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Corporal Jones always used to say “Don’t panic, don’t panic!”, usually when things were about to turn to custard. That was certainly how I’ve been feeling this past week, when what should have been a routine plugin upgrade for our membership system all of a sudden caused a catastrophic failure of the database and systems.
We have been having issues with the membership system, Restrict Content Pro (RCP). We’ve had it in place for more than 10 years, and its architecture and operation was clunky and getting worse. RCP was recently acquired by iThemes and the premise of the sale was they were going to develop the software in a better way and more frequently. Ever since that happened it has actually got worse. About eight weeks ago they updated the plugin and broke how it handles Stripe customers. No longer were their payments updating in our system. Initially iThemes tried to blame us, saying that we’d missed upgrades and we should have been more diligent. Eventually, after 20 days of arguing, they finally admitted that it was actually their fault and that a fix would be forthcoming. It has never arrived and after two months I was becoming exasperated. Then they pushed through the latest update and disaster happened.
The iThemes RCP update threw our system into a massive loop. Luckily I keep records of what changes to plugins have occurred on what dates so we were able to pinpoint the problem to the RCP plugin. Unfortunately it was so bad we had to delete the plugin, and as a result lost our paywall and membership ability. That was Saturday a week ago.
I immediately logged a fault with iThemes. It took them five days to respond. When they did, guess what… Yep… It was all our fault again. Then they said that no one else has had the problem. Given that they lied about that the last time, I am suspicious of their replies.
In the meantime rolling back the plugin didn’t work either. Due to the lack of response I immediately started looking for a replacement. The constant delays in updates, the slow and painful support experience meant that RCP had to go. After several iterations of finger-pointing but no solutions from them, I decided to pull the plug. Good riddance. I selected a new system and started to piece it all together from the disparate information contained in the raw RCP tables, Stripe and PayPal subscription and transaction data.
The good news is that we have now installed and have operational a new membership system.
The bad news is some of the data wasn’t that clean, and so we couldn’t be sure that we have captured all of the existing members, their subscriptions or indeed all of the details. We simply couldn’t match some recurring payments with an active member. This was because of various reasons, including members having old email addresses that no longer work, emails in PayPal and Stripe that didn’t match emails in the membership system and more than a few duplicates. It is what it is, but we have a plan to solve this.
Anyway, after much effort from myself, ably assisted by Rantykiwi on architecture and site configuration and Flattanker with some data wrangling, we’ve managed to get most, but not all, resurrected into the new system.
Don’t Panic
If you aren’t in the new system, or something is wonky: don’t panic. We can fix this with a little bit of help from you.
The new membership system gives us a whole lot of new features, including a better member interface for controlling your membership plans/subscriptions, credit card details and personal details.
You can access your own membership details here:
If you aren’t logged in you will be given a login page. Alternatively you can login using the login button here:
Once on your account page you will be able to manage your membership details, subscriptions, transactions, passwords, and card details.
Please go there now and check that all is as it should be. Please update your email. This new system will allow us to communicate with you in far better ways. If it isn’t all fine, don’t panic. Complete this form and send me details so that we can find you and repair your membership.
This new system is much more modern, and intuitive to use. We were always going to have to upgrade or update the system at some point in the future. This change has been forced on us to a great extent, but when presented with lemons we make lemonade.
Now for the great news.
Gifting
The new system allows us to create gift subscriptions. The system also allows for multiple memberships per member. So if you have an existing membership and wish to gift a membership, you will now be able to purchase the membership as a gift from the membership registration form:
If you fill out the registration form and check the box, you’ll be prompted to send an email to the recipient of the gifted membership.
After the recipient of the gift receives the email, they can click on the link provided in the email to register for their gifted membership. They will fill out a standard registration form that a normal member would use to sign up. Once the member clicks on the Signup button, their subscription will start.
Note: If the membership is set up as a recurring subscription, the gift will only be valid for the first cycle, after which the subscription will expire.
When a member gives a gift, they automatically become a member in the membership system (if they aren’t already). You can login and go to your account page to see the different options by clicking on the Gifts tab:
Thank you
As a way of thanking you all for your patience while we fixed the system, and to celebrate my birthday this month, we are also going to launch another new feature of the system: Coupons.
For the whole of November, we are going to offer new members a 10 per cent discount if they sign up. But also in recognition of the loyalty of existing members, if you upgrade your membership there will be a 10 per cent discount on your new membership plan. The same goes for any memberships gifted.
The coupon code is BIRTHDAY
Next Steps
Existing Silver or above members will have been enjoying the new aggregation feature called 10@10. This is a weekday email of 10 important articles that I’ve personally curated that I think are important or interesting for members. If you aren’t already a Silver or above member, then consider upgrading to enjoy this additional membership feature.
You all know by now that we are fundraising so that we can hire journalists and have a Press Gallery presence. This is part of our drive to present more news for members. As such we have recently changed the front page of the site to reflect more of a news site format. The old navigation down the side still exists within each post: it just isn’t on the front page any longer.
We will now work on more tightly integrated myBFD as well, now that the new membership system is in place.
Next year is election year, so I am thinking of a nationwide tour to meet up with some of you. A few Sumps have requested this, so I am forward planning this now.
We are also looking for new content creators and ideas. We are especially interested in quality video or podcast ideas. We really want to be taking the fight – not only to the politicians – but also to other news media out there. They’ve all shown how untrustworthy they are; now is the time to ramp up and hit out. Contact me directly if this is something that you think you can contribute to the growing BFD community.
Once again thank you for your patience. We are now ready to take the next step.
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