The $10 tier unexpectedly locked? Tier-specific content explained

I've had a few queries over why some (lower tier) posts in your timeline might be locked - While I've explained it personally as the question comes up, I'd like to just go over that here for anyone else that might still be wondering. 

(Plus I realize many people do not check Patreon every day, and I never specifically went over this information in it's own post so this will be a good future resource as well!).

When I first joined Patreon, every single post was 'for tier X [and above]'. They did not have the ability to give rewards to individual tiers.

This was kind of an issue TBH while I was setting up my Patreon - I had wanted to have tiers running concurrent with different reward streams (at the time it was a DIY stream and a fan stream) where the tiers would receive individual posts and different rewards. 

But it wasn't possible to do that (as the tiers were in a strict hierarchy) and I instead structured my tiers to work in that system (where higher tiers get access to their tier plus everything below) without also annoying higher tiers by giving repeated content (ie if $5 gets a WIP photo, and $15 gets that WIP photo including extra commentary, that would mean $15 had to receive a similar thing twice ..which would snowball up to the top tier receiving a deluge of repeated content)

Around a year ago, Patreon added the ability to give tier-selected/tier-specific content. I can now choose exactly which tier(s) receive a single post. 

I did not really utilize this at first as I had already become well set-up in the old system.

Recently tho, as part of my 2020 Patreon revamp/refresh, I created 2 new tiers. The Dibs! tiers of $10 and $20. (More info here:  https://www.patreon.com/posts/33139333 )

These tiers use the new system and I have essentially located them in their own (shared with each other) content stream. 

The $10 Dibs tier receives the exact same content as the $5 Cat Chat tier (but additionally receives the DIBS content). 

And the $20 Dibs tier receives the same content as the $15 WIP tier (but additionally receives the DIBS content) 

The 'dibs content' is a parallel stream of content that is specific to those tiers (so I can gear the content/rewards to those who have opted in + not forcing cat chat patrons to upgrade to the WIP tier just to participate (nor forcing WIP to downgrade nor duplicating content for both)).

As Gold Circle is sort of the ultimate Dibs! tier already, I decided to leave it out of the loop entirely (as adding a third new tier was getting a bit unwieldy) and I really wanted this new content stream to be an option (and opportunity) for those in the smaller tiers who might also be interested in providing input into/potentially receiving a personally-built fursuit item :)

Thanks for listening to my thoughts!! I hope this helps explain the new tiers, the new timeline look, and the recent Patreon changes ^_^

- B