• Suggestions Diss

  • Flagging/Blacklisting of novels due to usage of emojis/emoticons/kaomoji/symbols

Currently, Webnovel uses an automatic algorithm to flag English novels that are detected to contain "characters that don't appear on US English keyboard". Flagged novels don't appear in the index or rankings, can't be given power stones and can't participate in contests.

Besides the obvious inability to use emoticons (😒) including kaomoji (〒▽〒) , you can't even use some of the basic symbols such as ❤. Putting aside the loss our novels are receiving because we aren't allowed to express ourselves as we wish, putting aside the humor value we are losing due to this restriction, we can't even write out proper text chats between our characters inside our novels. What if you are writing a MMORPG novel where people are talking via text chat all the time? It becomes super important to properly display that characters messaging style, such as them maybe using a lot of cutesy emoticons, etc. What if your character receives a text message on their phone or is a part of a chat group? Can't properly express it because you'll get flagged...

Speaking of symbols, we don't know which characters are allowed and which are not because that definition of "characters that don't appear on US English keyboard" is very vague. Will my novel be flagged because I am using euros in my novel (€)? Will my novel be flagged because I'm using the greek alphabet such as alpha and beta characters? Will my novel be flagged if I'm writing fiance as fiancé? Will it be flagged if instead of using three dots ... we use character … (and yes, though you can't tell visually, they are different characters).
Those last two are especially important because everyone who writes their stories in Microsoft Word will have word automatically correct the left version into right.

Does this algorithm make it so we can't use some of the English words that originate from different languages? Does it mean that you can't have your characters speaking elfish/elven, not unless your elven language uses the most basic English alphabet? We can't have a Spanish old woman in our novel that curses in Spanish when agitated? We can't properly spell out names/last names of our novel's characters who come from Slavic countries/Russia (Pavlič) etc. We can't have our character run into people who speak a different language and actually write out what they are saying in their native tongue?

Anyway, at any time your novel can suddenly get flagged at the worst possible time and you will be losing readers, your visibility, and the ability to participate in contests.

The solution?
Well it would be the best if you removed the flagging algorithm altogether because it doesn't seem to be of much use. I've never seen anything similar in any of other countless novel writing/reading sites and they don't have any issues not having such a stupid algorithm.
If you decide to keep such a menace, then explicitly define in a visible place which symbols are allowed and which will get you flagged. No one wants to wake up one day to their novel being flagged for some inexplicable reason and for the support staff to tell you "you won't get flagged if you don't use emoticons in your novel".
Why shouldn't we be able to use emoticons in our novel? That makes absolutely no sense. And why can't you even tell us which character/symbol is causing the issue?

And do you know what the funniest thing about all this is? Not all novels are working under the same rules! Novels that have been created at an older time are using another encoding method that doesn't cause them to get flagged if they use certain emoticons. So now you've got discrimination between novels. Some older novels can use all kinds of different super funny and expressive emoticons while the newer ones can only watch green with envy.

Authors aren't the only one suffering from this algorithm, content editors are losing time constantly due to authors contacting them about "whitelisting" their novel. The algorithm is literally costing you money as your content editors that should be doing much better things with their time have to constantly have the same conversations with authors and unflag their novels over and over again.

What are you guys doing??? And why did you ever think this was a good idea???

    LucyPanDora It's doing what it is supposed to do and it won't be removed anytime in the near future. Just because you don't see anything, it doesn't mean the algorithm is useless. I won't go into details as I don't have the time and brain cells needed.

    If your novel is blacklisted, contact the Content Editors and have them whitelist it. Once the novel is whitelisted, you can use whatever character in the world you please. Use Chinese, Japanese, Emojis, Kaomojis, or whatever.

    For those who don't know how to contact the content editors, post your novel's link on the Forum and ping @CKtalon

    He will help you get your novel whitelisted, but it takes time, so be patient.

        RABBITICOL Your info is incorrect. Whitelisting isn't just one-time thing. The algorithm runs all the time and you'll get blacklisted again soon after if your novel still contains non-basic characters. They don't have a permanent whitelist that exempts novels from being flagged again. Or at least that's what I've been told.

        And what is it supposed to do? Prevent spam? How come none of the other sites on the internet need this kind of menace to prevent spam?

        yaoyueyi Normal support can't do this kind of whitelisting. Content editors are the ones that do it, but you can indeed get in contact with them through service@webnovel.com. And yes, do not ping CKtalon!

              LucyPanDora I was told by a content editor that they were not supposed to be the ones who were doing it, since they're supposed to help authors on the more creative side of things (characters, plot, etc.). They told me that emailing service@webnovel.com would direct the author to a person from the technical team which would help out with things. Clearly, there's been miscommunication if that's not how it actually works, so I'll go ask again to clear things up.

                  LucyPanDora Your info is incorrect. Whitelisting isn't just one-time thing. The algorithm runs all the time and you'll get blacklisted again soon after if your novel still contains non-basic characters. They don't have a permanent whitelist that exempts novels from being flagged again. Or at least that's what I've been told.

                  And what is it supposed to do? Prevent spam? How come none of the other sites on the internet need this kind of menace to prevent spam?

                  The whitelist has always been a permanent thing unless they changed it recently.

                      yaoyueyi RABBITICOL I first contacted the support staff through the chat, they told me that they can't unblock my novel, that content editors are the one that do this. They told me to send a mail at service@webnovel.com or contact editors through discord or the content editor chat.

                      I tried all three methods. I've talked to 4 people from Webnovel not including the support staff, been blocked 4 times and unblocked 4 times. And when I inquired about a permanent whitelist that was mentioned on the forums, they told me that forums were full of misinformation.

                      Out of those 4 people, 2 are definitely content editors while for the other 2 I'm not sure. None mentioned anything about that not being their job nor did they direct me to ask another person/contact tech. In fact, they asked me if there are any tech questions I want them to pass to the tech staff so I'm not so sure that service@webnovel.com actually leads to tech personnel.

                      The mentioned people have claimed that there is no such thing as a blacklist/whitelist, and it's all the work of an automatic algorithm that flags novels which they have no control over. When I asked them why some novels could use foreign characters and mine couldn't they told me that those novels were old and using an old encoding method, and that they too could get blocked at any time in the future.

                      In short - their message for me was "just do not use emoji nor any foreign characters" And by the tone they used with me, I got the impression that I better not get blocked for the fifth time because they might not unblock me again.

                      Now, either there is a conspiracy going on here, or out of a whole bunch of webnovel staff, no one knows of the mythical permanent whitelist in which case, I really don't know who to contact that does.

                            And before you give me any more of your thoughts, I just went back to confirm this from a whitelisted book that I remember. The author is still using the special characters that got him blacklisted, yet his book can receive Votes and everything normally.

                            The latest chapter was 12 hours ago. The book was whitelisted 2-3 months ago.

                            By the way, using text formatting hacks to get Bold, Italics, etc. also get your book blacklisted.

                              RABBITICOL I am not using any formatting hacks, just plain old kaomoji and emojis. Like I said, been blacklisted 4 times and "whitelisted" 4 times by 3 different people.
                              Here is a copy-paste of my chat record with Webnovel staff and you can see for yourself.

                              (07:23:57 AM) LimQianYu: Blacklisted?
                              (07:24:05 AM) LimQianYu: Could you please elaborate what do you mean by that?
                              (07:24:11 AM) LucyPanDora: Can't vote for the story and it doesn't appear in the LGBT contest list
                              (07:24:16 AM) LimQianYu: Could you send me the link to your novel?
                              (07:24:25 AM) LimQianYu: Did you upload the novel under the LGBT+ Genre?
                              (07:24:28 AM) LucyPanDora: https://www.webnovel.com/book/17296534006399805/%5BBL%5D-Soul-Shard-Captor
                              (07:24:35 AM) LucyPanDora: Yes
                              (07:24:46 AM) LucyPanDora: It had been in 9th place on the rankings
                              (07:24:46 AM) LimQianYu: And did you select the <WPC #125> under writing contest for novel information?
                              (07:25:01 AM) LucyPanDora: ...yes
                              (07:25:12 AM) LimQianYu: Did you use emoticons or special characters in your novel?
                              (07:25:34 AM) LimQianYu: Please refrain from doing so and please take them out if not the issue will occur again.
                              (07:26:23 AM) LucyPanDora: I've seen other novels use them and not cause any issues.
                              (07:26:44 AM) LimQianYu: That is because they have not encountered the issue just yet.
                              (07:26:45 AM) LucyPanDora: It has also been fine until I saved the latest chapters
                              (07:26:47 AM) LucyPanDora: chapter
                              (07:26:49 AM) LimQianYu: But eventually they will .
                              (07:27:10 AM) LucyPanDora: That's impossible. They have been online for months with emoticons in every chapter
                              (07:27:17 AM) LucyPanDora: and regular releases
                              (07:27:29 AM) LucyPanDora: clearly there are emoticons which cause no issues
                              (07:27:48 AM) LimQianYu: I don't know what else I can tell you, that is the reason for your novel to be unable to be seen and unable to be voted on. .
                              (07:28:22 AM) LucyPanDora: I've been using the novel summary field and the author note entry to test out which emoticons are allowed and which are not.
                              (07:29:21 AM) LucyPanDora: When I used the emoticons which weren't allowed in the past, the novel would get blacklisted soon after the updates went live. But after removing those which were causing errors through this methods, my novel didn't get blacklisted until now
                              (07:29:46 AM) LimQianYu: I have also checked with my colleagues and they have mentioned to me that they have also helped you to change the setting of your novel before this so it is a recurring issue right now. . Because it is caused by the emoticons
                              (07:31:10 AM) LucyPanDora: Yes, it is, but it hasn't been reoccurring for a day now. Which means that there is a way to solve it. And seeing how I can point out novels that have been using emoticons for a long long time without any issues, there is clearly something that someone is doing right and wrong
                              (07:32:04 AM) LimQianYu: I don't know what else I can tell you. But if the issue occurs again and it's because of the same issue, it would just be a never-ending cycle for all of us. So my best recommendation is to stop using them altogether. .
                              (07:32:04 AM) LucyPanDora: Why do you guys blacklist novels that use emoticons in the first place? I've heard someone on the forums mention that it is an automatic process to prevent spam. Someone mentioned that once the novel gets whitelisted it won't be blacklisted due to the usage of emoticons again
                              (07:32:14 AM) LucyPanDora: Is there some kind of a permenant whitelist... list?
                              (07:32:29 AM) LimQianYu: We do no blacklist novels. It is a system setting that causes it to happen that is beyond our control. .
                              (07:32:50 AM) LimQianYu: Please do not believe everything in the forums, there are a lot of misinformation. .
                              (07:33:17 AM) LucyPanDora: How can I know what is causing it? And don't tell me "emoticons". What I mean is, what characters of the english UTF8/ASCII/english alphabet are fine and what aren't??
                              (07:33:55 AM) LucyPanDora: I don't want to tomorrow use & character, or ° character for degrees Celsius and cause my novel to get blacklisted again
                              (07:34:40 AM) LucyPanDora: If you blacklist novels due to some stupid system setting, then at least provide us a way to know if we are triggering it!
                              (07:36:01 AM) LimQianYu: Agent uploaded: 1593502558814.png
                              URL: https://v2uploads.zopim.io/s/M/q/sMqIti688BLqzA4igtve6hLPcrHxq1Qe/ec256faf9523cc520173e7086793e0afcec1dcf7.png
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                              (07:36:24 AM) LimQianYu: I would safely say that any symbols that are not traditionally found on an English keyboard would likely trigger this issue from occuring.
                              (07:36:24 AM)                               JiaJun joined the chat
                              (07:36:39 AM) JiaJun: If you can't type the characters using the US English Keyboard, it will most likely trigger it
                              (07:36:49 AM) LimQianYu: And the way you know that it is being triggered, is exactly when your novel cannot be found and cannot be voted on.
                              (07:36:55 AM) LimQianYu: Isn't that the biggest indicator? .
                              (07:37:11 AM) LucyPanDora: but of all the things you've circled two don't appear on the keyboard, but are part of a standard english symbols...
                              (07:38:02 AM) JiaJun: Can they be typed using the US English Keyboard?
                              (07:38:07 AM) LimQianYu: Agent uploaded: 1593502685397.png
                              URL: https://v2uploads.zopim.io/s/M/q/sMqIti688BLqzA4igtve6hLPcrHxq1Qe/4a2b997fe8bddb496b027ef3abddb231fc1b4c3e.png
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                              (07:38:32 AM) LimQianYu: I'm referring to that symbol. .
                              (07:40:03 AM) LucyPanDora: That is a math operator which is a part of a standard utf-8 symbols...
                              (07:40:10 AM) JiaJun: Easiest way for you to be safe is to only use symbols that you can type using the standard US English Keyboard. If you have to copy and paste it from else where or do something special to input it, most likely you can't use it
                              (07:40:14 AM) LimQianYu: hmm yes but it does not appear on a US Keyboard .
                              (07:42:15 AM) LucyPanDora: What if gave you concrete links to novel chapters which have been online for months that use those symbols and have never gotten blacklisted? How would you explain the difference in treatment?
                              (07:42:30 AM) JiaJun: Give us one then
                              (07:43:28 AM) LucyPanDora: Will you then intentionally blacklist the novel I link to you as your answer? (≖≖)
                              I don't want to cause some other author to go through the same problems I've been going through
                              (07:43:44 AM) JiaJun: It is not us that blacklist the books
                              (07:43:46 AM) JiaJun: It is the system
                              (07:43:52 AM) JiaJun: Because it returns an error
                              (07:44:06 AM) JiaJun: We are the ones that fixes this error everytime it happens
                              (07:44:51 AM) JiaJun: So if you can provide a link to a novel that is using emoticons or some other language that is still fully functional I can probably check and give you a reason why it still works while yours isn't
                              (07:45:07 AM) LucyPanDora: (removed the link because I don't want to implicate another author in this)
                              (07:45:27 AM) LucyPanDora: almost every chapter has a varying degree of all kinds of characters
                              (07:45:38 AM) LucyPanDora: and is still sitting on the rankings just fine
                              (07:47:31 AM) LucyPanDora: This (눈                              눈) and ‎(ﾉಥ益ಥ）ﾉ ┻━┻ and (◞‸ლ) and all kinds of different emoticons
                              (07:48:41 AM) LucyPanDora: sooo, what are they doing right that I am doing wrong?
                              (07:48:49 AM) LimQianYu: I am not sure what else I can say here.
                              (07:49:15 AM) LimQianYu: If you refuse to believe us, you can e-mail your issue to service@webnovel.com
                              (07:49:24 AM) LimQianYu: Maybe they will be able to give you a better answer for the issue you're facing.
                              (07:49:58 AM) LucyPanDora: so what you are saying is that you have no idea why they can use the symbols and not get blacklisted while I can't?
                              (07:50:26 AM) LimQianYu: As both my colleague and I have already mentioned before. To avoid the issue from occurring, just stop using them altogether.
                              (07:51:06 AM) LucyPanDora: The emoticons are a huge part of the humor. I don't want to lower the quality of my work, especially when I have clear evidence of other authors using them without experiencing the same issues
                              (07:51:47 AM) LucyPanDora: when I previously contacted the mail you provided, they didn't tell me anything but to remove emojis from my novel description.
                              (07:52:32 AM) LucyPanDora: is there anyone from the tech department available who can explain what is going on and how their blacklisting algorithm works?
                              (07:52:42 AM) JiaJun: This is an old book that used an old version of the intservice encoding to publish her book. It might not face any issues now, but it might face the same issue later.
                              (07:53:53 AM) LimQianYu: If you've already emailed them and they have given you that reply, there really isn't anyone else to give you a reply. Because the reply we have has already been given. .
                              (07:53:58 AM) LucyPanDora: Um... but the book is regularly updated... are you saying that the new chapters are still using the old encoding?
                              (07:54:04 AM) JiaJun: And it's not a "blacklist". It's just that the using these symbols will flag the novel as bugged which removes it from the ranking system
                              (07:54:22 AM) JiaJun: The flag does not trigger all the time
                              (07:54:36 AM) JiaJun: There's literally millions of books on the site, so it might not trigger for a few
                              (07:54:44 AM) LucyPanDora: That's what I want to know. When does it trigger and why?
                              (07:54:55 AM) JiaJun: The non-english words
                              (07:54:59 AM) JiaJun: IS what triggers it
                              (07:55:34 AM) JiaJun: Because when you list your book as English but the system detects non-english words, it will trigger that flag
                              (07:56:25 AM) JiaJun: And if you find it hard to express character emotions without the usage of emoticons, I think it might be a good idea for you to learn character expressions from other works that do not use them.
                              (07:57:15 AM) JiaJun: If you insist on using them, then you will have to live with the fact that your book will be flagged
                              (07:57:21 AM) LucyPanDora: ok, so, by that definition, using ツ in ¯_(ツ)                              /¯ should not be allowed, but using (≧▽≦) should work because the symbols they use are standard symbols for all languages including english
                              (07:57:46 AM) JiaJun: How do you type "≧▽≦" out on the keyboard?
                              (07:58:08 AM) JiaJun: Those symbols are not "English"
                              (07:58:15 AM) JiaJun: They are "Mathematical Symbols"
                              (07:58:54 AM) LucyPanDora: so is °. Not english but a mathematical symbol
                              (07:59:06 AM) LucyPanDora: Programmers can't say "what appears on english keyboard"
                              (07:59:08 AM) JiaJun: Can you type it on your english keyboard?
                              (07:59:12 AM) LucyPanDora: they define concrete character sets
                              (07:59:20 AM) JiaJun: Did you program Webnovel?
                              (08:00:05 AM) LucyPanDora: No, but neither did you. So neither of us should be claiming what symbols work and don't work unless we get a clarification of the tech department that did
                              (08:00:18 AM) JiaJun: Correction then
                              (08:00:23 AM) JiaJun: Do you work for Webnovel?
                              (08:01:02 AM) LucyPanDora: Sigh.... (◞‸ლ)
                              Are you unwilling or unable to ask the tech department?
                              (08:01:21 AM) JiaJun: They will give the same answer
                              (08:01:32 AM) JiaJun: You are not the first person to ask and neither will be the last
                              (08:02:05 AM) LimQianYu: I'll be honest with you here, you've asked them, they gave you the same reply. Where do you think our reply comes from? It comes from them. And like my colleague has mentioned, you're not the first person to ask about this either. .
                              (08:04:00 AM) LucyPanDora: But their reply is different from yours. They only mentioned removing emoticons from the novel description.
                              Is there any way to check anywhere, whether a character will be flagged by the system or not? My keyboard might be different from what you defined as the standard US keyboard. How can I know whether the characters on it will get me flagged in the future? For example € doesn't appear on the US keyboard but every international one has it
                              (08:04:33 AM) LucyPanDora: I understand I am bothering you and causing you to get frustrated, and it is not my intention
                              (08:04:34 AM) JiaJun: Because the Tech department will not read through your novel to check as thoroughly as we did
                              (08:04:54 AM) JiaJun: You are using windows right?
                              (08:05:11 AM) LucyPanDora: Yes, and now I know that. But the point I was trying to make is that just because they said or didn't say something doesn't mean that it is conclusive or true
                              (08:05:14 AM) LucyPanDora: yes
                              (08:05:17 AM) JiaJun: If your language settings is United States International Keyboard, then it should be fine
                              (08:05:51 AM) LucyPanDora: What? So does € cause a flag or not?
                              (08:06:15 AM) JiaJun: And as mentioned, if you need to copy and paste it from somewhere or change your keyboard settings to input the character, it will run the risk of getting flagged
                              (08:06:45 AM) LucyPanDora: I am not changing my keyboard settings. I am using the standard english keyboard
                              (08:06:49 AM) LucyPanDora: not the us one
                              (08:06:59 AM) LucyPanDora: and standard keyboard has € on it
                              (08:07:00 AM) JiaJun: But you copy and paste these symbols from somewhere
                              (08:07:12 AM) LucyPanDora: and it has Łłß¤×÷@§}
                              (08:07:18 AM) LucyPanDora: no I dont
                              (08:07:21 AM) JiaJun: What language is your "Standard keyboard"?
                              (08:07:25 AM) LucyPanDora: oh, you mean the ones Ive been using
                              (08:07:29 AM) LucyPanDora: english
                              (08:07:39 AM) JiaJun: From which country?
                              (08:09:10 AM) LucyPanDora: ...are you refering to the physical keyboard or windows settings? Cause my settings are https://pasteboard.co/Jfs9B4T.jpg
                              (08:09:23 AM) LucyPanDora: and physical keyboard had nothing to do with it
                              (08:10:02 AM) JiaJun: What buttons do you need to press to input these? Łłß¤×÷@§}
                              (08:10:44 AM) LucyPanDora: altgr + l, altgr + k, etc
                              (08:11:42 AM) LucyPanDora: I'm trying to say here that just saying "characters that can be input through us keyboard" isn't well defined.
                              (08:12:10 AM) LucyPanDora: And I know that you guys weren't the one who made the algorithm and can't know what goes inside of it
                              (08:12:12 AM) JiaJun: Agent uploaded: 1593504731030.png
                              URL: https://v2uploads.zopim.io/s/M/q/sMqIti688BLqzA4igtve6hLPcrHxq1Qe/5314a43298bbc0067669ed052c73bd478cc1ad38.png
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                              (08:12:30 AM) LucyPanDora: I'm not doing anything special
                              (08:12:40 AM) LucyPanDora: I'm doing the same thing when I want to write @ or {
                              (08:12:50 AM) JiaJun: Such as using altgr + (something)
                              (08:13:16 AM) LucyPanDora: {}[]<> are all things I need altgr for
                              (08:13:26 AM) LimQianYu: Okay, look I understand that's not the clearest of answers when we say, as quoted from you "characters that can be input through us keyboard". So how about this, you tell us what questions you have with regards to this, we will bring it up to them and feedback to the IT team and see what they say?
                              (08:13:38 AM) LimQianYu: Cause clearly we are getting nowhere with this conversation right now.
                              (08:16:25 AM) LucyPanDora: What I want to know from them: Is there some kind of way to check whether something will be flagged or not? For example, through using error checking present in novel summary field or author notes?
                              Is there any clear definition of what is allowed, such as ASCII characters 64 through 124?
                              Is there a way for them to clearly define somewhere what characters are allowed, for example, just printing them all out in a forum post or documentation page or something.
                              Or is there a way to make your novel use the old encoding format, if that would help in not flagging it, since old novels seem not to have issues with getting flagged?
                              (08:17:07 AM) LucyPanDora: What parts of the novel are actually checked for the flagging? Summary? Chapter content? Author Note? All of them?
                              (08:17:22 AM) LimQianYu: Okay
                              (08:17:24 AM) LimQianYu: Anything else?
                              (08:19:02 AM) LucyPanDora: I'll go back to edit my chapters to remove all characters that I can't see on my keyboard. But once I do, and I contact you guys about whitelisting the novel again. Will you guys be able to run the blacklisting/flagging algorithm so that I can tell whether I missed something somewhere? I don't want to realize an hour later that the novel has been blacklisted again.
                              (08:19:36 AM) LucyPanDora: it's driving us both insane
                              (08:19:49 AM) JiaJun: I mentioned before, we do not press a button to "blacklist" books. Everything is automatically initiated by the system
                              (08:20:27 AM) LucyPanDora: so you can't know if it has issues either ಥ_ಥ
                              (08:20:40 AM) LucyPanDora: are tech guys intentionally messing with you editors out of spite or something?
                              (08:21:06 AM) JiaJun: They have already said before, just don't use emoticons because it will flag your book
                              (08:21:13 AM) JiaJun: Because it's the safest way
                              (08:21:18 AM) LucyPanDora: cause this is clearly making up work for you guys out of nothing. You should be doing better things with your time
                              (08:21:43 AM) JiaJun: Yes, because we already said "no emoticons" but you insist on using it
                              (08:22:00 AM) LucyPanDora: sigh...
                              (08:22:40 AM) JiaJun: If you still want to use emoticons, then you will need to live with the error
                              (08:22:57 AM) JiaJun: OR at least, the possibility of getting flagged
                              (08:24:27 AM) LucyPanDora: Will you be asking those questions to the tech department or did you ask it of me just to placate me? Just tell it to me straight
                              (08:27:03 AM) JiaJun: My colleague will forward your questions to the Tech department. But whether they will give you a satisfactory answer or not, we cannot say.
                              (08:27:48 AM) LucyPanDora: Thank you for that
                              (08:27:50 AM) JiaJun: Because whatever we said here was already basically extrapolating from data they have given us and the other similar errors that authors like you have encountered
                              (08:28:08 AM) LucyPanDora: I know you aren't at fault here
                              (08:28:20 AM) LucyPanDora: You can only tell authors what you get back from them
                              (08:29:13 AM) JiaJun: Yeah, and whether those authors listen to our advice or not is up to them :/
                              (08:31:28 AM)                               LimQianYu left the chat
                              (08:32:35 AM)                               JiaJun left the chat *

                                  LucyPanDora I somehow feel bad for editors going through that, seems tiring. It's clearly a complicated system and they told you the way to safeguard yourself. The system is clearly not perfect so the best way is to take caution.

                                  Also, you guys didn't use many emojis or kaomoji's except a few in the conversation and I could still feel all of your expressions while reading.

                                    If you really want it, why don't you upload an emoji / kaomoji / symbol directory and get them all recognised at once. I think if you do that and don't add any new emojis subsequently the system won't give trouble as it has already registered those special symbols instead of getting your book freezed for each new unknown symbol. Don't know if the system works like that but seeing as you cannot be convinced, you might as well try.

                                    If that still doesn't work, then you might want to leave the emoji and whatnot out. I've also really never heard of writers (in the paperback versions) using them to tell a good story. A story can be told without them if you know how to do it right.

                                    Alternatively, go to another publishing site that allows the use of those emoticons etc. I know the Wattpad community is a fan of things like that already. You won't have issues there.

                                      I personally dislike it when emojis are a huge part of the story. It seems so immature. Like the author can't properly express the character's emotions w/o them. Imagine there's a kaomoji every time the characters are talking. Just so the author could express that this was what the characters are feeling. 😑

                                      There's a BL VRMMORPG original here that doesn't use emojis in her story and she's doing brilliantly. So being unable to use it in stories here is not really a disadvantage. It just depends on the author's overall ability to use words to convey what the characters in their stories are feeling. 😕

                                        Sighgray Whether the usage of emojis is good or bad should be something for the author to decide by themselves, not for the system to decide for them.

                                        There are many novels with a comedic or light-hearted feel made for young adults that might benefit from being able to include emoji. Maybe that which you call "immature" might come off as "funny" or "cute" to someone else. Just because you don't read novels that use them doesn't mean that they shouldn't be used.

                                        Also, your point would have come off much more believable if you yourself didn't use emojis to express it. (◞‸ლ)
                                        Why didn't you go in to explain your skeptical and annoyed looks? Why use these bad, bad emojis?

                                        I agree with you that emojis shouldn't be used excessively, however, when you know the right time and place to use them they can add a lot of value.

                                        Since you cannot come up with any examples of good usage, let me help you out:

                                        • when you are in the middle of an action-packed scene and dropping a proper explanation of the character's facial expression would slow down or interrupt the mood you've created. Of course, you CAN just not explain the facial expression, like everyone has been doing for centuries, and leave it to the reader to imagine based on the tone of the words, but now you have a third option: (눈_눈)

                                        • when your characters are in a situation that has a perfect meme expression for it. For example "flipping the table", ‎(ﾉಥ益ಥ）ﾉ ┻━┻ or "why god, why??" щ（ﾟДﾟщ） Of course your character in the story won't really be flipping a table, and most of the time there won't even be a table to flip. But just inserting a meme reference enhances the entire feel for those familiar with it.

                                        • When you are writing dialogues between entities that don't have a face or even a body, for example, writing dialogues between a person and a system, you can't say things like "system furrowed its eyebrows", "system pouted", and the system can't even make gestures: "system facepalmed", "system shrugged", etc. This would usually mean that you'd just depend on reader's imagination or you'd occasionally drop in lines like "if system had a face it would be pouting right about now". But now you have a third option: ╮(╯▽╰)╭

                                        "There's a BL VRMMORPG original here that doesn't use emojis in her story and she's doing brilliantly."
                                        ಠ_ಠ Of course she is. Gems will shine whether they use emojis or not. They will just shine brighter if they can use them when they need them.

                                        Also, when you say VR MMO do you mean those MMOs where you actually talk to others in VR and don't use text chat like in normal MMOs? Because mentioning that as a counter-example here would be a bit... (◞‸ლ)

                                        "being unable to use it in stories here is not really a disadvantage."
                                        Riiiight. Not having a feature is really not a disadvantage. Just like how not having the ability to format text, and include links and images, isn't a disadvantage either, I mean what kind of a shitty author needs that stuff?!?

                                        Destiny_Aitsuji It doesn't work like that. I once fixed a typo in a chapter and once I saved the edit, my novel got blocked. Didn't even add any new emojis. The algorithm just reran on the chapter due to the update.
                                        But thank you for trying to be helpful.

                                        And yes, a good story can be told without emojis, text formatting, images, links, footnotes, etc. But does that mean we shouldn't have those features? And that the story absolutely cannot be improved by having them?

                                        Lastly, everyone here is treating a helpful suggestion on how to improve the system for writers as if I have committed a grave sin, and are suggesting something blasphemous. It is because of people like you that webnovel staff doesn't give a sh*t about listening to feedback of its users. Instead of seeing someone suggest a nice feature and then saying "yeah, that would be nice to have", you come to insult the original poster and by extension make sure that the feature doesn't ever get implemented. You are not helping anyone. You are doing the opposite of helping - you are oppressing those that are different by trying to curry favor with those in power.

                                        @Demonic_angel Yes, editors have it hard. But do authors not? Content editors get their guaranteed pay whether they have to unlock novels or not. But authors' livelihood depends on their novel getting enough exposure. How can you look at that conversation and only think "ah, poor content editors"?

                                        What? Content editors are poor because they constantly get asked the same questions like what support staff everywhere does all the time? Oh, but authors who stay up day and night waiting for a response/solution because their novel had been blocked in a middle of a contest, are definitely getting what they deserve! Burn them on the stake!

                                        Especially because there is so much clear and precise information posted everywhere on exact things that will get you blocked! (눈_눈)

                                        How could you even think that your novel can use stuff what others are using in their novels and function properly?!? How dare you! Do you deserve to get the same treatment as others?!

                                              LucyPanDora emojis, text formatting, images, links, footnotes, etc. But does that mean we shouldn't have those features?

                                              Get contracted. You won't get images and links, but you will get everything else. And I am pretty sure Contracted Novels are above the law and the system doesn't flag them no matter what character they use.

                                                  RABBITICOL Contracted Novels are above the law and the system doesn't flag them

                                                  They are? Oh. Hmmm... 😈 heehee. My Evil Overlord antennas are twitching to do something evil to my contracted Sunflower.

                                                      Idk what to say tbh...

                                                      About the whitelist/blacklist thing, the guy mentioned to be contacted via ping, DM or something and those who are behind the support mail seem to contradict themselves.

                                                      Yeah, there is an automated system with an algorythm to follow but they rely on it too much and use it as an excuse to avoid or not do any tedious work needed for whatever reason.

                                                      Not to mention the fact that the same algorythm could be coded to have those emojis accepted and yet is still being blocked unless you are on the so-called "whitelist" or contracted author for that matter. In this case, new writers have to atleast have their work at certain popularity and get the vip treatment just for it. We don't even know how the actual process of it works.

                                                      There is no real guideline how this situation is handled and depends really on the author who is asking and the operator on the job comes into terms upon it.

                                                      As for adding emotes or not, really depends really.

                                                      True that there are majority of no emote on most written works (with some exception to author notes), but there are still some that works well with them as long as it isn't used blatantly that it ruins the tone of the story which is quite confusing for rookie writers. Hence may be the reason for such restriction although I doubt it would be the main reason for that.

                                                      Just knowing not to abuse and moderate use of emotes and text arts is more than enough, people would just leave if they think that the author of the work is ruining the story with or without those stuff in it.

                                                      All in all, the point of restricting the use of emote and text art characters is either intentional and they have a backdoor option for it or the automated system they use is pretty basic that is limited to it's codes that has been made and was never touched again.

                                                      I would bet on the former for conspiracy reasons I rather not start about.

                                                      [If you ask me, I rather restrict emotes and repetitive words on review sections (which are most likely alt account rating bumps) which are supposed to be for people to tell if it is really good or not through critique (and yet they add the option for authors to be able to delete em lol).]

                                                        I understand the frustration. Yet there's a solution should the issue occur. It maybe not be an Ideal solution, but it's workable. Webnovel site is what it currently is.

                                                        Either adapt to the platform norms or expect to go through the process of having a book whitelisted.

                                                        I think we need to give our Content Editors credit for taking time to explain to the best of their ability, the way things are. I can see their good intentions are there. They handled themselves fine.

                                                        Remember CE's aren't like Yue-bot. They're human. They aren't technical engineers with intimate working knowledge of the platform. They have been granted some abilities to help us within a set process. Some might have better grasp of the process than others. Cut them some slack please.

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