• Suggestions
  • Remove the ability for Author's to delete reviews

For author's being able to delete reviews they don't like just confounds me. This should never be the case, there is a like system in place to judge the reliability of the review. If the author's have that much power over the reviews there's no trust left in the site's reviews. What would be the purpose of the reviews anyway? I want to read both the good and the bads reviews, and then make a decision on whether to read the novel.

Background: I reviewed this novel called "Endless Path : Infinite Cosmos" with a 2.5 star, which for me was an okay novel. You would read it if you had nothing better to do. I stated how the story was good at first but severely dropped in quality after 200. Well apparently the author was so offended by this review that he deleted it. Makes me wonder what happens to all the 1 stars and 2 stars then.

    It's a shame genuine reviews and opinions of the book are being deleted.

    I guess, the book you gave genuine feedback is on a paid program, so intent on using the review system as secondary advertisement. Verbatim is worth its weight in coins.

    It does build distrust in the review system. As a reader myself, I'd want to make an informed decision, so will look for both kinds of feedback.

    Ultimately, the content will eventually speak for itself.

    I hope this doesn't stop you from expressing your genuine view on stories. Don't stop what you're doing.

    Just as authors need the praise, we also need the constructive to understand what else we can explore or maybe some concepts needs revision to make the story more generally appealing. This is what reviews are to writers like myself, validation and opportunity.

    WhiteDevil as much as I do agree with the fact that authors have been abusing the power to delete reviews, I still find use in it. I got a lot of unexplained 2-3 star reviews with just a bunch of emojis (like... a lot. if you clicked read more, you would actually need to scroll many, many times to get through it.) or, I would get reviews from people who've read zero chapters and offer very vague praise that I didn't want.
    even though those reviews did drag down my score for the most part, I wanted to have a review section with reviews that actually had a little bit of feedback to both reference & allow readers to read reviews that actually had value besides being spam. if I didn't have the ability to delete them, I would have to report it as spam (which is not even a listed option in the reports section besides "other"), and I doubt that webnovel would actually take much action against it since I'm not even a contracted author.
    so, although I do agree that authors shouldn't delete reviews to boost their rating/ego/whatnot, I still appreciate the existence of the function so that I can regulate spam.

    it really comes down to the problem of both authors wanting good ratings and readers not understanding that a review should be more lengthy (way longer than 140 characters) and address both the good and bad of whatever content they're reviewing. they use it for exp or just pure praise. the review system is honestly flawed, but then again, most other systems on webnovel also are. :/

      SorcererCat Wow my review contained very similar criticism. Look Im down for harem, but you don't have to have every girl in the story have a relationship with him. The story after 200 just devolved from action packed dungeon crawler to going inside the pants of one girl to the next, basically a gotta catch 'em all dating sim.

        WhiteDevil dat author deleted my 1☆ reviews too but he is not only one there is dis novel 'Dual Cultivation' where the author deletes the low-ranking reviews too

          yaoyueyi i do agree with u but in dis high ranking novels those authors (not all authors) r deleting every low-ranking reviews r getting deleted whereas the 5☆ emoji or 'THIS IS THE BEST BOOK' spams, r not. N those low ranking reviews did contain actual criticism and feedback about the story but u kno...
          The actual problem is the review system is flawed, like u said. Just hope dat webnovel team will see this thread @WEBNOVEL_OFFICIAL

            🤔 Not all high ranking authors do that. I think your post is a bit biased, just because one person does it, it doesn't apply for the others. There are those who do keep low star reviews and have a balance of both. If WN removes this feature then authors will be constantly bothering the staff to delete the spam reviews again 😅

            The author to the book you mentioned has a history of deleting reviews too 😅 So your not the only one who experienced this.

              xeacarons yes, I know that the reviews with actual constructive criticism are being deleted, but what I'm trying to say is that there's the good and bad in the system, so in my opinion, it shouldn't be removed for the good parts of it. :)

                WhiteDevil When I first started reading this I really liked the dungeon crawl aspect, that he was learning how to be a blacksmith, and training to be a better fighter. However, after that it was EVERY girl in the LN jumping onto the MC train. Many of them are just there because he is strong. That is no different than a gold digger. I just wish that the author would have continued with the dungeon crawl and then moved on to the next world. The only girls that had any real relationship or story to them were only about 3 for sure to maybe at best 5 or 6. On top of that you have to do your BEST to ignore the fact that the MC and others in the LN are considered adults at only 14 yo. All I can do is chalk that up to be some weird culture difference from where the author is from.

                XOMatsumaeohana You are right, and wrong as well. I have this power, and never used it. There is a simple reason to that, I don't care. I know my story, and I know what I want to write. People will read it, as long as you produce quality, releases and whatnot.

                So whether I have 3 or 5 stars on webnovel? means shit. Nothing at all. You have authors post their own fake reviews (With different accounts mind you). You have bots spamming reviews. You have angry people that give you 1 star reviews, just because they didn't like 1 aspect. Not taking under account any of your quality, stability and so on.

                Deleting that stuff or not? Dude, read the novel, and you know whether it's shit or gold. That is my honest view on this. Reviews on webnovel mean nothing. There are so very few people who will give you an honest review. Which is good of course, but then use comment section for that. In my view, reviews are just useless here. And you have less stress, if you stop worrying about them. All the best guys :D

                  DarkRay I would even argue that the day your story starts receiving lots of random nonsense reviews with emojis or whatever along with maybe even some contentious ones or 1-stars, it means that your story is successful enough by WN standards to actually get people trying to drag you down or rain on your success. It's unfortunate that happens, but at the same time, if you believe in your work and appreciate the true readers and supporters you have, those reviews are simply nothing.

                  Then again, maybe it was just me who was actually sorta excited to get my first nonsense 1-star review from someone who didn't read a single chapter and disliked the genre by itself. It was pretty funny lol. But then again, if an author gets a lot of these, I can certainly imagine it would be an annoyance to say the least.

                    Chryiss I'd say, that depends on your mindset. I didn't write 300 chapters, with a weak mindset. I also got people talking shit, that novel never supported. Being an author, is not easy guys. I'm sure that those who work hard, and spend hours upon hour on chapters, can agree.

                    To answer the original question of this post, because I just ranted till now. Remove it, I don't care whether this thing exists, and I'm saying this as an author. These days new authors are racing to get more reviews, instead of focusing on their novels really. I've been here long enough to see all of this, and qidian is not a nice environment for authors. This site is overfilled with shit. Any idiot can start a novel and fill the space, drop it after 1, 2 or 5 chapters AND NEVER DELETE IT! Because there is no way to do so, after so many years. The inkstone has plain text only. In this day and age, it only supports plain text. You get this shit with premium stuff, where they charge people like mad, and people pay! I just sit back, and enjoy.

                    Seriously though, the best thing to do, is just focus on your stuff.

                    4 days later

                    XOMatsumaeohana yes whn i said authors from high ranking novels i didnt meant dat all of the author does dat (i m going to edit it now so ppl dont mistake dat again) but some of the authors are using dat power to remove all the low rating reviews not just einloin (i saw another one too) n u said dat

                    XOMatsumaeohana If WN removes this feature then authors will be constantly bothering the staff to delete the spam reviews again

                    but u guyz dont delete the 5☆ spam reviews with lotz of emojis n " THIS IS BEST NOVEL" reviews...and if u guyz cant bother the WN stuffs thn y we can report comments??? Now dont tell me dat WN doesn't bat a eye on dis kind of reports from readers, there r more readers thn authors too.

                      yaoyueyi yeah but dis thingz actually made me not to read reviews anymore if the novels doesn't hav one bad review thn itz just toooo perfect for me. I now only read those novels which arent dat popular now; those novel hav genuine reviews with both bad and good pointz from the readers. And i also read the novels which my friend recommends in discord...
                      Just wanted to say that i lost hope in dis review section in WN

                        DarkRay damm i going to read ur novel now!!! I like dis kind of authors!!

                          DarkRay can i get the title of ur novel plz? i searched ur account but there is no novel under ur account ig dis is ur other account

                            xeacarons

                            I tried solving that problem by handing myself a four star review, which is lower than the average. Since that one ended up first it kind of looks better.

                            Deleting reviews is a mess though. I agree on that.

                            My attitude on this is to look and if I see a review that is simply random characters to reach the minimum for a review (obviously simply posted for the rewards), then and only then will I delete. Otherwise my position is that it is a person's opinion and regardless of whether or not I like it it devalues their opinion if I delete it.

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