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Even outliers are statistically relevant.
Not when you're talking about whether or not most people would do something. One person isn't a demographic, so thats hardly proving a point.
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:-? Okay, then. I'll pass the word to all the art galleries, museums, theaters, universities, architectural societies, nature preserves, and zoos. They might as well give it up and start turning out paperbacks and videos.
First of all, I wasn't referring to all those things. Zoos and nature preserves are way off base. But regardless, in all those cases you're paying money to stand in front of the real thing, not a picture of it. Thats tangible value, even if you're not literally holding or touching those things. You're still in the physical presence of them, and thats what you're paying for.
Well, actually, what you're REALLY paying for is the privelage to take up the space in the museum/zoo/whatever necessary to SEE those things, as only so many people can stand in front of them before they become invisible to the people in back. In the case of a picture of something, that can be duplicated or placed on the internet in such a manner that an infinite amount of people can see them.
Now, what you're really really REALLY paying for is the fact that these people want money for you to see whatever it is they own, often for the upkeep of those things and the places that house them. And its their right to do that, cuz its their stuff.
Just as it'd be a webcomic owner's right to charge admission to see their website. I'm not denying that. All I'm questioning is whether or not thats a smart thing to do, because Errant Story isn't exactly a wildly popular webcomic. So if you asked a random internet goer who reads webcomics (who, we can probably assume, doesn't pay for any of them) if they'd like to pay to read a webcomic they've never heard of, they'd probably say no.
Now, if Errant Story got wildy popular and everyone wanted a piece of it, OR if webcomics charging for admission was a more common thing, it might fly. But neither of those things are true. So I fear that such a move would just kill a comic like this, despite any loyal fanbase.
And don't get me wrong: I read and enjoy this comic too. I don't want to see it fail. I'm not the enemy here. I just urge caution when it comes to demanding money out of people on the internet.