It's kinda funny that RR brags about how non-smutty it is, but when you say something like "Marketing and selling porn to minors shouldn't be legal" about half a dozen of the site's more popular authors immediately take offense to it, and then your account gets deleted.
Hmm from this thread the consensus is basically "it exists", there's only one person saying slightly negative things about SHF and it's someone who posts here as well (or at least used to). Aye, put down your weapons, boys, it's not time for war... yet
I detest the moderation team exclusively on a conceptual basis:
‘Christianity’ (as an explicit presence in the novel) was the reason given for a story of mine to be barred access there
(not recent, this was years ago).
This isn’t about whether or not its rejection fits the ToS or not; all ToS are written to be essentially all-inclusive: its about the enforcement choices of those who represent said ToS. That they barred a story on the basis of representing a real-world religion (independent of that being a good or bad portrayal): is enough for me to never subject that website to my wider subject matter— and I never will.
Whether unfortunate for me who cannot grow my audience through such a website’s or on them who cannot enjoy the fruits of my success should they one day find me:
On that basis alone (representing real world religions), there is not a single story in my head which does not contain references to religions from Jainism to Christendom to Zoroastrianism and Islam. My figures are pulled from mythologies Gnostic, Slavic, Celtic, and Arabian. In space, as in fantasy, as in contemporary Earth surrounded by a thousand Kutts and embodying the spirit of Scheherazade in a drunken man: the religions and histories and cultures of this world have indelibly stained my psyche, and rendered me quite incapable of dissecting their influences from my everyday speech—however anachronistic (apple meet head -> apple fall down and not up) or inaccurate (Thermopylae) such references might truthfully be.
This limitation upon representing the rich tapestry of humanity’s long history in the same manner as any number of authors who have preceded me: is quite unacceptable to me, and additionally represents an impossibility for me to effectively police upon my fairytale works and theological settings in perpetuity.
I can no more avoid the domain of the spiritual than I can breathe.
So, beyond that, I do not hate the site itself, but I do avoid it in general — two reasons:
1, it is more difficult to find works that interest me there. The tags here are very useful for directing me to works that I prefer, and last I was there: there was no genre for GL, a thing my romance-afflicted heart joys in. It is possible the ‘volume’ issue also impedes this for me: I remember the unenjoyable experience of reading the latest updates section at RR and moving to page 2… only to find on page 3 what was my page one minutes before.
— 1 TLDR: Can’t find Waldo.
2, the reading experience on Scribblehub doesn’t hurt my eyes so badly. — no idea why this is the case, but something about how my phone interacts with royal road makes my eyes develop lovely red splotches; could be the stories are just too interesting there to turn away, could be black magic of most heinous invention cruelly sent my way for sins I shall never repent of for having forgotten my commission of vile deeds dreadful enough memory could not hold them… I don’t know, but I do know it’s hard to choose a place that hurts you.
— 2 TLDR: My eyes! Oh god my eyes!
As such, I primarily use it to catch up on long running series that only post there —until I reach the chapter number where the rest is on Patreon (a truly terrible website for reading on, imo; no changing the text size, no changing the typeface, no changing nothing at all, it’s an exercise in hard squinting that makes my head absolutely swim).
That's about it. Great stuff written by people there, and I shall never find it without a Sisyphean effort.
Ultimately, it does not matter their reasoning: it matters their action, and theirs was to deny a work for that reason.
We all have choices of course— if I renamed the religion Ytinaitsirhc or perhaps <not-a-real-world-religion> it might’ve worked and I’d be writing my nonsense there today.
But my choice is to my stories and those who may one day read them: not to protest and the wider activism of free thought.
Regardless of platform for which my stories might be by any way hosted: they cannot survive being gutted of their humanity on grounds of offence garnered.
They are not shallow enough to survive the surgical procedure :)
exactly, my MAIN problem with RR is the moderation and how they work with their rules, some really good stories that only had romance and one sex scene(after the wedding), they literally banned the story because it could possibly have more than 15% smut in the future.
the mods acts like discord mods but more cracked, they are power tripping and they power trip even more if we point that out.
the people there that talk bad about scribblehub, mostly don't read or post here, their opinions are formed by rumors and other people's comments, and I will say, both sites are good but the moderation, harshness and fault of useful criticism is really the deal breaker, I only read SOME stories there since they aren't on novelbin or scribblehub.
TLDR: Main Reason: Administration and rules. Second reason: Harshness and no real criticism. Third reason: Their Toxic Fanbase that while kinda small, is enough to make some damage
Maybe State of the Art is so small I am flying under the radar, but..
Full disclaimer: I am catholic by upbringing, but I really don't do much about it anymore. No church going or anything. But I still think it shaped my views of the world and my values, so I still consider myself one.
My story takes stabs at Far Right movements, clearly links transphobia to it (nothing loves like Christian hate), and one protagonist literally worries about their wife's response to something based on the fact she was raised Christian.
It also stars four trans protagonists, and certainly has sapphic elements.
Haven't been taken down or gotten any warning about those passages. Yet.
Maybe it will change someday if I get more readers or get reported? (I suppose if people drop the book early on because of my glacial pace, it might prevent some critics from reaching the chapters when those things come up?)
That said, I think the moderation team over there is adept in the art of banning things they dislike, and then pointing at one of the many rules they have to justify their decision.
The same way you don't fire your autistic employee because they're autistic (protected characteristic), but because they were late to work repeatedly. Even if it's something you may overlook for other employees
But who knows, maybe I'll get the ban hammer soon.
However, in practice, I see two things I dislike. The first is that in Royal Road people use bots to manipulate ratings and reviews (I dislike Webnovel for the same reason). Secondly, I constantly see stories that aren't breaking any rules get arbitrarily banned because they could have been breaking the rules, but the moderators were too lazy to do their due diligence and make sure beforehand. If the site says no smut, then that's fine; the authors should follow the rules, but banning arbitrarily romance stories without smut because it could have smut in the future is just bad moderating.
Furthermore, if you piss off any of the cliques that hang out in the forum or have their own Discord server, expect a ton of fake bad reviews to end up on your story. I love the idea of reviews, but sometimes I read a review and its painfully obvious that the person who wrote it hasn't even read the story.
Maybe State of the Art is so small I am flying under the radar, but..
Full disclaimer: I am catholic by upbringing, but I really don't do much about it anymore. No church going or anything. But I still think it shaped my views of the world and my values, so I still consider myself one.
My story takes stabs at Far Right movements, clearly links transphobia to it (nothing loves like Christian hate), and one protagonist literally worries about their wife's response to something based on the fact she was raised Christian.
It also stars four trans protagonists, and certainly has sapphic elements.
Haven't been taken down or gotten any warning about those passages. Yet.
Maybe it will change someday if I get more readers or get reported? (I suppose if people drop the book early on because of my glacial pace, it might prevent some critics from reaching the chapters when those things come up?)
That said, I think the moderation team over there is adept in the art of banning things they dislike, and then pointing at one of the many rules they have to justify their decision.
The same way you don't fire your autistic employee because they're autistic (protected characteristic), but because they were late to work repeatedly. Even if it's something you may overlook for other employees
But who knows, maybe I'll get the ban hammer soon.
Since your story mentions Christianity in a negative light, then it'll be fine, "nothing loves like Christian hate." Any attempt to show it in a positive light will get your story banned. If a character with cirrhosis found a Christian support group that helped him quit drinking or if another character received charity from a Christian, then it'll definitely get banned.
Had not read anything from either site for quite awhile, recently tried to pick something new from either site; was discouraged from RRL cuz of the interface and ads and SH's trending work had made me stopped after chapter 2 because it did not spark my stovetop.
Either way, RRL was my first introduction to EN LitRPGs and I did had great times... until the authors made their MCs fight their own feelings as well as others or worse, six foot two muscular walking Gary Stu.
Then came SH and I first experienced castration this badly was with a certain regressed gun mage. Jason and his sassy talks and some other smut works tided me over in SH until Jason's sass sassed me up the wrong way while Runesmith was most definitely rune-ing the experience.
And that was also when I noticed Kindle and their habit to cut the shaft off of works whilst leaving the head behind to suckle in new readers and perhaps cause them to splurge on money once they get hooked onto the work. Always a glaring cutaway in RRL and SH as I see the entire middle of works went missing.
So either join the bus early (I've already missed the bus) in order to enjoy the story or read until the paywall like QI... nah.
Ah, I am so used to people getting angry when authors take stab on Christianity, it hadn't even occured to me some parts of the world would actually celebrate it.
- if you are casual readers who don't interact with the site in any way, glad there are free stories to read every day, you probably wouldn't notice any issues
- if you are shy and timid writer that poster one or two chapters, then left because you were ignored, you probably also didn't notice any problem worthy to hate, and (as the OP states) you wouldn't have a reason to know MJ even exists
- however, if you are the reader who wants to interact with the authors, you will soon find out that they (the authors) have hair tempers, argue with you, block you if you contact them, and so on...
- in worst-case scenario, if you are the writer with any expectations and, more importantly, invested in writing, you will soon realize that the Royal Road is the worst site on the Internet you could have picked. If you want a small community of friends, or acquaintances, you are soon drawn into the dog-eat-dog competition between novels, struggle with the rating bombing, hostile people, bots attacks, hostile moderation, trolls and much more. And if you are anyone who tries to actually win the competition, you will soon notice it has been rigged from the start, fighting MJ's whims, organized down-voting campaigns, borderline fraudulent behaviour with ads, preferential treatment, and more.
Maybe State of the Art is so small I am flying under the radar, but..
Full disclaimer: I am catholic by upbringing, but I really don't do much about it anymore. No church going or anything. But I still think it shaped my views of the world and my values, so I still consider myself one.
My story takes stabs at Far Right movements, clearly links transphobia to it (nothing loves like Christian hate), and one protagonist literally worries about their wife's response to something based on the fact she was raised Christian.
It also stars four trans protagonists, and certainly has sapphic elements.
Haven't been taken down or gotten any warning about those passages. Yet.
Maybe it will change someday if I get more readers or get reported? (I suppose if people drop the book early on because of my glacial pace, it might prevent some critics from reaching the chapters when those things come up?)
That said, I think the moderation team over there is adept in the art of banning things they dislike, and then pointing at one of the many rules they have to justify their decision.
The same way you don't fire your autistic employee because they're autistic (protected characteristic), but because they were late to work repeatedly. Even if it's something you may overlook for other employees
But who knows, maybe I'll get the ban hammer soon.
Oh, I doubt it should present an issue for your work. Or I should well hope not, as that would be so profoundly ridiculous as to baffle the most buffoonerous baboon.
Mine was about transubstantiation, the ritual of Christendom’s Eucharist in a world where faith greatly influences reality.
Made real: the flesh and blood of their God. Graphically consumed: as an integral part of the setting.
Some might say this depiction is overly negative (contains cannibalism), and others might find it grotesque (I do tend toward the graphic, this is true), but the stated reason had nothing to do with such contents, and everything to do with having referenced a real world religion.
The Holy Roman Empire is revived. There is a Cardinal central to the Gospel of Miracle (where it now sits in the connected mythos), and most would view his actions towards the later end of his life as truly evil, but he is also a hero of humanity. It’s a whole, long, utterly unreadable thing.
If I was to deny it on grounds of gratuitous offences committed: it is the English language I must surely come to rescue!
My learning in writing has greatly advanced from that sorry day, and thank Dickens for it! But in that first paragraph in that earlier “work” were:
Nave and pew in the first few lines, monastery and congregation further down, and Father Nico: it’s all rather explicit, but not until chapter 3 did I actually name the religion.
There is no way that they made it until chapter 3 to see it: it was denied on grounds of the subject material of the core thesis of that work (from the mind of a very profoundly religious character no less).
It found no such issues here, and is here still, as with an even lesser and baser piece, but due to being literally impossible to read: it deserves no great attention. But now that I write like I do today?
Now that my Tales are worthy of their words? I cannot allow such a risk as ‘moderating’ my character’s necessary elements. I will not put sections such as:
Katherine spoke for Christ, as Methodist missionary come from Kansas-Across-The-Sea, and Davyd spoke also for Christ, as defender of the Orthodoxy at home in his Motherland.
Before their capacity to judge.
If they should accept it? I refuse. I will not look over my shoulder for the moment they change their mind.
If they should not? More the better. That would make them consistent, and consistency in the law’s application is high among the requirements for a fair society’s function: as remains for fair moderation.
I will not mend this broken trust. It can never be restored.
Had not read anything from either site for quite awhile, recently tried to pick something new from either site; was discouraged from RRL cuz of the interface and ads and SH's trending work had made me stopped after chapter 2 because it did not spark my stovetop.
Either way, RRL was my first introduction to EN LitRPGs and I did had great times... until the authors made their MCs fight their own feelings as well as others or worse, six foot two muscular walking Gary Stu.
Then came SH and I first experienced castration this badly was with a certain regressed gun mage. Jason and his sassy talks and some other smut works tided me over in SH until Jason's sass sassed me up the wrong way while Runesmith was most definitely rune-ing the experience.
And that was also when I noticed Kindle and their habit to cut the shaft off of works whilst leaving the head behind to suckle in new readers and perhaps cause them to splurge on money once they get hooked onto the work. Always a glaring cutaway in RRL and SH as I see the entire middle of works went missing.
So either join the bus early (I've already missed the bus) in order to enjoy the story or read until the paywall like QI... nah.
Look, I know that I shouldn't mention this really, but there are tons of sites that take paid stories that are on kindle and alike for you to read for free, the one that has a science person in the world of magic, there is more than 4 sites that you can read it for free
I uploaded my novel here and in RR. I've heard they are pretty harsh with reviews but the very few people who read my story were actually pretty nice and gave me awesome reviews. The harshest reviews I've received were, ironically, here.
I uploaded my novel here and in RR. I've heard they are pretty harsh with reviews but the very few people who read my story were actually pretty nice and gave me awesome reviews. The harshest reviews I've received were, ironically, here.
Some reviews will be nice and others will be mean; I have no problem with either of those. What is strange in other reading sites is when someone who clearly didn't read it at all leaves a review. A potential bot or hater sent by someone else.
