What is the uncle button?

When your goal is in the red, you can choose to "cry uncle" in order to stop getting reminders and just get the derailment straight away. When you do so, the charge goes through right away, and is non-refundable.

How do I use the uncle button?

First, your goal has to be due today. You can't use the uncle button if the goal isn't due.

Then you can go to the Stop/Pause tab, and under the "Cry Uncle!" section, you'll see the "Uncle!" button:

The "Cry Uncle!" section. The text says: "The uncle button is equivalent to ignoring the goal until it derails, except that Beeminder will stop sending you increasingly frantic notifications about it." There's a button to press which says "Uncle!"
If you click on the "Uncle!" button, you'll see a confirmation popup. You need to read this and enter the text specified in the popup in order to cry uncle.

The "Uncle Button" confirmation popup. It says: "You've really gotta read this! Press this button to be charged $5 immediately, derail the goal, and get your post-derail respite. Warning: no takebacks. That means no undo, no legit checks, and no refunds when you press this button! We want to make sure that you actually read all the words in this box and grok the purpose of this button. So you will type 'charge me $5' into the box below." Below that text is a box with the grayed out prompt text "Say the magic words...". Below, a "Do it!" button will light up once you've entered text, and there's also a cancel button.

When you type in the text and press "Do it!" to confirm, your goal will immediately derail and charge you, give you your post-derail respite, and you'll stop getting reminders for the current deadline. You won't receive an email notification about the charge, and you can't dispute it since you chose to derail immediately.

If you want to be able to call non-legit on the charge, you shouldn't use the Uncle button, but instead wait for the goal to derail and then respond to the legitimacy check like usual.


Keywords: crying uncle, getting charged right away, uncle button

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