So if I get a Bronze Membership because I published stories, do i have to pay to keep that up? Or is it permanent? Or...?
Oh! Nevermind, forget my question. I saw the thing. Thanks!
Well, now, having received the announcement, this all makes more sense.
So, other than the policy being put into place prior to being notified (and believe me, I understand technical glitches), I think this is a reasonable shift of policy. Servers cost money, this is a well run site, and worth a minimal cost. And it is very generous in terms of giving memberships to pre-existing authors (I don't know if I have published enough to be considered an author, but I guess I will soon find out). I may upgrade membership just to show support.
Thanks, Lush.
lite erotica is the biggest free story site lush is trying to get more money. I'm sure there's a fat bloke somewhere looking at all the cash rolling in from all you suckers. most of the work done is from volunteers and they make more than enough from adverts the fat bloke is just being greedy .
I honestly think you didn't explore all your options. Sites like Wikipedia (which pride itself on being free to the Internet) use the donation model so it won't force its userbase to pay for what it provides, and I think you could have done the same. There are people who come to this site for the many features you are now going to make payment a requirement, and while some may pay, I don't know if many others will. If anything, you might end up lowering your server load and membership base because you forced many to quit and look elsewhere.
I am just a regular member. When the time comes where lush starts charging, will I automatically be charged? I see regular members aren't allowed to upload pictures. Does this mean that I have to delete all my pictures before the change or I will be charged?
Regarding the new premium library, which I know isn't up yet. What exactly is the criteria for getting your work in there? Do they have to be recommended reads or editor's picks? What exactly? I consider my work is to be at least relatively good, even though I don't have a single RR or EP. If my work can't get in, well, that will be another big disappointment. Not that I want to restrict people from reading my work, it truly is just a matter of principal here.
I fell that we members who were here before the change should be grandfatherd in to the new system with out charge anyone joining after 1/1/2015 are stuck by the new requirements.
I for one have seen a drop in membership since couple of catigories were remove, I was planning on leaving then, but have stuck it out, With this new change came in as a bush whack item with out warning....
member should have been give a warning order befor this was drop on the membership. JMHO
It's only $10.00 for a bronze membership. They have given you a free bronze membership until July.
I cannot even believe you are all crying about a lousy $10.00.
Obviously they are in need to charge. It looks like you either pay or this lovely website might have to shutdown.
If you can't come up with $10.00 then that is really sad.
Go see what else is on the internet. You will never find a website like this. This is top notch. You have top notch stories, a forum, chatting, emailing. I mean this is a really special place.
You all have 6 months to figure out how to buy a bronze membership for $10.00. The ten dollar will cover a whole year for you.
Its almost embarrassing to read these posts. You are crying over $10.00.
You should only see what other websites charge for these exact same things. The other big website that is still free is run horribly. The people there threaten people on their stories. You can't even have your account deleted there. You can only imagine how bad it is run.
I again say I will always support Lush Stories. It is an amazing place. Thanks to all that bring us such high quality website.
Hugs and Licks...
xoxoxo
During the time that I’ve been a member of this site, I’ve made some wonderful friends, and so it pains me to hear about the changes that are being made, however, I guess changes like these are the sign of our times. There are a couple of questions that immediately come to mind. I read in the newsletter the following statement: ‘Existing members who are successfully published on site with us, will be given an unexpiring Bronze Membership from the off (depending on certain criteria - # stories / poems, views, avg. score etc).’ My question is, what about someone like myself that has never published a story, but has co-authored several. Will we qualify for that Bronze rating? I have co-authored four of SueBrasil’s published stories, with more in the works at the moment. Each time that we have done this, I’ve received a letter from the website asking me to confirm that I was a co-author, so I know the site is aware of whom the co-authors are. I’d estimate that approximately 30 – 50% of the content of those stories have been written by me. So far I’ve never felt that I was good enough to match the high standards set by the other authors on this site, however, I am learning, which now brings me to my second question.
Unless I’m misreading the descriptions of the new categories, anyone with only a free membership will be able to receive an online letter (a private message), but they won’t be able to send one. Sometimes, after reading a story and with the idea of trying to learn better ways of writing, I’ve written to the author and asked them why they wrote some part the story the way they did. I’ve even mentioned some way that I might have written it, and asked for their opinion. After these new changes become effective, will I still be able to do this?
Please don’t take away our one great means to communicate with each other, which inspires closer friendship, in turn leading to higher levels of readership. Poking each other through that little black box can go. I’ve always found that method to be restrictive anyway.
I understand how videos and music can use up a lot of valuable bandwidth, so I can’t help but wonder, why on a website that is supposed to be devoted to people that write stories, are these videos even here The same applies to the music that some have on their profile page. Personally, I find it very annoying when I’m looking at their page, to suddenly have some music that I may not even like, come blaring through my speakers. Even the name you chose for this website specifies lushSTORIES and not lushVIDEO or lushMUSIC. There must be many other sites where a person can upload videos or their favorite music. By removing even these two items, wouldn’t this decrease your bandwidth usage by a considerable amount each month?
As far as the chat rooms go, I’m undecided about them, so I’ll leave that topic for someone more knowledgeable to discuss. If you will continue to allow all of us to private message each other, then I don’t see any purpose in allowing personal chat rooms to be set up.
Thanks for providing this space and for allowing me and others to express their thoughts and feelings. That is one of the things that I love about this website.
If you're feeling bored during this Covid-19 epidemic I’d like to suggest
you take a peek at a story I collaborated with SueBrasil, a brilliant author.
It's about a mistake in judgment a lady makes concerning a friend, based
on the hurtful words of someone that only thinks of himself. Will that
conniving person succeed in ruining a beautiful friendship, or will she see
through his lies? It's gradually creeping up towards the 30,000 mark
and we’d love any votes or hearing whatever comments you may wish
to make. It is listed in my profile under ‘FAVOURITES’ as Apologize.
www.lushstories.com/stories/first-time/apologize.aspx 
. 
