Like on RR i look at reviews and scores to find new novels to read. But i noticed that the whole WN review system is busted. People toss around 5 star reviews like it's candy, even when it's obvious that the author does not deserve it. And yes most of the original novels would not even survive a day on RR for comparison. There are plenty of hidden gems, but most of them are not. It's turning into a real chore to filter out all the garbage to find a good story.

My friends explained it with "yeah, its qidian", but what do you guys think about this? Do people here really have such bad taste? Are they using massive amounts of bots or is it something else?

    Heh.. I post honest reviews.. Well.. You know they remove all low rated review and they have these bots that post high rated review.. I mean CEO novel.. No not that ceo novel.. I meant the ceo novel getting translated up here got a freaking 3.8 star rating! Seriously? In novel updates its less then 2.5!! Also i am really a superstar and other novels.. So i just ignore the rating in webnovel and check novel updates.. They have honest reviews... No bots!!!!!!

      SweetsTomato I didn't invite friends or anything, look at my novel, it has four stars.

      Danuja I think that it is the people that aren't bothered enough to use 2-4 star reviews. I see either people spamming 1-star reviews or 5-star reviews. On RR there are people that are so harsh that I have to wear a bullet proof vest just to enter the comments section. It feels like a bullet hell when you enter.

      • Not correct punctuation? -1 star.

      • The novel isn't your style? -1 star.

      • Isn't picking up the pace? -1 star.

      • There are not 3k words in one chapter of your novel? -1 star.

      • Not enough chapters even though the novel started 5 days ago? -1 star.

      • ...

      These are the kind of comments you will see a lot in RR. And I mean A LOT. There are probably like ten more comments that people like to use to write a review on RR. RR users also like to comment on every novel that they think are bad. In Webnovel, people are just kind hearted, even if they think the novel is bad, then many don't post that it's bad. In RR everyone and their mothers will post a comment if they think your novel is trash.

      RR is legit a battlefield.

      If you write a novel there, you might want to bring some equipment:

      +Bulletproof vest

      +An oxygen tank and astronaut suit (You Will be sent to space by the hater one day)

      +Some sort of gadget to prevent others from triggering you

      +Grammarly to make grammar mistakes less often (remember Grammarly doesn't solve everything, still check)

      And around a billion other things.

            idkmylifeisamess
            Then simply don't write if you scated of criticism, whats the point of you writing if you just gonna cry when someone says something bad about your novel
            Royal road has harsher criticism but it helps authors get better as there are many helpful readers on there
            Its still better than giving high star ratings on trash, if you dont know ypur story is trash when it is, how do you expect to get better
            And OP lots of sites have an abusable rating system its just that WN's is utter trash and they dont care about the Bots, they care about nothing other than making money. Which they are currently failing at. I seriously dont bother to read the originals from this site because they all the same or just a carbon copy from a TL one, they dont even carbon copy the good ones and just repeat the same tropes and cliches that people constantly complain about. RR is better in terms of quality but still theres alot of trash and cliche novels but its not as bad as WNs lol

                Gothic_Temptation I agree with everything there but I have a question.

                If you could pick between easy or hard, on single player which would you pick? I would go easy mode 100%! I understand the message od getting better through failure, but I'm still a skinny wimp in real life, i'm not a fan of hate. I prefer easy. If you want to be hardcore, then RR is for you. I prefer WN, it is neater and has more of the cliche novels I enjoy. (Just my opinion, I never liked hard mode anyway)

                    Danuja That's probably because people are allowed to review a novel more than one time. The ratings here are not really accurate so try not to trust them and read the novel first before giving your first thought about it.

                        A massive problem is that authors are asking for review swaps, which is great, but want/expect 5 stars regardless of what the other person actually thinks. I am really after some constructive criticism (key word being constructive) but i also get the feeling if i do an honest review of someones work they would find mine and give me a one star just out of spite. Also see below for the first brilliant and helpful review i received after my first chapter.

                        MagicWaffle7

                        Poopy-di scoop
                        Scoop-diddy-whoop
                        Whoop-di-scoop-di-poop
                        Poop-di-scoopty
                        Scoopty-whoop

                          Nier_Xue

                          Yeah the bot thing is realll pain in the ass. Is that even allowed?
                          But they really are in need of good mods to monitor things.

                          (if qidian is reading this, psst yes you, i'll even vollunteer wink wink)

                              Nier_Xue

                              NU Rating: https://forum.novelupdates.com/threads/ratings-of-1-star-should-be-given-a-low-weight.72479/ or https://forum.novelupdates.com/threads/how-do-people-vote-for-novels-without-a-review.74501/

                              No rating is honest. Even in NU. Check the review, but ignore the rating.

                              This is RR problem: https://www.royalroad.com/forums/thread/101816 worse, RR ranking is based on rating. So...

                              There are many complaint about rating here too: https://forum.webnovel.com/?q=rating (Too many to list, but war on review are big now).

                              Rating is problematic everywhere.

                                Michael_Shaw

                                It's definitely difficult, and I restrain myself from review swaps for precisely the reasons you have mentioned above.

                                However, I have seen what seems to be a slightly better approach in reviews where the reviewer rates the novel say 4-5 stars but then leave an honest review of their thoughts where they point out flaws, without neglecting the positives.

                                Unfortunately, it's hard to win because there are those authors that will react very defensively/angrily to what you might think is constructive criticism but they think is straight up flaming (I've seen it happen even with the most reasonable-sounding reviews.)

                                You can't win.

                                    BabyTanuki Seriously? https://www.novelupdates.com/

                                    That is the best place to search for translation work. It similar to Yahoo! for translation novels. The review usually a good reason to know the positive and negative thing about a novel. This Rabbink thought most readers came from here before they found Webnovel.

                                        Jessie There is one. However, it just list RR novels. However, the list is old and barely any review.

                                          Lord_of_Potatoes Not all authors act like this, I can take criticism. However I want an honest opinion, not a hateful one. There are many factors that go into a review that influences the authors reaction.

                                              Web Novel Novel Ask