If I suddenly couldn’t feel pain?
Pain has a purpose.
Pain is necessary.
How would you know if you'd injured yourself?
How would you know if you were at risk?
Know you were ill?
Know you'd pushed yourself too far?
Know you needed help?
I devoured fantasy fiction as a teen into my twenties and one of those series was the Chronicles of Thomas Covenant. A leper in modern times who finds himself transported to a magical world where he gets cured every time he visits but while on earth he has to constantly perform a ritual visual check on himself for injuries. A "visual surveilance of extremities."
The disease does just that, it kills your sensory nerves meaning you can't feel pain and that leads to very nasty injuries, infections and complications.
If I was incapable of feeling pain I'd be damned careful until I was cured and got it back...
Introducing: Prose Gold
Readers and writers, angels and demons, ladies and gentlemen: we’ve long kept you waiting to see what Prose has in store for you. Today, we hope to satisfy your curiosity with the introduction of Prose Gold and a host of new updates. We created Prose with lofty ambitions: to invigorate the digital landscape with a love of literature, and to revitalize an aging publishing industry. Prose Gold is our next step on that path.
What is Gold?
Prose Gold is a subscription service, which affords readers a near unlimited selection of content at a flat monthly price. We track the number of readers and time spent reading each piece, and distribute earnings to authors. Anyone can publish on Gold to earn a piece of the pie. Gold is available to the first thousand or so Prose loyalists at a never-again price of $5.99/mo.
Publishing to Gold.
We allow everyone to publish on Gold, though Gold subscribers will enjoy a few extra perks. When publishing a new piece, simply check the “Gold (Open)” or “Gold (Restricted)” option before hitting publish. Gold (Open) will leave your post open to the public. Anyone can read it, and any Gold subscriber who reads it will contribute to your monthly earnings. Gold (Restricted) will lock your post, making it available only to Gold subscribers. Anyone can publish to Prose Gold once every 30 days, though Gold subscribers are allowed as many Gold publications as they wish. Further, subscribers publishing to Gold (Open) or Standard are able to set a purchase price on their work.
Payments
We’re moving away from PayPal in favor of credit cards, processed via Stripe. We anticipate that this will lead to a much smoother experience when buying content or sending donations on Prose. Prose “Coins” have been converted into account credit, which you can use just as you would have in the past.
Partners
The “Partners” program is being discontinued for the time being. The features of the Partners program are being moved to Gold. Namely, the option to set a flat price on your post or book and the option to suggest pieces for the spotlight.
Under the Hood
We’ve rebuilt the website from the ground up, to offer a much snappier experience on Prose, and to make way for some of the cool things we have in store.
Portals
We’ll soon be offering Gold subscribers the option to create and curate their own portals. We want to offer expanded flexibility and customization of portals, allowing folks to read, write, and share in their own personalized corner of Prose.
The Bookstore
The Prose Bookstore has a long way to go. We’re working on a number of updates and improvements. Stay tuned.
Prose for iOS
We’ve been so busy on the new website, that we’ve let the iOS app lag behind a bit. We’re working on offline reading functionality, progress tracking, and a number of improvements to the user interface. There’s a big update soon to come.
This is a small taste of all we have in store for you with Prose. Until next time, happy scribbling.
You can check out Gold or subscribe here: https://theprose.com/p/gold