[for readers] what you consider a red flag when you're looking for a new story to read?

[Kilolo]

imagine you're browsing through scribblehub for a new story to read, what kind of things that would instantly makes you "nope" and just close the tab and start looking for another story to read.

assuming you're not the kind of person who will read through anything you stumble into at first no matter how terrible it is.

for me : status board at first chapter.

i will definitely close the tab and stay away from any kind of story that mentioning the main character has xx/xx hp point, xx point of str, agi, etc at the very first chapter without even explaining anything about what the hell are those status parameter are worth about.

 

[RepresentingCaution]

"Who will she choose?"
Both, obviously, but I know that's not going to happen.

 

[TheEldritchGod]

"DIVERSITY"
"INCLUSION"
"EQUITY"

Either negatively or positively. If you bring up any political talking point, or indicate to me you have a political agenda of any sort, that is a red flag. That said, if you bring up politics in a neutral fashion, I might not instantly dismiss you. If you seem like the type to give both sides an equal shot on a topic without telling me what the 'right side' is. If you Steel man the side you don't like. If you let me make up my own mind, then... maybe.

But I'm still distrustful.

 

[LesserSarcasm]

Main char has to hide str because some supid reason, antagonistic religions, bland boring mc, somehow story revolves around gettig some food that reminds them of where tthey came from

 

[TheEldritchGod]

for me : status board at first chapter.

I like those stories

somehow story revolves around getting some food that reminds them of where they came from

I like food porn.

 

[RepresentingSilence]

Surprise homosexuality
I've literally stopped watching basically all TV at this point because every show apparently "needs" a gay couple and their intimate scenes nowadays I don't particularly care if there's gay side characters in a story just stop trying to shove it down my throat like some kind of rapist already

 

[Puji-Maki]

Word count and chapter. I like long stories. I can discern if the author is writing seriously if his story had 100 chapters at least.

 

[Alyxx]

Word count and chapter. I like long stories. I can discern if the author is writing seriously if his story had 100 chapters at least.

In other words : i like to waste my remaining days in this planet to binge read random novels i found online.

Are you perhaps one of my people?

 

[Shard]

If there are spelling or grammar errors in the title or synopsis, chances are I will immediately close the tab, even if it sounds interesting. If it has not been updated in the past month, I will probably skip it. Anything with BL style tags, or any mention of NTR is instant close, very much not my thing. Anything where there is excessive focus on gender-specific body parts (such as the whole 'male writer with female char can't go a paragraph without describing breasts' crap) is also an instant nope.

And quite often, I will just not be interested if there isn't fluffy tails, typically found via 'fox spirits' tag. Gotta have those fluffy tails! That one isn't a hard rule though, just pretty common.

 

[georgelee5786]

BL. For some reason, BL kills any interest I may have had in a story. The same goes for GL, GB, Harem, and smut but BL particularly pushes me away.

 

[Sabruness]

BL, NTR, tragedy, reverse harem, bisexual protag, low effort harem or smut.... cringey lazy 'in x as y' or 'in x with a system' fanfictions and especially lazy cringe multiverse pokemon style harems. i think that's the main ones/

 

[Puji-Maki]

In other words : i like to waste my remaining days in this planet to binge read random novels i found online.

Are you perhaps one of my people?

Nyes

 

[Domoviye]

Poor spelling and grammar in the synopsis.
I don't want to have to autocorrect as I'm reading.

 

[Silver_Sky]

An insufferably stupid 'smart' protagonist. Also a low number of chapter and/or infrequent release.

 

[StrongArm]

Any fanfiction.

If you are not creative enough to come up with your own ideas and have to steal other artists worlds then i dont want to read your novel

I dont want to read about any weeaboo naruto reincarnations, or any lame 'my hero academia' rip-offs

come up with your own shit, its not that hard.

 

[AnonUnlimited]

Writing quality. That is whether it gets my attention or not.

Also what the author emphasizes when writing. Often, webnovel authors will write the mundane descriptions for word and chapter padding.

I don’t need to know how dirty a towel is that is being used to wipe the face unless it’s used in the plot in someway. Just saying that they used a dirty towel or even the act of wiping a face with something found is a waste of words.

Unless the towel represents the condition of the character now being poor, or perhaps someone deliberately handed it to them to cause a reaction we don’t need the dirty towel description.

Webnovels tend to focus on quantity over quality and open ended and winding dragging plots. It took me trying to write one after reading many of them before I realized why it tends to go that way.

 

[ThrillingHuman]

talks about justice as a given. I will not read a brainless zealot main character, if they have a moral code they must justify it to me through character development. Sure, they can avoid doing something - like killing, stealing etc. but they must not go and try to impose any of their own justice without me having found out why they should

 

[AnonUnlimited]

Any fanfiction.

If you are not creative enough to come up with your own ideas and have to steal other artists worlds then i dont want to read your novel

I dont want to read about any weeaboo naruto reincarnations, or any lame 'my hero academia' rip-offs

come up with your own shit, its not that hard.

You under estimate how entertaining a fan fiction can be if you replace characters in them. It takes away the need to write background and let’s you go straight to the point. Also pretty fun to do as an author.

 

[greyblob]

poorly written synopsis

 

[Alfir]

It sounds lame, but for me, it's the cover book. Rarely often, the synopsis.