Webnovel.Forum

@GreedyToad, @BabyTanuki, @NitrogenousBeing, @DazzlingGem, @TheOGDuanChen, @MasterRabbink

Just a small update. The collection number is still grossly inflated. I have realized, however, that the collection graph might actually be the true indicator of followers.

For the sake of clarity and brevity, in the following I will refer to "collection number" as "CN" and the "graph collection number" as GCN.

When I subscribe to my own story, GCN correctly adds 1, albeit with a time delay. When I "uncollect" the story, it correctly subtracts 1. All the while, CN keeps inflating.

I also noticed a sharp increase in GCN when I wrote this post on the forums. No noticeable change in CN (meaning it still increases rapidly but at the same pace).

Here is an annotated screenshot:

These observations alone are not enough to conclude anything. What is your experience concerning GCN? Does it fluctuate wildly and randomly, or can you explain the graph's movements like in the above picture? Are the numbers realistic?

@WEBNOVEL_OFFICIAL
New author here. I may be having the same issue, albeit at a lesser order of magnitude. I had about 60 collections at the beginning of the week. It took me since 1 Aug. to accumulate those 60 collections. Come Monday, I noticed a suspicious increase in the rate of collections, and now the amount has almost doubled (112). The view count grew ridiculously fast the first month (as in unrealistically fast), but has slowed down the last week.

I hope it is just a bug, and not a new feature of the platform to inflate collection numbers to attract/motivate newcomers/old-timers. I was happy to have those 60 people interested enough to add my story, now I can no longer trust that number. I read somewhere on the forum that the view count is already inflated, so the number of collections was my only trusted metric for viewership.

Below, I have tagged everyone affected by this issue who have commented in this thread:
@GreedyToad, @BabyTanuki, @DazzlingGem, @TheOGDuanChen

For other authors reading this, please add your voice whether or not you have noticed something similar. It would also be nice to hear from authors not affected by the issue.