DazzlingGem Thanks a bunch, I will try it out!

Jessie That would actually solve part of the equation. Bots will still show up with a name, though. We still need to consider that the inflated numbers might not even be a bug, but a feature. In that case, webnovel would likely not be interested in such a solution.

BabyTanuki Gratz! That is cause for celebration ;-) We still cannot know for sure that any metric in the dashboard is representative of reality. In fact, we know for sure that at least one number is false (CN and GCN are incompatible).

Thus, the only way to know for sure that a human being is following you is through their interactions, such as comments. In other words, you lost some arbitrary numbers, but gained a verifiable human follower. (As an added bonus, engaged followers are also more likely to stay with you, even through tough times.)

I still think GCN is closest to reality. CN just seems inflated to me.

MasterRabbink
Graph collection number - the numbers that the collection graph is based on.

MasterRabbink DazzlingGem
Thank you. That does explain the spike. What then does GCN represent? Is it the number of people who subscibed to your story that specific day? Why are the two numbers different?

Also, what discord channel are you talking about @DazzlingGem? I only have access to the normal webnovel one.

@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?

8374fg48fh You are not a stupid weeb, you are an insightful weeb ;-) I think you do have a point. As one of the writers one this site, I'm happy that you direct your critique at the site and the stories, and not at the authors. Because I think many of the authors here can actually write better stories. They just lack the incentive to do so.

I don't think OP is truly against entire genres like reincarnation or transmigration, because both of these can be done well. I think OP is tired of predictable plot points, bland characters, lifeless settings, repetitions, fillers etc. It's just that genres such as the ones mentioned above, lend easily to all of those traits.

The problem, I think, has several parts.

Let me first formulate four basic laws. They are not absolute, but they are good generalizations:
...1. Originality and quality writing = slow chapter releases
...2. Generic copy paste stories with low quality writing = fast chapter releases
...3. To be read, stories need to be discovered!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
...4. When you incentivize something, the opposite is always disincentivized.

This is how Webnovel works (grossly simplified but true of essence):
A. Readers regulate popularity! -- but the third law still holds true! So Webnovel also indirectly regulates popularity.

B. Stories are discovered mainly based on their:
......Popularity (different indicators such as views, rating, power ranking)
......Featuredness (No, that word does not exist. But you get the point, right?)
......Stories with daily chapter releases
......Newly released chapters

C. Remember the fourth law? Publicity is a scarce resource. A large chunk is given out to the points mentioned in (B ). In other words, the reciprocal holds true, that it becomes hard to discover stories that are not already popular, not featured, that do not release daily chapters, and that have not just released a chapter (the last one is very important for new authors).

The micro problem: Let's try to simulate different cases:
It follows from A-C that the only realistic way a new author's story can be discovered using only the mechanics provided by Webnovel, is by appearing in the list of newly released chapters and preferably also the list of stories with daily released chapters. (There are other ways, such as the forums, social media etc., but they won't make a difference for most authors.)

If the author releases a high quality original chapter each week, he or she will only have about 1/7 the publicity of generic copy paste stories, and 1/14 or 1/21 the publicity of copy paste stories that even copy paste their own content ad infinitum and/or make bite-sized chapters to release several chapters each day XD

The macro problem - What happens to the site at scale?:
The short answer, basic psychology is what happens, because we are dealing with people writing stories, and people reading stories (and some bots, of course, but ignore those for the sake of simplicity)

The site starts attracting people who enjoy generic stories (because that's the only stories they discover), and detracts people looking for truly original stories (even if the site has them, they are hard to find).

Authors trying to write a truly original story won't be able to find a readership on the site, because they will have to compete for publicity with easy to write generic rapid release stories, for an audience that doesn't appreciate originality, on a site with no mechanics by which to reward it. What then would incentivize an author to write such a story?

Less quality stories are published on Webnovel because of the above problems, setting in motion a negative spiral of genericness (yes, that is actually a word!)

The business perspective:
ALL OF THIS IS NOT NECESARRILY BAD IN A BUSINESS PERSPECTIVE. It just requires enough readers interested in generic works, and who appreciate rapid releases more than originality and quality. And by god, there are many of them! Even if Webnovel continues down this path, they will still be of service to this particular readership.

There is no TLDR. The above is already the short version.

MasterRabbink This is actually delightfully sneaky. I think it would work. First week collection number would be a better indicator of follower amount, even with inflation/bugs/bots. More than one week, and the numbers would probably start growing out of whack.

GreedyToad Noo, do not lose your will to write over something as silly as this! The joy of writing is more than just a number of followers. For me, I enjoy the comments I get much more than seeing the number of followers increase. I mainly use the number of followers to help answer the question: "Does my story have a readership on this platform?"
If it turns out my story cannot grow on this platform, I will migrate to another platform. Lather, rinse, repeat, until I find a platform whose readership appreciates my story or the book is done, and I start hunting for a publisher or try self-publishing.
Moreover, you cannot measure your growth as an author by looking at your number of followers, even if that number is true. Take a look at the top list. Do you think it represents the works of the best authors on this platform? As long as you continue writing, you cannot help but grow. Perseverance is one of the most important traits an author can have.

BabyTanuki GreedyToad DazzlingGem
It has been 20 hours since my previous post in this thread. In that timeframe alone, my story's number of collections has grown from 112 to 133 while the view count is stuck at 28K. That is an increase of about 19% in just 20 hours! And I only post a single chapter on Mondays.

A look at activity indicators (comments, votes, reviews, gifts) shows that only 3 users have commented, and 8 users have provided power stones. That is not a whole lot next to 133 collections (from unique users) and 28K views (of which some views are from the same user). Remember, people also comment on stories they do not like.

Not only that. Since I went from about 60 collections at the beginning of the week, to the current 133 (which is more than double, by the way), no new comment has been written, and no new power stone has been received.

In summary, the increase in collections has happened without any increase in activity and without a meaningful increase in view count. That is why I think it is due to either a bug, bots, or a new "feature" of the platform.

MasterRabbink
I enjoyed watching that number increase xD now it only leaves a bitter taste. What if I only 5 are real people, and the rest are bots/inflated numbers/a bug? I would like to know that very much.

@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.

MasterRabbink Thank you for the info! I really hope other authors are aware of this.

I'd like to announce that my original work Gaia Online was entered into the writing prompts contest number 3, two days ago. Please read on, or click on the cover to go to the book's dedicated page.

Synopsis

In the future, mixed reality and advanced AI is everywhere. A new invention FuSe, promises to take virtual worlds to a new level: Total immersion. The device, however, has a fatal flow. It tends to kill its users.

Blake Wilson is one of many illegal test subjects. He and others must spend a year attached to FuSe, mainly in Gaia Online, a virtual reality MMORPG set in a medieval fantasy world.

Among the test subjects, some seek fame, some seek wealth, some seek adventure, some seek escape, and some even seek visceral violence. Blake seeks none of that. Blake is a broken man who seeks salvation, either in life, or in death.

It turns out, not everything is what it seems. Gaia Online has two faces, and there are fates much worse than a broken man.

WEBNOVEL_OFFICIAL
I'm confused. According to OP, only editors should post here. It seems to me, however, that authors are self-announcing their stories instead. Did OP perhaps mean: "Authors shall post. . . ." instead of: "Editors shall post. . . ." ??? Is it okay for me to announce my entry here, or do I need to seek someone's permission first?

UnhingedTaboo coin_turtle What do you mean? What does novel updates have to do with webnovel.com? Do they share audience? From what I can see on the linked site analytics page below, only about 22% enter webnovel.com through novelupdates.com. About 65% access the site directly. And that is not taking into consideration those who use the app. Or is there some relationship between the two that I'm unaware of?
https://www.similarweb.com/website/webnovel.com

Okay, to sum it up, based on a small selection of user opinions/experience:
Age: 12-35
Gender: More or less 50/50
Popular genres: Xianxia, Xuanhuan, Sci-fi, Western fantasy, Harem, Romance
Depth: Everything goes as long as it's done well.
Device: Mostly phone.

Thank you to @UnhingedTaboo, @Water0202020, @CKtalon, @flatchest, and @coin_turtle for providing your inputs!

I wish we could get some objective stats on these, or maybe Qidian could send out a yearly survey with questions about age group, gender identity, genres the user prefers, genres the user avoids, and preferred reading device (that would be incredibly helpful). Data based on these simple questions would allow authors to know their audience better. If the author for instance targets females in their twenties with his/her writing style, the author would be able to look up what genres are preferred and what genres to avoid. That is what I had in mind when asking my question.

flatchest By the by, the problem with looking at the top 20 original novels is that the original novels section is still in its infancy. Therefore the top 20 is not necessarily representative yet of what readers want. I don't think the top 20 translated novels reveal what readers are looking for in originals either. I'll still use it as inspiration though.

So, most readers are 12-35. What about gender? Do people mostly identify as male or female? Or are they more or less equally distributed?

UnhingedTaboo Sci-fi and western fantasy could actually work together. Fully immersive virtual reality in fiction is booming lately, but I feel most stories fail to explore the societal, technological, and philosophical aspects of such a future. That, however, might be too hard to write given the time constraints. It's something I've been wanting to do though.

Water0202020 I actually agree with you, but with a catch. The problem with most harem stories is the fact that they are generic. Like most genres, when done right, they can shine. A harem story is all about its characters and their interpersonal relations, and that's where most harem stories fail. Most have dull empty copy paste characters with copy paste dynamics. A story with characters that feel real and develop throughout in meaningful ways, is worthy of praise, especially in a harem setting where that is especially hard to write. Even then, I am myself guilty of enjoying copy paste harems now and then in manga and anime, but never in written works xD

Your replies inspire me to ask another question. What do readers here prefer? Generic stories or stories that challenge the reader to think? I don't want to start a discussion about which is better, but which one is preferred on Webnovel. Personally, on my virtual bookshelf, I have space for both. The stories I enjoy and that inspire me the most, are of the latter, but after a hard day's work, or when I'm emotionally tired, I mostly read generic fiction.