Self-absorbed readers who think too highly of themselves don't understand the simple fact that one star reviews insulting a novel is incredibly hurtful to the author. Whereas, the reciprocal where the author deletes a review is nowhere near the same to the reader.

The author spends hours and hours of their life producing a unique work. Even if some of the criticisms in a very negative review may be warranted it still does not change the fact that it is incredibly hurtful for novice authors who don't have a large base of support to offset the negativity. The reader has thousands of books that they can read if they don't like a certain one. There are also thousands of readers that will read a novel and have thousands of different viewpoints. Why does the reader think his thoughts are so important that he must make himself heard?

In a perfect world we would all agree to not harass authors even if we dislike their novel and authors would agree to not delete comments and reviews. But it's impossible for this to happen as there are bad actors in every case.

    john_john_OO Why does the reader think his thoughts are so important that he must make himself heard?

    john_john_OO The author spends hours and hours of their life producing a unique work.

    So according to your logic, someone who spends hours and hours to create something does not deserve critique or anything negative in return and the person consuming it has to either like it, then he is free to voice that, or shut up?

    Well-founded reviews with several hundred words of 4 stars have been deleted to boost the ratings on this site. It is the exp-system which creates fake-reviews and are responsible for this problem. Anywhere else you can only leave one review and edit it, but on this site there are so many nonsensical review with just some random emotes and 5stars, but of course since those boost the rating, they do not get removed.

    The reviews and the star-system should be an indicator for how good a novel is, which is absolutely not the case if the author can moderate their review section. Authors publish on this site to get feedback or in ideal cases earn money. You have to keep in mind though that once you publish something you are not only presenting it to others, you are in fact inviting them to have an opinion on it, but by deleting their opinion you are trying to censor it. So in return I am asking what makes the author think he is so important that he can censor others opinion?

    I agree with people who say you have to read at least 30-50 chapters of a story to be able to write a review and I also agree with people who say authors should not be able to moderate their reviews.
    Most people stop after they left first their "negative" review (most of the time it is negative bc it is below 3.5 stars), in most cases it is just when their opinions get deleted they turn into "trolls" and "vengeful" creatures to "harass" the author.

    The sum of negative and positive reviews should determine how your work is perceived and graded by the audience and as such the reviews should be able to express that not your selection of allowed opinions.

          john_john_OO Indeed giving out 1-star reviews is insulting because the novel must be utter crap in quality and with broken English. The lowest reasonable score I believe that can be given is 2 stars e.g. decent writing skills however the character development is poor with a bunch of plotholes ect. Personally I have given 1-star reviews when the author is extremely aggressive and hateful towards its readers, mostly when they delete 3-star reviews just to keep their fancy 4.8 stars and over. In terms of 'hurtfulness' well that's subjective. No matter how hurtful it is to the author it isn't completely the reader's fault if they give actual reasonable rightful reviews which outline the 'CLEAR' faults of the novel that can only benefit the author in the end. Only actual hateful 'trash' reviews(Insulting the author etc) I would consider negatively 'hurtful' towards the authors who put lots of effort and hard work into their novel and then being insulted.

              chu_chan You miss the elephant in the room by a mile. These low read count, low score reviews don't even reflect the paid content of the novel. Contracted authors write to sell a product. We are required to give readers ~100k of free words before the novel can go premium. That's an entire free book.

              These low reviewers never bought our product in the first place.

              An example would be if you owned a steak restaurant and distributed some hamburgers for a charity event.
              This is what it's like dealing with spamming trolls:

              I didn't enjoy their free hamburgers!
              I bet the steak tastes disgusting in there!
              Sir, did you ever try the food there?
              No, but he's telling me to leave!
              I have the right to free speech!
              I'm going to hold a picket sign outside the restaurant!
              Sir if you would just try the steak your opinion would surely change?
              No, the hamburger didn't sit well with me I'm going to make sure no one ever tries that steak!
              Sir aren't you a vegan anyway, why did you even eat the hamburger?
              Yeah, but I came here expecting a premium salad!
              Well, we don't sell salads here sir!
              I don't care I wanted a salad!
              The author should stop serving steaks every day and go make me a free salad!
              But, sir... That doesn't make any sense.
              My free speech makes sense!
              So you're a vegan that likes salads that got a free hamburger, and are complaining about the steaks.
              This is 'Merica!

              That's what it's like dealing with every spamming troll.
              A great example would be @JohnnyKbca who's currently on a mission to spam my novel. I clearly pointed out why his review was misguided. Even gave him the relevant chapters to read to why his opinion was wrong. Nope, continues to spam the same copy/paste low review 50+ times.

                  Dan_Ryder You miss the elephant in the room by a mile. These low read count, low score reviews don't even reflect the paid content of the novel. Contracted authors write to sell a product. We are required to give readers ~100k of free words before the novel can go premium. That's an entire free book.

                  I guess you just think everyone should like stuff they get for free and cannot accept it when people actually tried it and do not like it. What you fail to realize is that 100k free words is a benchmark to the site to show your ability to produce that much in a set time, it does not however by no means indicate anything about if the reader likes it or why you should have a right to censor their opinion.
                  Also you are always going on and on about paid this paid that. I can and did borrow books from libraries and read them, so did I pay for that?
                  No!
                  Do I have to like it?
                  No!
                  Can I still have an opinion about it and post it to amazon?
                  Yes!

                  People do NOT need to pay for something to be qualified to have an opinion about something. YOU as an author INVITE people on this platform to read your product for FREE. And when they do they can have an opinion on it and they can choose to not like it.

                  I just had a quick look at your "Devil's Rise" 77 reviews and 4.9 rating atm.
                  A lot of those 77 reviews are 5 stars and a lot of those are random emotes, nothing substantial. Why are you not living up to your own standards and delete those nonsensical emotes? or what about the reviews below even 30 chapters but have 5 stars? (Edit: Several are even Reading Status: C0, only emotes and 5 stars.)
                  The double standards!

                  About that guy who you said is on a mission. How about you just leave his comment and how you point out where he was misguided and leave it for other readers to decide on if you are right or he was? Just invite the readers to judge instead of trying to censor his opinion?

                  And about your example with that vegan person, no real meat-lover would care about a vegan standing outside a steakhouse crying.

                  I get it you are proud of your brainchild and want to have success. I wish you all the best.

                    Dan_Ryder Review misguided? What does that even mean? Opinion wrong?! Are you thought police? Opinions can't be wrong on this sort of thing as long as they a backed by some sort of logic or evidence and displayed politely, there no one 'RIGHT' review. The problem isn't that his opinion is wrong but because he gave YOU a lower score then you like, therefore, you deleted him are called him a troll. Some people as you say spam their previous reviews because of deletion as they feel like you spat on their faces for the thoughtful reviews that they put an effort to write to let you and other readers know. Also, I am not talking about trash reviews like 1 star or without any actual reviewing,

                        It is strange that everyone is trying to argue a "must read X chapters" what if the novel is literally all lower case words, no punctuation, spelling errors, etc? Oh let's pretend that such novels do not exist.....

                        The reason the "experience" system exists is because it makes users remain on the platform for longer, helps authors who are trending by forcing readers to leave a review, comment, like, read, etc.

                        The main issue is that authors who feel that they deserve 5 stars no matter what, will always complain about anything lower which would make WN's jobs much harder. Why would WN remove a system that is currently in place to force readers to interact more, and why would they want to stir the pot with authors who think they are perfect?

                        Veronica8 it's not for you to decide whether or not the review is fair.
                        Deleting a review just because you don't agree with is an A move.
                        Like it or not you are biased towards your work, and deleting reviews just proves that.

                        I've personally researched extensively into the matter as my review of a particular novel novel was deleted 4 times by the author just because I gave him 2 starts and he didn't agree with me.

                        While I agree that there should be some sort of moderation for reviews or at least requiring to have read a certain chapter before showing the review to the public, I don't agree that the author should be the one to moderate.

                        I can prove it to you that you can leave absolute gibberish texts as a review and get away with it 99% of the time if you rate it 5 stars.

                        Well, what can I say to the people that sensor the word fu*k but leave the word nigga alone, as if a racist slur ok

                            Dan_Ryder so you lock someone out of the fundamental ability to express their views just because they are not paying for your work?

                            this is exactly why we need to get the god like power out of authors hand and give it to a responsible and sensible 3rd party.

                            you are failing to understand that you are not the product, if i leave a one star review it's for the novel not you.
                            And if the novel can't make me intrigued in 40+ chapters, why should i even bother to pay for it?

                              Dan_Ryder Hmm, i truly did enjoy your food with what little i was able to taste at that point. It had its problems, it wasn't a 5 star michelin, but it was still quite a good 4 star restaurant. Tho i couldn't even get to the point of forming any solid thoughts or giving a rating because i was only able to take a few bites when the owner suddenly started hovering over my table. The owner couldn't seem to be able to accept someone saying things he didn't approve of. Even comments that are made in passing between words. So somehow i was basically spat on by the restaurant owner about a dozen times out of nowhere as i was eating, just for daring to say anything. At least that's how it felt to be getting your dozen or so different comments being deleted one after another with the owner not even deigning an explanation. The owner was somehow adamant on hovering over my table and spit on my face every time i dare open my mouth, implying that i don't have a right to say anything and whatever i say is trash. (Now i understand that the owner thought that all my opinion is void to begin with since i was eating the free opening food he served. The free food he uses to attract people into his restaurant. They can only eat and shut up.) The owner was above talking to me. It felt like i was just seen as a cockroach he can crush with his spit. Just spit more and more as my whole face and the food is covered with it. And then when i snap and take all his spit and throw it back at him at the end, the owner was somehow baffled why i would do such a thing. Can you understand my side of things a bit better with this analogy then?

                                  Dan_Ryder you are a massive hypocrite dude! I've just read the reviews on your work, you leave troll 5 star reviews while deleting anything below 4. they need to remove your godly power and suspend you for being such a puss that's incapable of accepting criticism.

                                    Moe_Cyan_Pile that's what reviews are for dude, if your work looks like shit for the entirety of the free 40 chapters, then I'll tell everyone that it's shit.

                                    btw dude I'm just using u as an example, i don't know you or your work, sorry if I'm being aggressive here.

                                      Vyte they delete legit one/two star reviews while allowing spam/troll 5 star reviews. I've been saying it for years that they need to remove the daily exp for reviewing and remove authors power to delete review and hand it to a 3rd party to moderate.

                                        N0xiety When a dog comes and starts shitting on your lawn do you reward him with a treat and tell him good boy keep shitting on my lawn or chase him away and clean up his shit.

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