Small Update on Voting Benefits and Patreon’s New “Free Members” Tier (Patreon)

This isn’t a major problem since it only applies to ~5 Patrons, but I wanted to clarify this so people can get the most out of their subscription.

Patreon decided to add a new tier called ‘Free Members,' which is supposed to replace the old ‘Follow’ feature (with no other benefits, really). The only problem is that (despite its name), it gives you the option to become a ‘Free’ member immediately after canceling your pledge. So, if you were on the $5 tier and you cancelled it and got suggested to move to the ‘Free’ tier, Patreon now labels you as a ‘Free’ patron even though you still have the benefits of your $5 subscription until it expires.

The way I calculate poll benefits is through a spreadsheet where multipliers are tied to a corresponding tier name - anyone on the ‘Aburaage’ tier has a 3x vote multiplier, for example. With the addition of this new ‘Free Members’ tier, it messes things up because it can include members from any tier (and w/ various poll benefits) who’ve cancelled and moved to the tier but are still rightfully able to access my polls since they still have the benefits for the remainder of their paid membership.

I manually adjusted the vote weight in this month's poll to account for this, but I won’t be able to calculate weighted votes for the new ‘Free’ tier in the future (as long as Patreon categorizes them like this). So if you’re on a tier with voting benefits, and you cancel, please make sure you don’t (or haven’t) moved to the ‘Free’ tier (at least until after your sub expires) so I can make sure your vote multiplier is counted. Thanks! 💕