You know, in a perfect world this may be possible. However, if you sat down for a moment and think about how many books and originals are being uploaded per day, that simply is not possible. Apart from the semantics, and the needless work of needing to check every book, the man power, the financial burden- the sheer quantity makes this only a pipe dream already.
Webnovel.com is a host, not a publisher.
Just like how youtube does not regulate the daily output from individual creators, or how facebook does not control whether your friend answers you within 7 days, it is not webnovels responsibility to ensure every book is updated to your liking.
Now what they can do is at most add a tag that automatically marks an original as hiatus, or dropped, after a certain non-upload time. But even that is very unlikely to happen.

    Hyowha But automatically tagging anything dead for over, let's say 30 days, and mercilessly removing those titles from standard searches and popularity-lists would be a tremendous help for both writers and readers.

    'Completed' is an altogether different beast.

        StenDuring Yea in my case, if I haven't updated a book in a while, I usually mark it as complete, even if I pick it back up later. Which reminds me...

            JVenior
            Agree with you. I mean, my favourite author couldn't upload for a week due to his boss overworking him on the weekend and not one of his readers complained.

            When he did release after, he had spent almost a day and triple released the book whose release day he missed as an apology.

            Does anyone think that an author who is getting constant complaints from entitled little brats like the creator of this discussion is going to feel motivated enough to go the extra mile as an apology?

                Right, also they good stories lying in waste, i have read P.S i love you and the famous millionaire these two books have not been updated for 1 month now. I also feel more pinch because I have waste my SS on these books ...

                  Janhavishah

                  You spent your SS on the chapters that you unlocked, not on any potential chapters that haven't been posted. You got what you paid for.

                  Not really seeing your point beyond being annoyed that the author is on hiatus. It happens, nothing can be done.

                  Let me ask you this. Did you enjoy the chapters you DID manage to read from those stories? Were they fun and entertaining? Would you rather not have authors write stories at all if they may or may not continue it?

                  WorstNameEver

                  That's crazy that the author in question even posted extra chapters to make up missing days. I probably wouldn't have done that. Not because I don't feel it's worth doing or that my audience doesn't deserve it, but simply because it takes 10+ hours just to get one chapter done to where I'm satisfied with grammar and plot.

                  I've gone over a month without any new chapters simply because of burnout and overwork, and had to just drop everything and go on a hiatus so I didn't fall further into madness!

                  Huge props to that author you're talking about, though. If he posts on WN, link me his novel and I'll follow him just for that.

                        JVenior I enjoyed the stories that they have written that is why i paid to unlock the chapters. But what is more frustrating that the authors have left the story incomplete and no messages or updates what so ever and are tagged completed on WN... I have been reading books which are updated weekly, I have no problem with that. Infact, there are some authors that inform us about time of next update, i really appreciate that. I know and acknowledge that writers/authors are busy but than don't tag incomplete story as completed . And that to it does not mean that they can suddenly stop the writing the novel and not inform the readers about it and keeping us hanging...

                            JVenior
                            Yah, he wrote 2 extra chapters plus the one he owed iirc.

                            Ahh this is even crazier. He is an EF writer (Eastern Fantasy), is uncontracted (been offered but rejected for one story iirc) and is writing 3 stories at a rate of 2 chaps per week for EACH.

                            This totals out to the rate of CocoonedCow, the author of True Martial World who is getting paid to sit in a room and write.

                            The "best" one of his 3 current works (all good, this one great), is Monarch of Heaven's Wrath at the link: https://m.webnovel.com/book/11615715305453205

                                WorstNameEver

                                Oh I think I've seen him around before, on another site.
                                I may have even had interactions with him, but I don't remember.

                                Seems like a cool dude, though.

                                    7 days later

                                    StenDuring That's iffy though. I don't publish on WN anymore, but have released a free chapter every day on my Patreon. So my novel is ongoing, but not here.

                                        BabyTanuki Then it's not iffy at all. You don't publish on WN, hence your non-completed fiction should be dead on WN. What could possibly be problematic about that?

                                            StenDuring

                                            Yea. I remembered my own dreary wait for the Wheel of Time series. it came out usually within 1-2 years gap for each book. Then the author (Robert Jordan) died from a major illness only 2 books from the end.

                                            Lucky me the author already had a will stating who he thought was the best to continue it for him after which his widow and editor went and got the guy the author named to finish it. Turns out the guy was a fan of the author too from another previous series.

                                            So yeah.

                                            Author dying, book still got published. That was something I doubt most of the entitled here could understand. The pain of the wait for the next book only to hear the author died.
                                            It was similar with the Dune series.

                                                StenDuring I figure it is iffy because it is not completed or dead. It is ongoing, but not on WN.

                                                Also, some authors only publish once a month. If someone is doing something for free, then you can't expect them to explain anything to you. Of course it would be nice if they did, but they are under no obligation to.

                                                It takes a lot of time to write. So if they are busy, you can't expect them to do anything. They have lives, jobs, etc. Many people digest what the authors do and are thankless. They only think "Man, why can't they update faster?!" Writing for many authors is a hobby. You can't just say, "Hey buddy, you aren't publishing fast enough. You need to discontinue your writing." If that was the case, then Game of Thrones would have been discontinued a long time ago.

                                                Also, tagging something as dead would mean that people would stop reading it, probably. Why? What does that do? All it does is make the author think, "Why should I bother publishing at all? No one likes my work." Just enjoy your free reading. If it bothers you, then make up what the ending is on your own.

                                                Now if you came up with excuses for why it should be tagged as "dead," then all you have to do is be an intelligent human being and look at the latest published chapter. It tells you when it came out. Then you know if you want to read it or not. But, I suggest looking at the reviews over that. If people enjoyed it, then what's the problem?

                                                    BabyTanuki Let's pick your post apart piece by piece.

                                                    1) It's dead. On WN it's dead. I don't care what happens elsewhere. You stopped updating here; you lost any right to demand this site works as your marketing channel. Because your story is no longer ongoing here.

                                                    2) The same way a reader isn't entitled to an update-schedule from an author, the same way an author isn't entitled to a platform promoting the work. WN is pretty clear about a daily update schedule. While I find it ludicruous it's their choice. WN doesn't cater to lovingly crafted stories written to perfection. WN caters for mass production. You update once a month? Go elsewhere or at least stop whining.

                                                    3) Would tagging something as dead make people stop reading it? Yes, most likely. Because that was the intended result from tagging it dead from the beginning. Publish that story on a place where your potential readers are happy with an update every six months.

                                                    4) A platform should adapt to itself. WN has yet to do so. Stories should be adapted to the platform. That has, to a large degree happened here. Stories not adapted to the platform will suffer in one way or another. I fail to see a problem with this.

                                                        WorstNameEver He wouldn't get complains if he did short announcement about what is happening somewhere? I think most people are reasonable and understanding so being called little brat is little too much. It's more like authors and translators are lacking basic courtesy to inform their readers that are paying for their work and they should be the ones called entitled little brats in my opinion.

                                                        I am not even going to open a Pandora box holding in advance prepared chapters in case something unexpected happens so people won't notice short absences.

                                                            Janhavishah I am with you on that. We read, they release then in the middle of a good book they drop. It sucks. Probably for both parties involved.they don't release they don't get SS so they don't get paid. On the other hand if a book is dropped then it should be taken down, so it doesn't suck in others who once again pay to read up to the point it got dropped. What a scheme to get paid for a book you're never going to finish.

                                                                LadyTass2001 Taken down is a bit hard in my opinion. Clearly labelled as dropped/hiatus should be fair enough.

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