Hey Bassbum60,

Thanks for your post. That's a lot of fair questions and I'll try to answer:



That's essentially how most free-to-access platforms work. The people who use the service most heavily are the ones the cap touches, and a smaller number who choose to subscribe help keep the whole thing running for everyone else.



This is the point that's come up most in this thread, and it's genuinely on my to do list, although I can't at this point give timings. For authors who do want to earn, we have our Earners program which pays commission. Anyone can apply and we encourage authors to do so.



This isn't something we're planning to do. Free reading isn't being phased out — it's the majority of what's on the site and I want it to stay that way.



We've tried advertising in the past but it's just not worked. The mainstream ad networks won't touch us, and in any case they come with tracking, malware and other privacy problems that I'm not willing to put the community through. We've also tried web model banners, but most girls just tend to do this for a bit of extra cash and there isn't enough in it to keep us going. As for porn banners - well we're not a porn site and most have objected quite strongly to this in the past.



This is a fair suggestion, only for the people in this thread it won't change the underlying sticking point: pay-per-page is still paying, just measured differently.

On 'extorting writers' — I want to push back gently there, the cap is on overall platform use, not a toll on any one writer's content.



I'll say this much, because it matters to me personally: I've run this as a free platform for over 20 years, back when there was almost nowhere online for this community to exist at all. So "stop making feederism something you have to be rich to be part of" genuinely lands — because that's a big part of why I built this site and why I'm still here. That's exactly the thing I'm trying to protect, not undo.

Thanks for taking the time to write your comments, it's genuinely more useful than you might think.

Hiccupx

The change we made recently (making the first chapter of every story free), means that it doesn't count towards your viewing limit.

The navigation is the same and hasn't changed, so yes, you have to load the first page to load the chapter drop down, but then you can quickly pick up where you left off. This is the same as it always was.

Sounds like it may not be displaying the thumbnail images for some reason. I'll take another look at it.

Hopefully this has been fixed. Please let me know if you're still having problems.

Thanks for highlighting this important point to us. In response we've made a change - the first chapter of every story is now free to read even if you've hit the daily limit. This allows you to read one chapter stories, and assess longer stories without eating into your daily views. Even if you reach the free viewing limit, you can still search and 'favorite' stories to read the next day.



Premium and free stories do appear in the same listings — but every premium story is marked with a 'coin' icon, so they're easy to spot and easy to skip if you only want free reading. They're not designed to bury free work, and free stories aren't going anywhere.



I won't pretend the site doesn't need revenue, it does, and I'd rather say that plainly than dress it up. But "greed all the way down" isn't quite the whole story: the cap is on heavy use of the platform, not a paywall on free stories, and now the first chapter of everything is free on top of that. I know that distinction can feel academic when you're the one hitting the cap, but it's a real difference.

One more thing, because it came up a lot here: we also fixed a bug where authors were being blocked from reading their own stories — that was wrong, and it's fixed. And the broader point several of you raised, that our most invested writers shouldn't feel this the hardest, is one I've genuinely taken on board. I can't promise specifics or timings, but it's firmly on my list of things to get right. Feedback like this is exactly what shapes those priorities.

I want to answer the fairness question directly, because you've raised a real one.

The limit isn't a charge to read any particular author's story. It's a cap on overall use of the platform — the hosting, indexing, moderation and serving that costs us money to run no matter how a story got here. Free stories are still free; what's metered is how much of the service a reader uses in a day. For authors who do want to earn, our Earners program pays commission, with consent, on subscriptions — so nobody's work is ever sold out from under them.

A few honest things about why it works this way: we can't run advertising given the nature of our content, and unlike a donation-funded non-profit we have staff and authors we actually pay. So the money has to come from somewhere, and we'd rather it come from heavy consumption of the service than from putting individual free stories behind a paywall — which we haven't done and won't.

The overwhelming majority of readers never reach the limit, and it doesn't touch the experience of writing here or having your work read. But I hear the deeper point — that contributors should feel recognised, not metered — and that's the part I'm genuinely looking at.

Hey Ffancy,

I see you've contributed 30 stories over 16 years, and that's a real and meaningful benefit to this community which is genuinely appreciated. It's authors like you are a core reason why readers come here.

Your frustration makes sense to me. You've been giving something to this platform for a long time, and it's fair to feel like that should count for something when a limit like this lands in your lap.

I'm honestly taking this kind of feedback seriously, because the question of how we properly recognise long-term authors is one I want to get right. I can't make promises here in the forum, but this is the kind of conversation that will shape how I think about what contributor recognition going forward.

If you're open to it, I'd love to continue this conversation with you more directly. Please reach out in the PMs.

Hiccupx

Hey, thank you sincerely for your 15 years with us — that kind of loyalty genuinely means a lot.

We want to be transparent: this change only affects around 10-15% of our most active readers — the real power users who are going through 20+ chapters a day. For the vast majority of the community, nothing changes at all.

For those who are hitting the limit, it's actually a sign of how much you love the content here — that's the kind of reading our upgrade is designed to support. The writers creating those hundreds of chapters you've enjoyed over the years are still here, still writing, and helping to keep the lights on for this platform.

The 20-chapter daily limit isn't about restricting casual readers or discouraging people from discovering new stories — it's a way to make sure the platform can keep existing for the next 15 years, not just the last 15. Free access remains available to the overwhelming majority of users.

We genuinely hope you'll stick around, but we understand if you need to take a break. The door is always open.

How can you realistically stop anyone from recording a live stream on any website? Whatever block feature you have, someone can just record the screen on another device. Anyone live streaming would need to be comfortable with being out there.

It's your choice if you want to use it or not. It's completely optional.