Is this the new (?) buisness model for scripters. If so it is silly! [+a constructive suggestion for the site admin]

General
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I have been a member of this forum for some time now. I quickly realized when I became a member that I would be a costumer rather than a scripter. In addition to my SLR subscription, I think I have used around 200€ on scripts mainly on GR.

I have used the “Request Script” two times and both times I got some fine (free) scripts from damunkys and ridiculoid.
Yesterday I thought would try my luck a third time. And requested a script for a VR-scene of around 40 mins. Less than a day after @timmaerevoet writes me and we have the following exhange:

[timmaerevoet]

(link to request)

I can do it for 60€ if you want
…
[me]

I usually pay 2-6€ on GR which I think is fair (and I got safety in the transaction).

Another thing is quality: If I buy a script for 4$ and it is bad, I can live with it. If i buy something from you for 60€ and it is a 40 min stochastic up-and-down-fest, I am just a fool. And when I look at your portefolio I see no indications that a 40 min script from you would be worth that much (some of the more seasoned scripters, who has some longer scripts might spark my interest, but still…60€??).

When I request a script my (very small) contribution to the community is to point to a video/scene that I think is good. If a scripter is the first to do a good scene. I am happy to pay what I usually do, and hope that the scripter makes som money because it is a good scene.

I think your offer is curious. And I plan on getting a general opinion about it. Is it ok if I tag you In a general discussion about this kind of offer?
…
[timmaerevoet]
Hi Seraph, off course you can tag me and make a general discussion about it.
If you are interested in my scripts you can see them here: [https://discuss.eroscripts.com/t/piano-scripter-script-index-scripts/82025/90 ](https://discuss.eroscripts.com/t/piano-scripter-script-index-scripts/82025/90 ](https://discuss.eroscripts.com/t/piano-scripter-script-index-scripts/82025/90))

I don’t know where you could see or not a see that a 40min. script from me is worth it. Its a good question but I guess because I have a lot of customers that order more then 1 script from me they will appreciate it.

The price for a requested script is just higher because it needs to be made on request. The price on gumroad is lower because the return on investment is easier.
It takes a lot of time to make a quality script so thats the reason behind the price calculation. I guess I’m still cheap for the quality I make in comparison to others.

Tx for the response
…End

[I included the full convo to be fair to timmavoet]

My point is really in the conversation. As a costumer it is a big amount of money to spend on something you dont know the quality of from someone you dont know (yes I get theres a list of scripts, but nothing in my “top preferance department” so to speak. And I would have to believe the 40 min script I paid for would match the quality of the listed items).

I get that as a scripter you want to get paid, but I guess (?) that most people are not willing to pay such an amount on such a insecure basis. So I think this is also bad for business.

My suggestion is to add another button to the current voting system: The “I- would-PAY-a-reasonable amount for the script”- button. I know that it would be both inaccurate (and exploitable in theory) but at least it could give the scripters some idea if making a certain script will be worth it.

Sorry for the long post. And sorry if this suggestion have been brougth up before and deemed stupid :slight_smile:

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at the moment, I’m trying to do something similar in my discord channel

there are not many participants here yet and orders are fully paid by one person, but in the future it may become a platform for general orders

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I’m also a fan of a request script and willing to pay for it thread.
For me it is not necessary to post all our conversations . It’s ok to mention me like I said.

For me it just sounds that you want a separate category ? Am I right ?

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I don’t know about this, but there is a tag that scripters can set on their script index page in the Script Collections category (commissions-open). The tag is there so if someone want to pay for having a specific video scripted then that person can contact one of these scripters. Their existing script catalog should serve as a reference of the quality of their work.

There is (was?) a discord channel called script-poolers that made scripts on commission. I don’t know if it is still active. Anyways, a number of people could pool money for having a script made. The price was mainly dependent on length but complexity could also affect the price, which often ended up around $100 for a standard VR video script. 60€ is not extreme in that sense. Of course it is much more than buying an already made script for $4. However, creating a script on commission might not be a script that can be sold to any extent so the requestor has to pay for the time. Being able to sell it and get additional income is a bonus for the scripter I guess. Several factors affect how well a script sell. Older videos are not as popular compared to new ones, the actresses might not be popular, the theme of the video might not be to everybodys taste (BDSM, PMV etc.) and so on.

BTW, this thread should probably be moved to the site feedback category if you see the all this as a suggestion for change.

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Might be a regional thing, but stuff where I live is expensive. Calling a plumber out for a basic service call costs me well over $125 for less than an hour of work. 40 mins of scripting probably takes a few hours. Buying scripts that already exist, you’re absolutely right that $3-6 or whatever is a fair rate. Commissioning a custom script is gonna cost more. I’ve tried scripting myself, and fuuuuck that. Paying someone $60 will easily save me hours of my life.

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As a customer, with that price tag I might as well pay some more and get the real thing :rofl:

In all seriousness, I think that’s one of the reasons why I don’t take commission jobs for scripts, I’d have to ask a lot to make it worth and I don’t feel comfortable doing that.

I don’t want to disclose how much it takes me to script a scene that long, but believe me, it’s hell of a lot more than a few hours for 40 minutes of footage. And that’s not even considering the revision and testing.

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Yeah, I understand someone charging umm a pretty penny for a private script. You WiLL SPEND HOURS on a longer video. So if it’s gonna be a private commission it’s pretty much like paying a contractor. If the script is gonna be for public release with the possibility of multiple sources purchasing said product then it stands to reason the price could be a bit cheaper. There is one - very talented scripter - on here who does commissions by the hour and requests minim wage per hour. Which I. My opinion is fine. I understand both sides of the coin. - my recommendation, there a scripters on here with patreon and they hold polls for their next script release. Might be worth it to join one and try to get your video noticed by the scripter

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There are a lot of good points here and I will get back to them later. But I will just make one remark.

I am not questioning either how long it takes to make a script or denying that people should get paid for their work. Some of you seem to misunderstand it that way (I am however sayingt that I will commision a script for that price…but there is a difference)

What I am saying is this.

Since it takes more money to commision a script (good for you who can afford it ;- ) it is more urgent to be able to appraise a scripter. It is a problem to appraise a scripter from a list of scripts (In my case i am inquiring about a 40 min vr scene. From the list of the seller i get that his creative process is different from others and I see no vr and mostly shorter stuff….but I don’t know if it matters. Aaand my only way of “testing” a script is Hard-on-testing it where I need something that excites me.) I do not have the technical insight that a scripter would have to analyze scripts either. That makes me want to be able to share the risk/cost with others. And perhaps there would be more “comissioned” scripts that way.

And then I am trying to figure out if the cost/risk could be spread in a crowdfunding-like way. And since the site is not handling monetary transactions. Just suggest a button where people could indicate that they would be willing to pay or perhaps a section where it would be possible to spread the cost.

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I just want a way to spread the cost/risk by making it visible for the scripter that it is worth the effort.

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i can see where some of the pensiveness comes from, hard to gauge that a scripter will be good enough to pay that high of a price.

the dozen or so private requests ive gotten have all offered X amount of money for a script in the request itself, so in the future id throw out an amount you’d be willing to pay. if they go higher than you’re willing to pay for, simple: politely decline and try asking another scripter. everyone has their price. I will also agree that 60€ is a little nuts for a 40 minute script, but i’m not sure what the average take is when selling through SLR, so maybe it’s normal. the most ive been offered (for a 2D 30 minute video) was $40.

i’ve had to decline a couple requests just due to my personal work load, i work 7-5 monday to friday and i’m tired the rest of the time, so most of the time i’ll just throw out a script for a short animation here and there, with the occasional full video.

So i’m not sure adding another feature to the site will fix your issue, i think simply putting up a request post with a bounty on it is sufficient, then see if you get any offers. if not, there’s thousands of other scripts to enjoy. (or, its very easy to learn)

Y_D :dragon:

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Thanks thats what I will do if a more schematized model does not become availables: But can scripters not see that this might get them more jobs?

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Already a community that exists for this type of thing. It has died down tremendously but at one point a lot of posted scripts came from that discord community.

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I think it’s just a business model difference. If you create a script and sell it to many people, you have more economies of scale and can charge less. If you’re creating a script just for 1 person’s request, then it makes sense to charge more, especially if it is a less mass appealing script/video.

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At the gumroad site there is a way to rate the script. So that way it’s a bit more visible if the scripts where worth it

https://discuss.eroscripts.com/t/piano-scripter-script-index-scripts/82025/90

Example 5 star feedback

But I guess not many people give feedback

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This was exactly the idea behind the script-poolers Discord. Scripters had to pass quality control checks by the admins to be able to accept commissions. Members would post requests, and how much they would contibute (minimum $10). If the price rose high enough, a scripter would take the commision, everyone would pay their pledged amount, and receive a script. Good way to share the risk and the cost.

But - that group is mostly dead. The first problem was that scripters weren’t taking many commissions for less than $150 or so, and there weren’t enough members with similar tastes to bid them that high. The second problem is that they pretty much wouldn’t take anything that wasn’t on SLR, because they wanted to sell their scripts there as well. Since SLR opened their scripting up to anyone now, a lot of them just went to the SLR market directly and drifted away from commissions.

It’s really a shame, as I like the community a lot. It was frustrating, though, to have a non-SLR scene bid up to $180 - 200 and still have no one take it. By the end (when there were only a few buyers left), I was bidding $50+ on scenes by myself and still couldn’t get other bidders to help or scripters to take it.

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We will be releasing AI scripting service for user uploaded videos. That thing is getting incredibly good AI scripts - we nailed it 🔥

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Anywhere where you can request an automated script for a SLR - hosted scene?

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A button like that would be good but Eroscripts is built on a standard forum platform (Discourse) - not sure it’s possible to turn on a feature like that.

What would be really neat is a community site like this combined with something like faptap.net where you could download, run, request, upload and discuss scripts and scripting, but also add script reviews. An all-in-one funscript site made for funscripts instead of combining sites like eroscripts, faptap, mega, gumroad and others.

One step towards something better than today could be to add script reviews, script requests and more forum features to faptap (which is custom built, made for funscripts). Not sure if this is something @Faptap is thinking about.

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I believe ES should remain the one stop for scripting and download free scripts. Let FapTap, SLR etc. do their thing regarding video/script playback, marketplace etc. I’m a firm believer of “one size fits none” (since one size fits all is almost always not true). I understand your point but I don’t believe in the idea for several reasons.

Feedback is rarely given even if the scripter explicitly asks for it so I don’t believe in reviews for that reason and there already is a script request section (although no mechanism for commissions).

The tricky part is that this site is not earning money in anyway (no ads etc.). Before the patron support hugecat paid for the site out of his own pocket. More features added to the sites purpose will increase traffic making it more costly to run. You could of course make the site more commercial, but many wouldn’t like that. You could argue that SLR already is that for VR scripts.

I believe the need for Gumroad is a direct consequence of the credit card monopoly where Visa and Mastercard (and thereby also PayPal) dictate their rules based on a (for me) very strange policy. You can buy alcohol, legal drugs, weapons etc. but not a script in the form of a text file since it is for use with legal adult content. It becomes even more strange when the credit card companies have no issues with having a company like Epoch as a middle man (taking a big cut) to enable transactions anyway. I really don’t get it.

In the early days of scripting there was a script marketplace called SyncArmy which was a lot like RealSync with the difference that they could use PayPal (and probably credit cards as well, I don’t remember) at that time. It operated beside the older RTS forum, the predecessor to ES, with posts like our paid scripts section posts. It was easy to buy and all paid scripts were in one place, but the world has changed with Visa, Mastercard and PayPal policy changes.

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I wouldn’t recommend the AI scripts, at all. The comments on the thread he linked are mostly, “No, you certainly did not.” One of his staff even stated in the thread that the AI scripts would not pass quality control if a human submitted them - yet they are selling them right alongside scripts offerred for the same video by hard-working humans. They are not even as good as the Handy company’s auto generated scripts, but these companies keep pushing them since they cost nothing to make.

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