HolisticNiss

I probably should have given it more thought before I created everything on squarespace but alas I did not.
I built out my whole 3 month program on it and I love how it looks and functions and I'd hate to move it now.  I'm going to give it another couple of rounds to see how essential some of those missing pieces turn out to be and to see what squarespace ends up doing.
 
My monthly membership however is really best kept on my site because it's basically a content library and won't require much interaction with the members.  It's a homepage and then a blog filled with exclusive content, audio, video etc...

Thanks Paul. I have seen your post, and I made sure to read it carefully before submitting my long long long list of requests to Squarespace.  Of course, I'm one person, but hey, you never know who else might need what I'm asking for.  
Here's my laundry list of requests if you're curious and if you'd like to share with them also since you probably have more clout than I do.  I know it's not likely they'll get to all of this stuff anytime soon, but it was worth asking.
I'm really hoping they improve things further as I'm attached to the idea of keeping my member area under my site, so I have all things under one roof.
 
Courses & Programs that run for a limited time
For context, I've recently launched an online group coaching program. I will be running this 3 times a year.  They access the content for self-study and refer to the event calendar for group coaching sessions and links to live calls.
Right now anyone who signs up gets instant access to the member area.  
This is problematic for a few reasons:
1) I can not approve or deny members before payment is finalized and they are granted access (while it's not a necessity for all member areas, this needs to be an option)
2) I must remove members manually once the program ends
3) I can not start selling my next round of coaching while I'm currently running a round, because they would gain instant access to the current round.
An easy fix for the above would be to allow us to set multiple start and end dates for the program so that we can open up registration x times a year and each time, whoever registers will only be granted access for the round they registered for and not instant and ongoing access.

4) I can not offer members an opportunity to join a second round of coaching unless I remove them and ask them to sign up again.  
I need a way to be able to accept payment from them at a discounted rate to continue having access to the program after the initial expiry date...i.e. if they want to stay on and participate in the next round.
 
Member Approval
I can not approve or deny members before payment is finalized and they are granted access.  
It's important to be able to add an optional member approval process.  It will be useful for some types of memberships but not all.
 

Program Terms & Conditions and Disclaimers
As a coach, I need coaching clients to read and accept program terms and conditions and a disclaimer prior to starting a coaching relationship.  
Right now, they purchase the program and then I have a form that I ask them to sign once they are inside.
This isn't ideal and I need an option to do this on sign up.  This needs to be customizable for each member area (i.e. not one standard terms and conditions for all member areas)
 
Membership Site Admin Access
It's important to be able to manage adding and removing members on the back end.
I know I can remove members, but I need to be able to add myself and my collaborators to the member area as administrators.  
Right now the only way to do that is for us to sign up for a membership.  
Not only does this skew the analytics and data, but also, requires us to pay for the membership unless we use a discount code for 100% off.  
I've been using the discount code workaround, but as of yesterday, this feature is broken and your customer care has said they don't know when it will be fixed.  (update it's now fixed but if it ever breaks again, it's an issue)
So I now have no way of adding people to the member area for free unless they pay and I refund them, but obviously that's messy, inconvenient and costly considering transaction fees.   
They suggested I make the member area free to sign up for it myself, and have other collaborators sign up, but obviously this is messy as well, as it will allow anyone to sign up for free in that time frame.
 

Member Management
- ability to update member info (by member or admin....i.e. there's a typo in an email address) without having to cancel and recreate the account and sign up for a new one
- ability to communicate with members through their customer account (like a message box where they can write to you and you can respond and vice versa)
- notifications/updates section under customer account so that when members log in, they can see a summary of any updates, additions, and new content that's been added to the member area (i.e. a new lesson has been added, a comment has been posted, etc...)
 
Recurring Payments
As cost of doing business rises, it may be necessary to increase prices.  It would be useful to allow recurring fees to increase accordingly, with a mandatory notification process to members, in advance of renewal, to allow them to confirm or deny the new price.
It would also be useful to be able to issue temporary discounts or free months to existing clients/members as a thank you for referrals, loyalty, etc...
Currently, recurring payments are fixed and the only way to apply a new price is to have the member cancel and sign up again.  
Not ideal for any business for obvious reasons among which it's messy, unprofessional and results in revenue loss.
 

Member Area Overlap
Member Area content cannot overlap and members cannot ‘upgrade’ or 'downgrade' and we can't grant access to member areas manually....i.e i'd like to give my coaching program participants free access to my monthly membership while they are in the coaching program but I can not do this unless I give them a 100% discount and then remove them manually after the time has run out and then ask them to sign up again...messy and likely to result in revenue losses.
It would be useful to:
1) allow members to sign up for multiple member areas at once, for a special package price
2) allow them to "preview" all member areas and easily add a member area and pay for it, from within their customer account
3) allow upsells to other member areas or other services.  For example, when they sign up for a group coaching program they are presented with an opportunity to add one on one coaching packages.
 

Member Area Community Forum or Message Board
- It would be useful to have a community forum or message board that is unique to each member area and that allows members to interact with each other.  
As a workaround, I'm currently using a blog for my lessons and each has a comment section underneath it, but it's not ideal.
A dedicated community forum, where we can tag members and lessons (blog posts) would be ideal.

 
 

I share your pain. Member Areas is nearly there, but right now there are a number of missing features. I've discussed these at length with the relevant teams but, as you'll see in my post, many remain.
I don't mention pre-selling in the post as this isn't something that came up in user interviews, but I see the issue for you. The only workaround that I can think of is to sell the next cohort as a Digital or Service Product in Squarespace Commerce so that anyone can buy it now and then gain access to the Member Area when it is available using a page password to sign up. A 100% discount code should prevent them having to pay again.
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For online discount codes to have real value, the functionality of having the code be a one-time use must be available. I understand that that is possible, but only if I pay an addition $25 a month?!? Other platforms offer this functionality for free. Without setting the functionality to one-time use, there really isn't much different than just putting an item on sale. 

I am a small business, and I would like to reward my customers with a coupon occasionally for free products to help build brand loyalty, but this is not an option because I have to pinch every penny as I try to grow my business, so another $25 a month is really not an option for me. 

I don't understand why Squarespace can't put limit amounts to the usage and only charge if a certain threshold is crossed. Putting this functionality behind a high-cost wall seems like it is just greed in a time when large companies are making record profits and small businesses struggle.