• Questions

  • Addressing Your Complaints (Coins, Fast Passes, etc.)

Many people have quite a few complaints about the new system that WN is implementing. The same threads, same questions, and same misconceptions are made over and over and over again. So today, I will be addressing all the common questions/misconceptions with as much information as I know to clear up some of these issues.

1) What is the new system? (aka, what's new?)

  • Spirit Stones (SS) are renamed to Coins.
  • Coins, for the majority, are no longer free. The only way you can get coins for free is from inviting friends, which gives you 50 coins & 3 fast pass.
  • Fast Passes (FP) are introduced.
  • Points & Farming are introduced.
  • Membership is introduced

2) What do I do with Fast Passes? (and other info about them)

  • You get 3 FP per day for free with by just checking in, voting with Power Stone, and voting for Energy Stone.
  • FP unlock chapters regardless of length. But this doesn't mean that you will be unlocking 100 word chapters-- all contracted authors have to put out 1000 word chapters at minimum from now on. So, 1 FP = 5 coins, at a minimum.
  • To unlock a chapter with FP, just go to a locked chapter like usual, and under the blue button for using coins to unlock them, you'll see a separate smaller blue button to unlock with FP.
  • FP expire in 7 days, hence the name "Fast Pass". BUT!! Expiration is not a problem! To prevent your fast passes from expiring without putting them to use, just unlock chapters with them, even if you're not going to read. Chapters unlocked with FP don't expire.
  • You can purchase FP at the Store w/ points.

3) How do Points & Farming work?

  • You get points from reading certain novels that farming is enabled with. This includes ALL fanfiction, and many originals which have farming mode enabled.
  • To see if farming is enabled when you read on a novel, check for a gold pouch in the top right corner.
  • When you read these novels, you will collect points.
  • Points can be used to exchange for items at the Store (profile > store; on app). These items include FP, site discounts, and free reading.
  • The rate of farming if you're not reading, and just farming to get points is around 2000 points an hour (individuals have reported 1500-2000+ points). Every 4-10 pages, you get 2 points. If you're actually reading, the rate will be slower, but this is a quick way of getting points.
  • You can also get points for hitting certain time checkpoints in the reading checkpoints.

4) Membership?

  • Pay 7.99 for the 1st month & get $15.99 in value.
  • You obtain 500 coins at once. Then daily, through claiming/log-in, you get additional 310 coins in a month.
  • More features are coming soon.
  • Membership becomes active in 24 hours. If not, file report.
  • Expenses are deducted automatically by Google when it comes time for extension. You can go to Google Play store to cancel the subscription.
  • Monthly Membership Renewal price = $9.99. Prices differ based on local taxes.
  • Basically just read all the fine print before making any purchases.

Now, addressing more specific complaints/misconceptions:

1) Fast Pass is a bad system b/c they expire so fast, and I can't read every day!

As mentioned above, FP expire in 7 days. If you can't read within that time, just unlock chapters beforehand. Even if you're busy, this won't take more than 3 minutes of your time, along with checking in and voting. And so, by the end of the week, you can read 21 free chapters all at once.

2) My Coins keep disappearing!

All free/bonus coins expire. Free coins expire in 30 days. This is not anything new. WN has always been like this. Again, to prevent them from expiring & to solve this issue, the simple solution is to unlock your chapters beforehand. It's not that difficult or time consuming, so this problem really isn't even a "problem" at this point.

3) Why can't I buy anything at the Store even though I have enough Points?

Check to see if the item you want to buy is out of stock (e.g. 0/3000 = there are 0 items left out of 3k stock). That's probably the reason why.

4) I don't like this new system b/c I can't read as much with FP.

Actually, FP provide the same, if not more, free content as coins. In the past, you could get around 15-20 free coins for just checking in & voting. That is equivalent to around three 5-coin chapters, or even 1/2 chapters that are longer, and therefore more costly. With FP, you are now guaranteed to read 3 chapters for free-- so those chapters that costed 15 coins each b/c they were 3000 words long? You can now read three of those. That's just as much, if not more content.
There may be the argument that FP provide less b/c the weekly rewards/reading checkpoints/multiplier rewards give more free coins, but that's where the point system balances things out more. So in the end, you're pretty much getting the same amount of content-- it just pscyhologically feels like less b/c 3 FP feels less than 15 coins. Just think about it logically, and you'll see it's actually quite balanced. Even if you are reading less w/ this system, the most that's going to happen is that you'll cut 1/2 books out your library that you used to be able to read w/ free coins-- not that drastic of a difference.

5) I'm going to go move to pirate sites b/c screw WN!

When you read at pirate sites, you're hurting the authors, not WN. These authors are trying to make a living, and you're taking the excuse of your entitlement to getting everything free to harm their method of making a living. Have some shame.

6) Coins are too expensive.

They're really not. 250 coins only costs $5. You're getting 50,000 words of content for 5 dollars then, since 200 words = 1 coin. Even if you count the 201 words = 2 coins, you're still getting around 25,000 words for $5. To give you an idea of how much content you're reading, average paper novels are between 50,000 to 100,000 words. If you buy 500 coins for $10, you're getting 100,000 words of content. $10 for 100k words? Not too expensive.
The only problem here is the reading addiction of whoever is complaining about having to spend money. Webnovels aren't that expensive if you read a limited amount each day. Just don't read for an entire week, and you can read 21 chapters all at once w/ only fast passes from checking in and voting (probably a little more when you do other rewards). And if you are so addicted that you have to read every new update of the 13 books you follow, then sorry, but that's a little unreasonable for you to complain about having to pay to read.

7) I'm technically not a free reader! I have to pay for data to read!

You paying for data to read, but never purchasing a single coin, means that you're a free reader. You don't go to a restaurant, try to dine-and-dash, but say that you were technically a paying customer b/c you paid for your car gas on your way here.

8) It is impossible to get points at this current rate from reading checkpoints.

No it's not. You get points from not just reading checkpoints, but reading free novels too. Refer to above posts for more info.

9) There are no more free novels!

There are plenty of free original novels. If you can't read translated, there are many good free original ones that have a similar feel/genre/style. If you don't know where to look, you could probably make a thread asking for recs & get plenty.

10) Why can't I unlock privilege chapters w/ FP?

Privilege = for readers who can pay & spend money on coins. It was never intended for free readers in the first place.

11) Reading Checkpoint Rewards are not giving me coins!

They were never intended to give you coins, but points.

12) Coins?? SS??? WHAT??

Coins = SS, just a different name. Nothing too special.

13) Why doesn't WN just do a subscription system for unlimited reading?

They tried it in the past, and it was harming authors. Remember that WN has a unique business model that relies on distributing costs to smaller contracted authors. A subscription model doesn't work well. Other factors played into it as well, but it really just didn't work out. So they took it away. The closest thing to a subscription system is the current membership.

14) Desktop users?

Currently have limited capabilities compared to app users. Wait for WN to roll all the features out, I guess.

15) The ads are too intrusive in my reading experience.

That's b/c farming mode is on. Farming mode = ads. To disable ads, disable farming mode (profile > settings > farming mode off)

Other good posts to check out:

More info on update: https://forum.webnovel.com/d/33362-what-the-new-update-did-for-version-4-2-0-both-ios-and-android
How to farm points: https://forum.webnovel.com/d/34318-how-to-farm-points-the-elusive-new-currency

That's about it for now. I'm tired & I can't think of anything else to address off the top of my head, but if I remember anything, I'll add it.

Tl;dr: complaining is okay, but only if you're complaining about something that's actually substantial & not just your misconceptions about the whole system. Remember that WN is a business, and no one is entitled to receive everything for free for eternity. AND...

If you're going to make a thread about a complaint, !!! TAG IT CORRECTLY !!!

If you haven't bought any SS, stop tagging your threads with Failure to buy SS. If it's not a bug & you're just complaining, don't tag it with Report Bugs. It's common sense, and a part of forum guidelines.

  1. The forum could be searched by tags, so please try to post with the appropriate tags. If a discussion is better fitted with another tag, the admin have the right to re-tag it.

Please make my life easier. :pensive:

    The_Good_Devil

    Because theres already tons of free novels without membership. As a worker myself if my place of employment suggested that they didnt need to pay me cause the clientele had membership I'd either outright quit or put less than 10% of my effort into the now unprofitable use of my time and energy.

        yaoyueyi When you read at pirate sites, you're hurting the authors, not WN. These authors are trying to make a living, and you're taking the excuse of your entitlement to getting everything free to harm their method of making a living. Have some shame

        let think about it and give examples. ex: there is two shop who have android phone for customer. the left shop cost you 500$ for it. and the right shop will give it for you for free.
        which shop will you choose? will you spend 500$ because you like android company to have more profit and to not get bankrupt. or will you just spend nothing of your money and a easy and free phone ?

            Darth_Xiane I just gave causal suggestions. thanks for your opinion. please note: I don't have any compliment about the membership, I just gave an opinion to make it look more "valuable".

              yaoyueyi

              Why do you feel inclined to pay or even read these novels that you think have unsuitable grammar for you? If you have high standards for quality (like I do), then most locked novels have 60-100, if not even more, free chapters for you to read and decide if you like the quality enough. If it's not good enough, then don't pay for it and find better novels to read! Simple!

              This is the only point I have to argue against.

              Why do I feel inclined to pay for those novels of poor translation quality? Because as much as the translation quality sucks donkey balls, through it I see a diamond of a story. If any old book at all will do your suggestion has merit but as I pointed out in one of the other threads, what is the point of suggesting other books if I wanted to read Harry Potter, those other books may have similar themes, but they are not Harry Potter.

              To use the earlier restaurant example, you go to a shop proporting the only genuine type of cuisine in your area, you go having tasted it yourself abroad. When the meal is served, its undercooked and presented in a similar fashion to dumping it in an animal feed bag. Should you just take it cause hey its food, any food will do right? Who cares that it's a food you've tried before and come to love and because you're paying the server should give it to you in any shape right? I mean you can go anywhere for food right, sure it's not what you want but that doesnt matter a wit in a service industry. Right?

              Otherwise a great post just #7 rubs me wrong.

                  I guess WN didn't do this change easily and it will have major repercussions to the business model. Why?
                  Basically, I agree with others here. The quality of the novels isn't always the greatest. 10k words of content isn't as valuable as 10k words of a proper re-re-re-edited published novel on paper. But it was entertaining to say the least.
                  With the new system, as the thread author said, it is the reader's fault for reading merely entertaining but low quality material. Thus readers will be a lot more picky. Authors/translators/editors will have to deliver a higher quality if they still want people to read their work. Let's see what happens there in the future.

                  Honestly, points 6 and 7 are fine individually, but combined is where it really bothers people. Stop comparing non-traditional publishers (Webnovel, Radish, Amazon self-publishing, J-Novel Club) to traditional publishers (like Penguin Random House, publishers who actually hire editors and not just proofreaders). People call chapter by chapter publishing an elaborate draft because it is! Any traditional editing will remove incongruent chapters/arcs to improve the story flow, request rewrites of additional details to connect arcs better, and proofread! Non-traditional tends to only proofread (if that). So stop comparing prices to physical books and ebooks by traditional publishers. The appropriate comparison should be other non-traditional publishers such as Amazon self-publishing where it's generally $3-4 for 100k-200k words, and prolific authors who write in the same universe generally do have the first book in the series free. Any additional amount should be called an impatience fee.

                    The_Good_Devil then let's think about it and give actual examples. left shop may have phones that cost 500, but the right shop STEALS the phones from the left shop and sells it for cheaper. and everyone in the public knows that the right shop can't produce a single phone and can only steal from the left shop. to those who support the right shop-- should they not be shamed?
                    besides, this scenario can't even apply b/c phones are not equal to webnovels & digital content. unlike in real world, where left shop can just sue the right shop and take it down the market, the pirate sites are 1) masking their info so the dmcas can't be filed properly, and 2) stealing not from just a big company but rather from the employees (aka the original authors, translators, and editors). if you want a very unrealistic real world example (like the phone one you provided), this is the same as a minimum wage worker going home on from the way to work & getting mugged half their paycheck every single month. sure, this may not happen every month, but this is what your support of piracy is doing to the pay of the authors.

                        Darth_Xiane i'm a bit confused i think you misunderstood my point haha.
                        my point this entire time was that people were saying that they should receive wns for free b/c the quality is so terrible. everyone has different standards of reading, some are grammar nazis, others only care about the story. and depending on your tastes, you should be able to pick and choose which stories you want to pay for b/c of the free chapters provided. and if you are only paying for grammar/quality (as some of these people have said), then there are definitely plenty of novels with better quality that you can pay for on this platform (hence my words of don't pay for it and find better novels).

                        I don't think your food example works in this scenario. a better example would be someone wanting to try out a local food, reading reviews for it online, and seeing beforehand that it's low quality. then they would avoid paying for or eating it in the first place... or the restaurant provided some free samples (cough my fav yogurt places), and when you tasted it, you found that you didn't like certain flavors so you didn't buy it... kind of like how before you read a webnovel, you have reviews to read to see how the translation quality is at even in locked chapters, and you have free samples (free chapters) to read to see how it is.

                        anyways I'm a bit confused at what you're saying. I can kind of see our point that reading for plot/characters is important too, but I think you've read that one post out there that was like "I'm going to go read at pirate sites b/c wn's quality is trash so I'm not going to pay any money for it". do you agree with that person? can't remember but I think I remember seeing your post on that thread. b/c if so, I really have no words. I just think that it's kind of dumb for people to expect that the only thing they're paying for is grammar quality, not content? and that if a story has bad grammar, then they are entitled to think that they can get said story for free?

                        i'm confusing myself now lol

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