Hey there Patreon team, I recently discovered the hard way that non-subscribed, public viewers to my channel can no long comment on public posts. Speaking for myself, this is more that disappointing - it is actively hindering my interactivity with folk, and seeding prospective subscribers.
I often drive traffic to my Patreon channel by offering free LARP quests to those that are first-to-claim, publicly available. Only recently did I discover that the actual public cannot claim them because they are not subscribed and I know I have lost traffic/potentials because of this.
As a result, I will have to use the Community Tab on my YouTube channel to drive public traffic, which a woeful substitute since there are no links to individual posts, I can’t even link people to the exact thing they are looking for.
I understand that there are spammers and trolls, but please consider making this optional for creators because it is a serious set-back when it comes to interacting with non-subbed public, as well as making them feel like they have to pay-to-play.
Interaction with fans is utterly key in today’s market and they generally don’t like feeling pressured to buy. They want to dip their toes and then decide and this takes a huge element of that away - not to mention, is one less reason to point people over to my patreon channel at all, (a huge detriment since it is my #1 place I try to point people at) - now I have lost a whole segment of people that I could be pointing patreon’s way and instead have to redirect them somewhere else.
If you even read all of this, I appreciate it, I know it has been a prior topic but it was important enough business-wise for me to feel compelled to comment on.
This has been requested before by several others, so you’re not alone there. I found out the hard way too. Had me scrambling to change the post since the email and social links were already out. Would absolutely love the option for non-patrons to be able to comment too. I absolutely care about them and their input as well.
I used to use this feature a LOT. It was a primary way that I got followers involved in my content and even prompt folks to join or give input on a future tier/change/etc! I can no longer do this with ease. These followers are already using Patreon and are the BEST people to be talking to as they are already on the platform. I was and am still so peeved that Patreon decided to make this blanket change without any information to creators AT ALL and we were just left to find out on our own. (They did try to re-add public/non subscriber creator to creator commenting after some complaints but then back tracked on that too, with no info on why.)
LET US CHOOSE! Those who have spam/trolls can turn public comments off (or, maybe, make better block/remove features too?) and let those of us who don’t have this problem, to allow them and engage with our community, ALL OF IT, not just subscribers.
We have had absolutely no information on updates on this even though folks have been talking about it for a long time and it’s yet another thing I’m super disappointed in Patreon for doing and not confronting the fact that they screwed over a lot of creators by doing this. Closing off our communities without our consent.
I’m not really sure what kind of work around to implement. I constantly was directing people to my patreon posts to get in on activities and now I can’t, and I don’t know where else I can direct them other than to Discord/YT - neither of which puts my patreon product in front of their eyeballs. It is a total waste and complicates everything.
