Piokilek I think it's a no-brainer for most people that Translator groups/individuals usually stockpile advanced chapters ahead of time so they can meet the demands of WebNovel's mass release schedule and/or in case life happens and they can't translate for a period of time so they have said stockpile to ensure their jobs are secure (steady/slow flow). At least any smart translator should do this to ensure release rate is steady and they don't displease their WebNovel employers and the customers.
It's just that they revealed now that they had this many translated so people are probably not as happy about it. What really drove me to spit at this practice is that WebNovel essentially banned translator(s) for doing this same exact practice on Patreon, proceeded to enforce a restructuring via Translation groups, and a few months later, suddenly all the popular "Premium" novels get the same exact system renamed as "Privileged" where you have to indiscriminately follow WebNovel's tier system of ~2500 SS for 50 advanced chapters, where some novels have chapters that are less than two pages long, while some have way more content. On top of that, we also need to pay to unlock the chapters after paying for the advanced chapters to reveal themselves.
If 100% of the proceeds still went to translator/editor/author/etc, I wouldn't be as triggered. The fact that WebNovel is 'benevolently' giving those lowly content creators a platform to further monetize so they can justify taking a cut is what's shady. You can't tell me the timing for this after restructuring is pretty convenient. Sure some 'bad' translators got cut, but I can't really say that the current 'group' is any better for making some groups wait 3+ weeks for one of the top 10 novels to get their first chapter after transition and also promising a 'mass release' (where there has been none to date so far since transition) and we later find out they have a 50+ advanced chapters stockpiled :thinking:.
What I was saying before was: Don't Support this shiny new feature and let them know by boycotting it. Spread the awareness that you still have to unlock chapters as they release too even after paying for the privilege of seeing advanced chapters based on the tier you buy. Hopefully most people who find the prices to be insane don't buy into it and WebNovel hears the feedback from the majority in the midst of all this white noise.
Although I do think that as long as the minority of the group (The whales) buy the tiers, WebNovel will assume their feature is supported by the customers and instate this as a permanent feature without looking into maybe adjusting their pricing to make it more alluring to a wider audience.