So I checked the Patreon help center for info on the community tab and it answered me by talking about this site! Which was cool, but not what I was curious about. The community tab on our pages, where our patrons can post… can we moderate those? I’d like to encourage my patrons to use them to communicate with each other but I’m kind of nervous about the fact that there’s no instructions on what to do if they use it it post inappropriate content.
Other things I don’t know:
How do patrons find it? Do those community posts show up in their patron feeds? Do they have to go to the website to get to it?
Do they get emailed when a fellow patron posts in my community tab?
Can I restrict it to only paying patrons?
What was the vision for this feature? Is anyone else using it?
I am tentatively eager (is that even possible) to utilize this feature, but before I invest too heavily in it I’d like to know these things.
I think only paying Patrons can post there. The problem I have is to make my patrons aware of its existence, since as the creator I can’t start the conversation there and can only reply to the posts of the patrons. Perhaps @ellie can help with this one? Do you have any tips…or perhaps it could be added to the Patreon ‘to do’ list for 2017? I’m sure that if I could post on my community tab, I could get the conversation started and start to form more of a community??
I have seen lots of other creators using it very well, and I love it from my own experience of being a patron and getting to connect with the other patrons, since we already have a shared interest.
Sarah, could you link some of the other creators who are makin’ good use of it? I have absolutely no idea how to get a conversation goin’ in that section since I can’t start one. That part of my Patreon just feels very neglected and I’ve felt pretty helpless about it.
Sure, off the top of my head, these guys are doing well with the community section. I know how you feel though, I feel like that section on my page is neglected too:
Thanks! I’ll try to direct my patrons to my community page, but I typically only have 3 that ever comment. That would probably be better than a blank page when someone clicks the tab though.
This is a great conversation. Thank you for tagging me @Sarah!
I totally agree that it can be really hard to start conversations in the community tab. I think that there is definitely some potential here, but we should do some more research into what sort of functionality patrons/creators would like to see happen in here and make it easier for creators’ communities to interact with each other (and help creators start those convos).
Feel free to continue to add any ideas for improvements to this section and I’ll relay to our product team. Thanks all!
I think the main issue for me is that my patrons are not aware that the community tab exists, and as a creator the site won’t allow to post there. If it were possible for me to make the first post, then my patrons could then be aware and begin to use it to connect with each other. At the moment all of this has to happen away from Patreon, on sites like Facebook and Twitter.
It would be fantastic to incorporate the upcoming polls to get conversations rolling. I try to do as few patron only posts as possible as I like to keep my Patreon accessible and welcoming to everyone, but the community tab would be a great little exclusive perk for patrons if it were more like a forum to encourage more community interaction between patrons. Right now it seems limited to patron to creator feedback the way it is set up. While one on one interaction between patron and creator is necessary, it would be better and more immersive if we could add a true community element to that by allowing and encouraging more discussion among our biggest fans.
I do like that anyone can view it, but you have to be a patron to post. I’d rather this be the exclusive part of my Patreon as opposed to paywalling my content.
I guess I immediately go to moderation issues because I know a lot of my patrons like to share my stuff with their kids. (And because, frankly, I don’t like profanity or flaming myself, and don’t want to have to read it.) I’ve always requested people remain PG-13, and civil, when visiting my space, and I’ve moderated things on other sites to maintain that (or deleted them when they were completely inappropriate).
This is now my space, and I don’t see any obvious tools for me to do that. Even the Discord channel I’ve set up through Patreon allows me to kick people! So, something I’d find helpful (copied from sites like Livejournal and their communities):
A toggle that allows Creators like me who are concerned with these issues to require all posts be okayed by a moderator.
The ability to “auto-okay” people who have posted frequently and who you now trust to post without going through the moderation process.
The ability to delete posts that are inappropriate.
The ability to delete comments that are inappropriate.
The ability to ban posters.
I know this all seems draconian, and it will displease some people. But I’ve never had a problem posting my rules for moderation/bannable offenses and having people accept them. I’d be totally okay with Patrons who opted out of patronizing me because they felt I was censoring them if it meant I could keep my space free of pornographic fan art of my children’s book characters. I know it sucks, but we have to plan for the trolls and the stalkers along with the awesome people. :,
Other stuff I’d like (that is more positive):
The ability to highlight good posts or pin them
A “What’s Hot” feature so that people can go see posts lots of people are commenting/liking
The ability to reward frequent high-quality posters
The ability to give some Patrons the ability to moderate
An option that allows Patrons to get email notifications of posts on the community (I don’t see an option like that in my email notification settings. Did I miss it?)
Also potentially useful: when people sign on to be one of your Patrons, it would be great if there was some automatic “Meet the Creator’s Other Fans and Start a Conversation!” type dialog.
You can make a link in your welcome message when you get new patrons that sends them directly to the community section or link to a post where you explain how to navigate your patreon with some helpful links to get them started, that being one of them.
I could but it feels kinda pushy. “Hi! Thanks for becoming a patron! I really want you to start talking about how awesome I am with other fans, so go do that! And by the way, turn that into a thriving community for me!”
I think having the system do something like show the Creator’s Thank You message and then suggest other activities under it would work. Then it could have a message that has a call to action and an explanation: ‘Why don’t you introduce yourself on the Creator’s community? The Creator’s community is a place for you to leave messages for the Creator and interact with other fans.’
It could even have some personalized data on it: "CreatorX’s fans have already made Y number of posts there!’ (And where Y=“over 10” it could say “Join the party!” and where Y=“under 10” it could be “Start the conversation!”).
hi there! i’m eager for the Patreon Community features to develop too. some of my patrons have discovered that they’re in the same city and want to connect - but there is currently no way for them to tag each other or message each other or get each other’s info aside from commenting on my post with their email and hoping the other person reads it. it’d be great to bump this up with the product team!
Okay, I decided to try it! This is now what my “thank you for becoming a Patreon message” looks like. (Sort of. It’s an animated gif, that’s the end of its run cycle).
I am bumping this topic because my patrons just asked me if there was some way they could get the community wall posts emailed to them along with my posts and it doesn’t appear so? I really, really want to make better use of the wall and I’m developing ideas with them but we’re all a little at sea with whether this feature is going to be developed or supported and whether we can ask for changes.
ooh small request to tag on, is it possible that community posts could come up in my notifications tab? they don’t so I usually forget about it and just go there once a month and see a couple of messages I should’ve answered weeks ago!
I never fully understood that feature. I too am curious about the original planned usage for it. To date I’ve only gotten one random post on it from one of my patrons from February 2016 and nothing since.
Been thinking about the community tab lately. I would like to encourage my patrons to share their own artwork etc there, but I am hesitant to do that. For example, will I not be notified (in notifications or email) when someone makes a post there? Will the patrons be notified if someone posts there or someone replies to their posts?
I have to agree with the general frustration regarding the community tab. I don’t really know what it’s for - I can’t seem to post there (only respond to others), and my patrons so far have made very little use of it. As @vrart1 says, I’d like to know what its original purpose was, and what future plans for it might entail (@erin, @carla?).
Personally, it would be nice to use it in an informal way. I run a book club, so it would be good to post updates (e.g. “Currently on p.190 - wasn’t expecting that!” - or whatever!). Patron only posts seem a little heavy handed for this sort of update, but then there would need to be some sort of notification for new comments which you could subscribe/unsubscribe to.
I’ve used the community tab something like reviews as that was a suggested use by Patreon staff/social media eons ago. Not sure if that’s still the intention. It used to be they were only public posts but I guess that has updated now and when posting to someone’s community tab you can choose different options now. Only current patrons can post there and it seems that now you get notified when someone posts there. (At least, it seems like creators are notified when I post there as they respond within 24 hours.)
But Yeah, I use it as a positive feedbak/review, essentially saying what I like about the creator and why they are worth pledging too. But I’ve seen people ask questions there that they should DM the creators so it’s a weird thing. It would be nice to have some more options, a purpose or a way to give it our own purpose and be able to post on our own. (In my experience, only the creator gets notified of posts and you only get notified if they directly respond to you.)
To be completely honest, I don’t think it’s been a successful feature. It’s pretty typical (though not true for everyone, obviously) for it to be a pretty blank state. I’m actually considering removing the feature to reduce confusion and complexity. Obviously, we won’t do that without communicating it well in advance, but I would love to get everyone’s thoughts on that option.
How often do you see activity in the community today?
Do you find the community tab valuable?
What would be the impact of removing that tab to you personally as a creator?
What sort of community tools would you be excited to have (if any)?
Thanks in advance for your feedback! Y’all are the best.
Erin
