Kritiko The thing is Webnovel will try to resume the books. As you can see, there have been books resumed. Saying that none have been resumed is patently false. The reason why it's hard to resume those books is because of the reasons I stated, which is a universal problem for most (fan) translators.

Also, if you can't find someone to take a job, how are you to make a claim of when it will be resumed? It will become a problem of overpromising. Therefore, books will just get resumed suddenly without notice because it also depends on the new translator's speed and readiness to continue resuming the translation.

If you want official word from Webnovel, it's that they will try to find translators to continue the translations, but when that happens is in the air.

      CKtalon Got it! I just had to post what I said above coz the two of you would take eons to finish your intellectual debate. At least you made me laugh when you say....

      CKtalon If you want official word from Webnovel, it's that they will try to find translators to continue the translations, but when that happens is in the air.

      I guess I'll just go back to the main website and lessen my involvement in the forum because discussing without action, for me, is time wasted. Thanks a lot for your patience and guidance. You really earned my respect. Good luck and Godspeed to your endeavors.

      @Gothic_Temptation , Thanks for voicing things out. What you expressed in here is also what my heart and brain wants to express, ask, and rant. You are a strong person, I appreciate and respect you for that. I hope you don't get banned in the Form because IMO, the community needs you to improve.

            CKtalon
            You know its funny cuase the reason you haves stated arnt the reasons why those novels didnt get picked up
            Still seems like a webnovel only problem

                Kritiko
                No problem man
                Im not the only who voices out tho
                Lots of people do we just never gonna get noticed cuase CK is literally the only mod here

                    Gothic_Temptation Well, I think there are some who wants to voice out like me, but, I always remind myself not to talk to much because you know what happens after that right? (I don't wanna get banned bro) Hahahaha!

                    Well, CK is really having it hard right. There should be lots of mods because being a moderator is not an easy one, and added with the online setting, I can only imagine.

                      CKtalon why cant they just pick up the novel without joining qidian. As much as qidian is good, there are better ones out there. Especially for those who want to do patreon and not deal with qidian's bullsh*t. They can just have qidian dual host it.

                          SusshiRoll Because it is against the copyright of Webnovel? It harms the potential earnings of the author (as well as Webnovel)?

                          We have long moved away from the situation where translator takes all (in the case of Patreon and ad-revenue) from 2-3 years ago. The authors demand a portion of the pie, because they were the ones to created the content and they know how much translators can earn translating illegally (using Patreon), which can go as much as five-digit USD values a month.

                              CKtalon So how is the Spirit Stone given? Novels getting premiumed is that benefical to the author or the translator?

                                  CKtalon if you want us to support the author. Why don't you just setup a patreon for the author?

                                      SusshiRoll How do you ensure that there's no scam behind this matter? A unscrupulous translator can say that they set up one for the author, but doesn't send the money to the author. The author might not even know that this is happening.

                                      Besides, Webnovel does deserve earning a cut of the earnings.

                                      Paid Spirit Stones benefit author, translator, and Webnovel equally.

                                          Reading these stuffs reminds of the Translator of Cult of the Sacred Runes, RDG who took some donations then disappeared all of a sudden. It's been a year already and this prequel of TDG has been dropped. somewhat out of topic, i suppose lol

                                            Hope it is within a year bro, if not then just look for the mtl version, I'm sure comrademao will have it, if it's requested.

                                              SusshiRoll most of the novels on this site are published by qidian, some of the authors even introduce themselves on these novels, they are all probably getting the standard cut for their publications. I mean some of them make bank doing this stuff, especially people like IET, he's probably one of the happiest ones, since his chapters are usually copy pasted to milk us of our SS. Anyone who Is reading SS knows what I mean.

                                                  CKtalon
                                                  Actually its pretty easy to fix that problem as the TL can just sign a contract with the author aand get the rights to TL it just like what WW,volare and other sites do
                                                  As ive said before WN aint special
                                                  It doesnthave any special needs that are different from anyone else
                                                  Just be honest with yourself
                                                  You know that WN is company thats after money and money only
                                                  Everything else is secondary so there is hella no way WN is gonna allow other sites to get into contracts with the authors and get TL rights

                                                      Gothic_Temptation So basically you are trying to say skip the middle man? That can cause trouble for both the author and translator since it is violating the publisher's copyright. The author will have more to lose on this matter if they are caught doing that. (Most authors would rather go the legitimate route then waste their efforts on a few hundred or thousand dollars a month).

                                                          CKtalon

                                                          Thats a nice crazy conclusion to jump to bro
                                                          Honestly are you even reading the responses that you are giving, i mean you are getting paid by qidian afterall so its obligatory for you to say this stuff

                                                          🤷‍♂️

                                                              CKtalon I just wish webnovel was open about novels on hiatus, put a hiatus tag on them or something.

                                                                Gothic_Temptation
                                                                I have no idea what point of yours I proved.

                                                                I'm not paid by Qidian to say any of this. I'm paid solely for my translations. I'm just giving you logical reasons why such measures don't work. They used to work 1+ years ago, but things have changed greatly since then.

                                                                Even the Chinese government, along with lawyers, are paying attention to the development of this export of culture overseas (Patreon being one of them directly mentioned and screenshot during a speech by a lawyer during the recent Chinese Online Literature Conference), so a lot of things will now be further restrained.

                                                                    I see politics... I was not expecting politics, arguing yes, politics no.

                                                                    I could be wrong but isn’t this thread meant to be about how we can find out if a book is on hiatus and getting a hold of the necessary information? Particularly in regards to one novel in particular.

                                                                    All i see is CKTalon attempting to patiently deal with many off topic questions, statements and overall negative criticism.

                                                                    Almost like i walked into the wrong room.

                                                                      CKtalon who said about the translator setting up the patreon. Have webnovel do it. If you believe webnovel is fair to the authors and translators have webnovel make the account and pay both sides. Why does webnovel deserve a share of the earning? They neither made the novel or translated it. Any translator can join any group and have their translated work put on there.

                                                                      what is the percent share of the spirit stone?

                                                                          Kritiko not all dropped novels were dropped early, most of them were around 500+ already with around 200+ remaining chapters to translate.

                                                                              SusshiRoll And why would Webnovel use Patreon for this? Also, donations and the like is just too unreliable as an income for anyone. Patreon earnings can be so high precisely because of advanced chapters (or paywalls). Furthermore there's now gifting which goes to all three parties again, so there's no reason to add Patreon into the mix.

                                                                              They are the ones hosting the work, creating the business model, strategizing with partners, hiring translators (taking the risk of losing money translating all these works), contracting with the authors, grooming the authors, managing their content to better the interests of the authors, etc. All of these are reasons for Webnovel to get a cut too.

                                                                              Authors, Translators, and Webnovel share the Spirit Stones equally percentage-wise.

                                                                                  SusshiRoll Why does webnovel deserve a share of the earning?

                                                                                  Because Qidian (WN parent's company) is the one who owned the novel. For example: LoHP, TKA, FMHM, ISSTH, Coiling Dragon, etc is OWNED by Qidian (or its parent company China Literature). I Eat Tomatoes, etc didn't have any right for Coiling Dragon for example. Qidian is the one who owned it. However, I Eat Tomatoes has a share of revenue.

                                                                                  Webnovel is official representation in other market. Also note, LWS, Reborn, other contracted original is OWNED by Webnovel. Not the author.

                                                                                  They are the owner. Why do you think they didn't deserve the money?

                                                                                      CKtalon
                                                                                      Are you really serious
                                                                                      Did you actually believe that you where giving me reasons why my suggestions wouldnt work
                                                                                      Like did you even read your answers?!?!
                                                                                      You literally sound like a broken record repeating the same thing over and over again and providing zero new information.
                                                                                      We know that qidian is the one hosting the TL but other than that seriously?!?
                                                                                      Are they seriously that important that they need a share. The TL could make their own website to put their TL in , its not that hard and super cheap nowadays
                                                                                      I have no idea what you mean by what has changed becuase nothing has changed,qidian has been like this from day
                                                                                      You can not put off others arguments and suggestions on such a reason as "things have changed" when you litrally have all the other sites using patreon
                                                                                      The proof that it work are all those other sites
                                                                                      You keep putting major importance on qidian which proves why i said you are getting paid by them, your whole argument is prove all you need to do is just read it

                                                                                          Fairy in the devils hand is not updated anymore 😭😭😭 I really do love that novel but there’s no update for a long time now. I really want to know what happened or will they continue the novel or not.

                                                                                            Gothic_Temptation And my point stems from the point that everything should be done under a legal framework such that it is sustainable. Things are changing and lawsuits will begin in time. That's all I have to say.

                                                                                            Your point of view is that things worked in the past, but there was a severely gray area back then. Things are turning very black and white very quickly, so your proposals won't work long term. You are thinking in terms of months, I'm thinking in terms of five years down the road and more.

                                                                                                CKtalon
                                                                                                People would have to be stupid to take what your saying as an actual valid argument as you aren't stating any facts ot providing any data
                                                                                                What you said is super vague
                                                                                                "Servral gray areas ?"
                                                                                                "Lawsuits incoming"?!?!
                                                                                                You keep ignoring my arguments and providing vague combacks and are acting on a bias that every mover qidian has made is the right move and is acting as the hero that the TL community needs.
                                                                                                If qidian is the so called hero then why does the Eastern LN community avoid it like a literal plague, and dont go they dont avoid it and put some sort of legal BS like you keep doing
                                                                                                You are litrally saying everything the community was doing was wrong and qidian came to correct this and provide a solution that will benign everyone when the only ones benefiting from this are qidian. Your argument how you seeing 5 years in the future contradicts your previous argument how everything has changed as you switching from things have to changed to things are gonna change
                                                                                                Your arguments are all baised towards qidian without any actual facts or proof which literally has proven why you are being payed by qidian and not just for Translations
                                                                                                You are acting as a PR officer for them
                                                                                                What i hate most are hypocrites😡😡😡

                                                                                                    SusshiRoll
                                                                                                    Guy this thing is completely unsustainable as the prices are to expensive and and qidian is swallowing to many novels as it has already lots of dropped novels
                                                                                                    You dont have to be a business major or a genius to tell this

                                                                                                        StylishD
                                                                                                        He turned it into an argument about politics by bringing up law and all that stuff when i was literally talking about how stupid his excuse for why novels arnt being picked up
                                                                                                        As ive said they dont communicate with the community or readers
                                                                                                        They dont provide notices
                                                                                                        The TL just disappear like poof abra cadraba
                                                                                                        Ayo ck please can you tell us if qidian has another job as magicians cuase they seem to be really good at making TL disappear

                                                                                                            Gothic_Temptation See, you are again thinking that the old system works just because it works now and you do not see anything happening. Fan translators have always been doing something illegal, lawfully speaking, but it was a gray area since the copyright holder (Webnovel) did not enforce its copyright.

                                                                                                            Now, Webnovel is beginning to strongly push into the international market. Things are changing from that. Just because no lawsuits have been made does not mean that none of that will happen in the future.

                                                                                                            You can definitely call Webnovel a plague from a reader's standpoint since you are removing the power fan translators have and preventing them from making the money they could be making without the publisher or authors involved. But things ARE changing.

                                                                                                            The community could have done anything and steered their own course without the copyright holders involved (2+ years ago), but that's no longer going to happen. Now, 17k and Zongheng, and many other Chinese online literature outlets know what's happening overseas. There is a push from the government to continue this momentum. The other publishers might choose not to put paywalls and all sorts of unpopular moves to kill Webnovel. That is definitely possible, and perhaps it's a good thing, giving Webnovel some competition, but I'm saying that the reign of fan translators is already on a decline.

                                                                                                            And if you know the Chinese government, once they set the vision, the other companies will abide to the government's calling. So the other publishers will not stay silent for long. They might be doing their market research this very moment.

                                                                                                            Pictures from that meeting:


                                                                                                            This one below is a forum on copyright protection for online literature during the conference.

                                                                                                            All the publishers involved in this conference:

                                                                                                            Or you can see all the involved publishers at the bottom of the page. Every single big name publisher is there.
                                                                                                            The website involving this meet: http://www.colpc.cn/

                                                                                                            The above is just me saying that the climate is changing for fan translators and that they should be prepared for change.

                                                                                                            In short, I'm telling you things are changing. There's no point being idealistic about how great the good old days are because things are changing right now.

                                                                                                            This debate devolved from the fact that I'm saying that translators are the problem when it comes to picking up books. And this problem is common throughout the entire sector percentage-wise. Translators come and go all the time, but you insisted that it's a Webnovel problem. Do you know Webnovel has more than 300 translators employed? Just 20 books dropped is not even 10%.

                                                                                                            Then you started saying that all of this can be avoided if we just go back to the old system, but I'm telling you that the old system will never return due to legal reasons.

                                                                                                                CKtalon

                                                                                                                It's definitely possible that some readers can edit or do those tedious corrections for free. . Sorta making each chapter a wiki like page where folks could make edits. Granted you have a change log of all edits and a easy ability to revert changes. Also privilege rights could be granted per novel by the Translator or WebNovel etc.

                                                                                                                If they love the translations enough that is.

                                                                                                                    ChupChup As this is a listed company, any modification to the backend (especially when it is tied to salaries) is greatly audited, so it's unlikely that's possible.

                                                                                                                    About the per chapter modifications, there's a huge worry that there will be abuse, considering how there have been abuse cases in the review sections. Sometimes, there might be people who do not know better and think a grammatical or vocabulary mistake is made, and they propose changes. The staff is aware of all these possible solutions, but it's not that simple to implement.

                                                                                                                    I personally am experimenting with ways to implement technology such that terms can be easily propagated from old translations for newer translations, but it's still in its infancy.

                                                                                                                      CKtalon
                                                                                                                      For once you have actually provided spme facts and reasons why fan translation wouldnt work but still havent proved why Qidians model is better than 17k and Zhongheng
                                                                                                                      You still havent proved and provided facts why the hell is every single novel that premium so fucking expensive

                                                                                                                      And WW and volare can still continue going on with the old system cuase they have signed contracts with the authors
                                                                                                                      Why cant other fans do that ???
                                                                                                                      Other than providing a site to host and helping with legal issues is there any other thing that qidian is there actually anything that qidian needs that makes its stuff so fucking expensive

                                                                                                                          Gothic_Temptation 17k and Zongheng uses the same system in China. If and when they expand overseas, we shall see if they will try something new. It would be interesting to see different business models.

                                                                                                                          Why it's so expensive is because of demand and supply. It was optimized based on the D-S curve based on what patrons are willing to pay on Patreon (which is way more expensive).

                                                                                                                          They can still continue for another 2-3 years with the old contracts they signed with the publishers. It's still a question if the publishers will create their own sites and bypass WW and Volare, considering the recent government initiative. Volare signed with an author of a very old work who happens to own the copyrights to the translations. That can still work, but that will be in the minority.

                                                                                                                          For instance, China Literature (Webnovel's parent company) has 90% of all Chinese web authors under them. The remaining 10% are with the other publishers. Yes, you will be able to find a few authors, who you can sign directly with, but whether their works will be popular is another question.

                                                                                                                          I agree with you that the prices are high, and I suspect that there will be ways to make it cheaper in the future.

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