Show Settings Reference

Show settings are found under Benecaster → Settings when a show is selected in the show switcher. The settings screen uses a two-column layout: a left navigation lists all settings sections, and the right area shows that section’s fields.

Settings apply to the currently selected show only. If you run multiple shows, each has its own configuration.

Settings Sections

The left navigation contains the following sections:

The Save button appears on sections with editable fields.

Show settings are defaults, not rules. Any episode can override its show’s default from the episode editor, and doing so changes only that episode. What happens when you later change the show setting depends on the setting:

• Explicit rating, author and artwork follow the show until an episode sets its own. An episode left on the show’s value picks up your change immediately. An episode where you chose a value keeps it, whatever you do here.
• Default buy-ups, default tier availability and the default credit are applied once, when you create the episode. Changing them here affects new episodes only and never rewrites existing ones.

Set what is true most of the time at the show level, and treat the exceptions as exceptions. That is the fastest way to publish, and it means a change of mind at the show level carries forward to every episode you have not deliberately overridden.

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General

Show Identity

Short description and RSS: Podcast directories display the channel <description> in search results and directory listings — keep it concise and representative. If you leave it blank, listeners will see a stripped version of your full description instead, which may be cut off at an awkward point.

Author

Technical

The feed slug is part of every subscriber’s personal feed URL. Changing it after subscribers exist will break their feeds. Set this carefully before sharing feed URLs with anyone.

ITunes Settings

Enclosure URL prefix goes on the front of every episode’s audio URL, for a measurement service that needs to sit in front of it (Podtrac, OP3, Podscribe) or a CDN redirect. Benecaster warns, without blocking save, if the value doesn’t start with https:// or doesn’t end with /. Because these services expect their own URL form, the episode audio URL’s leading https:// is dropped right after the prefix is joined to it; a leading http:// is left as-is.

The prefix takes effect on every one of the show’s feeds — the public feed and every paid tier — and on <podcast:trailer>, not just the tier you’re looking at when you save. Feeds pick it up the next time they’re compiled. If download tracking is on for an episode, a subscriber’s feed link still points at your site as usual; it’s the redirect from your site to the host that carries the prefix, so the measurement service still counts the download without ever seeing that subscriber’s private link. The prefix has no effect on the website’s own player — only on what goes out in your feeds.

Where Explicit is set: the Feed Settings tab, and only there. The Details tab carries no Explicit checkbox — the Feed Settings select is the single place the show-level value is stored and changed.

The Setup Wizard asks the same question on first run and offers all three options (Clean, Yes, Explicit), so a new show arrives here already set to whatever you chose there.

Any episode can override the show value in either direction from its own Details tab — explicit on a clean show, or clean on an explicit show. See Creating Episodes.

This setting is visible to listeners, not just to podcast apps. Setting the show to Yes or Explicit puts a badge on every one of its episodes on your site — the episode page, archive cards, episode lists, and the player — unless an individual episode overrides it. Setting the show to Clean shows no badge anywhere, which is the intended behaviour: a badge on everything carries no information.

Worth a moment’s thought before you set it, then. A show marked explicit for the sake of two episodes will carry the badge on all of them; the cleaner arrangement is to leave the show clean and mark those two episodes Yes individually.

Episodic vs. Serial: Most podcasts are Episodic — each episode stands alone and the most recent appears first. Serial is for story-based podcasts where listening order matters; some podcast apps present Serial shows differently, encouraging listeners to start from episode 1.

This is a single setting for the whole show — RSS has no way to mark individual episodes as serial. If your show is episodic but some topics run across several episodes, leave it on Episodic and group the arc with Seasons or episode numbering instead. Switching the whole show to Serial for the sake of a few multi-part topics changes how apps present your entire back catalogue, which is rarely what you want.

Advanced

Reference Groups

Reference groups are headings that organize links and resources in the References section of episode pages. Define groups here, then assign references to them from the episode editor.

The groups list shows all defined group names for this show in their current order. Drag rows to reorder — the display order here is the display order on episode pages.

To add a group, click Add group, type the name, and press Enter. To rename or delete a group, hover the row and use the Edit or Delete actions.

Groups can also be added inline without leaving the episode editor — choosing + Add new group… from a reference card’s Group dropdown creates the group immediately and selects it for that card.

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Episode Types

Episode types label your episodes for podcast apps and the iTunes podcast specification. Benecaster provisions four default types when a show is created:

The Episode Types section lists all types configured for this show. Each row shows the label, the slug (short identifier used internally — set at creation and cannot be changed), the iTunes type mapping badge, and the number of episodes using that type.

Adding a type: Click Add episode type, enter a label, and choose the iTunes mapping (full, trailer, or bonus). The slug is generated automatically from the label and cannot be changed after creation.

Editing a type: Click Edit on any row to change the display label or iTunes mapping. The slug is read-only.

Deleting a type: Click Delete to open the delete dialog. Because deleting a type would leave existing episodes without a valid type, you must choose a replacement type before the delete is confirmed. All episodes using the deleted type are reassigned to the replacement automatically. Deletion is blocked when only one type remains.

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Podcasting 2.0

Feed namespace tags for this show. Most of them are covered in Podcasting 2.0 Support; two sit below Host and are worth explaining here because both have a catch.

Medium

What kind of thing this feed is: Podcast, Music, Video, Film, Audiobook, Newsletter, Blog, or Course. The default is “Not set (apps assume Podcast)”.

Leave it alone if you make a podcast. A feed with no medium tag already means “podcast” to every app that reads the spec, so choosing Podcast here adds a tag that says nothing. The field exists for the other seven cases.

Update Frequency

Two inputs. Schedule is free text, up to 128 characters, and it is what listeners actually see — “Every other Tuesday”, “Weekly during term time”. Recurrence rule is optional and machine-readable (RFC 5545, e.g. FREQ=WEEKLY;BYDAY=TU), for apps that want to work out the next expected release themselves.

The Recurrence rule does not work on its own. It is an attribute on a tag whose visible value is the Schedule text, so with Schedule blank there is no tag for it to attach to — and Benecaster discards the rule when you save in that state, rather than storing something the feed can never use. Fill in Schedule first, then add the rule if you want one.

If the show is already marked complete under Feed settings, an extra line appears here explaining that the feed will also announce that no further episodes are coming. That comes from the complete flag you set there — nothing on this tab turns it on, and nothing infers it from a quiet show.

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Subscription

The Subscription tab is where you connect a membership plugin and map its levels to Benecaster feed tiers. It has two parts: the bridge picker at the top, and the tier mapping table below (visible once a bridge is connected).

Bridge Picker

The plugin list always starts with Built-in membership, on every plan and whether or not Stripe or a tier is set up yet. Below it come the membership plugins that are installed and active on your site — not every plugin Benecaster supports. If MemberPress and WooCommerce Subscriptions are both active, both appear. If none is installed, you’ll see Built-in membership followed by the supported plugins with links to their setup guides.

When Built-in membership is selected but not ready, a line beneath the list reads “Built-in membership is selected but not ready — nobody can subscribe until you finish:” with Add your Stripe keys and Create a membership tier links. Each link appears only while that step is outstanding, and the line goes away once both are done. See Built-in Membership.

Selecting a plugin connects the bridge immediately — there is no separate Save button for this step. Benecaster begins listening for subscription events from the selected plugin as soon as you click it.

To disconnect the active bridge, use the Clear bridge selection link below the picker. Existing subscriber tokens are not revoked when you clear — subscribers retain feed access — but Benecaster stops receiving new subscription events from that plugin until a new bridge is selected.

Deactivating the Show’s Connection

This tab also carries Deactivate this show’s license, which severs the link between this show and your Benecaster account. ⚠ Do not confuse it with Clear bridge selection above — clearing the bridge leaves subscribers listening; deactivating stops them.

Deactivating stops subscriber delivery for this show immediately. Their feed URLs return an error, and the audio stops downloading with them — including episodes already sitting in their podcast apps. There is no delay, no cron run and no grace window. Your public feed and your follower feeds keep working.

The confirmation prompt says so: “Deactivate this show? Subscriber feeds stop working until you reconnect.”

Nothing is deleted, and reconnecting restores delivery on the next request, on the same feed URLs. See Deactivating Your Site Connection.

Tier Mapping

Once a bridge is connected, the tier mapping table appears below the bridge picker. The left column lists every subscription level (or plan, or product) from your membership plugin. The right column has a dropdown for each: assign it to a Benecaster tier, or set it to No access to explicitly exclude that level from feed access.

The Add tier field at the bottom of the right column lets you create a new Benecaster tier inline — type a name and press Enter. The new tier is immediately available in all dropdowns on this screen and in episode availability settings.

Click Save when your mapping is complete. The Save button atomically replaces all tier rows — unlinked tiers (tiers with no membership level currently mapped to them) are preserved.

Stale bridge warning: If you switch to a different membership plugin, an amber banner appears on this screen noting that your saved tier mappings reference the previous plugin. Re-save the mapping to clear the warning and sync with the new bridge.

Orphaned level notice: If a membership level that was previously mapped has since been deleted from your membership plugin, a blue info banner lists the affected levels. Their mappings will be removed automatically when you next save.

See Mapping Your Membership Tiers for guidance on common tier configurations and troubleshooting.

Welcome and Feed URL Emails

Below the tier mapping, three switches control whether Benecaster’s own transactional emails send for this show — sent whichever membership plugin handles billing, and each on by default:

A yellow note appears above the Save welcome and feed URL emails button while Welcome or Feed URL reset email is off, naming which subscribers will not be emailed their feed URL (with the follower exemption called out). This section has its own Save button, separate from tier mapping.

Subscriber Billing Emails

Below Welcome and Feed URL Emails, but only when this show’s membership plugin is Built-in Membership — the section is hidden entirely under MemberPress, WooCommerce Subscriptions, Paid Memberships Pro, Restrict Content Pro, or when no bridge is selected, since those payment processors handle their own billing emails. See Built-in Membership Billing Emails for what each of the five switches controls.

Buy-up Defaults

A checkbox list of the show’s active buy-ups. Check any you want new episodes on this show to unlock by default for subscribers already holding that buy-up — tick a few boxes once instead of setting the same buy-ups on every new episode you create.

This is create-time only: it seeds a new episode’s required buy-ups at the moment you create it. Changing the defaults here never rewrites episodes that already exist, and it is not a feed gate on its own — an episode still needs its own access rules for the buy-up requirement to actually apply.

Supporter Wall

The Supporter Wall section appears in the Subscription tab below the subscriber email settings. It controls the public display of opted-in subscribers on your site.

All four settings round-trip through PATCH /shows/{id} and take effect immediately on save.

See Supporter Wall for the full setup guide.

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Visibility

The Visibility tab lets you upload your existing patron lists from Patreon or Supercast. This gives you a picture of how many of your current followers are on each platform before you start a full migration — without sending them anything or counting them against your Benecaster subscriber limit.

Each platform has its own panel. They work independently and can both be populated at the same time.

Why bother uploading at all? Because it turns migration from a guess into a number. Once your patron list is here, your dashboard shows how many of your existing patrons have moved across and how many have not — so you can see progress week by week, know when a migration is effectively finished, and judge whether it is worth the work before you commit to it. Nothing is sent to anyone, nothing counts against your subscriber limit, and your patrons never know it happened.

Patreon Panel

CSV upload — Export your patron list from Patreon’s creator dashboard as a CSV file, then upload it here. Benecaster reads the email column, deduplicates entries, and creates a shadow record for each address. Shadow records appear in your dashboard’s Patreon section as “unlinked” — patrons who have not joined your Benecaster feed yet.

Manual count — If you can’t export a CSV (for example, if your Patreon tier is too low to access exports), enter your current patron count manually. This gives you a ballpark number on the dashboard without per-email records.

Re-uploading a CSV replaces the previous import entirely — it doesn’t merge or append. If you want to refresh your patron list, upload the new CSV and the old records are replaced.

Supercast Panel

Works identically to the Patreon panel. Upload a Supercast subscriber CSV or enter a count manually.

Shadow Records

A shadow record is a placeholder for one imported patron who hasn’t joined Benecaster yet. Uploading a CSV creates one per email address — it exists only so your dashboard can count and track that patron’s migration progress. It is not a subscriber, has no token, and does not appear anywhere subscribers do. You’d use them because they turn “roughly how many patrons do I have” into an actual number you can watch move as people migrate, without sending anyone anything or touching your subscriber limit.

Shadow records are:

• Deleted automatically after 90 days — or when the patron completes their migration, whichever comes first. A nightly job does the clearing out; a developer can change the window with the benecaster_shadow_record_expiry_days filter.
• Not counted against your Benecaster subscriber limit — they are visibility data, not active subscribers
• Not sent any emails — shadow records have no user account and receive nothing from Benecaster
• Preserved for migration — when you’re ready to do a full Patreon or Supercast migration using the Migration Wizard add-on, these records form the starting point for matching existing patrons to new Benecaster accounts

The expiry is deliberate, and worth understanding before you set a longer one. These are email addresses of people who have never interacted with your WordPress site — they came out of a third-party export, and they do not know the records exist. Keeping them past the point where they are useful is holding other people’s contact details for no reason. Your privacy policy should say that you temporarily store imported patron contact data and that it is deleted automatically. If you extend the window, extend that disclosure with it.

Clearing Records

Each panel has a Clear action that removes all shadow records for that platform. This is useful if you’ve completed the full migration and no longer need the patron list. Clearing does not affect any active Benecaster subscribers.

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Tiers

Tiers are the access levels subscribers can have for your show. Each tier gets its own RSS feed URL and its own availability schedule. Tiers are configured via the subscription plugin’s membership levels and mapped in Settings → Subscription.

Each show’s tier list includes:

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Deleting a Show

A show can be deleted from Benecaster → Shows via the show’s context menu. Deletion is permanent and cannot be undone.

Deleting a show frees its slot. Shows count against your plan’s show limit wherever they were created, including on staging sites, so deleting a show you no longer need returns that slot for use elsewhere. If you created test shows while setting up a staging site, delete them before you need the slot in production — see Show Limits and Multi-Site Use.

When deleting via the REST API, pass "confirm": true in the request body. The DELETE endpoint rejects requests without this parameter as a safeguard against accidental deletion.

Deleting a show removes:

• All episodes belonging to that show
• All subscriber tokens for that show
• All tier configuration for that show

Deleting a show does not cancel subscriptions in your membership plugin. If you remove a show, you’ll need to manage those memberships separately to stop billing subscribers.