Thanks for adding Pinned Posts. We tried it this morning and…
The Public post we tried to Pin was set to Visible Only To Patrons.
If this is a feature - not a bug - then it diminishes the value of pinning posts for public consumption.
Can pinned posts maintain the public/private setting of the original post?
Thanks!
It’s also not showing up for anyone not logged in… which again diminishes the value of a pinned post to reach and influence non-Patrons.
Hey @american.mcgee, thanks for the this post and feedback!
At the moment, pinned posts are only viewable by patrons. This is intended and not a bug.
I asked the team about this decision and they shared that the About section in your profile is the perfect place to show non-patrons what membership entails, and then the pinned post allows you to control the first post new patrons see. That allows you to make a patrons first moment magical, which we know greatly increases their chance of staying around for longer.
Can you share more about what you’re looking to include in the pinned post that can be seen by the public that would not be included in the About section?
Same here, I went and experimented with Pinned Posts and yeah, they’re only visible for Patrons.
For me, what I’d want to pin is the public post for each month’s featured pattern (that links to the post where Patrons can download, but it also has all the public info as well). So there’s no real advantage to it being only for Patrons.
I was about to ask what the best use of the pinned posts would be, then I read this and it’s clear to me!
Thanks!
I had a post I wanted to pin, and when I noticed that it was ‘Patron only’ I simply copied the text into my ‘About’ section, but now that’s REALLY long. Being able to pin the post and make it available to non-Patrons would be a much better alternative. Sorry to hear the designed behavior is a ‘feature’ not a ‘bug’.
We would like to use the Pinned Post as the first thing people see in order to highlight any promotion we might be running. We already create a stand alone post for this purpose and then link to that from a variety of places.
bit.ly/CheshKitten is an example of the kind of Explainer Page we’d like to pin.
During the promotion period it would be preferable to display this post as the first thing non-Patrons see when they land on the main page. Because it would reduce the number of actions necessary to discover this important content.
And would allow us to always target the main (http://patreon.com/username) URL with our marketing spend. That means people following that link after a promotion finishes land on the main page… Again reducing actions necessary to arrive where we want them.
I also would like this to be available for non-patrons as well. I post my comic on Patreon and gradually release pages to the public, and having the first page as the pinned post would be an easy and fast way to for new readers to start.
I’ve just tried out the new Pinned Post feature and it doesn’t seem to be behaving the way I had hoped. The first thing that I noticed was that if I pin a post which has a Tag set, it no longer appears when I filter for that Tag. That may be related to the “Patron-only” feature - I haven’t tested that far.
My suggestion was that a Creator could set any post(s) to “Pinned”. The only effect would be that any pinned post would be displayed before any non-pinned post. Apart from that, the sorting remains chronological, and the visibility stays as it always was. That allows the Creator to decide whether the post is public or only visible to all Patrons, Patrons of a given reward, etc, the same as it has always been.
I also want the ability to pin multiple posts. The functionality remains as above - the only effect is that the pinned posts are displayed before any non-pinned posts. If you have two pinned posts, then they are both displayed before any non-pinned posts. The ordering for pinned and non-pinned posts remains (reverse) chronological, as it is now, just with all pinned posts coming before all non-pinned posts. Again, the visibility also stays as it always has been.
Why link the “pinned” functionality with the visibility? It seems to be just removing flexibility.
And why limit it to just one Post for the entire Creator page?
Here is a link to my original feature request. It could be simple and flexible piece of functionality.
I just made a pinned post too hoping it would be pinned for public, but no. Please can you make this an option for US to choose, not a thing that you choose for us. I don’t see the point of having a pinned post for patrons only, I was excited to use the pinned post but will have to take it down now (having now spammed everyone with that post via email too), so really not a great idea, it doesn’t make it obvious when I posted it.
Hey @artbyemilyhare, thank you for sharing your thoughts and feedback on this. To help me describe this clearly to the product team, can you share more about what you’re looking to include in the pinned post that can be seen by the public that would not be included in the About section?
I feel like most people skip over the ‘About’ section. Especially now that its been collapsed with the new layout, it’s really deemed as unimportant. And the ‘About’ section feels like a different spot for different information. Some examples for me personally as to what I would do pinned posts about: my list of tutorials or my comic cover which links to the pages to read.
I think for me it is so that m y ‘about’ part isn’t so long. Maybe I could use the pinned post instead for that but sometimes I would like to be able to use the pinned post for public stuff (for example to highlight a special offer or to show potential patrons what they might expect from a post at X tier). If you could make it so that we can have it public or not, that would be great. I don’t see why we can’t have that choice?
Mindy,
It seems you have a lot of people asking for this to be an option Creators choose - whether a Pinned Post is Public or not.
Why not just let Creators decide? Flexibility in the way a platform can be used will always lead to more creativity and unexpected expression. Surely Patreon wants to provide more creative control to Creators… not less?
@american.mcgee you’re right, we always want to give creators control so you can decide how to run your membership business.
With some of these new features, the product team has decided to launch a simplified version of the feature first and then improve on it over time. That way, you get some benefit of it as soon as possible and then we hear from creators about how we can improve it, plus look at data. This method is to prevent us from building a complicated thing that takes a long time but isn’t actually what everyone wants. The downside of this is that changes come incrementally but I will definitely pass this demand to the product team.
Sharing as much detail about what sort of posts you would pin for the public (fans, not patrons) specifically is a huge help!
Hey there, Mindy!
Is there any update on this topic? I too created a post that I hoped could be pinned for the public and be a nice example of the type of content people could see when they join… separate from the about section. So officially casting my vote to allow this to be a Creator choice as well!
Thanks for all you do!
(and to answer your question about post details. For me, it is just an unlisted youtube video link. I have it set up so when people subscribe to my mailing list, an automated email goes out to them saying they can see this unlisted video, but rather than linking directly to youtube, I’m linking to my patreon feed, where I was hoping the video could be pinned and public for people to easily watch. Then it not only gives them a free perk for subscribing to my mailing list, but it also plants the first seed for Patreon in a way that is not an “ask” or obnoxious or pressured (so it’s not “hey subscribe to my list and NOW ALSO go check out my patreon!”)
And I would like to restate my strong interest in getting this feature adjusted so that non-Patrons can see it. There’s a new reason why that makes it even more important to us… the fact that Patreon has adjusted the landing page for non-Patrons to be a “Select a Membership Level” page… This is Driving Away Potential Patrons. How do we know that? Because people write comments on our ads and posts that drive people to Patreon - and they tell us that!
We need to make it clear to people that they can view all of our posts FOR FREE (after the 3-day Early Bird Access expires). People need to be able to view all that content - and then decide if they want to support our work. Putting $$$ signs on the screen right at the top of the non-Patron landing page is Turning Away potential Patrons. And they are telling us that!
Please. Allow us to pin a post to the top of this landing page. Let us control this aspect of our messaging. I’ve heard Patreon reps say many, many times that it’s “not about the money” - so prove it by allowing us to wipe those $$$ signs off the non-Patron landing page. Please.
Yeah I don’t like the new layout when people land on the page at all. I loved it before, the video at the top, the blurb down the middle. It looks nice. I am so frustrated at how we can’t choose either way. We should be able to have it look as we want, maybe a selection of 3 different layout templates. I would think it would be possible?
Thank you for all the strong thoughts and feedback around this @Maggie-Pope, @american.mcgee, and @artbyemilyhare. I sadly don’t have any update on this for you at this time 
But I will reiterate the strong desire for this feature and make sure the team knows how important this is for you, not only for the control and how you manage your membership, but also how you see Patreon.
Tagging in @ursula too for 
Hi all! I won’t say we will definitely implement a non-patron version of pinned posts, but we definitely see an opportunity for you to provide more context or sample content to perspective patrons visiting your page. That’s something we are excited about and can keep this community updated about once a timeline becomes more concrete. I also wanted to quickly plug this blog article which speaks to some of the page changes we made last year, and reassure you that the conversion improvements remain strong. Thank you again for your collective feedback. It helps us build a better product. Ursula