I’d like to be able to turn off comments on my Patreon page.
I have several reasons.
One is that I already have my own discussion forum somewhere else, and Patreon is diverting attention from my forum to the discussion area on my Patreon page. This interferes with my relationship to my patrons and other followers.
I’m using a forum elsewhere because, well, I had been building that discussion space for a decade before Patreon came along, and we’re not moving now. Also, it would be a big step down in functionality. Patreon’s discussion system is very underpowered. I’m not suggesting you fix that, because honestly I don’t think that’s a great use of your time or money. Why would Patreon want to host a lot of discussion and all the headache that comes with that?
And, honestly, I consider it dangerous. Some really scary things have happened to creators, and creators in forums with weak moderation tools are… attractive to sport trolls looking for easy victims. I’m a therapist with a background in the psychology of criminal offending and violence, and what I know about how things like fan stalkers emerge from an audience makes me very uneasy about how the Patreon commenting system works. I would be happy to discuss with someone at Patreon more about those concerns privately.
But really, personally, all I would need from Patreon to address all of my concerns entirely about this is a switch to turn comments off on my page. That would be great.