Beestat now supports direct giving

As beestat has grown, I've had the need for more flexibility in how users can contribute. In order to support this, I'm adding direct giving as the primary way for people to donate. I've tried to answer some questions below, but please reach out if you have any concerns.

What does this change for Patrons? Virtually nothing. No action is required. The Patreon status page in beestat will look slightly different and updates for supporters will either be email-only and/or available as a news feed in beestat.

Is Patreon going away? No, you will always be able to give through Patreon.

How do I change how I give? If you would like to switch, simply cancel your Patreon pledge and unlink your Patreon account from beestat. Once done, you can choose a contribution amount and enter your payment info. You will be charged immediately and on the same day every month/year moving forward.

Why change? Fees are slightly lower, but using direct giving allows more flexibility in how people can contribute and gives me a secure way to take one-time gifts without resorting to things like PayPal & Venmo. I can also sell those cool stickers this way ;)

Is direct giving secure? Yes. All payment processing is done directly on payment sites hosted with Stripe. I never see any payment details. Stripe gives you many ways to pay and completely handles all subscriptions, expired cards, receipts, etc. I would rather spend my time developing beestat than managing those complex workflows.

Thank you so much for your support. The past few months have been a flurry of beestat activity. November is the big public launch of the new floor plan feature. I'm actually recording a short video of me related to that, so stay tuned. This Winter I'll be slowing down and tackling some user requests.