Webnovel.Forum

There are so many problems with the premium system it is not even funny:

1) It directly kicks anyone who is a nonpaying reader into wanting/directly dropping the novel because they can no longer read their favorite novels toward the end so they are left with a boat load of chapters just dangling in front of their face but are unable to read
2) Even for paying readers it is insanely expensive to keep up with the updates. Someone did a calculation for just one premium novel and found that it would take them upwards of $15-$20 to read ONE MONTH of chapters at their current release rate and that is with the chapters costing 5-6 SS! Imagine how expensive it is to keep up with those novels costing over 10 SS per chapter and/or multiple novels.
3) Release of the Premium chapters for free consumption are much slower than the release of Premium chapters, not to mention you can't even see if they are free just by going to their library. So this means that not only are free readers who are loyal enough to continue with the novel having to wait longer for chapter releases but the rate they can read has been drastically reduced. In addition there is no schedule provided for how/when premium chapters become free. Following this problem number one again crops up. Worse people can see the premium chapters increasing from the initial date sometimes even doubling (example: Super Gene starting premium chapter 10, Current 18).
4) GOING PREMIUM DOESN'T OFFER ANY OTHER BENEFITS. So people are spending more money, are overall left unsatisfied with the service provided, translators/novels are losing long time supporters, and the overall experience of premium is without a doubt the WORST idea in the history of business.

We have already seen the backlash that premium has had on the various novels. Looking in the forums you can see the overall dissatisfaction with the system. This post is one of MANY. In addition many novels are suffering in votes after going premium (LoHP for instance). I don't even think we've even seen the tip of the iceberg in regards to all the problems with premium. If you notice any more please post them in the discussion below.
I doubt the translators can do anything about the issue because I am not entirely certain if they have any say in the matter or what benefits they even get by their novel(s) going premium. If there are any translators reading this I would love to know (and I think many others would too) if you guys are benefiting from this system. A lot of readers are not fans of Qidian, they are fans of the novel and the translators. If the translators don't benefit from this premium system then that's and even bigger injustice in my book.
Some people have brought up that Qidian is waiting for first time readers to come to the site and not know about the issues with premium. Well I say lets keep this issue alive!!! Don't stop the discussion. Let every reader who comes to this site know that this is a problem and not the norm. Lets force Qidian to change the premium system so that everyone who is using this service is satisfied. Frankly I really shouldn't have to say this because it's really something to strive for in any good business. If that isn't Qidians' goal then they really are exactly like the rumors surrounding them say.

tl;dr Premium is a TERRIBLE System

I normally do not reply to forum threads, but it was just linked in discord
Your points seems well written, but you see only the vocal part of the community

SniperGal666 We have already seen the backlash that premium has had on the various novels. Looking in the forums you can see the overall dissatisfaction with the system

from sources closer to the numbers, it seems that only a minority is outspoken about the dissatisfaction of premium and a lot of people like it, that would reduce your argument by 2 points.

I cant argue that is does not offer more benefits than before, cause thats how i argued before. But you will not change anything and before you invest time and leave dissatisfied, just ignore the forum, its a place filled with trash and crushed dreams of pitiful people

Billdoor This is a discussion and I would also love to hear from the side that is satisfied with the premium system. What about the system makes them satisfied? If my thoughts are wrong I would love to know.
If what you say is correct and the majority of people speaking out on the forum are those dissatisfied then it would benefit the forum to know exactly how premium is good. Obviously I am unsatisfied with the system and am part of that group, so I would love to hear about it's benefits.

Millman97 My mistake, seems I got confused with how much it costs but the point still stands. Even if we only consider it to be one chapter a day, that is still 7 chapters a week, or 28 (at least) in a month. For the lowest costing novels that's around $1.50-$2 per month but the highest is $6-$7.50. Now if you read multiple premium novels that cost per month goes up, increase the rate of release of premium chapters per day and the cost goes up, have mass release of chapters and the cost goes up.
Premium is expensive to upkeep especially if you are reading multiple premium novels which is the case for many people. In addition at the rate Qidian is going, the majority of the novels are going to be premium or at the very least all the popular novels will go premium. So it is likely that there will not be very many readers if any at all who are reading only one premium novel.

SniperGal666 i replied to some one before. there is a simple solution. tune out , walk away from computer , smell the fresh air and drink/enjoy coffee. say for amonth. then you have 30 chapters waiting ( seems lot to me if there is life outside and its chores ) and if you read one novel a day , in 30days you can have second go. :)
even better go away, let them complete the translation and read it free in one go. provided they don't introduce chinese system of some free chapters and rest under lock at perhaps few stones or pennies per chapter.
bottomline is they seem to in hurry to breakeven and in near future start making money. even though attempts are muddled at the best. perhaps a business model with chinse characteristic ?

BadMal Always a potential solution. Unfortunately my mentality does not allow me to leave these novels alone currently. I can only do that when I mentally cannot continue with the story. You know that feeling you get after reading something for a while and you just need a break? That's when I can stop for a while (currently doing that with True Martial World, Martial World, Spirit Realm and Invincible) but some of these novels are too good right now to stop. I think there are many other people who feel the same way.
I haven't read any of the completed chapters on Qidian so I am not sure if they don't already charge for chapters after the novel is completed but, right now, it wouldn't surprise me if they started doing that. The only completed novel I have read is Coiling Dragon and Qidian does not have all the chapters yet so I am not sure if they will do that.

#NotaSupporterofPremiumSystem

We can always consider that premium system never existed. We get one or two free chapter every day.
Another thing: From check-ins and votes we get around 24-30 sprit stones. You can always use those and can read about 2 to 4 premium chapters.
Let's be honest here: Qidan will never remove this premium system. Why? Because it's very beneficial for them. And in this world, there are many types of foolish people who will support them, Why? Because they are like sheep.When one sheep decides to go somewhere, the rest of the flock usually follows, even if it is not a good
Qidan and their people will say We are lacking money so we are introducing premium system and then the flock will foolishly believe them and starts buying.
Ahem! I think I am very honest here...............................

Taken from Reverend Insanity( its really good Try it)

They were all frogs in the well, only able to see the moon from below, thinking about Fang Yuan’s unrestrained position but not being able to see beyond the system’s restrictions.

Actually, as long as one joins the system, they would be weakened, and their benefits would be sacrificed.

It is just that the members at the bottom of the chain are deprived more severely. The higher one’s status is, the more benefits one will enjoy.

This separation and joining, entering and leaving, is filled with deep wisdom and knowledge.

But how many people can see clearly across this fact?

There are 2 solution about this system

1. Make PFF integrated to every account to unlock the very first chapter that still unlocked so we not think to waste our money to unlock premium chapter
2. Make account as much as how many premium novel you read. You can read it all free with bonus spirit stone ( assume everyday you can unlock 2 chapters)

Happy reading

SniperGal666 It ain't $1.5-$2 because once you unlock chapters you have to pay for the next ones and for the ones that have 3-4ss their chapters are very short so they have around 25-30chaps release rate so the lowest cost for these come to 6-8$ per month

The biggest problems I have with premium are twofold:

1.) You can't stop paying if you start. You don't get "7 free chapters a week" or such. You get "7 free specific chapters a week, which if you already have paid for, you don't benefit from."

2.) It isn't delayed release, it is exponential. If it started with a 1000 chapter novel with a 7 free-7 premium ratio that costs 10 SS a chapter, premium readers would get to the end of the book 71 weeks earlier. Over a year earlier. The cost of said novel to get the earliest would be 5000 SS, or $100. And most books are 12+ spirit stones per chapter.

Mowuji_immortal This is the link that Millman97 sent me that I got the values. The numbers I posted were based off of the calculations done by translating SS into their value in US dollars. the $1.5 - $2 was under the assumption that there was only one chapter released a day. But your point is right in that the lower cost premium novels have a higher release rate than the others which will increase the costs for anyone paying for the premium chapters.

natto True Qidian does need to make a profit as well as they are providing a service that we are using. However who is to say that they weren't already making a profit? Even under the older systems they were making money by showing ads on the chapters. Companies pay Qidian to show those ads, they don't do it for free. In addition by offering the secondary option of using SS instead they are creating an incentive to purchase SS. They benefit from the general dislike of advertisements by giving us the SS option. They never intended for people using their service to strictly rely on the bonus SS gained from checking in or voting to sustain them. In fact the check in SS is also an incentive to buy more because it is made so that you can read more than one chapter. Once you get used to that it is hard for people to just go back to reading one chapter a day. The bonus also expire after a month while the purchased SS never expire creating even more incentive to purchase as you can stop reading any time because you will never lose them but you need to check in every day otherwise you will lose eventually lose all of the SS you've saved up. This is another reason why you can't just wait for the novels to finish before going back because there is no guarantee that Qidian won't charge for readers to finish the novel.
It's hard to imagine that Qidian wasn't making any sort of profit with all of that not to mention other aspects of their service. That's why premium just seems like Qidian is demanding more money without improving or changing their service to a lot of people.
Also one chapter a day may be good enough for some people but after getting used to a service that provided more it is hard to go back especially when you see that there is more offered but can't access it.

I also want to clarify that I am aware that Qidian is not going to get rid of the premium system. However it is a terrible system as is and needs to be changed. That is what I hope this discussion will strive toward. Talking about the issues and potential positives of this system and ways to fix it so that all the people who use this service are satisfied. Right now I think it is an unsatisfactory system for both paying and nonpaying readers and that needs to be addressed by Qidian. If Qidian choses not to address these issues then I can only assume they do not have a good business outlook which should be to satisfy their customers concerns to the best of their abilities.

SniperGal666 Opinion from someone who doesn't mind the premium system. I was paying much more in patreon to read extra chapters for single books.

I don't feel the price is too much, I think Qidian is attempting to have a serious go at making this project international and paying people decent wages costs money. The updates are generally on time, the translations much better then what I've normally read. Sleek and easy to use system. And it all costs money. From the Techs adding new features/bug fixes, translators, editors, management, servers.

So when I look at everything I have access to compared to any other translating site. Including quality, ease of access and entertainment value I feels it's well worth what is being asked.

People can be upset all they want because they don't get to keep up to date. The world isn't fair but you'll survive. If you want to keep up to date a simple "Online Jobs" search will redirect you to the many things someone can do to make a few extra bucks. I myself worked for Rev for about a year as a transcriptor and made around $50 a day for a few hours of transcripting. Do some arts and crafts and sell them on the Amazon Craft site. Swagbucks or any of the many survey/video sites. Take photos and upload to Shutterstock. Affiliate marketing with Clickbank, Amazon, Wal-Mart or any other retail store with an affiliate program.

We live in a digital age where with $1 you can start your own website. Most of you know social media like the back of your hand so with a bit of effort you can generate revenue with adsense sites.

But again, effort is the key word. Before I put any effort into anything going paintballing on the weekends was a no go. I couldn't afford it, doesn't mean I wrote a bunch of nasty letters and reviews to those companies trying to strong arm them into lowering their prices because I couldn't afford it. Least Qidian is giving free chapters, which they don't have to do at all.

SniperGal666 i understand how you feel but a small break and then a reading schedule seems one way to get to read for free. at least for now. i usually wait till there are 50 some time 100 chapters but these books here are not my primary reading interests so its easy for me in that sense.
simple economics tells me at some point they will need to charge some price ( ss or watch an add ) for translations as i doubt the ads based on traffic alone will cover their expenses. if one takes the recommendation ( stones ) as proxy you can see that in all probability highest rated 20 novels ( could be even less ) should have more readership than rest combined.

SniperGal666
So you wouldn't come but on the original (chinese) qidian good novels are 80% paid so just be satisfied with what you have...
And if you have some homies it's not a problem XD
P.S-Live long friend invite!

I think I like it more if they use monthly payment than us buying spirit stones... Too much ss