Piokilek On Patreon you support a team (or what looks like a team), On WebNovel you support a company (that looks like a company). You pay WebNovel and their chapters get translated, you aren't really supporting the author at all using this, if you really wanted to support the author and get the chapters you could go to the Chinese website and get it there, oh but you'll still be paying the big company WebNovel since they are owned by the Chinese Site anyways they changed their name from Qidian sometime ago, Probably a controversy or something who knows. also I remember that the "original novel" system was quite scummy, but i'm probably wrong considering what they've already done

    Piokilek Let me ask you, do you charge your fans $5 for them to actually be able to read your 6 advance chapters or for them to only be able to see the titles of those 6 advance chapters? The privilege system here asks readers to pay $8 only to see the TITLES of 5 stockpiled chapters. Can you honestly still say that this is the same perk with what being offered by authors, translators or any other content makers/contributors on Patreon? And moreover, the fact that this new Privilege system only offers early access to unlock advance chapters and not access to the actual chapters themselves is not explained properly to the readers, leading to many readers that have paid the privilege fee to feel like they just have been scammed.

      I can envision this now:

      Once Privileged System gets its green light pass with their staff because 100 smart supporters paid into it because of their curiosity/passion for the novel, we start getting ads in premium novels per page, and we have to pay SS to remove said ads for a month (not permanent).

      Then the next stage, we will have to pay extra SS to get the privilege of seeing edited chapters. Because WebNovel's almighty editors have carefully prepared many chapters for everyone to enjoy (using same text as their Privilege Rules btw :) ).

      Then WebNovel slowly bans Original Authors from doing Patreon, proceeds to collectively make them jump through various hoops that they fixed in the contract, original authors will come crying then and in the end will have to join in this awesome Privileged System and the various other new systems that's been established by the time it comes around. :ok_hand: Because the original authors now get to see who's the real passionate supporter willing to pay tiered SS packages to see the titles of your advanced chapters, to then pay again to unlock them.

      And the best part, their works get generalized so even if you write better quality content with wholesome chapters, someone else writing the next original CEO novel with 2-3 page chapter gets the same tiers as you (your 50 chapters is the same value as theirs).

      qiprivsucks I understand that it might look like its a scam when its translations who upload advance chapters as they usually translate most of the novel before releasing it, but what about Originals novels? It's one author who write normally. Most of my readers would be glad to pay more just so they could support me. They already gift a lot of SS. Some of those readers would want to buy access to more chapters just so they could support me. It's also a good way to make originals authors write more.

          Piokilek there is no "might"

          It is purely a scam, no two ways about it.
          Go from subscription where people voluntarily donated SS to authors to a jacked up sneak peek that is absurdly priced.

          Many of us have complained for MONTHS about the high cost of SS prices and chapter SS costs... To add in THIS on top of it? It is adding insult to injury

              Piokilek It looks like a scam because WebNovel's shady practices that I've alluded to and/or outlined. Convenient timing of restructuring to permanently making that Premium Beta Program where it went from free, to ads, to Premium, to Subscription, to now this as well.

              They will keep innovating experimental features that will continue to be implemented to test their target audience's bottom line. My post's main point was to raise awareness of the entirety of the Privilege system, and the repercussions that comes with supporting said system.

              It's seen in WebNovel's past practices of adopting one feature to another based on what they perceive as acceptance when people spend SS. At some point, when SS gain from ads/dailies/etc don't cut it to pay for content outside of those cookie-cutter CEO novels we see time and time again with their 4-5 SS chapters (because they have no content/word-count), it's going to lead to people being unhappy, to 1 chapter per day of probably a filler chapter (because CN novels and WebNovel's creative content creators and their redundancy in exposition).

              Piokilek To compare SS prices via word count from WebNovel to Harry Potters... At least those Harry Potters have been edited professionally, have minimal error, and has editorial work (AKA, removing redundancies/wordiness/word choices/etc). if WebNovel Editors were of the same quality to be compared to official authors, would we have WebNovel admins making excuses on how translation groups needing to change terms/slangs misused throughout the book and taking 3+ weeks to even release one chapter for a top 10 rated novel in their power stone ratings, to outright dropping books because they're 'not worth the trouble.'

              Again, I'd love to see the original authors and all top 50 Original Works being enforced to stop Patreon, move to WebNovel's Privilege system where their work is generalized based on chapter count OVER actual content (Original CEO novel #1928 50 Chapters is of same value as someone else's actual original content of 50 Chapters). Oh and be sure to tell your readers, they have to pay to unlock again after getting the privilege to see the titles of their tiered advanced chapter titles.

              If your customers/readers feel mistreated worse than dirt (getting double charged to ensure WebNovel gets their fair share), no matter how they were being nice enough to donate/gift you SS, they will probably feel less compelled to donate if they're unhappy/disgruntled.

                    It's a trap! If you think about it. pay to read ahead for 30 day when 30 days is over then you have to wait for the - peasant-<yeah i said it... that's what it makes you feel like> chapters to catch up to where you are XD good pit fall... Looks like I'll be reading off free stones from now on...

                      Simply money hungry. Most people become more inclined to read the same novel from other sites instead of on webnovel. I used to always read on webnovel, but the ss has become too much. Most of us are average citizens who like to spend some of their free time reading. We can't afford to pay up so much money for ss, that's why people were happy for buying the montly payment instead. But you removed it, probably was an experiment to test how many people were inclined to an alternative of ss.

                      I would get it if there was an advantage to having the "privilege" to read chapters ahead... for example, it is cheaper than buying the regular chapters individually. For example, each chapter cost 7-9 ss in Book A. However, if you buy __ chapters, it's actually only 5 ss per chapter! This is how bulk purchases work.

                      Maybe you can even make the advantage as "wait" if you hate wholesale prices. So for __ chapters ahead, you can just make it cost a little bit more per chapter. For example, Book B cost around 7 ss per chapter. To read ahead, each chapter cost 8 ss. Don't do bulk "privileges" and do individual chapters instead if you intend to go with this one. And also, do not charge ss even after buying the "privilege", that is simply not right.

                      Thank you for reading, I hope you intend for at least some change.

                      A Fan of Webnovel

                        skro actually that's not how the privilege system works, but it's not your fault that you misunderstand, it's webnovel's failure to explain it properly to their readers. The wording that they use to explain what the privilege system is in the help section can be misleading.

                        PoeticPenguin I actually like that suggestion more. That is a better and more reasonable business model.

                              Cantiara I think what Skro was saying was that once you buy say 50 Advanced Chapter for Month of July. You'll be 50 chapters ahead of people by July 31st, but once August 1st hits, you'll have to continue paying for advanced chapters to continue reading along or wait 50 releases for public releases to catch up to be back on track.

                              EX:
                              July 31st, you're at Chapter 101-150.
                              August 1st, you have Chapter 101-150 unlocked still, but 151 is an advanced chapter that can only be accessed via 50 advanced chapter tier again (since it's 50 chapters ahead). So you have to wait until public releases catch up to 151 to get the full value of a 50 advanced chapter.

                              At least what's what I get is how it works. If not, WebNovel failed to explain properly how this works.

                                  qiprivsucks right, I just don't want him/her to misunderstand, again, just like many other readers here, that he/she will get to read the chapters without unlocking them once they pay the privilege fee, because of the sentence "pay to read ahead".

                                  And yes, I also understand it the same way you do. Also, what I understand is once you unlock the stockpiled chapter after paying the privilege fee, then those chapters will remain unlocked regardless the privilege subscription period? Not sure about this though.

                                      Cantiara Based on what was said in their "Privilege Rules," it seems very likely that once you've unlocked it (after revealing them via privilege), even after your privileged period is over for that month, the unlocked chapters are still unlocked for you. Just that if you're so obsessed to pay 2500 SS to unlock 50 advanced chapters, and now have to wait for 50 chapters to release publicly to catch up again, it's more likely they'll keep paying that 2500 SS to keep reading.

                                      In the end, I think the logic brought up (that it's a trap once you buy into it) is true, and the smart dedicated readers will be milked for all their worth. As long as WebNovel gets to make money from those targeted ~100 dedicated whales per privileged premium novels lol.

                                          qiprivsucks i dont agree that they'll keep chapters open after privileged ends. Thinking optimistically when it comes to qidian never works. but yes, they're definitely moving from minnow/whales to just whales

                                              whe I do agree that it's rather a poor choice to think optimistically about anything related to WebNovel. Again, I don't think it's beyond them to charge us extra for edited chapters in the near future, and translated chapters (upgrade from MTL once they implement that) in the future as well.

                                              Y'know, once they clean house and only keep the loyal translator(s) who will su-- I mean whiteknight for them.

                                                Piokilek Like I said, this isn’t illegal for Webnovel to do it, but it’s unethical. For people to spend MORE money to read something a couple of days earlier is just robbery. Let me break this down for you. One of the novels that I’m reading charges 7ss PER chapter. With the privilege system, it will cost you 400s to read 5 chapters.. in which 2 of those chapters will be released the next day. 400s will get you roughly 57 chapters if you were to wait. I’m sorry but Webnovel’s job is to keep their authors happy and funded. Just like Toyota’s job is to keep their mechanics happy in order to do their job. Just like MY job pays me and gives me incentives to do my job well and happily. While you can support the authors your own way, if you want, that is NOT everyone’s job. Then, to top this off, the chapters that you’ve just purchased in advance will now disappear and “expire” over time and that’s just bullsh*t. Like I said, this isn’t illegal, but it’s unethical to treat your paying customers like this and that’s not a company that I would want to put my hard earned money into.

                                                    xmdvix

                                                    "With the privilege system, it will cost you 400s to read 5 chapters.."

                                                    Not even. You pay 400 SS to get an early access to unlock those chapters. You're not privileged to read the stockpiled chapters, but you're only privileged to UNLOCK the stockpiled chapters. After paying the 400 SS, you will only get to see the titles of those chapters and then you will still need to pay the 7 SS per chapter to unlock and eventually read them.

                                                    And indeed what I just understood from previous comments is that after your privileged period expires, the stockpiled chapters that you'll already have unlocked will disappear. Only after you pay the subscription fees for the next privileged period will you be able to see them again.

                                                    Just wanted to make that clear.

                                                        Cantiara please enlighten me, from my prospective it looks like a money pit to me. Reading 50 chapters ahead and not renewing sub means time lag between when you can read new chapters beyond where you left off.

                                                            Piokilek First off its not like Patreon. Not only is it more expensive than a lot of existing and pre-existing patreons but the biggest difference is you are only paying for the ability to unlock the next 5-50 chapters. You don't actually get to read them.

                                                            So you spend 2500 SS or $50 USD. For the right to view 50 chapters then you get to spend another 400-750 SS just to read them. When I spent $50 on a patreon I got to read them right then and there.

                                                            Also because it is SS and not a patreon your money spent to support the author or translator is a minor cut compared to Webnovels major.

                                                              skro Yep it is an uber money pit.

                                                              I had the impression that your understanding of how this new privilege system works is as such that after you pay the privilege fees, you will be granted the privilege to automatically read those chapters. But this is not the case. And if this is indeed how you interpreted how the system works, then you have been misled. And as I said, it's webnovel's failure for not being able to explain this properly to their readers.

                                                              What I wanted to make clear to you and to many other people here that have been misled and ended up feeling like they just got scammed, is that by paying the fees for the privilege system, you still won't be able to read those chapters. You will still have to pay extra SS that you normally pay anyway to unlock and read them. The privilege you're paying for is merely to get the opportunity to UNLOCK, not to READ.

                                                              So, like the example in my previous post, let's say that the cost to unlock a chapter of the novel you're following is normally 7 SS.
                                                              After paying the subscription fees for the privilege system (400 SS for 5 stockpiled chapters and more SS for more stockpiled chapters), you will still need to pay that extra 7 SS to unlock the stockpiled chapters. So basically, you pay to pay again.

                                                              And then indeed after the privileged period is over, the privilege chapter that you pay to pay again to unlock will disappear and will only reappear after you pay the privilege fees for the next subscription period. Unless of course if those chapters have been published to be unlocked by the regular non-privileged members during the regular scheduled update.

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