How paid communities work
Sell access to a private Telegram group or channel or to a Discord role. Learn when access is granted and removed, where the buyer gets the link and what the integration cannot do.
With a community connected, the purchase grants entry to a private Telegram group or channel, or a role in a Discord server. The buyer gets a personal link, uses it to prove which account is theirs and joins. When the sale is refunded or the subscription ends, your store's bot removes the person. Everything lives in GeneralIntegrationsCommunities.
Telegram
Discord
What changes the access
| Event in Vipter | What happens in the community |
|---|---|
| Approved sale (including a subscription's first charge) | Grants access and sends the link |
| Subscription reactivated or resumed | Grants access again |
| Sale fully refunded | Removes access |
| Chargeback | Removes access |
| Subscription cancelled | Removes access |
| Subscription expired | Removes access |
Some cases change nothing:
- Paid subscription renewal: access stays, with no new e-mail.
- Refund or chargeback of a renewal: access only goes when the subscription itself is cancelled or expires.
- Partial refund: access stays.
A subscription that existed before the rule gets the link on its next paid renewal.
Access rules per offer
Each rule links an offer to what it grants: a group or channel on Telegram, a role on Discord.
- Without a rule, nothing is granted: No rules yet. Nothing is granted until you link an offer.
- The rule also stores the chosen offer's product. A sale of another offer of the same product also grants access.
- In a sale with an order bump, every product in the purchase counts. If the bump has a rule, the buyer gets both accesses.
- An offer can have several rules, such as two channels or two roles. The buyer gets a single link that opens all of them.
- The bot checks that it can manage the group or hand out the role before saving the rule.
- Rules cannot be edited. To change the destination, remove the rule and create another.
On a subscription, a group or role you add later reaches the buyer the next time they use the link.
Where the buyer gets the link
The link is personal and opens the "Your community" page, with step-by-step instructions to join. It shows in three places:
- Thank-you page: the "Join your community" card shows right after payment, only in the browser where the purchase was made. If the link takes a while to be ready, the page waits about three minutes and then asks the buyer to refresh later.
- Community access e-mail: sent when access is granted, if the store has an e-mail provider. You can edit the text or turn it off in Transactional e-mails.
- Customer portal: the "Communities" section lists the buyer's accesses. See Customer portal.
In the dashboard, each platform's Accesses list has a button to copy each buyer's link and another to Resend link by e-mail.
The link works for the first account
Access is tied to the first Telegram or Discord account that uses the link. Another account with the same link is refused. That way, a forwarded link does not open the community to someone else.
Follow the accesses
The Accesses list, at the bottom of each platform's page, shows every purchase with the e-mail, the product, the linked account and the status:
| Status | Means |
|---|---|
| Waiting for the buyer | The link was created, but the buyer has not joined yet. |
| Active | The buyer joined. The row shows the linked account. |
| Revoked | Access ended, with the reason and the date. |
| Removal pending | Access ended, but the platform has not confirmed the removal yet. Vipter tries again. |
| Removal failed | The removal failed on every attempt. |
When the removal fails, Vipter tries again after 5 minutes, 30 minutes, 2 hours, 6 hours and 24 hours. After the last attempt, the access becomes Removal failed. Fix the cause, shown in red, and click Try the removal again.
To remove someone right away, click Revoke access on the access row and confirm. The person leaves the community immediately, and their link stops working.
Limitations
- People who joined some other way stay. The Telegram bot cannot list a group's members. Whoever joined before the integration, or through another link, is not removed automatically. On Discord, whoever got the role outside the integration also stays.
- Turning off only blocks new entries. Active: When off, new sales do not grant access. Refunds and cancellations keep removing people who joined.
- Removing the integration removes no one. Remove integration deletes the connection, the rules and the access history. Whoever is already in the community stays there.
- One bot per store. Each store uses one Telegram bot and one Discord application. Use a bot only for Vipter.
What to do next
- Connect Telegram or Discord.
- Show the buyer how to join: Join the community you bought.
Connect Circle
Add the buyer to your Circle community's access groups when the sale is approved, and remove them from those groups on refund, chargeback or cancellation.
Connect Telegram
Grant entry to a private Telegram group or channel when the sale is approved and remove the person on refund or at the end of the subscription, with your store's own bot.