Webnovel.Forum

Lightnovel71 Ransom is defined as "a sum of money or other payment demanded or paid for the release of a prisoner (noun) or "obtain the release of (a prisoner) by making a payment demanded (verb)". Unless you are claming that chapters are prisoners, which makes no sense, the author is not holding chapters back for ransom.

Lightnovel71 Something won’t be given up until payment is made.

Obviously? Are you actually complaining about having to pay for a product? Otherwise you might as well complain that every single service or commercial industry is ransoming customers. That boxed sushi or bottled water is already packed there inside the counter, but you can't just take it until you pay for it. So the supermarket is holding its products ransom? The book is already published, but you can't just take it out of the bookstore and open the plastic wrap unless you pay for it. Is the bookstore holding all its books ransom then? Amazon has a warehouse where all its merchandise are stored but they won't deliver them to you until you pay for them. Is Amazon holding all of its wares ransom then? When games are released on Steam, you don't get them until you purchase them (by the way, some games cost a bit more if you decide to buy early access). Is Steam holding the games ransom?

So unless you are accusing the whole capitalist world of holding their products ransom, which makes no sense, no, nothing is being held as ransom. The chapters, like everything else, is a product that the author labored to produce. Of course he is demanding payment in return for you reading something he spent hours of labor to create. Early access is another form of service. Is it stupid? Maybe. But some authors actually do spend extra hours of overtime ensuring you get extra chapters ahead of time, and they are just requesting that you pay a bit extra for that overtime, or you could just wait like everyone else and read them when they upload the next chapter.

Accusing authors of holding their chapters ransom is either 1. you are accusing them of committing a crime or doing something unethically or 2. you are implying that you don't want to pay for early access. Early access is still a form of service or product. So if the author requests that you pay for it, he is in every right to do so. Yes, it sucks, but it's not unethical or a crime. He has to make a living, like every other service provider in the world. And if he fails to produce regular updates, which leads to the scenario where you're stuck waiting forever because you refuse to pay for privilege, the problem is not him holding chapters ransom but him simply being lazy and irresponsible. That's a different ethical problem, not unless you march into a bookstore and start yelling at the poor cashier for refusing to give you a book without paying for it.

Oh, and if you're going to complain that "I am willing to pay for it! This is a case where the book is for sale, but they refuse to sell me unless I pay extra! Therefore it's ransom!" Then probably a better analogy is membership subscription. Bookstores sometimes have memberships or clubs, so certain titles or books are sold only to members (some of which are early access, so they get sold to non-members maybe a few months later). You want to buy a specific book? Then sign up for membership and pay a yearly fee before you get acccess to it. Amazon Prime does the same thing - there are certain products only available to Amazon Prime members (who pay a yearly fee) that are not accessible to regular Amazon customers. So unless you are going to call membership services holding member-specific products ransom or a criminal activity, that doesn't make sense. These customers actually pay extra yearly, so they are entitled to certain things like early access to the latest Iphone, or early access to a book by some obscure author. The good news, fortunately, is that these retail giants usually have responsible producers and authors that don't just disappear off the Internet and stop updating their products and therefore leave you hanging like some of the Privilege authors do here. The thing is that privilege readers pay more. They pay extra monthly, more than you do. Therefore they are entitled to extra services, and one of those extra services is Early Access. Otherwise why would they bother paying extra? Don't you think it is unfair to the readers who pay more if you demand that everyone gets the chapters at the same time? Shouldn't the responsibility fall on the author to ensure he maintains a consistent release schedule instead of just disappearing and slacking off?

Lightnovel71 I literally gave you an example of early access - games on Steam. So yes, other industries do. I also gave you an example of certain bookstores that sell their books on early access to members who pay a yearly subscription fee. So yeah, the bookstore has the books up on display, but unless you sign up for membership, you can't buy those books and have to wait for a couple of months. I also gave you Amazon Prime as an example - early access to Iphone 8, for example, for members of Amazon Prime as opposed to non-Prime.

I didn't even mention Patreon, which is what the Privilege system is based off on in the first place. The only difference is that you don't pay twice on Patreon. Yeah, paying twice is stupid, but Privilege works more like a membership fee like Amazon Prime or the bookstore membership I mentioned above (the Book Club being one example) where you pay a yearly subscription, and then you pay for the actual product or book that you want to buy early.

So yes, there are industries that charge you extra to play a game earlier, or read a book earlier than everyone else. I literally gave you examples.

Is it bad? Probably. Do you have every right to hate it? Yeah. Is Webnovel the only one doing it? Hell, no.

I'm not arguing for the sake of it, pal. You are the one going off accusing writers of holding chapters for ransom. You are the one implying that we are unethical or greedy. We are not. Obviously I'm going to challenge that accusation. Or did you think writers are going to take such an accusation lying down? Don't get me wrong, I don't approve of what writers such as MyLittleBrother are doing, but there are plenty of other writers who aren't irresponsible or lazy. Of course they want to make a bit of extra money, and providing a service like Early Access helps them do so, while allowing readers who can't afford to pay extra to have an alternative path of waiting. It has been done on Patreon. They are not holding chapters for ransom, they are finding ways to reward readers who pay extra.

KoolAid I also just want you to know that I don't care what you think either.

By the way, I'm not whiteknighting for Webnovel, I'm defending the writers who are using this system, especially since I'm a fan of their works. They stand to benefit from Privilege, probably more so than Webnovel itself. Not that you care, because you only want people to agree with you. Apparently because it seems that you don't believe anyone appreciates being told the truth, or the other side of the story. People only appreciate having an echo chamber where they can gather together to bash something or someone they hate, eh?