MichaelGhelfi
patreon
Our account was almost deleted, here's the horror story (+Free albums)
🕑 Added 2025-05-17 00:13:41 +0000 UTCHey adventurers,
This week has been quite a ride.
As some of you may know, either through our social media or by attempting to access our Patreon page, our account was suspended for a week. The exact reason remains unclear. After exchanging several emails with their team, they simply mentioned an "unfortunate system issue" (whatever that means—we won't get more information anyway).
What happened on my side?
I was using their API and their official WordPress plugin to develop my own integration to offer album discounts to you. I wanted to create a pleasant surprise (percentage discounts based on subscription longevity to reward loyalty). This would benefit both Patreon and our subscribers, and it falls well within their Terms of Service.
However, Patreon doesn't offer a sandbox environment, meaning I couldn't test my plugin with dummy data.
Consequently, I had to create another account.
The result? When I attempted to pay my own subscription for testing purposes, both accounts were immediately suspended and marked as "pending removal" (you can imagine my distress at that moment). No further information was provided—just a single email stating the accounts were about to be deleted. I couldn't access my dashboard, and since I don't store your data outside of Patreon out of respect for your privacy, it was impossible to contact you through any means besides Discord.
At this point, with no feedback from Patreon, I feared that ten years of work had gone down the drain. Patreon represents one of our most significant revenue sources and, as you know, while we may be the largest in the audio segment of TTRPGs, it's a niche within a niche. We must be realistic—we're small, and I realized how dependent we are on billion-dollar companies like Bandcamp, Patreon, and YouTube (more on that later as lessons learned). I envisioned worst-case scenarios such as having to terminate staff and restart from scratch. In retrospect, this may seem absurd, especially to those here who were unaware of the situation, but when you see that Patreon's support service has a 1.5/5 star rating and hundreds of people complain about having their accounts deleted without feedback for months, you can realistically fear the worst.
The Community Response
I contacted my friends in the TTRPG community and posted on all social platforms to inform you. Then something extraordinary happened: you rallied en masse, and frankly, I didn't anticipate such overwhelming support. Dozens, if not hundreds, of support tickets were sent to Patreon, alongside numerous tweets and emails to exert pressure. This was simply remarkable. We also asked the community to remain respectful toward Patreon (as disparagement could be extremely damaging if we needed to resort to legal action, which I was preparing to initiate—I was already consulting with a San Francisco-based attorney), and the messages were indeed respectful. This wasn't surprising, though, as intelligence is a common trait among you all.
The TTRPG creators immediately came to our rescue. Some had contacts at Patreon, which certainly expedited the process tremendously. Special thanks to Czepeku, Forgotten Adventures, Domille, Taylor from Rude Tales of Magic and Paizo who contacted people at Patreon within hours. I know solidarity is common in TTRPGs, but experiencing it firsthand is something else entirely.
I'd particularly like to thank all the following creators who sent us messages of support. I'm certainly overlooking some (if so, my sincere apologies!), as this week was tumultuous:
AbyssalBrews
ASKII
Crooked Worlds
Diversity Saves
dScryb
Dungeon Channel
Ela Morana
Elise in the Clouds
Fantasy Atlas
Fiddlewold
LestatJdR
Mab Music TTRPG
MarkDrummondJ
MiskaMaps
Moonlight Maps
Owlbear Rodeo
Sean Pruitt
Stained Karbon Maps
Tabletop RPG Music
The MAD Network
Wild Magic Surge
Will Savino
Zach Moeller
And probably many others I missed!
Resolution
A few hours ago, our page was restored, returning as swiftly as it had disappeared. We still have no clear understanding of the cause. Patreon expressed that they were "incredibly sorry" along with other corporate platitudes. That concludes their side of the story.
Moving Forward
The lesson learned is that MGS will continue strengthening our own services. We are gradually moving away from Bandcamp (owned by SongTradr), as we now sell all our albums at better prices on our website (EDIT: We won't LEAVE Bandcamp. We simply stop putting it forward). We are also offering the absolute best TTRPG audio streaming tool through Opus (by dScryb and MGS), especially as Spotify now promotes AI-generated music prominently and YouTube continues to bury our channel.
The Patreon page remains essential. This incident caused a decrease in growth as many subscriptions weren't renewed during the downtime. Many have asked how they could help. The best way is to continue spreading the word about our audio, especially regarding our Opus tool (on Reddit, forums, video comments, etc.). We're currently developing a highly requested feature: users will soon be able to upload their own audio. This will ultimately benefit all TTRPG composers, as users will be able to add to their library audio they've purchased elsewhere.
(Re)subscribing to our Patreon is also greatly appreciated.
A Token of Gratitude
To thank you for your support and patience, we're offering a SUBSTANTIAL audio package: two complete albums (Kingdoms & Conquerors + Tales of Ravenia), approximately 30 SFX, and 16 ambiences. These sounds weren't created specifically for this occasion—obviously, we couldn't compose that much in three hours. However, we've also included four audio tracks by Miguel Abuel, our recently joined MGS composer.
The download link will only be available for one month.
If you'd prefer to test Opus, please use the code "ghelfi" to get a month of free trial.
Thank you sincerely for everything.
Now I'll get some much-needed rest.
Take care!
Michael & team
Comments
Michaël Ghelfi
Moving away from Patreon requires to build the tool from scratch, because nothing similar exists in this "quality". It would also mean moving thousands of posts and a lot of content. The development cost would be far too high for a company like ours. We may be the biggest TTRPG audio label, we are still super small all things considered. Thanks for your kind words!
Michaël Ghelfi
Thanks a lot Dani!
Dani Werner
That's so scary! I've decided to head over to Opus as well to support you and other creators :)
Hossc
First, I don't know anything about any of this. I am not a creator. But reading about visibility and ease of being found via patreon, got me to thinking about how I would probably approach this kind of situation. Back up of everything is definitely 100% must. Even if my patron list is just written in a notebook to help preserve privacy, though I would probably use a spreadsheet on an sd card, so it is removable and thus can be kept safer. I am unaware of rules and regs for patreon, so I do not know what is allowed. Could you use patreon as mostly advertising to point to your own content in another place? This provides the visibility and ease of being found, while giving you the freedom, control, and hopefully peace of mind. I love your work and that of most of the creators that helped and showed support. I wish the most of luck and success and hope you find the way that works best for you, your business, and your consumers.
Michaël Ghelfi
I appreciate the message, thank you Javier. You are right. I'll have to check with the GDPR if I'm allowed to backup your data outside of Patreon. I'm not taking these things lightly. I also agree on the rest. It's all about trade-offs!
Michaël Ghelfi
Thank you!
Miska Fredman
What a relief. I'm happy to hear your page did not vanish into the digital void.
Javier Parra Cervantes
I’m so glad you were able to get this resolved and yes. This underlines the need of owning your own data but it’s definitely hard because of discoverability. At the very least, having a backup of who your patreons are, tier, duration, contact info and stuff like that will give you peace of mind. On the other hand, although I love what you’re doing with Opus and it’s way easier to use, I choose to support you on Patreon instead because Opus would force me to change my entire workflow and –similarly to what you just faced with Patreon– lock me into it. Just something to keep in mind while you’re undoubtedly weighing your options for the future.
Cze and Peku
Every creator's nightmare. Glad this was resolved and glad to have you back. I hope we managed to help in some way. A good wake up call for everyone to start self-hosting or finding alternatives just in case.
CP M
Lesson noted. I'm about to start doing more with Patreon (through a different account), so I'll make sure to back up everything. Glad things have worked out for you and wishing you luck moving forward!
Man on the Internet
I'm not a huge creator in the TTRPG space but so glad you got this back! If ever you do need to do the unthinkable and move from Patreon I'll be right there with you. Keep your platforms diversified and your content awesome!
Foundry Virtual Tabletop
Wow, I missed all the drama and had no idea this was happening. So sorry you experienced this. I think it's a great encouragement to redouble investment in your own website and in Opus. They obviously lack the discoverability of Patreon but as I'm sure you're feeling - knowing that your business platform is secure and something that you can have full control over is so important for companies like ours. Onwards!
Michaël Ghelfi
Indeed! We have a second (third?) channel, specifically made for Opus tutorials and other non-audio content https://www.youtube.com/@MichaelGhelfiStudiosSidequests you may find it useful regarding Opus. Also feel free to DM me if you got any question. Unlike Patreon, I won't hide behind an AI agent or seven layers of bureaucracy to answer haha
Nathan Birkholz
What a nightmare! I need to investigate opus now thanks for that.
