I have the same opinion as @Polt, more or less at least. Free script, but support the studio making the video (or find it elsewhere, it isn’t hard to find).
I do this because I mainly script VR and VR videos are still a niche product with only a handful large studios/networks. If studios don’t find it profitable then they will throw in the towel. Since there are so few studios the videos are easy to find.
Flat (2D) porn is another matter though. There is an infinite amount of studios and other sources (OF, compilations, PMV, niche content …) and no clear place where people find the content. I usually don’t use the no-free-links tag for 2D/flat content for that reason.
I only skimmed through all the comments so it might have already been suggested but, for my part, I would suggest simply using a few well-defined tags for all those types of ‘free’ scripts and letting people “mute” those tags if they don’t want to see them.
For example:
Topic in the “Free” section with tag “Teaser” (i.e. a free script for the first part of a three-part JAV scene). If they are identified like that, I wouldn’t mind if they also linked to the paid second and third part on the same topic either.
“Free” with tag “3rd party script provider”.
etc.
I would prefer that instead of creating a new “section” for each case or adding “warning” in the topic title (which couldn’t be easily filtered out).
Seem to me like a valid way to use a “free” Patreon. I can respect that.
As I said in an earlier post, I’m a consumer, not a creator - however I do consider myself a contributor by making scenes available (assuming the post is not tagged as no-free-links). Not everyone can afford site memberships - some of them are expensive. Not everyone has the (technical) ability to download scenes from unofficial sources. I currently have over 200 scenes on a hosting site and I like to think that makes me a type-of contributor by helping people out with scenes they can’t normally find.
We can argue the moral, ethical and legal status of doing such things but that’s not what this thread is about. Piracy has happened since the first audio recording ever and very, very few companies have quit because of it - they just come up with ways to make it more difficult. Bottom line is, I will always respect the poster’s wishes with regards to posting links or not.
As for the discussion about monetizing the scripts, that’s all well and good but what I do actually costs me money and I gain nothing from it, except the appreciation from people who click the links. Just as I appreciate and humbly respect the creators of the scripts.
Had not noticed that… I really don’t pay attention to tags too much. But would still need to be increased to allow a “free-with-redirection” tag or something, assuming the creator wants to populate as many tags as possible.
Allowing scripts to be gatelocked behind some wall is going down a slippery slope for a hub like eroscript. In times to come, majority of the scripters is going to lock their scripts behind another site to grow their membership with sales in mind. We are already starting see more and more posts doing this in the free section. It’s annoying for those of us who want this place to be a central hub instead of having multiple accounts and going to external sites, the moment I see a post required a email signup, I closed it immediately.
There is nothing wrong with wanting to market and sell your scripting services, just don’t force us to go to another place, give away our email to sign up for yet another account to download a script in the name of free. It is not really free isn’t it if I have to spend my time or give away my email?
If your intention is to give away free script with no return, post the script inside the post with the line informing people they can support you by signing up for a free account that I have seen a lot of the veteran scripters are doing. Come to think of it, isn’t it the new comers that started this and then we start getting more people following the trend?
Now surely if you don’t force people to sign up to get your script, nobody is going to sign up and you are not going to be able to grow your own base isn’t it? If you belong to this group of wanting to grow your own group, post it inside the Paid Script with email signup and being a member of your free tier or whatever as the payment.
For those whom are posting about teaser/demo/multi-part JAV scripts there is another topic already made for it in the site feedback section. Here’s a link:
eroscripts is a script sharing site not a video sharing site. i don’t think anyone is obligated to have the accompanying content included in their posts, linking to the original paid links is plenty. and personally, i’ve never had issues finding videos through alternative sources.
Having signed up for some studios, only to have them promptly act scammy and creepy, makes me avoid directly creating accounts on their sites. Then they pretend that they weren’t scammy when they signed me up for other ‘memberships’ as a ‘convenience service for my benefit.’, and that it took calls to several different companies to get fully un-subscribed from all the crap. (Looking at you, Adult Time…)
Too often, they have breaches (Chaturbate) and I have to go a week without my credit card, yet again, because they (or their payment processor in some eastern block country) can’t follow basic PCI standards. I went to CB with the receipts and schedules, and they can’t put 2+2 togeather. (So they don’t get anymore money from me.)
Also: there’s those that make you spend hours fighting with them to cancel your account that’s often worse than canceling a gym membership or a time-share.
The credit card companies don’t make it any easier, either, making the content providers go through crappy and scammy intermediaries.
It’s not just in porn, it’s pervasive through a lot of streaming and other subscription services. See also: Sony.
I’m empathetic to the creators’ dilemma, though they have their own contribution to the problem.
I brought the debate up in here because ultimately one of the problem is the disconnect between scripter and video maker. And your stance being related to VR is understandable, especially since selfhosting VR is pretty unresonable on its own due to storage requirements. But one of the things it doesn’t address one of the potential situations that could occur:
what if the script maker and the video maker are one of the same.
Say a script is released for free, but the video isn’t, that is the only legitimate source is through their chosen method on obtaining said video. Functionally, to the end user, there is no difference had the author just put both behind the paywall and not if acquired legitimately, the difference being that the author gets to post in the free script section instead of the paid one strictly for visibility and advertisement reasons.
It’s why there’s imo a lot of nuance when how things are being defined. and not the biggest fan in the way its polled as the section itself has a plethora of nuances that could be addressed.
I think the rule should go further and mandate that the script be uploaded as a part of the post itself. It’s the simplest way to ensure scripts are easily accessible, if you can see the post you can download the script. Remove middlemen.
You could still supplement it with a link to a fileshare, and/or your alternative platforms. And in the event those external sources fail over time (ahem, MEGA), the script will still be available in the post itself.
If scripters want to provide scripts to the eroscripts community for free, I don’t see a reason why it can’t be included directly in the post.
edit: this is pretty common practice already, just thought it was worth codifying into the rules
I think having a patreon link in your free script post is fine, just add the script to the post here and link to your patreon as well and have the script there too, personally, I don’t wanna do any business with patreon as they have shown themselves to be divisive in the way they arbitrate on the political spectrum. I honestly think patreon is a despicable company.
That doesnt mean that scripters arent allowed to use it, and if its a paid script through patreon that will straight up mean that I will either look for a alternative way to acquire it, or I will just let it be.
I would prefer it be mandatory if you are posting in free scripts that the scripts is posted here ON SITE AT ALL TIMES.
This new rule is not about the video, it is focused on scripters that put their script behind a subscription or sign up wall instead of posting the script right inside the post.
If the source video that Faptap uses goes down then the whole page on Faptap goes down, there’s been a few cases of that over time due to pornhub micro purges. Thus resulting in the script being lost if not uploaded somewhere else.