# Just started! I have some questions about beeminder **URL:** \ **Category:** Newbee\ **Created:** [December 20, 2023, 3:20am UTC](https://forum.beeminder.com/t/just-started-i-have-some-questions-about-beeminder/11311 "2023-12-20T03:20:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![luke32huijnrrejgge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/6bbea6/32.png) [@luke32huijnrrejgge](https://forum.beeminder.com/u/luke32huijnrrejgge)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2023, 3:20am UTC](https://forum.beeminder.com/t/just-started-i-have-some-questions-about-beeminder/11311/1 "2023-12-20T03:20:55Z")
So just starting out on beeminder (also new to forums so hope i wrote this in right place) I have to change my goals to private in settings, after having made the goal, does that mean for a split second everyone can see my goal? How do I make this more private. Also if im understanding right “pledge cap” is the maximum amount they can charge me right? But are they able to charge me multiple times per day per goal? If I am not able to dispute my charge before it going through, could I still get refunded? ---
**Author:** ![shanaqui](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/forum.beeminder.com/shanaqui/32/3513_2.png) [@shanaqui](https://forum.beeminder.com/u/shanaqui)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2023, 11:01am UTC](https://forum.beeminder.com/t/just-started-i-have-some-questions-about-beeminder/11311/2 "2023-12-20T11:01:01Z")
Hi! Thanks for asking – really helpful to hear about what isn’t clear. Although goals are “public” by default, unless they’re featured in the gallery it’s very unlikely anyone is going to be looking. They’d need to know your username in order to even find your page, and we don’t maintain a list of users that people are likely to be looking through. “Public” goals aren’t absolutely public by default either; e.g. your data tab isn’t visible to people. [More details in the Help Docs!](https://help.beeminder.com/article/102-privacy "It goes through all the options") All the same, you can set it so all your goals are private by default by setting the [new goal defaults](https://help.beeminder.com/article/111-new-goal-defaults "Check out the help page on this") accordingly. The [pledge cap](https://help.beeminder.com/article/22-can-i-limit-how-high-my-pledge-gets "More on this in the Help Docs too!") is the point at which your pledge will stop increasing. So say you set your pledge cap to $30. Your first derailment could be at $5, then the next at $10, then the next at $30… and the next after that would be at $30 too, and the next, and the next, until whenever you stop the goal. As far as multiple times per day per goal goes, nope! We only ever queue up one charge at once, so even if something went wrong, you’d only be charged once. But also deadlines only happen once a day, so it’s unlikely you’d ever derail multiple times in a single day, unless you do something like deleting past data (which tends to break things). If you derailed and [it wasn’t fair for some reason](https://help.beeminder.com/article/16-what-is-a-legit-derailment "Check out our discussion of what counts as legit or not"), you’d just reply to the “legitimacy check email” explaining what happened and why you shouldn’t be charged. You need to do that within 18 hours of the derailment for us to be pretty sure that we’d be able to cancel it (it goes through after 24 hours, and our average reply time is six hours); sometimes we’ll delay the charge to talk things through with you, just to ensure you’re not undermining the point of Beeminder for yourself, etc. If a charge does go through, we are able to do refunds (for up to 30 days afterwards), but it’s better if you can get back to us on time, since refunding costs us money – the service really isn’t designed for people to rely on refunds. (We can also do refunds in our site currency, honey money, which can be used against future derailments or premium payments, so that’s another option we’d talk over with you if the situation arises.) Does that all make sense? Eager to hear if there’s anything that isn’t clear etc. ---
**Author:** ![luke32huijnrrejgge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/6bbea6/32.png) [@luke32huijnrrejgge](https://forum.beeminder.com/u/luke32huijnrrejgge)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2023, 4:11am UTC](https://forum.beeminder.com/t/just-started-i-have-some-questions-about-beeminder/11311/3 "2023-12-21T04:11:04Z")
Hi Nicky! Thanks so much for your message! I appreciate it a lot! So it does sound like you can be charged multiple times, just not more than once per day, with a waiting time as well! A bit busy so just two quick questions I’m confused about! The “initial datapoint of 0 on the 19th” is automatic right? I can just ignore it? And also What is the button at the top? Right after my name and the name of the thing im tracking. I click the button but what is it telling me? Did it change something by clicking it? ---
**Author:** ![byorgey](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/forum.beeminder.com/byorgey/32/70_2.png) [@byorgey](https://forum.beeminder.com/u/byorgey)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2023, 4:16am UTC](https://forum.beeminder.com/t/just-started-i-have-some-questions-about-beeminder/11311/4 "2023-12-21T04:16:30Z")
I assume you’re talking about the button that says “+5” in this image? ![water-cropped](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/uploads/beeminder/original/2X/e/e64fbea92f8c1b42e56d99faf4c2dfc99912e40b.png) Clicking that just toggles what is displayed there: by default it displays the _additional_ amount needed, but if you click it, it switches to showing the _total_ amount needed. Clicking again switches it back. ---
**Author:** ![shanaqui](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/forum.beeminder.com/shanaqui/32/3513_2.png) [@shanaqui](https://forum.beeminder.com/u/shanaqui)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2023, 12:35pm UTC](https://forum.beeminder.com/t/just-started-i-have-some-questions-about-beeminder/11311/5 "2023-12-21T12:35:18Z")
> [@luke32huijnrrejgge](#): > > The “initial datapoint of 0 on the 19th” is automatic right? I can just ignore it? Yep! It’s an automatic placeholder which sets up your graph. You can/should just leave it alone (at the very least, deleting it without having any other data in the goal would cause an error). > [@luke32huijnrrejgge](#): > > What is the button at the top? Right after my name and the name of the thing im tracking. I click the button but what is it telling me? Did it change something by clicking it? I think byorgey’s right on this one, but if there’s any remaining confusion let us know – a screenshot might be helpful if you think we’re barking up the wrong tree with what you’re asking about!