I don't think it's disrespectful to have someone fill in for Thunder while he sorts his stuff out. It's direspectful to keep readers hanging with empty promises, especially when the service itself is no longer a completely free one.
If we're using the work analogy, it's like he's working on an important project and coming in every day to do 0 work instead of just saying he needs a vacation and taking those days off so management can reassign that project and it can keep proceeding smoothly.
This is a really entertaining novel, but it's being ruined by this translator's inconsistent release of chapters
Webnovel needs to understand that their biggest competition is aggregator sites. All these novels will get posted elsewhere so if their pricing plan is not reasonable then there's nothing stopping people from leaving to read for free in other places. It's the same for anything...Webnovel might be unique in what they're doing but piracy is an option and one that people will take more and more as the price to read here stays unreasonable. Most people with income would gladly pay for services they use over pirating them if the price is reasonable.
What, you mean Webnovel doesn't care about its customers and will make any changes they want, regardless of how it affects its customers? Say it ain't so.
It's pretty ridiculous for a popular, premium novel to have such an inconsistent release rate.
Detro "Keeping track of each individual accounts paid chapters then adding free chapters is a lot of information to store. "
In this case it wouldn't be since they're already doing a lot more than that. They must already store info on what chapters are locked what chapters you've unlocked since when you log off and back on, the chapter you just paid to unlock is not suddenly locked again. The simplest solution from there would be to unlock the earliest locked chapter as unlocking from where you last read has too many changing variables.
What else does the Premium Program BETA provide?
With the Premium Program BETA, readers can not only enjoy more chapters, but also support our diligent translators, editors, and greatest authors directly. This will certainly motivate them in providing high-quality stories with a much steadier release rate. We believe that one day, Webnovel translators, editors, and authors globally will be able to see their jobs as full-time professions, and the beginning of that is today.
What is the Premium Program BETA?
The development of any business model requires constant improvements over time. It is not solely dictated by Webnovel, and it requires all of us to explore and develop the business together. Therefore, we will continue running the Premium Program in a BETA stage. There will be constant optimization to ensure that we do not deviate from the right path—to ensure that all parties receive what they deserve. We also invite all of you to help us in building a better future.
Gamblejay Good one, cash cow t(- -t). I could see someone selling you the full Naruto anime by episode and you'd be ecstatic to hand over your parent's money.
WEBNOVEL_OFFICIAL "Hi there, 1000 average 2k-word-count chapters will be 2M words - which can be split into 20 usual books. 80/20=4 for each book"
I'm sorry, since when do usual books get priced based on word count or contain as many unneeded words as these webnovels? Sure the word count can be split up into 20+ usual WESTERN books (as in less fluff more story), but I dare you to argue that the average webnovel is the equivalent in quality content to 20+ books, let alone 1 book.
Are there even 20+ premium titles? People can't even afford to continue to keep up with 3 premium titles.
Gamblejay Lol basically reiterating my point while missing it entirely. How is my analogy a strawman? Pretty much exactly what happened. That Chinese restaurant down the street could be said to be a piracy site as that would be the current competition and that's where many are going as an alternative.
Unless QI actually releases numbers, idk what you want me to search. Your argument for this is "I heard it's operating at a loss, I heard the revenue is going up"... of course it's going up, they just made a huge cash grab, the question is up for how long and by what amount.
"You dislike fillers, ignoring the fact that the majority of Eastern Novels, Anime, Manga, TV Series are all presented this way"
When you watch anime and read manga, what are you paying? ITS THE PRICE FOR THE CONTENT, and in the case of the anime and manga, the price for us is $0 unless you want to buy a copy in support. If that content was behind an expensive paywall, I would be much less likely to consume the content (except in some cases where the anime/manga went for quality and not just quantity). So yes, the issue is still the price for the content that you get.
Your mentality is a reason shit companies remain shit companies, and EA to you must be the prime example of a great business model. I paid for SS twice and have supported my favorite non-premium novel through donations already, but I won't be paying for SS again until there's a change because I don't like how the company is doing business. This is called consumer feedback and it's how company policies are changed.
"If you don't like the way people from the East do things, feel free to shut the door on your way out."
Again, maybe rethink who the target audience of this site is...it's QI INTERNATIONAL. Fun fact, international does not refer to just the east and a large amount of the audience is from the opposite end. A company's business model should reflect who their target audience is, that's just good business practice.
Sorry about QI's poster child comment... I didn't know I got your title wrong, QI's Wallet. Go ahead and keep bending over for QI while the rest of try to get QI to improve on their terrible system.
Chief All your arguments are terrible
1) If you start paying you need to continue to pay or you're screwed waiting an astronomical amount of time for the free chapters to catch up. So you can read 1 chapter a day and finish the webnovel in maybe 3 years or keep shoveling money at QI to finish your premium novels at a reasonable time.
2) Where is the consumer in that? You do understand who is paying for that good deal for everyone else, right?
3) Lol, since when was filler ever not canon material? It's just people don't want to pay more for content loaded with fluff and unneeded drivel to drive the word count up than an actual compelling story with a lot less filler content (most western books you would spend money one)
4) Well I have bought SS and it's not really worth it, especially after the bonus SS was reduced to what I assume is the new norm
WEBNOVEL_OFFICIAL Thanks for showing up for a second to show how out of touch you are with the majority of your consumers.
Gamblejay You're the one that defended the price as compared to real books when there's really not much to defend. Congrats if you want to pay for fillers, everyone can speak with their money and you are no exception. However, the majority cannot afford or don't think it's worth it to be constantly shoveling money at QI to read stories of endless repetition + fillers. I'm pretty sure you're one of the rare few that don't mind paying for 5 chapters about the mc getting an epiphany and their cultivation struggle to breakthrough. And please show data that QI is operating on a loss.
As for your Chinese restaurant analogy, it's a good strawman. The issue is the price for the content, not the content. Is anyone coming to this website trying to learn food recipes and mad when there's only webnovels? To fix that, you started eating at a Chinese restaurant that had decent prices. You ordered your food and you get some of it, but while you're waiting on the rest, the prices suddenly changed and you've got to pay more to get the food that you're waiting on. Nothing about the food really changes, but the price skyrocketed. You just can't justify continuing to pay for that food when there's another Chinese restaurant down the street at a reasonable price.
Just because @Gamblejay, QI's new poster child, is willing to pay astronomical prices for lackluster stories doesn't mean the rest of us are.
Ottersz Yup, the people punished the most are the users who've paid some, but can't afford to continue paying 24/7. You get past some premium chapters and then you just wait,wait, and wait until it finally catches up so spending your bought ss in the first place ends up just being a waste of time
Gamblejay The problem is you are expecting westerners to be sold on a Chinese business model. This site isn't targeted toward Chinese users.
Gamblejay Except those books aren't priced on their word count. These novels contain so much unneeded drivel just to drive that word count up while real authors try to bring their word count down so there's less fluff and more story. If you want to compare 1 million words in these books with 1 million words on these web novels then you're already doing it wrong because the words aren't worth the same amount of story. One fight in BTTH takes like 5-7 chapters, random enlightenment for 2-4 chapters each, and then there's the explanations from side characters about every little thing that people don't care about.
I can understand premium novels and giving the translators the compensation they deserve, but they went about this all wrong, and it's obviously more of a cash grab than "supporting the translators".
For me, the two main issues are:
SS cost based on word count. All these authors fluff their stories like crazy and you end up paying 10+ spirit stones for all these filler chapters. In this way you end up paying way more to keep reading than you would for probably 3+ actual books with compelling stories and lack of fillers.
Paying users are pretty much screwed if they ever stop paying because the release of premium for free chapters has nothing to do with what chapters you've unlocked already. You unlock the premium chapters and get further ahead of the free release schedule, and if you stop or run out of SS then you're stuck waiting an astronomically long time to get the next chapter. So basically just keep shoving your money at QI or get out.
Fourclovers Then they would actually have an argument about inflation, rather than them just saying everything should expire quick because somehow inflation will occur when no trading can actually happen.
WEBNOVEL_OFFICIAL Yea, it's not double. It can be x3 or x4 too.