Some of novels, doesnt need ss to read, wth happening right now? Everything has been charged to read.

Some of it, Night Ranger, Perfect Secret Love, Evil Emperor's Wild Consort, Trial Marriage Husband...

    Yi_Wan Everything has been charged to read.

    Looked at them, you can watch ads. I don't get your problem.

      Yi_Wan So your problem is that the novels got better monetization through ads/4SS?
      What is wrong with that? Just watch the ad if you wish to save your SS. Translator, editors, author, web staff need to earn money with the novels.

      I thought they went the premium route and not the standard route with your initial post.

        try watching ads. that's works for me.

        You can wait till it free ... If you can wait. If can't then use SS or watch ads

        Ebu8b Just so you know, i asked a translator of one of those novels and it's pretty much confirmed that it's for getting ready to transition into full on premium in the near future. So yeah you don't need to berate the guy, he does seem to have some foresight or 6th sense haha. He can feel that something is coming...

          N0xiety It seems like you hate the Premium Program intensely. I can understand your concerns since no one hates free stuff. However, you should consider the side of the authors and translators. If all readers are unwilling to pay anything, how can they maintain their motivation to work in the long run? Asking for payment is not just for money, the ultimate goal is to build a positive model that connects readers and creators together, and make sure that all creators can be monetarily rewarded to continue with their lives, and even give them a chance to work full-time and have a stable future.

          If all readers just request free content, then the market will never mature. In the end, the readers will suffer the greatest loss - there is nothing to read at all.

          As a platform, we will try our best to give readers a chance to read for free, but we also need to ensure that creators can benefit in the long run.

            WEBNOVEL_OFFICIAL I don't hate premium that much actually. I do understand your reasons for doing the changes you are doing. But i don't like the way you are doing it. Like how you reduced check-in ss expiration from 90 days to 30 days just to reduce peoples hoard of ss right before you transition into premium. It's a business move, but that doesn't change the fact that it's a sh*tty move to do to your long time readers...

              N0xiety Hoard will lead to inflation. People could easily create many accounts and hoard a lot bonus SS. Then the market will be full of bonus SS transaction and less readers intent to support authors and translators by real SS. In long run, authors lost their motivations to do the global expenaions and probably I would lost my job since the global.project might be closed if no one pays at all lmao.

                WEBNOVEL_OFFICIAL except you're not giving us a chance for free reading.

                As a free user I get, on average, enough spirit stones to unlock one chapter a day.

                As a free user I also get one (or more, although we haven't seen "more" yet) free chapters a day.

                Under the current system, free chapters are NOT account specific, meaning that if I unlock one chapter ahead, then the next day the free chapter IS the chapter I just spent my daily spirit stones to unlock.

                based on this, we can conclude that spending your "free" spirit stones every day actually does nothing to give you more chapter unlocks. Now, once could argue that you can save your spirit stones and then binge read, I will address that along with how this system is bad even for casual paying customers in the next paragraph.

                So, let's say I save up a bunch of spirit stones (or buy them, same thing really), then I binge read 50 or so chapters. From that point on, if I don't want to spend more money I have to wait 50 days before the free unlocks catch up.

                So really, how are you giving free users a chance, you're not even really giving paid users a chance.

                  WEBNOVEL_OFFICIAL Still with the excuses... I can still create many accounts even if you reduce the expiration to 30 days... If i were to create 10 accounts, would i even need to hoard? I can just use each account to unlock one novels daily premium chapters since every account can earn 20 ss per day. See? If you don't want people to abuse the system, then do something about duplicate accounts instead of reducing the expiration time of check-in ss... Since reducing the expiration of check-in ss to 30 days won't change anything. It's pointless... Oh right, it will change something, it will push people who don't want to bother with multiple accounts to create multiple accounts instead. Simple logic right?

                    WEBNOVEL_OFFICIAL You and EA are definetiley Chosen in the Hypocrisy sect for so tactfully omiting the huge profut marvin pf Quidian itself while singing praises about reader-author relationship

                    N0xiety
                    Nah he was already salty with the minimum monetization, nobforesight there.

                    WEBNOVEL_OFFICIAL Did you guys ever thought about a subscription model like spotify? Everytime someone mentions that it gets ignored, but instead I only see Qi staff defending Premium. I thought the idea about the beta was that the community can help to improve the system or give new ideas.

                      Threetimess less money to win

                      But more people will stay, the premium system won't sustain them for long. People will surely switch to pirate sites, if they don't get an easy solution.

                        Ebu8b I like your suggestion to have a subscription. I have one for netflix, and it's far better than paying for whatever nonsense tv content from my country, it's unlimited, and I'm familiar with the concept of a subscription. Though I've never seen an example of this done successfully for web novels.

                        On the other hand, this Premium-kind of pay-per-chapter system is often seen for Chinese web novels from Chinese publishers besides Qidian, like zongheng and 17k. It's not just a Chinese concept, there's also a western company called Tapas, who publishes original English web novels, and they're doing this too. The only difference between theirs and webnovel's premium, is that they don't provide free Gold Coins (their equivalent of SS). Korean's popular Naver web novels charge Naver coins to read locked chapters. There are probably other publishers from Korea and Japan that do this. To me, it looks like they're using a tried and tested system that has worked over different countries and cultures, that ethically pays translators, editors, and authors. This system isn't a strange and foreign concept to industry people in online literature over the world.

                        If I was a web novel author, I would like to get paid per chapter for something I created. After all, book authors get paid per unit too, so I think it's fair. As a freelance translator, I would like to get paid a fixed amount per chapter (just my preference) because it's not my creation and i don't like the idea of holding my rent money responsible for a crappy plot twist that I didn't write. However, I need to be paid a decent amount per chapter that will reflect my word count, my degree in Chinese and translation, and my professional experience in language/literature related work experiences... but also pay my bills because I'm doing this full time. I know its a difficult balance... What do you think?

                        N0xiety How would a company do that exactly? By making it very difficult for people to sign up? Or, trace IPs? Would either option save qidian from the problem of SS inflation without consequences?
                        I hope you can share another problem with the Premium or think of a better suggestion that qidian has the power to implement.

                          Paperplane So? I don't claim that i have all the answers. That's their job to find out. But one thing is for sure, f*king over their long time readers is a bad move.. Couldn't they just allow for their long time followers to use the ss they hoarded over months? Webnovel says that they are worried about inflation, but how can people with 1800 ss cause inflation? It will run out pretty quick if there are more premium novels. It's not that big of a number... But on the other hand if they don't solve the multiple account problem, hoarders will be the least of their problem. People can just create dozens of accounts and afford the premium chapters with daily missions alone! A single account would be enough to pay for the daily premium chapters of a single novel. So what was even the point targeting hoarders first before they even solve the multiple account problem? It is pointless and all it does is piss people off. That's what i'm sayin...

                            Paperplane How would a company do that exactly? By making it very difficult for people to sign up? Or, trace IPs?

                            Easiest solution sub system and no SS system anymore. New accounts wouldn't help anymore and people then can decide between free reading (1 chap per day) or subbing (2 or more per day) without any stupid mid way.
                            The premium way will just scare alot of people away (already did).

                            Paperplane Korean's popular Naver web novels charge Naver coins to read locked chapters.

                            Difference here is that between free readers and coin user the distance always stays at 3 chapters and doesn't increase e.g. ToG.

                            Paperplane western company called Tapas

                            And they sell email adresses to ad companies, seems like it doesn't work fine for them.

                            Paperplane I would like to get paid a fixed amount per chapter

                            And they still can get paid per chapter with a sub system.

                              N0xiety Did you even read what I wrote? I never claimed you had all the answers, but I did think about what you said and offered two solutions! Crying "FIX THIS!" is unreasonable here, considering the ethics of tracing IPs and the counter-productiveness of making it difficult to sign up. Honestly, the multiple account thing seems like a long-term problem many companies around the world have probably faced for many years, so (not to diss qidian but) I'm not sure how the company can suddenly find a solution for this. If people want to create smurf accounts for SS, they will. I bet they must feel helpless about this...

                              Mmm about the inflation thing, I can understand hoarding makes the premium redundant, so I'm guessing they want a clean slate for all readers to prevent people from being inactive like before? I say 'like before' because to have hoarded 1800 ss, how many days of inactivity must that have been? I assume their goal here to 1. create regular activity on the website 2. push for premium and equal pay for freelancers and creators. Yeah that'll piss people off for sure...

                                Ebu8b About the multiple accounts solution and pay per chapter reply...
                                A subscription would definitely stop the multiple email problem, but I'm not confident it will pay well enough, and I'm not confident qidian will be willing to test this out, since no other online literature service has done this yet (to my knowledge). Would an author get paid per subscriber's click? Or, would unpopular novels be carried? I ask because I don't know.

                                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.

                                Oh I didn't know Tapas did that for their ad revenues. I have seen ads on there when I try to earn chapters for gold coins. Perhaps, Qidian should cut out ads all together, to avoid this. Nevertheless, they are an existing Western publisher that uses the same system.

                                  Paperplane Inactivity? Firstly for hoarding alone you need to check in every day and vote every day. So that's 3 pages of visit atleast. Secondly, i have never been inactive and hoarded by watching their ads. I follow 22 novels so you can imagine more than a few having video ads... Now i'm getting rewarded for watching their ads like this. Don't you think i should be pissed off atleast a little?

                                    N0xiety I did say... "Yeah that'll piss people off for sure..." and you have the right to be.
                                    Err didn't think that part through, but you do realise I'm the dark on why they've done that too right? I thought I made it very clear that my assumptions are unfounded lol

                                    Paperplane no other online literature

                                    Wattpad, Kindle Unlimited, Scribp, Playster, 24Symbols, Overdrive (I think they went the total free way with only ads now, if I am not wrong), Amazon Lending Libary (similar to audible);
                                    Sub systems and authors get paid per chapter/book (one time fixed + ads) or clicks + ads.

                                    Paperplane Or, would unpopular novels be carried?

                                    Well the unpopular novels already suffer. Unpopular ones earn 20$ per chapter while the popular ones get 50$+ (paid by Qidian). So they already don't earn same, that aspect wouldn't change and therefore no carry needed. I wish I could find the interview, where a german author (with a small fan base) explained how that system brought him more money than his blog with patreon.

                                    Paperplane I thought the gap was 10 chapters.

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

                                    Paperplane should cut out ads all together

                                    Ehm there is a difference between having google ads and selling the email addresses to ad companies so that they can spam you full with emails. As long as Qidian stays with just google ads and doesn't sell the email adresses, there shouldn't be a problem.

                                      Ebu8b All but Wattpad look like they're successful sub businesses for completed ebooks, not web novels or translated web novels. Maybe they should consider it after there's a decent amount of stories fully translated. That could be huge. Imagine downloading your fave books like kindle unlim... I had that sub and I enjoyed it. Now about Wattpad premium, it does look successful, but they released in October 2017, which is only a few months ago, and its the only one I now know of that has a subscription for online web novels. Again, if I was a business in this industry, I'd back the universal, long-running, tried and tested system.

                                      Ok to every other point you've raised.

                                      I told you that I liked the subscription idea. I care about fair pay for translators, editors, and authors, so if the subscription idea works with that, then they should beta test it. However, I'm also saying that, I can understand why qidian chose this option over the sub. Premium makes sense if you look at other businesses in web novels.

                                        Ebu8b

                                        They don't care about their readers in their eyes we're cows milk =/

                                          WEBNOVEL_OFFICIAL Before I rant, let me make it clear that I believe there is no such thing as a free lunch. Webnovel has been offering free spirit stones, chapters, etc. to build a following so that they could later make money off us. They had to build that following first, and now that they have done so they are moving into phase two, which they had planned all along. Fair enough. Businesses exist to make money; if anyone thought Webnovel was altruistically giving them stories to read and expecting nothing in return then they are not thinking clearly.

                                          In addition, I do not think that a boycott is the answer. Unless the majority of the user base agreed to a boycott, which just will not happen, it will not work, and just hurt the community. Boycotts of electronic IP rarely, if ever, work. No matter what you say, there will always be people willing to support the thing you are boycotting and undermine your protest.

                                          My issue with this situation is that the premium model uses nonrefundable, virtual currency usable solely on one website. There are two problems to this:

                                          One, spirit stones are basically monopoly money that costs real money. You are less likely to think about how much you are actually spending when what you are spending doesn't actually look like money. It is the same reason casinos use chips instead of cash and video games with micro-transactions have their own virtual currency. And if you ever want to back out of spending money on the spirit stones, you can't get your money back. They could theoretically just connect a bank account or credit card to your Webnovel account, but that would make people watch real money go away with each transaction, which people would be less willing to do.

                                          The second issue ties to the first. Has anyone read the forums where people reveal personal information like age? A large portion of users are teens, who may not know how to be financially responsible yet. You can argue this however you want, but it is a fact that the human brain does not finish developing its prefrontal cortex (the decision making part of the brain) until the age of about 25. You can be addicted to anything: drugs, alcohol, food, video games, gambling, and yes even reading. This is why companies always gear advertising to younger audiences to try gain brand loyalty early on.

                                          You can say that the premium model is not that expensive, or that any reasonable person won't lose a ton of money on it, but it could prey on a specific group of people rather viciously. Mobile game marketers have called these people 'whales.' Rather than the model in place, I would be interested in seeing a subscription service at a flat rate where you get to read ahead for every book. That would be a less predatory means to monetize in my opinion.

                                          Here is the reason I believe Patreon, though flawed, is still the better option to support translators in comparison to the current model. If I want to give anywhere from $1-100 a month to support my favorite translator on Patreon I can do that because everything is not tied to the word count the translator pumps out. Patreon offers more reader agency and doesn't price people out of keeping up with the story. The way the premium method works you are building up a larger and larger pile of locked up chapters each day, releasing one for free and adding two to the premium bank, making everyone else fall further and further behind.

                                          I feel tying profit to word count can be a problem for the actual quality too. From what I understand this pay model is similar to the model they use in China. I used to wonder why some webnovels were so tedious to read, going on for thousands of chapters with constant repetition and very little plot/character development from chapter to chapter. At first, I just chalked it up to cultural differences, but now I can clearly see why this happens. This payment method does not encourage quality, edited content. It just pushes the authors, translators, and editors to pump out as much as possible as quickly as possible without a lot of quality control. The more fluff you add to your novel the more it can be monetized under the pay per word model.

                                          In the end, if you work for Webnovel then defending the premium model is in your best interests, and no one can blame you for that, but there are better ways to monetize.

                                            ImperfectInfinity

                                            Cough I like the premium model, because I could frankly not care what happens as long as I'm able to read novels that have a good translation speed and quality.

                                            Also wth is this about inflation that Qidian is on about? Unless they are going to let spirit stones be traded for things other then chapters then Inflation is a bullshit excuse. A currency like this has no real value in the first place, it's like saying Bitcoin is worth 7900USD rn. No it isn't, it may cost 7900USD for a single Bitcoin, but is it actually valued at that price? No, it has almost no material value currently until more places begin to adopt Bitcoin and allow it to be used.

                                              Exitiumm Inflation happens when there is too much currency among people, and more and more just keeps getting transferred to them.

                                              In real life, when the government prints out too much of their currency, and uses it to pay their civil servants, pay for construction projects, etc, this money enters the public domain. The amount of money that gets transferred around will mostly remain constant, while the government continues printing out money, pumping it into the public domain. This is what is called hyperinflation.

                                              Same thing on Webnovel. Qidian is currently giving SS for free and if there's no way to reduce the amount of SS among readers (through expiry) other than used for unlocking chapters, there will eventually be an inflation problem when users hoard their SS.

                                              This happens in games too. Since 'currency' is dropped by mobs constantly, a tax or way to ensure users will always be poor is introduced to prevent eventual inflation.

                                                ImperfectInfinity Patreon, though flawed, is still the better option to support translators in comparison to the current model

                                                I don't know if you already knew it or not, but the premium share is 35% translator 35% editor 15% author 15% Qidian. So it's not only about the translator, beside that Patreon takes 35 cent + 2,9% (of the total pledge) of every pledge.

                                                A self-made version of Patreon or a sub system would be better, especially that people then know better how much they spent.

                                                  Marksteele have you never donated to a patreon before? I have that problem all the time. Read 50 chapters ahead for a month donation. Don't donate next month and must wait till free releases catch up again.

                                                  Seems like u complaining cause u read ahead of what's free and expect to be able to read ahead for free with no consequences.

                                                    Ebu8b I knew they were using premium to pay everyone involved, but did not know the specific breakdown. I also mentioned right beforehand that I was in favor of the subscription model as well. 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 do like the fact that the premium model spreads the wealth to the editor and author, but again, a subscription service would do the same and not encourage adding fluff to the stories.

                                                    N0xiety asking qidian to solve multi account problem. Like asking cancer to be cured. Day that because multi accounts is a problem that has and still does plague many online companies. Don't see qidian being able to solve a problem so many others have failed to do so.

                                                    And for people who say track ips, easy as h*'ll to get around that.

                                                    Ebu8b premium scares people because they don't understand it and when they see any chapters on the site they want it free. Instead of the prem chapters being off site on patreon out of view of people those patreon chapters are now dangling in front of them. They are mad they aren't free cause they can now see them.

                                                    Amway this is how I view web novels chapters. They have 3 types.

                                                    1. Free chapters - says it all, free yo read, no ads or stones needed
                                                    2. Advanced chapters - cost 4 spirit stones or 30 second ad. Allows you to read ahead of the free chapters.
                                                    3. Premium chapters - formerly called patreon chapters now hosted on web novels. Allows you to read even further ahead the regular release. Cost 8-15 stones (hear it depends on chapter length)

                                                      N0xiety would you rather have 1 ad at the start or the dam annoying ads other tlers do that pip up in the middle of the chapter. Take liberspark, they have dam ads appearing in the text as you read. I use ad blocker there cause of that. Atleast here once u watch the ad it's gone

                                                        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.

                                                          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.

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