Subscribers¶
Loveshack implements a complete subscriber system in the theme itself — no membership plugin required. This section covers how it fits together.
The model¶
A subscriber is a WordPress user. Loveshack layers on top of that:
- Passwordless authentication — subscribers sign in via emailed links rather than passwords
- A frontend settings screen at
/settings/— no wp-admin access needed - Subscription tiers — each subscriber holds a tier, free or paid
- Access checks — a shared gate decides what each subscriber can read
- Delivery — digests and private RSS feeds, both filtered by that same gate
The important property is that one access check governs everything. A post gated to a tier is hidden from the public feed, hidden from the private feed of subscribers below that tier, and omitted from their digest email — because all three ask the same question.
The subscriber's view¶
| URL | Screen |
|---|---|
/subscribe/ |
Sign-up and tier selection |
/settings/ |
Notification frequency, tier, feeds, avatar |
/subscriber-feed/{token}/ |
Personal private RSS feed |
/subscriber-feed/{token}/{post_type}/ |
Personal feed for one post type |
The administrator's view¶
LoveShack → Subscriptions holds the configuration: form copy, sender identity, FluentSMTP status, Stripe keys, and the tier definitions. Subscriber records themselves appear in the normal Users screen, with Loveshack-specific columns added.
The wording subscribers see, the subscription form copy and the sign-in messages, sits on its own Texts tab; everything that changes behaviour stays under Settings. The emails themselves are edited in the Customizer, see Email templates.
The Texts tab also carries the labels on the tier cards (badges and buttons),
the free tier's title, description, and price label, and the wording of the
teaser shown in place of a gated post. An emptied field falls back to the
default wording. Two fields take placeholders: the gated post title uses
{post_title} and the login hint for paid posts uses {tier}.
LoveShack → Dashboard opens with an analytics panel: confirmed newsletter
subscribers, fediverse followers when the ActivityPub plugin is active, estimated
monthly recurring revenue from active paid subscriptions, and audience growth over
the last 30 days. Revenue is derived from each active subscription's tier price,
so it reflects the configured tiers rather than Stripe's settled payouts. The
figures are cached for five minutes; the loveshack_admin_analytics_window_days
filter changes the window. The same panel appears as the Loveshack Analytics
widget on the WordPress dashboard.
Where to go next¶
| Topic | Page |
|---|---|
| How sign-up and sign-in work | Registration and login |
| What subscribers can change themselves | Settings screen |
| Restricting posts by tier | Gated content |
| Selling tiers | Tiers and Stripe |
| Scheduled email | Digest emails |
| Editing the emails | Email templates |
| Personal RSS | Private feeds |