Webnovel.Forum

So I decided to use my energy stones finally! I tend to read female lead books but lo and behold all of the books that I could vote for (three in total) in the female lead section have male leads... And their romantic counterparts are also male. Now hear me out... Female lead voting section should be for female leads. Male lead voting section should be for male leads! Why are the male lead books encroaching into the female lead section I don't want to read any of those books. I'm here for my female protagonists. Just because the three books in the female lead section insinuate BL does not mean the may lead is not male. Move it over to the male lead section please. I want to read and vote for female main character books. Thanks Webnovel

It's not split by male and female lead, it's split by the target audience, many female readers like boylove novels (Bleh)

Mute when webnovel introduced the split between male and female books in the what’s next section, they received a lot of backlash from people saying “i’m male(female) and I read the female(male) books” so they clarified (at least one of the few people there that actually communicate in the forums) that it was in fact books with female leads in one section and male leads in the other, which at the time was true.
I guess they changed it at some point?

LastEmailDeleted

As I have stated previously on other threads about this, there really are only two ways to interpret this action by WN.

Either they're going back on their word and mis-using the term "female lead" after they've already agreed not to due to user backlash, or they're calling gay males "female", which is so much worse.

So at best, they're incompetent. At worst, they're wildly ignorant, sexist, and homophobic. But hey, good luck getting Webnovel to actually respond to this concern on their shithole of a website.

Clowniac yeah... this very shocked....and when is gay become female gender??? I feel like be trapped to giving energy power...

Mute but it is no? If you look at the header over the books for voting, one says female lead and the other male lead.... So it's not based on tastes cause they usually have a variety

WEBNOVEL_OFFICIAL Please try and sort this out it's really frustrating thank you.

Clowniac

I've got a question for you.

If you think this is a shithole of a website, what are you doing here?

Michael_Ryman

Because I am attached to a lot of the community, i like a lot of people on it, the engagement numbers are through the roof, and what works here works far better than any other site I've written on.

I was grumpy when I wrote my last post. The lack of transparency or communication from WN staff, as well as the company's continual disrespect for their readership are what frustrate me. The site and app are both pretty janky, and some of WNs business practices are pretty shady. But I love a bunch of the staff, and I believe they are all doing their best, and I believe in what this community is and could become.

Make sense?

Clowniac
Its pretty obvious on how they are interperating it. If you look at the Explore section "Female Lead" is just a romance section and many non romance female lead novels end up in the male lead section. They are going back on their word, Female Lead means targeted to a female audience.

Clowniac

Lol. You could probably dash off a convincing treatise arguing that the world is flat with one hand while writing your novel with the other.
So you were feeling grumpy, eh? I wouldn't want to get caught stealing apples from your sacred orchard.

Michael_Ryman

Haha, you know, I probably could, were I so inclined to try. XD

And you keep your hand outta my sacred orchard! Them's my apples!

(╯°Д°）╯︵/(.□ . )

Fenryr I got very disappointed when I saw in the explore section that female lead means "variation on romance, teen, or LGBT" and male lead meant everything else.
@WEBNOVEL_OFFICIAL change your headings. This is the international community in the 21st century; not seventh century China.

Manga is divided between Shojo (lit. Japanese for "girl") and Shonen (lit. Japanese for "boy") and I never see anyone complain about it, so why should webnovels be any different? BL/耽美 are considered Shojo in Japan as well.

So, when you choose female lead on your book, it's not to confirm that the central main character is female, but rather your target audience?

Veronica8

It is supposed to mean "female main character". WebNovel is using it wrong. Again. After already having people get onto them about it.

Clowniac I also felt that way.
There’s also the fact that we’ve been asking for strong and non-romance female lead novels.
So I was like: Do they think gay man are women? Boi many of my friends would feel so offended by this... wait, do that means they also think the only strong FL possibility is a gay man? And that there’s no way of not having no romance? What the shell?
Are they afraid of offending male readers by placing the BL novels on the male lead section? That’s so lame...

I feel offended not for there being BL in this pool but by what they being here and not there (the ML one) entitle...
@WEBNOVEL_OFFICIAL bad move...

They could just split the voting into romance vs adventures/miscellaneous. Although I'm not sure where the harems would fall...

YuanYang Because it's not about the genre style. Shojo and Shonen are what could be considered genres no? And we are talking about the gender/sex of the lead character. Which can be for many styles of novels. What you might typically find under Shonen will actually have female leads same for shojo with male leads. I want to read Female lead books like the energy stone option title says... Not BL MALE lead books just because it might be considered shojo? I mean are gay male leads female? I feel like saying that they are is an issue in itself no?