In 2025, Patreon focused on maintaining features for its millions of users while overhauling its infrastructure. Their Year in Review highlights 12 projects that emphasize architectural changes, data model refactoring, and consistency trade-offs in distributed systems. Key strategies included defensive migrations, decoupling data relationships, and improving analytics through a new transformation layer.

This article discusses the challenges and strategies involved in deprecating obsolete software systems. It emphasizes the importance of planning for deprecation from the start and the costs associated with maintaining outdated systems. The piece also touches on emotional resistance to deprecation and the need for careful management of the process.