I've only recently joined Webnovel to join WSA because I thought it would be a fun way to practice writing and interact with the community. When I visited the forums, I found out about the Review Swap thread and thought it would be a great way to get people to critique my work. Unfortunately, when I participated, I found that the Review Swaps thread was just a place for people to give each other 4-5 star reviews, telling each other that their novels are amazing, without even giving any real advice.
No offense to the authors, but most of the novels that get posted in that thread are not very well-written, to put it mildly (though there were excellent novels as well). Many novels had atrocious grammar mistakes and boring nonsensical plots, but they still get high reviews because nobody in the thread has the guts to give an honest statement.
At first, I was lazy. I followed the crowd and kept my reviews vague. This allowed me to save time and get more swaps, but I felt that I was doing a disservice to people by saying I enjoyed reading. I all honesty, I didn't want to get too harsh with my critiques because I didn't want other people to bash my own novel, but I've come to realize that nobody is getting better this way.
In the end, I don't want to sound arrogant (I'm not an expert author), but I feel that the Review Swap thread should be a place where people can learn to become better writers by receiving detailed critiques and giving honest critiques to others. I understand that the title is "Review Swap" and not "Critique Swap," but people should put more effort into their reviews so that the authors won't be validated for having poor writing skills. The Review Swap should be a place for people to improve instead of a place to increase the traffic for your novel.
Ah sensei don't abandon me yet. It was time difference. Don't worry, I can handle it