Piokilek It's not the same with Patreon. In Patreon when you pay the subscription fee you actually get to read the advance chapter as often as you want during your subscription period. This new Privilege system only gives you the privilege to see the titles of the advance chapters, but these chapters would still be locked. You will still need to pay the necessary amount of SS to unlock and actually read it. A lot of people didn't know this and got duped. They paid the Privilege fees thinking that's the privilege they were paying for, only to find out afterwards that it wasn't. That's what people are mad about.

      CKtalon I understand what you are saying but this is not a privilege. You don’t get an advantage here. In fact, the person buying the ‘privileged’ package pays more than double the amount of a typical person would if they were to just wait a couple of days, of course – depending on the novel that you are reading. When you get first class seats, you get preboarding, early check-in etc,. but you are SEATED in a completely different aisle, different experience; totally different experience than a ‘coach or economy class’. However, this is a very misleading tactic and I don’t quite understand your comparison of first class vs. Webnovel’s privilege package because the only difference that you get here is that you get the pre-boarding but in fact you are seated in the same damn economy aisle as everyone else. Of course, this type of scheme caters to the those who either don’t know what they are getting themselves into and don’t know how to spend smart or those who have the money to spend. Of course, it’s all subjective. Second, after you purchase the privileges and the author has completed the novel, privileges will ‘gradually expire’. If you are paying for these chapters, especially in that hefty amount that they charge – why do you lose what you pay for? Considering that a typical chapter cost between 3 – 9ss depending on the chapter that you are reading and its length – this is daylight robbery and its unethical. The customers are paying for a first class ticket with pre-boarding but you sit in the same economy aisle as everyone else. You don’t get anything SPECIAL – in fact, you lose more in the end.
       

          Cantiara It's exactly the same as Patreon. I am the author myself. I charge 5$ per 6 chapters there. You get access to only those 6 advance chapters, nothing else. If you want to read more then there is another tier, 10$ - 12 chapters. This privilege gives you access to locked chapters so you can unlock them. You are paying to gain access, not the chapters. It's like paying to get to VIP area in the club, but you still have to pay for the drinks there. The privilege only gives you access, nothing else. You are privileged to unlock the chapters earlier than others.

              xmdvix You get something special. YOU CAN READ EARLIER. Some people dont want to wait anymore and want to read the next chapters. This privilege system allows you to read earlier. Nothing else. You don't want to read earlier, then don't buy it. You can wait like everyone else. it's the same with Patreon advance chapters. Why people buy them instead of waiting? Because they want to read earlier! Cmon, how hard it is to understand. This is also support for authors. Why Patreon can be considered as support, but this Privilege System can't? Even if advance chapters on Patreon are overpriced, people buy them to SUPPORT the author.

                  Eventually this will turn into finally paying to read chapters, not like it's already happening. First everything was free to read, then you had to watch an ad, then you had to pay spirit stones for only a couple novels, then new chapters had you pay spirit stones for you to read more, then every novel had you paying spirit stones, then chapters that used to be free cost spirit stones.

                  Also @Piokilek you seem to be copy pasting your argument a bit, So I'll follow suit and copy you.

                  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.

                      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

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