Webnovel.Forum

WN is currently going underneath a review by a third-party. The following is the message that was sent out on Discord:

Dear Authors,

As our site is undergoing a review of our content by a third party in the near future, we will need to temporarily hide works with mature content and tags. This will take effect between September 28 to September 30. In order to avoid this happening to your work, please remove the sensitive contents from your book, namely:

1. Book covers that are more sexual in nature (E.g. people in suggestive poses, people in various states of undress etc.)
2. Temporarily remove more sensitive tags (E.g. R-18, smut, etc.)

Any book that fail to do so will be temporarily hidden from the site for the duration of the review.

Thank you for your cooperation!

LinYang That's the thing! I don't have any of the mentioned things in my works But the works that have them are still displayed.
I don't mind to wait a couple of days but why they don't hide contracted works too? So not to loose some possible profit?
Don't mind me, it's a rhetorical question

LinYang is this is same for compition going on?? Because I have taken part in one compition and can't see that now...Should we do the same??

Anya_Nesh
Scarletheart84
Actually yesterday I just started a new novel and it didn't show up...so I emailed them and they were quick to respond. Told me that as soon as they finished reviewing it would show up. I'm not part of the WN team and I actually never got verified on the Discord haha but I'm assuming that for right now, until the 1st of October to follow their guidelines...I'm pretty sure it applies for competitions as well. As for contracted webnovels, I believe that all of them have been reviewed before they were contracted. Whether or not they are hidden I do not know, but it could possibly be for profit...or maybe it's not to confuse readers, as readers don't traverse the forums often. Also a lot of them are on QiDian as well so if my guess as to who the third-party is is correct...then maybe they don't mind contracted works being up there. Again, don't take my word for it. We'll just have to wait for the 1st and see what happens.

Anya_Nesh My work got hidden too. I had no r-18 tag. It is sad to not receive powerstones and to see my work not coming up in search results.

LinYang okay. thank you for your help...It was just that I am not able to see the WPC11 compitition chart now. Before this my book was removed from it so I just asked but I did all the necessary changes it required. I have removed all tags and some portion of novel. I just hope they will notice it before announcing the results. All hope for the best.

It can be Google who is checking them. Their app has 16+ rating. It should be higher then If they have explicit content

Anya_Nesh I doubt Google would. But WN did get bought by Tencent recently, I think...don't want to spread rumors, though.

They literally hid stories out of their scope, which can be considered censorship. Both of my stories had none of the mature tags. One is "General Audience" the other "Advised viewing" (but not 18+ content). In both cases, none contained any tags as they describe.

That is a problem to me, but a bigger problem? They will go under review, and need to hide stories massively? Dude, isn't that plain admission some things shouldn't exist on this website? I want my stories back to where they were published @WEBNOVEL_OFFICIAL Don't take down stuff without a reason, and a lot of novels were taken down without a reason.

Additionally

This thing gets to stay with full cap VIOLENCE tag and clearly woman "revealing" a bit of her cleavage, but this:

Is somehow not good? What the hell!? Also, my cover has a simple silhouette of a woman, that's all. You can't even see what woman it is! This is pure bs. Yea, I am angry. They simply censored my books for no reason. No matter for how many days.

It's likely undergoing review by the CCP. They've always been a bit sensitive about literature. Qidian had a lot of books banned for "inaccurate depictions" and "morally corrupting" content a while back. At least (if Webnovel is telling the truth) they're only hidden for a few days rather than permanently banned.

LinYang Webnovel has always been in the Tencent reporting chain. They just restructured the chain recently and now Webnovel is (according to the grapevine) a direct subsidiary of Tencent.

It's only hidden and your readers who added your book to their library will still be able to read it.

However, I also noticed how other more explicit contracted novels were not hidden.

I guess they can't miss a day of profits or they were exempted after the author itself inquired and requested the CEs

KoraL Yeah, that's what I kinda figured. I was tempted to apply to be an author on QiDian, and after looking at their terms of service to be an author, I can see exactly why Webnovel would be banned in China. (There's so much stuff on here that would be unacceptable on QiDian...)