KoraL Er, I suppose? :thinking: I see what you're getting at, but I caution on using math when we don't know actual numbers. Fast passes are 1000 or 2000 points (idk why some ppl are buying the 2k ones instead of the 1k ones first lol), so people would have to see 500-1000 ads before they get a single fast past. Some readers do read that much, but apparently now you're limited to how many points you can receive in a day.
So the individual benefit and loss on reader and writer sides might be small, but I can understand how that can accumulate for WN's ads revenue in a year. But honestly, them earning $500 a year doesn't bother me. It's so little money really, especially if you try dividing that between all the writers.
And as you said, fanfic is a whole other swamp. While I don't think profiting off another's intellectual/creative property is right, I imagine some fanfic authors (not me) might feel disgruntled should original writers get ad revenue, but they don't. This whole ad revenue is on the fine line of making money off of using another's property, or as "support" toward the writer individually. (As some fanfic writers receive contracts that allow gift options on their books, but not locked chapters, using this reasoning.)
This platform hosts stories for free (something that gets easily forgotten and ignored, taken for granted), and those farming novels get free exposure for their novels. I think a few cents per writer is a fair price to return these two core benefits. Webnovel probably spends more than the average website to host the amount of data on this site and maintain it too. I don't see $500 as a loophole, but another method that gives "free" content to readers and exposure to writers while also benefitting WN. On an individual basis, this seems fair enough to me. The incremental profit WN might gain, imo, is too insubstantial for a writer to fight and waste time for. That's all.
This became longer than I meant it to be. In short, I just don't think it's worth it for a few pennies a month. And it's not like WN is the only one that benefits with this points and farming structure. If it did significantly contribute to writer's profits, then of course, I'd 100% be right there with you.