Happy to be of help. And glad to see you reaching out to sammielane448's offer for detailed reviews on the forum. Seems like a good and helpful person.
mng
- Joined May 3, 2018
GegeSadewa Also, this is not a recent trend but something that has been going on for at least a year or so.
Every time anything that could be construed as negative is brought up, the usual toxic crowd appears and makes personal attacks because anything that might possibly be negative is heresy and all 'heretics' must be insulted and misunderstood. Or possibly they just cannot respond to the points made and therefore resort to fallacious arguments. Wouldn't be surprised if reasonable people comment less so that they don't get insulted by the toxic people on this site.AnnoyingADs Mostly agreed, but reducing or not spending any money on this site will result in a reaction. It could be that they try and explain it away with faulty reasoning. They wouldn't be the first company to do something like that. But if there is a significant enough drop in revenue, they'll either change their ways and/or someone else will see a market opportunity and do it right (or at least better). The barrier to entry for original novels is quite low and there are already larger alternatives (e.g. RoyalRoad, Scribblehub, Wattpad, etc.). And for translated novels, there is still Wuxiaworld and I have noticed more and more groups are starting to translate QI stories again. Even ones that have been dropped here or from gravitytales.
This:
AnnoyingADs "I remember when Webnovel still went by the name Qidian International that they promised no pay walls etc. With the gradual introduction of adwalls, then premium, then privilege most goodwill was gradually eroded into nothing. I used to read a few novels that had been poached from other sites but then they more or less all got dropped and while at the time I wasn't too happy in hindsight I think it's not too bad as it's meant I can completely leave the Webnovel ecosystem without any regrets."
- I remember this too.
On the plus side, some other translation groups have picked up dropped stories, so I can read them on their sites. And it helped me find other, better sites; so there is a silver lining.Dwarkin "Yeah, I remember what happened at NU forum and Reddit at that time, and CKTalon's words:
"In the event, Qidian sets up a paywall, they will be betraying me as well, and make me seem like a fool here. When that happens, I'll definitely have to apologize for me being stupid and 'signing a contract with the devil'.""
- I also remember this too. No apology as far as I am aware though.TL:DR - unkept promises and kidnapping then dropping translations that I was reading.
Authors only getting 20 to 30% of the money that people send to them also doesn't quite sound very fair, though if we are being fair (if the authors did their due diligence) they should know that before signing up.Though on the positive side, somewhat surprised that this thread wasn't locked. Also there are actually moderators now. A year ago there were technically moderators, but it was the wild wild west and you would see people spam multiple instances of the same forum posts and advert threads.
'Reviews' on this site are basically adverts. They aren't really reviews and potential readers probably shouldn't bother checking them to see if they want to read the story as anything vaguely negative will have been deleted. As SrtaA mentioned, a more honest review could probably be found on the forum, though it might be hard to dig them up.
On the plus side, while I don't think it will stop truly toxic people from writing hateful things to authors, authors can at least delete any 'reviews' they don't like as soon as they see them. Just, as a reader, don't bother checking them for actually useful information. It might exist, but there is really no way to tell what part of the advert is real and what is imaginary and what important information is just censored. Because once readers know that most authors on this site just delete anything vaguely negative, it discourages any honest and/or constructive feedback.
Demonic_Tendencies There is this nice person on the forums offering to write reviews (https://forum.webnovel.com/d/53591-full-lenght-detailed-reviews-on-offer/27). You can check it out and see if it is something you might be interested in. Just note that there might be a line!
AnnoyingADs "I remember when Webnovel still went by the name Qidian International that they promised no pay walls etc. With the gradual introduction of adwalls, then premium, then privilege most goodwill was gradually eroded into nothing. I used to read a few novels that had been poached from other sites but then they more or less all got dropped and while at the time I wasn't too happy in hindsight I think it's not too bad as it's meant I can completely leave the Webnovel ecosystem without any regrets."
- I remember this too.
On the plus side, some other translation groups have picked up dropped stories, so I can read them on their sites. And it helped me find other, better sites; so there is a silver lining.Dwarkin "Yeah, I remember what happened at NU forum and Reddit at that time, and CKTalon's words:
"In the event, Qidian sets up a paywall, they will be betraying me as well, and make me seem like a fool here. When that happens, I'll definitely have to apologize for me being stupid and 'signing a contract with the devil'.""
- I also remember this too. No apology as far as I am aware though.AnnoyingADs "I remember when Webnovel still went by the name Qidian International that they promised no pay walls etc. With the gradual introduction of adwalls, then premium, then privilege most goodwill was gradually eroded into nothing. I used to read a few novels that had been poached from other sites but then they more or less all got dropped and while at the time I wasn't too happy in hindsight I think it's not too bad as it's meant I can completely leave the Webnovel ecosystem without any regrets."
- I remember this too.
On the plus side, some other translation groups have picked up dropped stories, so I can read them on their sites. And it helped me find other, better sites; so there is a silver lining.Dwarkin "Yeah, I remember what happened at NU forum and Reddit at that time, and CKTalon's words:
"In the event, Qidian sets up a paywall, they will be betraying me as well, and make me seem like a fool here. When that happens, I'll definitely have to apologize for me being stupid and 'signing a contract with the devil'.""
- I also remember this too. No apology as far as I am aware though.- In Power stone
It's not a bug. It's a feature. Presumably this is to give everyone a level-playing field each week, so this rank acts as what is popular this week as opposed to what has the most votes since the feature was implemented.
Ekc Looks like there are still no new chapters. I'm actually a little surprised that webnovel staff (paid or unpaid moderators) haven't responded to this post. It was one of the things that I assumed was improving (RE: more moderators who actually responded to posts). Maybe try tagging a responsive moderator? I don't usually check the forums so not sure if there are any. Last time I was here Yuebot seemed pretty active? DaoistVoid also locked one of the threads that I got a reply to, so maybe him/her?
But it could be what @AnnoyingADs said, in that webnovel never communicates when a novel is dropped.
Sorceror's Journey, Dark King, and Grasping Evil, please.
AnnoyingADs A well-thought out and great reply. Agree with everything you wrote and I apologise for my own late response. I don't tend to frequent the forums of this site very often because I find a significant number of posts comprise of apologists and trolls that reduce my faith in humanity. Thanks for being one of the people that helps restore my faith in humanity and its capabilities.
One point I would like to raise (that does not contradict what you wrote, but I think is important to emphasise) is that it's not just Chinese companies that care more about their senior leadership and profits more than reputation. In my opinion, some western companies might seem to pay more attention to 'reputation' solely from the perspective of proactively heading off disadvantageous laws and share price fluctuations, rather than because they innately care it. Chinese companies tend to have been somewhat immune to this based on who tends to own and trade their stocks, being able to play the racism card, and their home country laws being formulated by a very different process than most democracies. If western companies' bad reputation did not affect the laws and share price, I think the level of care they have about their reputation might be about the same. I think we can kind of see this in how western and chinese companies act in countries that have very lax legislation and don't pay much attention to their citizens' rights or general welfare. They do what they want and they get away with it, unless a sufficiently big fuss is made about it in their home countries. And some home countries care more about these sorts of things than others.Noof I wouldn't necessarily say the old one was better; for example, the front page seems a lot better than what I first saw when I joined this site. But I can fully understand being upset that something you enjoyed was dropped. Especially if it was done with little to no warning or communication. Even more so if it seems like it was doing well on another site before WN insisted it more to this site before shutting it down. I have been in that position far too often, so fully sympathise with what you are going through.
- Edited
AnnoyingADs To me, your messages all seem very well-written and well-thought out. I actually share many of the same views, though I believe they miss some aspects.
Most critically, it ignores the "human" aspect. It's easy to believe there is an emotionless machine logically deciding which stories are dropped and which are maintained. However, in reality humans interfere. Is there an exception process where staff can decide to keep a story that does not meet the "official" criteria or conversely drop a book that exceeds the criteria? Is there even an official criteria at all and if so, what is it? How do they even calculate profitability per story? Do they take into account stories that drive up traffic and increase ad revenues? How do they calculate this and is the data fully comprehensive and fully accurate or are there ways to game the system?
It's easy to assume that there is some obvious business rationale behind what they are doing, because they are a business and a relatively big one at that. However, the fact is that humans have emotions and do not always act rationally and logically. And even when they try to, it's not always so easy. For example, it might be very hard to quantify all of the various factors that dropping or keeping a story involve. How do you quantify the loss in revenue by being known as a site that has a reputation for strong-arming translators to join only to then drop the translation? How do you quantify how much of this was the result of dropping or keeping a particular story?
Another reason why I am especially cautious of blanket general statements around the idea that the "story did not make money therefore it was dropped" is the assumption that it is only reasonable for a business to not continue doing something that is costing them money. However, what if it was actually making them money but they choose to drop it anyway? I would consider that a very different situation in terms of whether this is the sort of behaviour I would want to support or not.
Anyways, other than these points, I personally think you are right about Qidian initially going for market share before pivoting to profit-making. Though I would probably explain this in a much less concisely and less well-structured than what you wrote. Anyways, apologies for my own less well-written and meandering reply, but hope it accurately communicates my points across.
AnnoyingADs Are you sure they are not making money? In business, sometimes things get dropped because they do not make enough money or because the situation has other complications (e.g. external politics, company politics, disagreements between website and translator, payment and other contract disputes, etc.).
ATCkit Interesting. And highlights the importance of reading contracts. Its not a bash against a particular company. Reading and understanding contracts before signing them is good practice for all contracts from all sources.
PS: I am a pretty infrequent visitor to the forums, so no worries about being "late" for me. I am much worse than you in that regard and should probably be apologising to you instead. Hopefully what you were busy with has been satisfactorily been resolved.
heyitsbluejay When it comes to contracts, it comes down to whether it is right for you. It is entirely possible that a few years from now you won't really care about your IP. Or maybe like @ReincarnatedSaint you need the money. All perfectly logical and good reasons to sign the contract and see some income.
Just make sure you read the whole contract and are fine with the terms and conditions. You should also research the people you do business with, but it should be relatively easy to find the good and the bad about Webnovel.
MotivatedSloth Several good points, but I would like to mention that contract fears are actually adult fears, a child would probably sign it sight unseen. Children tend to be more naive than adults. Also can you clarify about 2nd point about passive income? Pretty sure you have to actively write to earn money as an author. Unlike say purchasing a bond and earning interest or buying shares for dividends. For additional minor nitpicks, asking other people about their experience is a good thing to do. However, it is not fool-proof. Most people downloaded music illegally with no negative consequences. Then you have a handful who got hit with lawsuits, even though they were nobodies compared to the giant music industry. If you were to talk to any of those people about their experiences, most would say it is fine. If you did a bit more research you would find out the odds are pretty good that it is ok, but that you should be aware there is a small chance of it not being ok.
- In TGIF#132
WEBNOVEL_OFFICIAL Grasping Evil was being translated on Veratales? Why is it moving here? Please do not take it over only to let it be dropped halfway again.
Dark King and Reverend Insanity (RI) are good. Unfortunately Dark King's translation was dropped and the original RI was banned because it ran afoul of Qidian's censorship/morality police.
Warlock of Magus World (WMW) has been fully translated though.
dapenggaofei Thanks for the initial response. Just wanted to ask what you have found when you checked on this?