Webnovel.Forum

https://forum.novelupdates.com/threads/qidian-sent-dmca-notice-to-patreon-for-all-ww-translators.63127/

My take on this:
Since QI is ruining the patreon revenue model for their translators via the forced transition to Premium, they are attempting to disrupt the model for the overall translation scene; especially with Wuxiaworld.

Qidian International is a bully. There it's been said. They are like a child on the playground that knocks over a set of building blocks another child was playing with. For no reason other than from sheer pettiness.

For me, enough is enough.

The poaching of HJC ignoring even their own licensing deal with WW—especially given the fact that they can't even keep up with some of their own series (Martial Arts Master anyone?)—had given me pause for concern since it seemed like a stupid resumption of the fight with WW.

Then they resumed posting unauthorized WW's translation's further reduced my desire to support QI.
And now the underhanded DMCA requests, clearly another form of bullying by QI.

Combine all that with a revenue model (premium) that has pushed many novels out of the realm of affordability and it's clear. It's time for me to spend my money elsewhere.

My condolences to all the translators and editors stuck with such a toxic management team.

Le sigh. If you read the contract revealed by rwx on nuf itself, it does state that the translated Qi novels are only allowed to be hosted for free on wuxiaworld.com.

The whole whether completed means fully-completed novel or just a completed chapter is another whole can of worms that require lawyers to navigate.

If you do the math, premium is actually cheaper than most patreons.

So basically, WW can DMCA qidian but qidian cannot DMCA WW when there's a breach in the contract?

But since neither of us really know the true content of the contract in question, let's not buy into propaganda and see how this all unfolds in the end.

Ps. I enjoy working with Qidian so you can save the condolences.

Shaff Someone already did the math for it some time ago. I'm too lazy to find it to prove a point on the internet.

checkm8 Toxic environment? I'm assuming you're talking about the whole monetization of translation. I doubt you can blame Qidian for that, i mean that's how capitalism works no? If you're talking about toxic environment for WW translators/editors, imagine you're a Qi translator/editor visiting the noveltranslation subreddit or hell, just nuf, now that's toxic environment.

The "poaching" is part of the contract and relates to the argument whether "completed" counts as fully completed or completed chapter, I am no lawyer so I admit I have more faith in Qidian's company lawyers who drafted the contract than internet lawyers, but if you can find me a lawyer that states Qidian is completely in the wrong according to the contract, then... let's see, I'm not that powerful enough to have Qidian takes down the translation here, so I suppose you'll have to settle with my personal apology, if you still want it that is.

I stand by QI

Shaff checkm8

You can read the posts of @shelwyn

https://forum.webnovel.com/d/4131-library-of-heaven-s-path-premium/290

I pay $20 dollars a month for 7 chapters of early access to Mystical Journey.

I pay $10 dollars a month for 4 chapters of early access to Mansion in a post apocalyptic world.

I pay $50 dollars a month to Super Stars of Tomorrow for early access to 14 chapters of early access on patreon.

The Strongest Gene used to cost $80 A month for 25 chapters of early access. That one is premium now.

https://forum.webnovel.com/d/4131-library-of-heaven-s-path-premium/292

80+20+10+50 = $160
160 x3 months = $480

9 packs of $50 spirit stones for 7500 (2500)
1 pack of $20 spirit stones 3000 (1000)
1 pack of $10 spirit stones 1500 (500)
So in three months I could have

9x 7500 (2500 permanent) =67,500 (22,500)
1x 3000 (1000 permanent) = 3000 (1000)
1x 1500 (500 permanent) = 1500 (500)
In three months of patreon payments I could buy 72,000 (24,000 permanent) spirit stones.
At 20 spirit stones a chapter I could buy 3,600 chapters here. Those are some expensive chapters too.
At 14 spirit stones a chapter I could buy 5,142 chapters.

That's three months worth of patreon payments for me.

Remember, you are paying on Premium for an equivalent to the rewards from the highest tier Patreon.
If you can't afford it, you can always not support Premium at all, read the free chapters at 1/day. If you want to blame the high prices, you really have to blame the translators who first started high tier Patreon tiers. Webnovel is just following industry practices.

Lonelytree Toxic environment? I'm assuming you're talking about the whole monetization of translation

Not at all, when I speak of toxic environment I stand by my first post. QI's stupid actions like Poaching HJC. That is what I term toxic environment. It was a petty stunt and is an action that serves no purpose but to create antagonism/drama within the translation community.

What purpose does it serve to poach the translation?

1. The novel will not be going premium thus all QI hope to earn from it is the small amount of potential ad-revenue.
2. It's not even locked behind the bonus chapters, so QI doesn't even earn that ad-revenue/SS.
3. The only purpose it serves is to stir up shit between QI & WW.

That's the toxic environment I'm talking about.

I may bitch and moan about premium, but that's only because of how expensive it has gotten. It rapidly priced me out of reading novels I enjoyed.

QI has a right to earn a profit. No one should argue with that statement. How they choose to do that is what is starting to become disturbing.

Why wouldn't they have focused on increasing/fixing exisiting translations like Martial Arts Master instead of senselessly starting a fight.

TOXIC!

checkm8 MAM translations are already being done. They are just undergoing corrections and editing. Since it is a group working for QI, with proper communication channels, it's easier to understand the other party and give them time to work out any problems. It is exactly what WW did with HJC back when Zen was having trouble keeping releases consistent.

WW, on the other hand, is just not very friendly with QI (obviously). And since a group has been hired by QI to finish the translation of HJC, there's no reason to bow out of the race, especially when WW slows down its release speed when QI doesn't release chapters fast. Since both sides are bent on translating it to the end, I don't see how this affects readers. In fact, the competition gives rise to faster release speeds from both sides, benefiting readers.

The idea of poaching by the community is frowned upon since it can cause burn out to both translating parties, eventually causing both parties to drop the translation, causing harm to the readers, as mentioned by RWX himself.

In the current situation, that will not happen since QI is the one funding this 'war.' WW doesn't seem like it will bow out from the race either.

CKtalon You completely ignored the fact that PATREON was ADVANCED READER CHAPTERS! Meanwhile, translators were still releasing a regular number of chapters every week for regular readers.

Under QI's current implementation all novels under premium have been moved to 7 chapters per week.

You all chose a very slanted example, not many people were shelling out $160 a month on patreon. Those are WAY OUTSIDE THE NORM! The numbers were more like $10-20 per month.

$20 per month = 1250 SS

1250 SS = ~104 chapters @ 12 SS per chapter.

That's what was more typical.

Yes, it is much cheaper for the RICH and well-off.

Congratulations! You just saved them money.

this chat is toxic.

checkm8 Yes, most people are willing to pay $10-20, which is roughly how much it costs a book on Premium! It was all priced based on what users are willing to pay.

QI is still releasing 7/week for free!

People who began subscribing to Patreon chapters have to wait for the free chapters to catch up if they want to stop paying as well (perhaps not as long as QI's system), but that is where the monetization models change slightly. Remember, QI lowered the price from $100+ a book to $10-20 a book to give paying readers the treatment high-tier readers were paying.

checkm8 checkm8, i've seen you in our discord chat before. good old days when we talked with billdoor about gun violence in the us. and how we were all surprised to find out your age (at least for me anyways).
:wave:, hope you're doing well m8.
it's no wonder you haven't been around often to see the discord page revamped by none other then @Millman97.
i believe that what you said make a lot of sense, in their journey for profit, qi has made many enemies and spilled the blood of both translators/editors from their competitors, and readers.

it's unfortunately that in my journey to look for entertainment, i stumbled here and met some very cool people.
there's no helping it.

here is what i Will say to you though, if qi didn't have a phenomenal group of translators, editors, and behind the scene supports from their employees, they would have made history a very long time ago with the amount of hate they have accumulated over the last few months from not only readers of their competitors, but also readers like you (who can no longer tolerate their greediness).

Thormented Not sure if you are using USD for your currency.

The price of 1SS = US$0.0153 - 0.0167

So a cost/month should be closer to a 1/30th of that those numbers, which maxes out at $25 for Immortal Mortal.