Click on any subscriber-locked fic and you'll know how wrong you are. We can access the foreword. 

Why do people think like this?

There's two of them in AFF confessions, and I guess, around four more in the blog section.

By creating the Subscribers-Only option boss is riling up the competitive nature in AFF? How does OP even come up with that?

I would really like writers to up their game so that it would be easy to search fics here.

But I can't do anything if the market demands for certain types of fics and the authors respond to it.

But more than that...

Is it so wrong to subscribe to a story you are reading?

It's free. It won't cost a karma pt. Or you just don't want the author to know that you are reading his/her story? You don't want author to know that her story is being read or liked?

Views don't automatically mean that user read your fic. It only means, someone clicked it. Perhaps comments are more important than subscribers. But who is more likely to comment, the susbcriber or the lurker?

Most of us are writers here and we know how the act of subsribing is like an act of support. Appreciation. As if another user is telling you, "Hey, I like what I see so far, I am looking forward to read more from you." Because that is exactly what subscribing does. It notifies us when a story is updated. Why would we subscribe to a fic we don't like?

I don't know about you but I like receiving updates/notifications. It is easier than checking the fic from time to time if a chapter has been added.

I can't see anything wrong when authors use the subscribers-only option when I am really reading the author's story.

Why would I not subscribe when I'm liking and reading every update?

I read the first and last updated chapters before I hit the subscribe button. So if it is locked, I can simply do just that. Subscribe, check fic out, subscribe if I like, unsubscribe if I don't. 

I really don't understand how pressing a button is so difficult. Are we this lazy?

Authors who use that option know, at least I expect them to, that not everyone will like their story. Yes, I mentioned that subscribing is an act of support. But if you are viewing a subscriber-locked fic, subscribing means, "I wanna check your story out." And unsubscribing right after says, "Sorry, it wasn't what I was expecting." So unsubscribing in a subscriber-locked fic is not a big thing.  

Actually, unsubscribing is pretty normal. It's hard at first for a writer to lose a subscriber. But writers have to toughen up and realize that the stories they write are not for everyone and some readers would realize that in later chappies.

Don't feel guilty OTL Maybe, I am just mean for thinking that we are doing the author a favor by unsubscribing, especially when we are no longer reading. I remember getting annoyed when people unsubscribe once I complete a fic but in time, I realize that... once completed, they no longer need to stay susbcribed.

When I left my comfort zone and wrote a GD fic in 2011, I prepared myself for unsubscribers. I have no idea how VIPs would respond to an ELF writing a fic about their beloved GD. It would be a hit or miss. And every time someone leaves, I would make sure that the next chapter would be better than my previous one. I fail sometimes, but I pushed through until I completed my fic.  And when those unsubscribers subscribed back, I got pissed at first [like make up your mind, girl. This is the same story written by the same author] but then I realize what just happened. They came back. MUAHAHAA. Thank you. People unsubscribing motivated me to do better.

People should stop viewing everything as competition or an author's plot to gain subscribers.

I get the vibe that too much importance is given on that popular authors list or the featured story. AFF is not all about that. Not everything an author does is for him/her to gain readers. No one is competing with anyone. A writer can only compete with herself/himself to do better.

Yes, there are cheaters here in AFF - the plagiarizers, the 'click this' cheaters, the I-will-transfer-my-story-to-another-account authors...

But not everyone is like that. Perhaps author wanted to hide her completed fics but still want to grant access to his/her old readers. 

I wonder who the authors OP was referring to. Or if they even exist. They have to make a reason better than that because OP derived assumptions based on their reasoning alone. 

There is nothing wrong in hiding your fic from lurkers/stalkers. There is nothing wrong in making your story exclusive to your readers only. There is nothing wrong in wanting quality readers. There is nothing wrong in using that privacy option. 

Why do we always see the bad or negative in everything?

Why is it easy to assume the worst in a person?

I don't think boss had that in mind when he created that privacy option.

Because believe it or not, some here not only steal stories, but layout codes and graphics as well.

It is easier to track if you know who can access them.

The authors will get subscribers alright - people who read their story. What's so wrong with that?

It is not like they have a gun pointed at us, barking orders at us to subscribe or die. 

They are at risk of losing them too, just like anyone else.

No one can force us, really. Like I said before, we have a choice. No one can make us do anything we don't like.

You are the one holding the mouse. It is your finger controlling the touch pad/touch screen. So don't complain about that option forcing you to do something you don't like. 

If you don't like the locked-stories and their authors so much, ignore them.  Why bother clicking? There are other stories out there.

Eh, I probably am the only one of the few who sees it differently but is brave enough to say something about it. 

-Keeper