Frequently Asked Questions
Got a Question? I tried to answer it here.
If you don't see an answer to your question, contact me - [email protected].
How do I set my profile picture on Joel+?
You can find a guide here: JoelPlus.com/pfp/
Can I gift subscriptions?
Yes! You can do that here: https://joelplus.com/#/portal/gift
How does it work? You'll have to first pay for the subscription you want to gift for the billing period you select, then you'll get a link for someone to claim the gift!
I don't want a subscription, can I just donate once?
Yes! You can do that here: https://joelplus.com/#/portal/support
Of course, you can also subscribe for one month or one year, then immediately cancel auto-renew, and your subscription will continue until the end of the billing cycle.
Why not Patreon?
A few reasons! In order of importance to me:
- I'm a nerd and love DIY projects. Hosting Joel+ myself using Ghost is just another DIY project.
- Patreon takes a cut of your contributions. On Joel+, I get 100% of your contributions. The only thing better than a DIY project is when a DIY project saves money!
- Ghost is nicer to use for me in the back-end, and way more customizable. I've been very impressed with the functionality.
- Patreon is a big, lame corporation that could be selling your or my data. I will not be selling your data.
Why not just YouTube Memberships?
See the 'Why not Patreon' section above, then tack the following additional reasons onto the end of that list:
- YouTube takes a way larger cut of your contributions than even Patreon.
- YouTube memberships absolutely suck to work with. They are super not customizable.
- I cannot adjust pricing on YouTube memberships while grandfathering existing members with their current price.
- Probably some stuff I'm forgetting.
- Seriously, YT Memberships suck.
Why are YouTube Memberships available if they suck so much?
For some people, staying on platform is worth the decreased value. I respect that, so I make them available. Additionally, it isn't that much extra work to maintain them.
What is the difference between Joel+ and YouTube Memberships?
A YouTube membership includes ONLY the following features:
- Early access to new videos
- Member's only videos
- YT Badges
That's it. Nothing else.
Check out the tiers overview page to see all the extra stuff that's included for less money here on Joel+
Did you develop Joel+ on your own?
No, while I do host Joel+ on my own hardware, JoelPlus.com is running on the free, open-source software Ghost.
How do you handle payments?
Payments are handled through Stripe. I do not and would never want to handle your payment information.
Why are download speeds for the original quality videos so slow?
These downloads are served from my own personal home server, as storing them in the cloud would cost a fortune. At time of writing, it's over 1TB of files. My upload speeds, at time of writing, are only 40Mbps, so I can only serve the files to you at that speed. If you aren't seeing 40Mbps speeds, it might be because I'm using my home internet for other reasons, like uploading a video, or someone else is downloading a file from Joel+ at the same time.
I'm not seeing emails. What gives?
I've had some issues with emails from JoelPlus.com getting marked as spam, so check your spam folder, and mark JoelPlus.com as non-spam.
I've looked into why this happened, fixed some things, and everything should be kosher now, but Google still seems to think that JoelPlus.com is a spam address, even though the issues were fixed.
If you still aren't seeing emails, shoot me an email.