A Rant On Writing.com

Ai-chan

Queen of Yuri Devourer of Traps
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For some reason, there has been a few people here who keep asking people to go to this website called writing.com. Ai-chan doesn't want to attack anyone or encourage people to attack anyone, so Ai-chan will not say the names of the people involved.

Now, by itself, Ai-chan doesn't have any problem with it. After all, we allow people to hotlink to webnovel, despite their questionable business practice. If we allow webnovel free pass, every site should get free pass, right? The problem is not about free passes, nor the website itself. The problem is the unhelpful and potentially scammy nature of the 'solution'. For the record, Ai-chan doesn't think writing.com is a scam, since they clearly kept everything in the open though Ai-chan has never actually paid for anything so this is just from a free user's point of view.

And for the record, Ai-chan has no problem with the pay-to-use model. That's how they want to monetize their website and if it works for them, go ahead. That is not the problem.

Compared to writing.com, scribblehub is a much better platform. Heck, Ai-chan never thought Ai-chan would say this ever, but even webnovel is a better platform than writing.com and everyone knows that Ai-chan isn't a fan of qidian. At least Qidian doesn't ask you money for posting multi-chapter stories. Not to mention writing.com's platform is so confusing and cluttered, you see links asking for $$$ everywhere.

Exhibit A
Exhibit A.png

You probably wonder what's with the yellow circle. Well, if you post a new story on writing.com for free (as in you don't pay to get it featured), that circled section is the only place your new story will be shown. Yes, just that two entries. Sure, there is an option to search for genres, but that's hidden way down on the menu bar on the left.

And why is multi-chapter serials get called 'interactive stories' when there is no interactivity in the first place?

Just why you would repeatedly and continuously suggest people to go to a website that is clearly worse is something Ai-chan can't understand. There is the points system, sure, but it requires 200,000 points to get even lowest level of paid membership and you can't even create multi-chapter stories with that. You need 400,000 points to get Upgraded Membership that allows you to post multi-chapter stories for 3 months. For the lowest membership that matters for 3 months membership, this cost you $20. Now, this is just for membership, not points.

Exhibit B
Exhibit B1.png
Exhibit B2.png

How much do you have to pay for 1 point? For every $1, you get 10,000 points. So if you don't want to pay, how would you get points? By giving reviews. Does that automatically give you free points? No.

You need another user who has the points to give you the point. So if Adam leaves a review and Jacob thinks his review is hot stuff, Jacob could give the review a gift of points. What if nobody has points? Well then nobody's getting the points.

Exhibit C
Exhibit C.png

In some cases, the author gives a bounty, such as Throne of Tides, where the author gives 300 points bounty for each review. That means you, the author has to pay for reviews. If you want to do it, then more power to you. But most people aren't willing to pay for an amateurish product. They just want feedbacks to improve their skills. Money doesn't come into the equation for amateurs.

Exhibit D
Exhibit D.png

As for the reviews thing, well, let's look at the total reviews on the site 2194. Yes, that's the total reviews. Now let's look at the total number of stories on the site... Ai-chan has no idea how to look at the total number of stories. However, the number of stories under Action/Adventure alone is 19, 576. Under Fantasy? 29,444 items. You do the math.

Yeah, Ai-chan is done ranting.

So those who direct people to writing.com for reviews, can you please stop? Sure, you have the right to say whatever you want to say, but you're not helping solve the problem. All you've been doing is pretty much copy-pasting a generic message that directs them to another site that is unlikely to get them the reviews either. It's not as bad as before, but it is still repetitive.

Now, you're probably thinking, "If they want to pull people to another website, let them". You'd probably be right. But this is Ai-chan's public plea to please stop the repetition of this extremely unhelpful suggestion. Ai-chan wants to respect personal freedom of expression, that's why Ai-chan hasn't made a feature request to maybe ban repetitive recruiting.
 
Last edited:

CadmarLegend

@Agentt found a key in the skeletons.
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For some reason, there has been a few people here who keep asking people to go to this website called writing.com. Ai-chan doesn't want to attack anyone or encourage people to attack anyone, so Ai-chan will not say the names of the people involved.

Now, by itself, Ai-chan doesn't have any problem with it. After all, we allow people to hotlink to webnovel, despite their questionable business practice. If we allow webnovel free pass, every site should get free pass, right? The problem is not about free passes, nor the website itself. The problem is the unhelpful and potentially scammy nature of the 'solution'. For the record, Ai-chan doesn't think writing.com is a scam, since they clearly kept everything in the open though Ai-chan has never actually paid for anything so this is just from a free user's point of view.

And for the record, Ai-chan has no problem with the pay-to-use model. That's how they want to monetize their website and if it works for them, go ahead. That is not the problem.

Compared to writing.com, scribblehub is a much better platform. Heck, Ai-chan never thought Ai-chan would say this ever, but even webnovel is a better platform than writing.com and everyone knows that Ai-chan isn't a fan of qidian. At least Qidian doesn't ask you money for posting multi-chapter stories. Not to mention writing.com's platform is so confusing and cluttered, you see links asking for $$$ everywhere.

Exhibit A
View attachment 6990

And why is multi-chapter serials get called 'interactive stories' when there is no interactivity in the first place?

Just why you would repeatedly and continuously suggest people to go to a website that is clearly worse is something Ai-chan can't understand. There is the points system, sure, but it requires 200,000 points to get even lowest level of paid membership and you can't even create multi-chapter stories with that. You need 400,000 points to get Upgraded Membership that allows you to post multi-chapter stories for 3 months. For the lowest membership that matters for 3 months membership, this cost you $20. Now, this is just for membership, not points.

Exhibit B
View attachment 6991
View attachment 6992

How much do you have to pay for 1 point? For every $1, you get 10,000 points. So if you don't want to pay, how would you get points? By giving reviews. Does that automatically give you free points? No.

You need another user who has the points to give you the point. So if Adam leaves a review and Jacob thinks his review is hot stuff, Jacob could give the review a gift of points. What if nobody has points? Well then nobody's getting the points.

Exhibit C
View attachment 6993

In some cases, the author gives a bounty, such as Throne of Tides, where the author gives 300 points bounty for each review. That means you, the author has to pay for reviews. If you want to do it, then more power to you. But most people aren't willing to pay for an amateurish product. They just want feedbacks to improve their skills. Money doesn't come into the equation for amateurs.

Exhibit D
View attachment 6995

As for the reviews thing, well, let's look at the total reviews on the site 2194. Yes, that's the total reviews. Now let's look at the total number of stories on the site... Ai-chan has no idea how to look at the total number of stories. However, the number of stories under Action/Adventure alone is 19, 576. Under Fantasy? 29,444 items. You do the math.

Yeah, Ai-chan is done ranting.

So those who direct people to writing.com for reviews, can you please stop? Sure, you have the right to say whatever you want to say, but you're not helping solve the problem. All you've been doing is pretty much copy-pasting a generic message that directs them to another site that is unlikely to get them the reviews either. It's not as bad as before, but it is still repetitive.

Now, you're probably thinking, "If he wants to pull people to another website, let them". You'd probably right. But this is Ai-chan's public plea to please stop the repetition of this extremely unhelpful suggestion. Ai-chan wants to respect personal freedom of expression, that's why Ai-chan hasn't made a feature request to maybe ban repetitive recruiting.
I really don't care about that site.... cuz I never heard about it before... xD
 
D

Deleted member 45782

Guest
First time I've heard of webnovel being better writing platform than another writing platform.
Damn that really makes writing.com sound even worse.

Seems pretty in-depth knowledge of that research on paid membership too. Didn't know that much.

Just that they had security breach awhile back due to not updating their security and stuff. Very negligent practices so they had to update a lot of stuff since. I would still be hesitant to use that site regardless...


If you really wanted for comments and feedback, then go to Scribophile. I hear its more of a read and give feedback in order to get feedback kind of thing. Idk though since I have not signed up for Scribophile just yet. But that is mentioned quite a bit of times from others whenever asked for what kinds of writing platforms are out there.

Or, you can use SH but let readers know that you're open to critical feedback such as it being in the comments section or thoughtful, detailed reviews. You could put this out in the synopsis section or about author on SH Author's profile. Maybe since others know you're more receptive to feedback, they will be less hesitant to comment.
 

AliceShiki

Magical Girl of Love and Justice
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All you've been doing is pretty much copy-pasting a generic message that directs them to another site that is unlikely to get them the reviews either.
If it's really a generic copy-pasted message, then you can safely report it actually. Usually this leads to all messages of the user being deleted and the user themselves being banned.

It's fine to advertise stuff that you use, but the people that use those generic copy-pasta aren't real users usually. They're just people paid to advertise a given site, and those kinds of people are not really allowed to have an account and advertise their products on Scribbly.
 

ArcadiaBlade

I'm a Lazy Writer, So What?
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Dec 23, 2018
Messages
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I don't really like going to sites that makes me work hard to write more chapters. I prefer here since I just arrived at this platform and can write whenever chapters I want. If its the past me who wanted to gain attention, I would had already been there posting as much chapter and even get positive reviews which will improve my writing but after the constant ignorance and letdowns, I prefer ScribbleHub where i can piss off my readers and upload chapters at my own pace while playing games.
 

LostLibrarian

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Those sites also have a different target audiences, geared towards "self-improvement" instead of "fanbase building". The concept of these sites is based on "I play editor for you, you play editor for me".

SH, webnovel, and Co are for (free) publishing, fanbase building, and advertisement. The review system itself and most reviews are "for the readers" and it's hard to improve yourself simply on that. Furthermore there are also more people who just want to have fun writing instead investing too much time into writing.


It's the difference between "getting good enough for classic publishing" vs "jumping on internet trends to get readership". Of course, there is also overlap in the authorship, but the idea behind the sites are different. It's like comparing netflix with a site for video editors...

(That said, as I don't aim towards making a living through writing, I also enjoy fanbase-centered sites like SH a lot more).
 

TunTun

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Yeah, I don't know why would anyone go to such an awful website.
 
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the kind of marketing reminds me of raid shadow legends.

but it's too meh to become a meme.
 
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