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.

              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.

                      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.

                              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.

                                  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.

                                      Everything has a price - lyrics from price tag. LOL
                                      Authors and translators also needs to live so they need money for their work. They have families to feed. Life to live with.
                                      I once read that if you are good with something, never do it for free LOL
                                      In our world that being wealthy gives you a lot of choices, it really favors the rich.

                                      I'm not against anything cause everything changes in a blink of an eye. The free becomes not free, the release becomes slower than before, but in the end I still wanted it to be free LOL

                                      If they require a monthly subscription on it then I'll look for other site just like that.
                                      Business is business. Someone needs a profit. For those who can afford then pay for it,for those who can't, can afford but too thrifty, and those who really can't afford then look for another site. stay if you want, go if you want, pay if you want, don't pay if you want. Qidian will always be qidian.

                                      Now if you ask me then I stay as long as there is some free LOL
                                      Peace out man ✌

                                        takeshi_zaizen My unpopular novels will probably never see the light of premium. Invest your time to them now! Thriller Paradise, Spirit Sword Mountain, Sacred Ruins, RITF, and TIDE gogogo. Hahahahahaha

                                            LtBeefy I think a lot of people are mad because what used to be 3 chapters free a day became 1, and the SS costs spiked overnight. I would hardly call that a gradual transition. I think that if they had done this as a multi step process, this would have been a lot easier to swallow.
                                            Maybe over the course of 2 weeks the could have done the following:
                                            Day 0: Introduce pay per chapter length, Scale back release rate
                                            Day 7: Scale back release rate (from 3 per day to 2 per day)
                                            Day 14: Full implementation of premium

                                            Honestly, the more gradual the period between changes, the less people griping. And the scaling back of chapters would be seen as a translator decision and spread some of the heat to them.

                                              LtBeefy 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.

                                              Did you take that line out of context on purpose or didn't you read through all the texts.

                                              Paperplane If you're comparing this to naver, are you saying that the gap is too big wide between free readers and SS here? I thought the gap was 10 chapters.

                                              Ebu8b Nope it's increasing. I opened a thread where is asked that question. RTW had distance of 12 back then, now it's 16.

                                              I am not mad, just explained the difference between Navers premium and Qidians premium. Paperplane and I were discussing other sites with premium systems. So the increasing gap was important in that aspect.

                                              LtBeefy premium scares people because they don't understand it

                                              OldManDuotian 300$ for 1 novel of 800 chaps of middle leight. For this sum I can buy up to 10 REAL books with pro proofreading

                                              Or more likely because they get it and at the same time these people are asking for a sub system, ignoring them doesn't help the site on the long run, especially in the future when more novels become premium and free reader have to become premium users.

                                                          Wth guys, i thought this thread is dead! I havent check forum for a day. Why the F, you guys yelling each other here.

                                                          I dont hate premium, but disappointed toward something. They dont do some announcement for this. Now its ok, i love ads :'(

                                                            Now im walking aimlessy

                                                            I just need to patiently wait

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