RebeccaJWW How is it a privilege to pay twice?
The privilege Chapters. Explanation based on what is known so far.
Webnovel! Do the honourable thing and refund those spirit stones your loyal readers spent on your misguided privilege scheme.
RebeccaJWW I don't Like it at all!! I lost 500ss just like that!! What the hell?! What privilege? This is a scam! I want my ss back! Don't fvck with me!! I stockpile my ss to read spree in the future, but you just use PRIVILEGE as a tool to rip off my ss?! Don't make me hate you, Webnovel!!!
Curse you!!!!!!
So let me get this straight, privilege chapters is just another way of saying instead of letting translators set up a patreon account, we are going to let you access chapters early on with Spirit Stones. (In which makes more money for Webnovel over translators which is your core of your company.) But since it is a seperate "account" you will have to unlock it again when it truly releases. But wouldnt this "privilege" really screw with people if that translator decided to suddenly stop translating or you guys from webnovel decide to do a mass release.
SusshiRoll The books chosen all have considerable stockpiles, so the release rates will be stable. Mass releases can continue to be released to regular readers. Privilege Readers simply are X chapters ahead of the masses. They also enjoy the mass releases.
See yesterday's TGIF, quite a number of Privilege books were part of it.
CKtalon but why can’t Webnovel just allow translators to setup a patreon account over doing the privilege chapters? Does translators have no say in any of this? If they do and this was their idea than I take back what I said above.
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SusshiRoll The book is not the translator's. There are other involved parties, the content owner (Webnovel's company), the author. It's not fair for the translator to take everything, and not give the fair share to the author and the copyright holder. After all, a translator can be replaced, but the author and copyright holder can't.
CKtalon That's much better. This should've been implemented since the beginning, there would have been less angry customers. And I still think spending a substantial amount of SS just to have the privilege to unlock and not to read the advance chapters is stupid, and a bad business model, but at least the explanation is clear so people know what they're paying for before they can decide for themselves whether or not it's worth it.
There's another section that needs to be rephrased to prevent people from feeling like they've been cheated. On the Privilege page where the amount of SS is shown per tier, the header says "Read X advance chapters", the word "READ" is definitely misleading. It needs to be changed to the word "UNLOCK". Because that's what the customers will actually get in return for paying the fees, the privilege to unlock, not to read the advance chapters. Please change that too.
Yess this scam really shit ... 250 ss just for 5 new chapter to read what a hell so expensive for just 7 to 8 page only and the coz normal just 6 to 7 as.....
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CKtalon I disagree. No party in this deal is replaceable. Neither author, copyright holder, or the translator. The translator is just as vital as the author for implementation of a consistent standard or quality of translation... as well as other factors such as release rate. Not every translator is equal for every novel.
Customers are not necessarily replaceable either. Each stakeholder needs to be held to the highest standard, equivalently when WN is making it's decisions.
Otherwise, this outrage will repeat in a different form. Instead of readers WN will lose translators or contracts with authors or supporters that provide vital income to the company.
Any changes, even such as privilege needs to be executed with the most optimal amount of care relative to its effect on the company's bottomline.
Throwing out an arbitrarily bad system such as this one and enraging all these stakeholders is not the way to go.
Phantasma_ No, translators are replaceable. Although I would like to say no (after all I am a translator and I obviously wish to be irreplaceable), it is the truth. Good translators are hard to replace, but they are still replaceable if you find a translator as good as the original one, whether one can be found is another thing. There have been many books that have been picked up by translators midway. Quality might drop, quality might increase. It's a mixed bag, but it just means that the translator can be replaced.
Even in professionally translated books, like the the Three Body Problem trilogy, the middle book was translated by another translator, before the famous Ken Liu continued the third part. But the author cannot be replaced.
Why? Because the author is the one who even wrote it, without his ideas, his writing, there wouldn't be any work for the translator to work of. If the translator writes something, they become an author, not a translator.
Actually, Privilege now gives money to the translators without switching to a royalty agreement. So they do get additional pay beyond their fixed rates. So it's actually going to be a popular choice. Previously, translators were just translating at their contracted speeds since there's no incentive to go beyond the requirements, which is also why they can sometimes disappear.
Thus, I'll just drop all the translated books in my inventory and read the original novel only. Why should I waste my ss for some expensive things? Not worth it. 
500ss gone. I want to read a comic to my heart content as the comic is not advancedly available on the website. Now, everything back to square one. Good job in makes my expectations dropped into the gutter.
My only source for leisure times became one of my nightmares.
SoybeanTheBlackCat You're not forced to buy the privilegied chapters though?
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RebeccaJWW Thank you for this recap. I was getting confused by this program.
I really wish Webnovel was the one to inform us. Not to take away the awesome insight you've given, but it would provide definite reassurances of how this program works when details come out of the horse's mouth.
They really need a PR person who has the balls to stand before us and go, "Ok readers. Here's a new thing we're intending to rollout..." This person would gather feedback to their office for consideration and be the site's voice to the people. Kind of crappy they don't have this.
I eat my words. My screen just refreshed and I saw CK on the thread.
TheDummy no, you aren't forced to buy the privilege pack. It's just that isn't really well described. Most people would assume that if they buy the privilege pack, you would buy the extra chapters. Not buy the right to purchase the chapters. So it's a little shady. But it is everyone's individual choice on if it is worth it to them. I personally would rather wait than pay 60SS per chapter just to access it early. But that's because I have so many novels on here that I can't spare SS unless I make a giant purchase.