Would you pay a subscription to Literotica if it led to better service?

[EmilyMiller]

The argument that is always put to anyone with any issue with the site is, “It’s a free site, ask for a refund.” The obvious rejoinder is, “But they are running a business.”

But… putting out money where our mouths are, would you consider paying a subscription to Literotica if it led to better conditions for authors?

 

[SamanthaBehgs]

The argument that is always put to anyone with any issue with the site is, “It’s a free site, ask for a refund.” The obvious rejoinder is, “But they are running a business.”

But… putting out money where our mouths are, would you consider paying a subscription to Literotica if it led to better conditions for authors?

I cannot, but I would also be willing to accept that I'd get lower priority/worse service if such a model was put into place at the same time, if that makes sense?

 

[AchtungNight]

Having contributed 80+ stories here and having been a visitor since 1998, not unless it was mandatory to pay to keep coming.

 

[EmilyMiller]

Subsidiary question: what ‘premium’ services would you like to see included in the Literotica+ package?

 

[RoyalAuthor]

They'd have to provide something to authors, or it would rub me the wrong way - not money, obviously, but maybe free premium features that would otherwise be locked to all currently producing authors and all who reached a certain threshold number of works for the life of the account?

As to what those features are, early access to stories (two-tiered releases, maybe split by a few days)? Not sure off the top of my head what else would make sense.

 

[iwatchus]

As a writer, any premium plan for readers is bad. It would eventually reduce the number of readers.

As a writer, I can imagine a premium plan plan for writers that included better metrics, the ability to respond to comments directly. And maybe a guaranteed maximum time in pending

 

[RoyalAuthor]

As a writer, any premium plan for readers is bad. It would eventually reduce the number of readers.

As a writer, I can imagine a premium plan plan for writers that included better metrics, the ability to respond to comments directly. And maybe a guaranteed maximum time in pending

Yeah, I'm on board with that. Wouldn't pay much, because we are the ones providing the product, but I'd consider a few bucks a month for better metrics and priority review.

 

[EmilyMiller]

As to what those features are

1. Editing of published stories without the resubmit process
2. Threaded comments
3. Accelerated submission approval
4. Statistical analysis of vote patterns to mitigate rating suppression
5. Literotica concierge available to help you out with 24 hours of raising a problem

 

[SamanthaBehgs]

The ability to delete your own stories? Faster processing times for edits? And I love @iwatchus 's thought about responding directly to comments.

 

[EmilyMiller]

As a writer, any premium plan for readers

Not for readers, I assume free as now. I mean for authors.

 

[NuclearFairy]

I'm sure I'm not the only one who wouldn't find it in my budget, and I'm sure there are at least as many out there who would not dare to have it show up in their payment histories.

 

[MelissaBaby]

The argument that is always put to anyone with any issue with the site is, “It’s a free site, ask for a refund.” The obvious rejoinder is, “But they are running a business.”

But… putting out money where our mouths are, would you consider paying a subscription to Literotica if it led to better conditions for authors?

If Lit charged readers, then "better conditions for authors" would have to include getting paid.

 

[TheNovelist2000]

Bad idea. Now you’re telling me we not only have to produce the content the site sells, but also pay to do it? This model is backwards. Normally, large sites share their ad revenue with content creators rather than charge them. Don’t give them ideas. If they want to improve the quality of the site, Laurel and Manu need to run the business better. I can’t imagine why a site this popular can’t make enough money to hire a few staff.

 

[EmilyMiller]

If Lit charged readers

To clarify again, I mean author subscriptions, not reader ones.

 

[EmilyMiller]

I'm sure I'm not the only one who wouldn't find it in my budget, and I'm sure there are at least as many out there who would not dare to have it show up in their payment histories.

I’m not suggesting it as mandatory, a free option would get you pretty much what you get now. But if other things matter to an author, and they had the funds, they could pay fo them.

 

[KittyOfSteele]

1. Editing of published stories without the resubmit process
2. Threaded comments
3. Accelerated submission approval
4. Statistical analysis of vote patterns to mitigate rating suppression
5. Literotica concierge available to help you out with 24 hours of raising a problem

IIRC even Wattpad allows the editing of published stories without resubmitting them, and you don't have to pay a dime for it. Speaking of Wattpad, they also feature comments on specific excerpts in a similar vein on how Soundcloud features comments at certain timestamps of the audio. Threaded comments are already mainstream on plenty websites, including some XenForo forums that have plugins that turn user profiles into something similar to Xitter profiles, so having them behind a paywall makes no sense.

I don't like this. I know this is pure speculation, but the last three features make it so that Literotica becomes a Pay2Win game. Besides, a paid subscription to publish stuff for free? That's more like a scam with extra steps. I'd rather stop publishing here and go to Substack and take a shot of making money out of it, even though Stripe could stop doing business with me because I'm doing erotica.

 

[EmilyMiller]

IIRC even Wattpad allows the editing of published stories without resubmitting them, and you don't have to pay a dime for it. Speaking of Wattpad, they also feature comments on specific excerpts in a similar vein on how Soundcloud features comments at certain timestamps of the audio. Threaded comments are already mainstream on plenty websites, including some XenForo forums that have plugins that turn user profiles into something similar to Xitter profiles, so having them behind a paywall makes no sense.

I realize we are talking about dragging Literotica into the 1990s here.

I don't like this. I know this is pure speculation, but the last three features make it so that Literotica becomes a Pay2Win game. Besides, a paid subscription to publish stuff for free? That's more like a scam with extra steps. I'd rather stop publishing here and go to Substack and take a shot of making money out of it, even though Stripe could stop doing business with me because I'm doing erotica.

It’s a thought experiment. I can’t see it we’ve happening. And I cant see a bifurcated code base to support it. But it’s interesting to think about what is important.

I was reading recently about car manufacturers stopping supporting Car Play and instead beginning to offer the same things under a subscription model. So, pay X, if you want SatNav, pay Y if you want music, pay Z if you want to get messages read to you.

 

[KittyOfSteele]

I realize we are talking about dragging Literotica into the 1990s here.

It’s a thought experiment. I can’t see it we’ve happening. And I cant see a bifurcated code base to support it. But it’s interesting to think about what is important.

I was reading recently about car manufacturers stopping supporting Car Play and instead beginning to offer the same things under a subscription model. So, pay X, if you want SatNav, pay Y if you want music, pay Z if you want to get messages read to you.

I'd rather pass.

 

[Justplainjeff]

The argument that is always put to anyone with any issue with the site is, “It’s a free site, ask for a refund.” The obvious rejoinder is, “But they are running a business.”

But… putting out money where our mouths are, would you consider paying a subscription to Literotica if it led to better conditions for authors?

Not a chance. Laurel & Manu make enough money from all the businesses on this site. I'd love to ask some of them what their service is like.

 

[iwatchus]

1. Editing of published stories without the resubmit process

This will never happen. We all know that people would use this to put up stories that weren't acceptable according to the guidelines. Are you willing to have straight rape and child porn on here with your stories?

 

[MelissaBaby]

1. Editing of published stories without the resubmit process
2. Threaded comments
3. Accelerated submission approval
4. Statistical analysis of vote patterns to mitigate rating suppression
5. Literotica concierge available to help you out with 24 hours of raising a problem

To clarify again, I mean author subscriptions, not reader ones.

Okay. From your list of perks, the only one I would care much about is author editing without resubmission, and I don't consider it worth paying for.

 

[iwatchus]

Not a chance. Laurel & Manu make enough money from all the businesses on this site. I'd love to ask some of them what their service is like.

Do you actually have any idea how much they make? Or is this just anger over other issues coming through?

 

[MelissaBaby]

This will never happen. We all know that people would use this to put up stories that weren't acceptable according to the guidelines. Are you willing to have straight rape and child porn on here with your stories?

When this has been proposed in the past, it has usually been as an earned privilege for authors with long track records.

 

[iwatchus]

As a novice writer, the painful edits were actually good for me. It forced me to be a better proofreader.

 

[EmilyMiller]

Are you willing to have straight rape and child porn on here with your stories?

That’s a very extreme POV. And we have both already BTW. If you are signed up for this and abuse it, lifetime ban and all stories deleted with no recompense.

And TBH, I don’t mind if you have to resubmit, so long as they give you editable text and the edit gets processed as quickly as the original.