A collector's view on Premium Editions
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@alexchaplinskikh said in A collector's view on Premium Editions:
@crimson-wise Wow... That sounds even worse than I thought... I guess I'm not buying the printed books for sure now. The wording is a bit weird, but if I understand it correctly those physical editions may have bonus content different from any other editions. I really hope this doesn't turn into the retail exclusive bullshit that the gaming industry has...
Yea he said 'like Japan' and it is almost exactly like what you are thinking, it seems collectors in Japan have to buy the same individual novels, sometimes 5+ times to get the the extra content we get with a single premium epub.
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@_08 He'd still need to add some checks to show the redeem link if the subscription is expired but the user has premium credits, and probably more. Dunno how it works.
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@alexchaplinskikh Yeah, which is why I mentioned the direct url option. Just mentioning all options so you're aware, read below for more details.
The user @Aruseus493 maintains the releases page on /r/LightNovels/. Let's take this page as example: https://www.reddit.com/r/LightNovels/wiki/upcomingreleases
- Look for example under the July table at the top of that page, you'll see the entry for In Another World With My Smartphone V9 with a linked discussion thread [DISC] in the last column.
- Clicking it will bring you to this other page: https://www.reddit.com/comments/90ceuq
- In the new page that opens you'll see a link Premium Credit Redemption. That's the direct link I mentioned that allows you to redeem the premium credits even if your subscription is expired:
https://j-novel.club/mypage/redeemCredit?title=in-another-world-with-my-smartphone-volume-9
As you can see from the link above, it is quite easy to manually craft them too as long as you know the LN's name and volume you want.
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@terabyte Ah, sorry. I actually had a response to the direct link method but forgot to write it. :P
I prefer not to rely on a workaround existing for a long time. Don't put all of your eggs in one basket and all that. If the workaround stops working around a problem that hasn't been fixed then you're either screwed, have to contact support or have to get a membership anyway.
Since I plan to buy the Premium Editions either way, it's not that troublesome to get a subscription. The reason I wanted to know if it was possible to buy them being a non-member was to physically be unable to read the weekly releases, thus saving me the weekly waiting pain. But if the alternative is more difficult that pressing a single button then it's not worthwhile for me (I also really don't like Reddit so I try to stay away as much as possible lest I start procrastinating again).
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@khaos And then they wonder why their stuff gets pirated... Maybe they'd see better numbers if they made it easier to actually acquire the stuff... Exclusives are literal poison.
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I was thinking why Sam decided (do note the use of "I have decided" instead of "I'm not allowed" or something similar) to not use the Premium Edition but I can only come to the conclusion that it was a business decision. One made as a company with profit in mind.
And I do understand it. They (the company, be it Sam himself or everyone related) want to drive traffic to their site and make the customers spend money on it rather than some external store. I get that. But the reason this doesn't make sense for physical releases is that the paperback copy is already pretty much a premium item that most people will only buy for the sake of adding it to their collection.
When compared to an eBook, it's bulky, it costs twice as much, it can be damaged irreparably, it's hard to take around with you, it takes real world IKEA shelf space, et cetera (feel free to bring up more negatives). The only real reason to buy a printed edition when there's an eBook edition is to add it to your physical library. But knowing that the printed version is missing content that is present in another eBook version completely devalues the printed version in my eyes.
I'll swear now that I'll never buy these physical editions with missing content. If the printed versions were actually the complete versions then I wouldn't even mind paying four times the price of the eBook version. But as it stands they're completely worthless. What a sad situation. I was really looking forward to the printed versions specifically to add them to my library because physical things are more fun to collect. You can't download them. Just due to that fact they're more special in this digital world we live in.
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Just as a side note, J-Novel Club should really work on actually promoting the Premium Editions if they want that to be the reason for people to subscribe. Back in April when I was getting my subscription I understood the Premium Membership as a sort of "one free eBook a month" kind of deal but didn't understand what's so "Premium" about the eBook itself so I went with just a normal membership because I wanted to continue reading Realist Hero (Naden made me do it).
I know that I was probably not paying too much attention at the time, but a well designed website would bring my attention to it. The only reason I even noticed that Premium Editions exist a few days ago is that someone started posting the titles of the "store exclusive short stories" in the forums of the completed volumes.
I got pissed that there was more content that wasn't available to us and was in some store that wasn't even linked to us. I tried searching around but didn't find it in any actual stores and only found it accidentally after reading the subscriptions page in more detail. After that I read the FAQ more carefully and most of my questions were resolved, but this really should be more clear. It took me literally six month to notice their existence. Am I just that clueless or does this happen to other people as well?
We may never know since those who didn't notice probably don't even visit the forums either. I reckon most people (me included) don't really visit the forums much. They probably use other places like Twitter but I personally only really visit the main website.
And let me tell you, that horizontal scrolling panel on the main page is almost always out of date and doesn't even show all the new series. The monthly catch-up post always lacks the actual links to the series so you have to go to the Titles page and either go through all the pages to find it or manually type part of the name of the series that you may have forgotten already. There're just many things about the design of the site that I don't like...
I also tried the Android app once around April but it was garbage. May have improved nowadays, no clue. I prefer reading it on my desktop with my own tweaks anyway (link in the signature) that get rid of the subpar reader they have which doesn't work on for a landscape screen at all.
I've complained a lot and I don't even feel like I'm nitpicking because some of the problems are really that bad and I could keep going. Something I'll praise is the forum, which is one of the best I've used. I guess I'm just frustrated due to how it could be so much better.
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There are numerous topics in the Support forum discussing discontent with or recommendations for the website and the app. JNC simply gambled on "people care more about us getting more/better translated LNs, so we'll throw a web presence together and worry about it later." It is now later, and Sam is beginning to revisit these topics more earnestly.
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@myskaros I hope he does. This whole website feels unfinished and primarily made for smartphones. The way the pages are loaded and constructed just drives me nuts... But I still think that focusing on content rather than prettifying what little there was at the time was a good choice.
But it has already been two years since founding. Not to mention that content and design aren't mutually exclusive. They just need to hire a proper web designer to rework the site. I would offer myself for the job if I had more experience. Though I still feel like whatever I can make would be better than what they have now.
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@alexchaplinskikh I think he did it himself, and yet again, decided it would make more sense to put any money that would be used to hire a web designer to just license more novels/translators/editors :v
But yeah, I agree with you about how poor the website is. I actually posted about it a year ago!
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@myskaros Damn, this just makes me sad... Do you think he'd grant me access to their data for me to build an alternative front-end for free as a side project? I think that even if it takes me half a year it'd still go live earlier than him actually hiring someone. :D
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@alexchaplinskikh Send him an e-mail, see where it goes /shrug. Worst that could happen is he says "no."
jobs@j-novel.club
I wouldn't be surprised if someone was already working on something though, it just might not be a high priority at the moment.
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@alexchaplinskikh The entire site front-end is built on top of the API, and the API is public (in that it's plaintext, partially documented for at least the query syntax, and Sam will answer questions about it), so technically anybody can already go and implement an alternate J-Novel Club website. A bunch of us have already written tools that pull data from JNC using the API.
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@guspaz I was actually thinking of remaking the whole thing with Drupal. I'd probably have to meddle with the databases so that's why I was wondering about the access. I'm just more familiar with Drupal and have no real clue how this website was built. I also just don't like it due to my preference for high level organisation. :D
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@sinnoaria No clue about the legality of it, but what if it's a contest and only one person enters? :D
Jokes aside, I'd still have to talk with Sam first before even beginning to plan anything. Might send him an email soon. Or not. I don't actually have that much time that I can spend on a free project. If I get paid then it's a different matter, but I don't consider my skills to be good enough for paid work. Though maybe I'm underestimating myself, since I sometimes see even beginners trying to take paid work (no clue whether they actually get it).
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@alexchaplinskikh said in A collector's view on Premium Editions:
beginning to plan anything. Might send him an email soon. Or not. I don't actually have that much time that I can spend on a free project. If I get paid then it's a different matter, but I don't consider my skills to be good enough for paid work. Though maybe I'm underestimating myself, since I sometimes see even beginners trying to take paid work (no clue whether they actually get it).
I personally try to refuse payment if I don't think my work is up to my personal standards, but that is just me. Contests though are available for anyone to participate if they choose, even if only one person enters (which is rare).
I mean I could probably do it myself as well (I'm a jack of all trades), but I don't feel like changing my specialization right now. On the other hand, it would be nice if the website gained some improvements so I am rooting for anyone who is willing to convince sam.
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Revamping the web client (eg website) is on the schedule after we get manga backend done. So like 2-3 months.
It’s all programmed in React FYI. I have two outside devs working on things now, hopefully they do good work (so far manga backend is going smoothly).
And I have some ideas for making the app a lot better actually but will require a complete rewrite of the display parsing (hopefully a simplification) but the end effect should be simpler faster and less buggy. React native’s embedded webview is now advanced enough. When I first worked on the app 2 years ago it wasn’t.
I programmed the entire website in only like 2 months from scratch (and learned the frameworks at the same time) so I was just going for something functional.
I get complaints but I’m proud that it does what it needs to do even if it is not as simple or straightforward as it could be in theory.
It was designed somewhat to minimize the amount of code I had to write. -
@alexchaplinskikh
As for the print editions including or not including the bonus stories, like I think people here on the forums don’t understand that the print editions aren’t mainly designed for people who already bought the premium ebooks.
They are mainly targeted to people who don’t buy ebooks at all. I don’t really expect people who own one format to repurchase the other. The people who do are the extreme minority of the audience.
All hope should not be lost however as like I mentioned before I would like to try and work out a way for example, where premium members could get the bonus stories if they buy a copy of the physical, maybe directly from us if we start direct order fulfillment.
That’s not something we can implement immediately but I want to allow that expansion so we won’t be including them in the main book on principle. If that means you won’t repurchase it until you can get them bundled in somehow, fine. Please wait until I make deals or implement that in someway.Honestly including them in the main book just is a little off for print since they aren’t part of the print in japan. they are printed on postcards or copy paper and shrink wrapped in (one per store).
The books are not “incomplete” without the stories in any sense. No more than a bluray of an anime is incomplete if it doesn’t come with the limited pressing booklet or something. -
@sam-pinansky Woohoo! That's great. Looking forward to that. I hope there's gonna be a feature for saving the series you're reading, your progress and a notification when the next part comes out on the website itself at least. It seems pretty essential to me but I've had to use an external tool someone else wrote to help me track the releases easier. Also, please provide a vertical reading mode. The current reader doesn't work well for landscape monitors...
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@alexchaplinskikh yeah pretty much all of those features are planned. We will focus mainly on redesigning the ui flow however. And rearranging the design. New features will come after we make things smoother.
