad! āFeatured tagsā is currently in beta and should be rolled out to all creators very soon. Let me know how that improves your experience after itās made available to you!
1 Like
Thatās so awesome that you make sure to get feedback from your patrons, Neil! Itās such an important part of managing a community.
Weāre currently rolling out a change that makes it default to āno rewardā when a patron goes through the pledge flowāIāll pass along the idea to make it more prominent on the creator page to the team working on this.
1 Like
Consistent post formatting, across all pages and platforms, including email. I hate formatting a post so that it has the appropriate paragraph breaks, and then seeing it on the posts page looking all smooshed together, with single line feeds instead of paragraph breaks.
14 Likes
I do have Featured Tags. But they present the filtered results the same as the regular tags ā newest to oldest. And my readers want, instead, oldest to newest. Is there a setting Iām missing?
Oh, interesting! I do know that we intentionally show newer work before older work but I wonder if adding the option to filter oldest to newest might be an upcoming iteration of the feature. Iāll sync up with the team working on tags and make sure this request is on their radar.
Iāve always wanted to do a live Q&A (like reddit AMA) with just my Patreons. I canāt think of a platform that does this well, and doing it through Patreon would streamline the process as my target audience (them!) already have accounts.
Other than that, I second many of the above suggestions for formatting and organizing posts.
5 Likes
Hey Micah, have you ever tried the āgo liveā option on the app? I feel like we may not have promoted this enough in the past, but it allows you to have a live Q&A with your patrons.
Here is an example from when Amanda Palmer did one with her community.