I'm starting to see, from these conversations, that non-content feedback types (e.g spam, EXP gain types) might be okay for the chop.

Deleting genuine feedback on content is frowned upon since it doesn't give readers a healthy view point of other perspectives to the content. The verbatim becomes one-sided.

Then there's the deeper level of what is considered genuine feedback. Just saying, "absolute garbage story" or "love this story" doesn't seem to be a deep enough level for a review, but would be good enough for a comment.

My understanding of what I've noticed so far.

    MiddleEastern All good. I sort of realized that but thought to add the line just in case.

    You're good :grin:

        N0xiety your analogy is funny, but sad too since it is true.
        Entitled authors are rampant on this platform hence I do not trust the rating of any original story.
        I also read the first chapter of the author's book you answered to and tbh it's just real bad spit and might contain viruses ;) It feels like a 10 year old kid is trying to convey that the protagonist is evil, real evil, like do you get it? he is evilest evil can get... like evil evil evil... and he thinks he is evil like all the time thinking he is evil and should become more evil so he can reign evil above all those evil, but who are not as evil as he is, since he is the most evil evil out there.

        Sorry about that :D could not help to not make a little joke there.
        Some writing style is just like punching you in the face, repeatedly, and since you tried telling the authors this fact once and they react with spite, get personal and insult you then just let it go. Let them stay the bad writer that they are, no need to give criticism or waste time on an ungrateful person.
        There is so much more positive things you can do or nice people who you can work with or influence.
        People will eventually realize that being overprotective of their writing is hurting themselves and getting fake compliments is actually hurting their growth, but when that time comes it might be to late and they fked it up too much already :D
        Like those authors having "no time" to correct their weaknesses.

          MiddleEastern do not waste your time on this, there have been enough people complaining about this practice for years and WN is not going to change it. Do not try to reason with authors who have a god complex and think every reader has to worship them, for they have graced us with their godly scripts to be passed on to generations to come.
          In reality those are just self-centered poor creatures who want to earn some recognition and some bucks and since they are contracted now they delude themselves into thinking they will be the next JK Rowling or JRR Tolkien or whoever you want to name. In reality their writing is still subpar and they will be forgotten by 99% of the readers by next week. Since they do not even try to grow and better themselves they will remain stuck and become bitter by time.

          In the end you should just read and support the novels you really like on this platform and leave the others alone. Support the work you like, not blindly supporting the author, and eventually some author on this platform, who is willing to work on themselves, will be able to produce something worth printing and will get their due recognition, but this will not happen to people who insult others, because they cannot receive any kind of criticism.

              Veronica8 I agree, a 1 star review with "This is a shit novel" while they have read like 5 chapters should be deleted. I just don't see how feasible it is to have a third party take care of all those reviews like @MiddleEastern suggested. At least the author gets a notification and can delete it right away. I do agree that there should be no EXP for reviews anymore, that way only genuine readers will spend the time to write one.

                  RABBITICOL your onions are very important to me, give them up now!

                  I just got triggered when I saw the author like that, being a hypocrite. I know it's 100% a lost cause because people are dumb, the mob will read anything and webnovel have no reason to kick money.

                    chu_chan the reason that nothing changes is because of money, they still make a truck load of it each day, once we hit their bottom line which is their money flow they'll listen. Unfortunately for 10 people against the practice, a 1000 people don't care and support them.

                        MeriemR It is not about those 1star reviews.
                        What people are upset about is the 3.5 star review of several hundred words, written with care and written in good faith, that got deleted and on top sometimes also getting an insulting personal message.
                        The kind of author people are talking about who calls people a dog when he/she/it is not agreeing with you.

                        All this behavior just to boost their rating, which actually is not important at all, since what counts are the chapters being read, the rankings and the chapters being paid for, also gifts and support through patreon/kofi and the like.

                          MeriemR it's not about the feasibility of a 3rd party moderation team, it's about the current system which encourages shity reviews for exp and the authors ability to delete criticism. These need to be dealt with ASAP,reviews give ZERO insight into a novel because it's an advertisement at this point.

                            MeriemR
                            Maybe it's just me, but I tend to ignore all the 1star and 5star reviews because they generally don't tell me anything. Like when I buy things on Amazon, I always look for what people find wrong about it, and decide for myself if I'm bothered by it.
                            Guess I'm just one of those that genuinely does not care about ratings.

                              MiddleEastern well I went back to reading on websites of translators, since people only translate web novels, which were successful and which they liked.
                              Don't know what got me to open up WN forums lol. Nothing changed, it is still the same mess.
                              Still frustrated readers and authors with god complex. TBH most, like 90%, of original novels on this platform suck, contracted authors and premium novels included. Too many think they can make quick bucks and there are no editors, so quality is sometimes nonexistent and what WN cares about is the word count, hence the 100k words before any novel can go premium.
                              As you said it is about money, no one really cares about the quality of these "novels". If quality was considered 99% of the content here would never be published.

                                  I've been Ranked #1 too. In the opposite direction at Rank#1111111110101010 XD

                                  Okay. That was a lame joke. Cue canned laughter. Although that rank position is relatively correct.

                                  I find it hard to believe this discussion is still going on.

                                  Reviews are worthless as a rule, and the whole system is a joke. 95% or more of so-called reviews aren't even reviews. They're mind farts.

                                  What's sad is that so many readers are guided by those silly little stars. And that they waste time reading that 'review' crap instead of reading the story.

                                  If they bothered to read the first page of the story, they would x) instantly know whether they personally like it or not, y) develop their own critical faculties, z) save themselves tons of time. It takes less time to read a page of a story than to dig through dozens of asinine 'reviews'.

                                  I think the whole system was set up that way so that kids who want to write could engage in interaction. It was never meant to be a serious system, just something to encourage people to get more involved (and maybe watch more ads while they're at it. I wouldn't know, I don't use the app).

                                  So my suggestion would be to stop treating the review system with seriousness it doesn't deserve. I use it solely (and rarely) to encourage kids who clearly have talent to keep going.

                                  And yes, authors definitely should have the right to delete the bullshit masquerading as 'reviews'. But it's probably best just to ignore it.

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