Now every update is not free?
Ebu8b question to ask isn't how many premium chapters there are in rtw. But if rtw is still releasing the guaranteed 7 chapters free every week. As those 16 chapters are suppose to be the extra premium/patreon chapters. I'm letting rtw stockpile atm so idk if it has kept to the 7 free a week or not. But if it has idk why u mad when they keeping their promise.
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LtBeefy There is a slight difference between Patreon chapters and Premium chapters. Patreon chapters usually have a consistent number of chapters locked away at all times. As soon as one more gets added, the oldest one gets released for free. With Premium anywhere from two to three chapters get added to the locked away content every day, and only one is released for free. What this does is make the free readers fall further and further behind the Premium users every day. Nitpicky, I know, but there is a difference.
ImperfectInfinity premium isn't making readers fall behind. It's just making reader realize they were already behind if they weren't donating on patreon. Take rebirth of guardian. On patreon you could get like 20+ chapters ahead of current release. But if you didn't donate on patreon you wouldn't know you could be 20 chapters behind some people. Premium just taking those patreon stockpiles many people didn't know about and is now dangling juicy reading in front of them. And it makes people mad because they aren't use to seeing chapters but having to pay something for them. As to them chapters they see here are all free chapters.
ImperfectInfinity if all the tler promised people is 1 free chapter a day. If they are fulfilling that why does it matter they are releasing 2 premium chapters? They are giving for free what they said. 1 free chapter a day. Now, if tler isn't keep promise of the free chapters and releases all chapters as premium that's a different story.
LtBeefy Perhaps that is true; again, I was just making a point in response @WEBNOVEL_OFFICIAL 's argument that we need to support the translators somehow, making it sound like this was the only way. I still maintain that a subscription model would be a less predatory means of monetization though. Then can even tie translator/editor/author bonuses to those that get a lot of traffic if you worry that it will disincentivize those that work harder to produce quality content. I also argue that tying those bonuses to quality rather than quantity the way the premium model does would make for a better reading experience.
I seriously dont get the point of mentioning inflation here..yes inflation happens when theres too much money in circulation at once resulting in increased prices and stuff..but we dont hv a same system here, real life money gets circulated around from one hand to another, they dont disappear..the more money produced the more economy inflates..here we hv a system of ss which we use to unlock chs ahead and after that they disappear, they dont move around from one person to another they are just used like a one time thing...
As an analogy of what qidian is doing here -- > You get paid in ur account by doing some job montly/daily etc but u dont use the money u save it but suddenly u get a phone call from the job --"Oh! it seems like u hvn't been using the money we hv paid u so we are taking them back..Hv a nice day" ..Qidian is not distributing the ss freely we do something to earn be it login,voting,invites etc and thats our pay for it and we are just saving it..how the hell that turns into hoarding resulting in inflation..SS are one time thing unlike real money, they are not the same so dont bring the issue of infaltion into this..Its just forcing us to spend the ss continuously even when we dont want to simply bcuz of the fear of expiration.
LtBeefy I unlocked 7 premium chapters of RTW. Now I don't have any of free chaps for the week. Would You still be trying to persuade me that I have free chaps?
ImperfectInfinity novel quality drops readership drops. Thus quality is still important regardless.
As for saying it's predatory practice. You read chapters for free. It's just like any f2p game. Game is free to play but ifbyou want the ultra uber weapon you jave to pay for it. It's called business and the model isn't anything new or somethings that's going away.
Also subscription model can only work if there are enough subscribers to make up the volume. I mean you see all the hate over advance chapters being added here. Just imagine if they made it fully behind a subcruption. The outrage would be 100x times worse because all the free readers will be pissed as hell more than now.
Century want to do a subcruption model they have to ease the readers into it. And this premium model seems in my view a step in doing so. I won't be 2 surprised if in 6months to a year they add in addition to premium a premium+ subcruption kind of thing. But they have to wait for the heat of premium to die down and let people get use to it before they shake things up even more.
OldManDuotian so you chose to read ahead the free release rate. They promise 1 free new chapter a day. They never promised you'd get 1 free chapter a day of you read ahead into premium chapters.
From this alone seems like you never donated to read patreon chapters. I've donated to patreon and read 20 chapters ahead of a novel. And afterwards when ibdont donate I had to wait while they released 20 chapters before I could finally read for free again. It was my choice to read ahead of what was free. Just ad what you did now.
LtBeefy It is making an insurmountable mountain for new readers to catch up on. If you were reading a premium novel from day one then you can just keep up with it via the free ss or a few extra by buying them. Anyone who tries out a premium novel a month down the line though will suddenly hit a wall of about a hundred chapters locked off. This is an exaggeration for now, but as premium matures this could become a reality. There will be people who encounter this issue, and rather that spending a unreasonable amount of money (my opinion here, you are free to disagree) to unlock what could be hundreds of chapters, will instead just try to find other ways to continue reading i.e. dummy accounts or piracy. People are willing to pay for something if they think it is reasonable, that's why even though you can watch almost every movie for free online people still pay for movies, but that only holds true to a point.
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ImperfectInfinity how's that different from having 100 chapters locked behind patreon? Ever donate for btth? He had like 200 chapters locked behind patreon. It just that if you didn't donate or care to look at patreon you wouldn't know about those 200 chapters. Only difference here is everyone will now notice those chapters. So the situation you described of having hundred of chapters locked has happened before in many novels. Btth, de, war sovereign
LtBeefy Perhaps, though out side of Release that Witch (and even that is pushing it) I do not see any of the novels in the top 50 as quality writing. Granted there are a few that I have not given a chance yet, and quality is subjective so I get it if you disagree, but I do not think that this model encourages quality. When I was in college one of my professors asked the class to write a ten page essay, then cut it down to two, and I'll be damned if the two page essay wasn't better than the ten page one. With this method do you truly believe anyone who writes for Qidian would have the same revelation? Repetition plagues the webnovel industry, and I believe it to be for this exact reason.
My argument is that I have a moral opposition to the business model. Saying that it already exists in other mediums, it works, and it is not going away does not undermine that argument. I find it just as reprehensible in video games.
Perhaps you are right when it comes to the subscription model, though I have seen many a person on many a thread say that they would be willing to support such a service.
I'm for monthly VIP, as for cost 15$ - 30$ would be fine.
Ugh... U guys... I just want to read,,, as long as there is 1/2 free chapter a day its OK, as for premium,,, just pay it if u want it, if not, then wait... Its not like they stop with free chapter? correct me if im wrong?
LtBeefy God no! I felt like BttH and DE suffered from the same issue of quantity over quality I keep harping on about. Part of the reason 200 chapters were locked away was probably because they were so easy to translate due to the same sentences appearing in almost every chapter with little change; sometimes twice in one chapter! Besides, my argument is more that it will make readers look elsewhere for the same content if it appears to be inaccessible the way they do now, and unlike locking it behind Patreon, there are other ways to get the content they want. If you look at what some people are saying on the threads, apparently there are already websites dedicated to copying and pasting the premium chapters, and Qidian will end up wasting a ton of energy trying to shut one down only to have two pop up in its place. Also, there are the people who just have a bunch of dummy accounts who will work around the system that way.
LtBeefy they promised 1 free a day. So. Where is my 1 free a day? Nowhere. Oops? So if I want to continue reading I must forever pay from this moment.
I prefer real, complete premium, per month for example to have access to all. I do not like sh*tty system to pay up to 300$ for 1 novel of 800 chaps of middle leight. For this sum I can buy up to 10 REAL books with pro proofreading, not scrap chaps with mistakes.
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LtBeefy Let me just say as a conclusion here that it was genuinely enjoyable discussing this with you. You make some great points that I have to concede have merit, and I am glad that we could have a civil discussion about our viewpoints on the issue. I have been craving someone with some sense to challenge me on this and see what the other side would say in response. I feel more informed now thanks to you. I'm glad to see not everyone looks at a difference of opinion as an attack on their character.
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ImperfectInfinity yup good chat. And yea premium thing isn't perfect and many problems with it still. But may be my view is partly better cause I've always kept in my mind that in like other novel sites qidian is a business and businesses goal is to turn a profit. This it's hard 2 surprise me with things if you keep that in mind. And yes here you'll problem see me take the unpopular side a lot because i feel need to try and view things rationally in the view of business.
Personally on what I prefer is a different matter hehe. Prefer if they stayed with 4 stones or watch an ad.
Sighs, 6am I need to head to sleep.
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LtBeefy Exactly right. Business is business even if business is the worst.