I have been using the Codebard Patreon plug-in on my website - I was having buggy issues before and deactivated the plug-in - I was informed there was an updated plug-in and I installed it. What happened, within a minute after activation, is that it started e-mailing posts at random - when Patrons complained their in-boxes were overflowing with e-mail from me I deactivated the plug-in and have been trying to get Codebard to address the issue - so far, nothing - there is obviously a conflict - either with Wordpress - Patreon or Mailchimp (I use that for my non-Patreon subscribers). I am not gaining any new subscribers as a result and this has proven costly - so what’s the workaround? Here is a screenshot to give you an idea of what my plugins page looks like and what was going on with the installed Codebard plug-in:
Many thanks,
Gordon Skene
The plugin does not have the capability to email anything. If you have a plugin or service that emails users when a new post is posted at your site, and if you have turned on post syncing from Patreon and it never was done before, the newly incoming posts may make your emailing plugin think that these are new posts and it may send emails.
The solution may be to turn off your emailing plugin until the post synchronization is complete if that is the case.
The only e-mail service I use is Mailchimp - I’m not saying Codebard is actually generating all these e-mails, but for some reason, with Codebard/Patreon installed - whether I post anything or not, it just starts to schedule posts - and only the photo is sent via e-mail - no copy and no link. Patrons have complained that they are receiving these posts that are, basically empty - but hundreds of them. Once I deactivated Codebard, it stopped - from what point do I check Post Synching?
No one else is having this problem?
whether I post anything or not, it just starts to schedule posts
If you choose to sync your Patreon posts when you were setting up the plugin, the plugin should be slowly syncing your patreon.com posts to your website.
- and only the photo is sent via e-mail - no copy and no link.
This would be something related to your mailer plugin or service. For the time being, disable that plugin so that emails wont be sent until you sort this out. (or until the post sync is finished).
No one else is having this problem?
Nobody has reported something like this.
Whether Mailchimp or any e-mail service is part of the problem, the bottom line is - when the Codebard/Patreon/Wordpress plug in is activated it immediately starts scheduling random posts. First time this happened it scheduled almost 1,000 posts before all my Patrons complained they were receiving e-mails every time one of those scheduled posts ran at the scheduled time - it clogged mailboxes. Subsequently, something in the Codebard plug-in is scheduling posts at random and causing havoc. I have since removed the Codebard plugin and everything has returned to normal. This is really silly and totally counter-productive in my effort to gain subscribers. It almost forces me to dump Patreon entirely and go back to running ads, much as I don’t want to. It’s at least an alternative to starving.
Again, have you turned post sync on while setting up the plugin?
How long after I turn it on does it stop scheduling?
When it finishes syncing all the posts that exist at your Patreon page. If there are many, it may take some time.
But of course, if you have that many posts at Patreon, the initial post sync will go on quite some time if you turn it on. Its expected.
In this situation, disabling whatever plugin or service that mails your users when you post a new post at your WP website, then enabling post sync, waiting until all the posts are synced, then turning on the plugin that mails your users when a new post is posted at your site, should work.
Of course you need to make sure that the cron at your WP site works, because post syncer works via cron. If the cron doesnt work properly, it will never complete. (in such a case it would not create new posts either though)
Well - I deactivated Mailchimp and it didn’t work - and I have since turned off all e-mail oriented services connected with the site - still waiting to see if it’s working. Went to my opening page and it’s full of this (see attached). It is possible that Codebard is single-handedly ruining my website?
From what I know, the official Mailchimp plugin should not have mailing capabilities - it should only add people to mailing lists.
You likely have another plugin that does mailing - social poster plugins do that. Subscription plugins etc. You need to review the list of all the plugins that you have and find out the one that provides mailing functionality.
Note that you are not looking for a plugin that necessarily says anything about the word ‘mail’. A plugin like the one you are looking for can be a social poster plugin can use the word ‘update’, ‘notifications’ and other jargon.
It can also be a code that has been put into your theme’s function.php or a custom plugin.
It is possible that Codebard is single-handedly ruining my website?
No, as said, the plugins dont have any capability to mail or send notifications to anyone whatsoever. You have a setup at your site that mails people when you make a new post. You are syncing your 10,000+ posts from Patreon to your website. They are being created as new posts. The result is all of them get mailed. Until you find the plugin that sends out those notifications when a new post happens or you turn off post syncing, this would happen.
You should ask about this to your site developer or whomever is helping you with coding/modification related matters.
On top of everything else (and it’s still going on, days after it started) - photos are missing from posts. All of the un-needed plug-ins are deactivated so Codebard is pretty much the only one left. That this process of rescheduling posts hasn’t stopped - that the posts are being scheduled almost every hour and those rescheduled posts are showing up missing photos is truly unacceptable.
Here is what I’ve been getting when I check posts via my dashboard:
In addition, the audio player, which is an integral part of every post is now missing from all the rescheduled posts. They need to be put back,l along with the photos that highlighted each post.
