Webnovel.Forum

Lightnovel71 I don't think you know what "held for ransom" actually means. No one is actively or physically putting a gun to your head, threatening you or your loved one to pay up for the chapters. True, what MyLittleBrother is doing is unethical, abusive, and exploitative. You have every right to be angry at his antics. But you're not going to die just because you don't get to read Chapter 302. And he's not holding them at ransom, he's bloody slacking off and disappeared somewhere without bothering to update his story or inform his readers what happened or where he went. That's not ransom, that's him being irresponsible. More than likely, he just hasn't written Chapter 302 and beyond at all. Writer's block? Real life? I don't know. I honestly don't care.

And I don't know if you meant to say Privilege system or Patreon system. Because Patreon system doesn't reset you to the starting point. Unlike Webnovel's Privilege system, Patreon automatically deducts money from your Paypal or bank account every month, and you are forever subscribed until you cancel it. Webnovel is different because it automatically cancels your subscription and you have to renew it every month.

If you are complaining about the Privilege system, then once again you completely misunderstand what the Privilege system is if you are complaining about having to "pay for them again." Well, no, you are not paying for new chapters. You are paying to read 50 (or 10) chapters ahead of everyone else. I don't know what MyLittleBrother is doing, but this is less the fault of the Privilege system and every bit his fault for abusing the system, especially if he is charging people to read blank chapters. You can report him (go to Discord and talk to CKTalon or one of the admins or moderators). Obviously you don't demand for the government to scrap the police just because a few police officers are corrupt. You report the corrupted police officers. This isn't to say the Privilege system is perfect - there are a lot of complaints about it, and I understand why people hate it.

However, a lot of complaints illustrate that the consumers had no idea what the privilege system is before they paid for it. Like you - if you think for some reason you are paying for chapters you already read, then you have misunderstood the system. You are paying to stay 10 chapters ahead of everyone else. If MyLittleBrother hasn't updated at all, that is his fault. The onus lies on him to update. The Privilege system doesn't do anything, it's just a tool for writers to make money, and in this case it's perfectly clear that he has been abusing it, especially if he has been charging people for 50 privilege chapters while posting 15 blank ones. He's cheating you guys by charging you for a product that he failed to deliver.

If you paid for 10 Privilege Chapters, it just means you get to read until Chapter 270. That's all. Until MyLittleBrother decides to update his story (and he might never, considering that his last update was October 5th, almost 2 months ago), all Privilege does is ensure you are at Chapter 270 while non-privilege readers are at Chapter 260. The moment he updates, non-privilege readers get Chapter 261 while you get Chapter 271. That's all privilege gets you. It does not unlock you Chapters 300 to 315. Privilege does not buy you Chapter 302, especially since MyLittleBrother obviously has not even bothered to write it yet.

Again, removing Privilege is not a fair solution, and you just punish all writers as opposed to MyLittleBrother, who is the main culprit here - see my police officer example above. What about the writers who deliver? Those who make sure their readers get all 50 Privilege chapters? Should they be punished too because of one MyLittleBrother? Punish those who exploit the system, not every single writer.

Of course, if you have a better alternative that can replace Privilege and allow authors to earn a bit extra and receive more support, then feel free to offer it, but until you can do that, you can't just remove Privilege.

Lightnovel71 Ransom is defined as "a sum of money or other payment demanded or paid for the release of a prisoner (noun) or "obtain the release of (a prisoner) by making a payment demanded (verb)". Unless you are claming that chapters are prisoners, which makes no sense, the author is not holding chapters back for ransom.

Lightnovel71 Something won’t be given up until payment is made.

Obviously? Are you actually complaining about having to pay for a product? Otherwise you might as well complain that every single service or commercial industry is ransoming customers. That boxed sushi or bottled water is already packed there inside the counter, but you can't just take it until you pay for it. So the supermarket is holding its products ransom? The book is already published, but you can't just take it out of the bookstore and open the plastic wrap unless you pay for it. Is the bookstore holding all its books ransom then? Amazon has a warehouse where all its merchandise are stored but they won't deliver them to you until you pay for them. Is Amazon holding all of its wares ransom then? When games are released on Steam, you don't get them until you purchase them (by the way, some games cost a bit more if you decide to buy early access). Is Steam holding the games ransom?

So unless you are accusing the whole capitalist world of holding their products ransom, which makes no sense, no, nothing is being held as ransom. The chapters, like everything else, is a product that the author labored to produce. Of course he is demanding payment in return for you reading something he spent hours of labor to create. Early access is another form of service. Is it stupid? Maybe. But some authors actually do spend extra hours of overtime ensuring you get extra chapters ahead of time, and they are just requesting that you pay a bit extra for that overtime, or you could just wait like everyone else and read them when they upload the next chapter.

Accusing authors of holding their chapters ransom is either 1. you are accusing them of committing a crime or doing something unethically or 2. you are implying that you don't want to pay for early access. Early access is still a form of service or product. So if the author requests that you pay for it, he is in every right to do so. Yes, it sucks, but it's not unethical or a crime. He has to make a living, like every other service provider in the world. And if he fails to produce regular updates, which leads to the scenario where you're stuck waiting forever because you refuse to pay for privilege, the problem is not him holding chapters ransom but him simply being lazy and irresponsible. That's a different ethical problem, not unless you march into a bookstore and start yelling at the poor cashier for refusing to give you a book without paying for it.

Oh, and if you're going to complain that "I am willing to pay for it! This is a case where the book is for sale, but they refuse to sell me unless I pay extra! Therefore it's ransom!" Then probably a better analogy is membership subscription. Bookstores sometimes have memberships or clubs, so certain titles or books are sold only to members (some of which are early access, so they get sold to non-members maybe a few months later). You want to buy a specific book? Then sign up for membership and pay a yearly fee before you get acccess to it. Amazon Prime does the same thing - there are certain products only available to Amazon Prime members (who pay a yearly fee) that are not accessible to regular Amazon customers. So unless you are going to call membership services holding member-specific products ransom or a criminal activity, that doesn't make sense. These customers actually pay extra yearly, so they are entitled to certain things like early access to the latest Iphone, or early access to a book by some obscure author. The good news, fortunately, is that these retail giants usually have responsible producers and authors that don't just disappear off the Internet and stop updating their products and therefore leave you hanging like some of the Privilege authors do here. The thing is that privilege readers pay more. They pay extra monthly, more than you do. Therefore they are entitled to extra services, and one of those extra services is Early Access. Otherwise why would they bother paying extra? Don't you think it is unfair to the readers who pay more if you demand that everyone gets the chapters at the same time? Shouldn't the responsibility fall on the author to ensure he maintains a consistent release schedule instead of just disappearing and slacking off?

Lightnovel71 I literally gave you an example of early access - games on Steam. So yes, other industries do. I also gave you an example of certain bookstores that sell their books on early access to members who pay a yearly subscription fee. So yeah, the bookstore has the books up on display, but unless you sign up for membership, you can't buy those books and have to wait for a couple of months. I also gave you Amazon Prime as an example - early access to Iphone 8, for example, for members of Amazon Prime as opposed to non-Prime.

I didn't even mention Patreon, which is what the Privilege system is based off on in the first place. The only difference is that you don't pay twice on Patreon. Yeah, paying twice is stupid, but Privilege works more like a membership fee like Amazon Prime or the bookstore membership I mentioned above (the Book Club being one example) where you pay a yearly subscription, and then you pay for the actual product or book that you want to buy early.

So yes, there are industries that charge you extra to play a game earlier, or read a book earlier than everyone else. I literally gave you examples.

Is it bad? Probably. Do you have every right to hate it? Yeah. Is Webnovel the only one doing it? Hell, no.

I'm not arguing for the sake of it, pal. You are the one going off accusing writers of holding chapters for ransom. You are the one implying that we are unethical or greedy. We are not. Obviously I'm going to challenge that accusation. Or did you think writers are going to take such an accusation lying down? Don't get me wrong, I don't approve of what writers such as MyLittleBrother are doing, but there are plenty of other writers who aren't irresponsible or lazy. Of course they want to make a bit of extra money, and providing a service like Early Access helps them do so, while allowing readers who can't afford to pay extra to have an alternative path of waiting. It has been done on Patreon. They are not holding chapters for ransom, they are finding ways to reward readers who pay extra.