I was thinking about making a patreon and this is something I am worried about if I do. Can you see who had declined payments/lowered pledges?

Ahh ok thanks for clearing that up!

I was going to say (since the amount is public) to still continue as promised with the upgraded sketch. However, Those who backed out/had declined payments could possibly not have a chance in this raffle to make it fair for artist/other members.

So you can see who has declined and who hasnt?

I would continue with the upgraded image, but not allow those who did not pay to be counted toward the entries.

Or, publicly post that the total you received was lower, and not name names and just do the single.

I would just announced that a lot of people declined there payments so you did not reach the goal to upgrade the raffle. People who do this SHOULD be embarrassed, its not right. You should say if they don't want to pay for a month they should unsubscribe until they can.

Edited at 2015-02-02 07:32 pm (UTC)

you actually can tell who was declined. go here->
https://www.patreon.com/manageRewards

click the blue bold text on any given post/reward thingie

it'll list all your patrons, plus if their payment was declined, is still pending, or went through. declined posts are red text, so they stand out.

you can also see if anyone capped their pledge (saying theyd give X but instead giving less) by mousing over the $ amount of their pledge.

personally if someone's stuff got declined i tend to send them a note to see if they're aware, cause sometiems the pledge goes through a day or two later.

if they don't respond and they're continually declining payment, i delete their pledge.

in the meantime though, i'd say act as though you were getting what it says you're getting. at least until you hear whats up from the declined folks!

well if it was a mistake and you're gonna get paid for it (patreon keeps trying their account til it succeeds) then just...proceed like you hit the goal. cause you did. there was just a slight hiccup during the charging period.

yep you can delete pledges, and people can rejoin once you delete them. i've actually done it a few times, because if someone gets declined for several months in a row i don't want patreon to charge them like 90$ when it finally *does* go through.

i think adding a clause is a good idea, and so is holding off rewards til you get paid.

If I were you, I would just go ahead and do it this month but for the future, add verbiage to the effect of "I will not determine the monthly reward until payments for that month are processed".

You should remove the declined pledgers, though. They can rejoin themselves at a later date, but if they just sit on there continually being declined, they could be hit with months' worth of pledges all at once when they finally do put money in that account and leave with you with a chargeback problem.

What happens is - if someone is declined for three months and their monthly pledge is $20, they get charged $60 all at once when they do put money in the account.

Chargebacks seem like kind of a remote possibility, but worries me anyway thinking about someone who's been having even small payments declined for months suddenly being hit with a larger amount. It seems safer to just remove them and let them sign back up when they do have money again.

As someone that both runs a Patreon for my webcomics and backs other creators, I have two thoughts on this.

One, as a backer if I saw a creator saying 'Hey I didn't make enough on the back end, I'm not going to honor the front end goal reached,' I'd be a bit offput and likely not continue backing if they did this every few months. Not saying YOU personally would be dishonest, but it's so easy for someone to set goals, then pretend they didn't make enough on the backend to honor them each month when they didn't feel like it.

As a creator the loss of money is a bit hard to deal with, and you shouldn't have to reward people that lower or back out of backing last minute in hopes of still getting rewards.

Something you might consider is just save face and do the art anyway, then keep tabs on who was declined or dropped funding levels, don't include them in the raffles at all and send them a note on why. Second, keep tabs on how much each month you waver on 'missed money', increase you goals to cover a POTENTIAL drop of that range. That way you still get paid, and if no one backs out or drops, you get a little extra.

I haven't used Patreon, but I've heard a few similar complaints by people about patrons who backed out last minute so they could get their rewards but not have to pay for them. Your situation sounds different, but still similar - it's completely possible that this was just a case of accidental insufficient funds or an expired card, or it could be people who offered a pledge with knowledge that their card would reject the charge.

I would do what another commenter suggested, and only offer the raffle to patrons whose pledge went through, since according to them, there's a way to see who donated what. You can then contact them privately and say something like, "hi, I noticed that your pledge did not go through due to a declined payment, possibly due to an error with your card. If you would like to be included in next month's raffle, you're more than welcome to resubmit your pledge [or however this works with Patreon] . Thanks for being a supporter!" This way it doesn't accuse the patron of being malicious, as it very well could be a mistake. And if they were trying to weasel out of paying while still getting a raffle spot, then it lets them know that you caught on and they're not getting in on the raffle without fulfilling their pledge.

Edited at 2015-02-03 08:50 pm (UTC)

I only recently hit my first goal ($10/mo) on Patreon... so I haven't had to do my raffle before. However, I did just discover the breakdown of who was successfully charged and who was declined. I've added a bit about how I have to actually receive the amount for the raffle to go ahead. I will also provide a screenshot (with names pixellated for privacy) if anyone has any doubts.

Just FYI, raffles are prohobited on Patreon, as a Patreon admin has told me through email.

I do random request streams here and there, or I just whisper random patrons and ask if they want a freebie. It's a whole wording thing really.

I would say don't really mention anything that would even sound like a raffle, and just quietly just pick one of your patrons to draw a freebie for.

I think people who care enough to support you will understand; do the upgraded pledge this month, post an explanation and then the one character sketch next month if the same happens?

Unfortunately there isn't a ban feature on Patreon yet. :c