An Underrated Section

[Lord_Drakonus]

So far, the only way for underrated novels to get more attention is by updating frequently and consistently, which some authors can't do.

We need a front page section where underrated novels get more attention. Trending and latest novels already got one on the front page, so why not underrated novels too?

And for that, we also need a criteria for what it needs to be an underrated one. Me personally, I'd like to give it this criteria:

1. At least a month old story.
2. At least having more than 4.0(Previously 3.5) story rating.
3. Having less than 10k pageviews.

Do note that Scribblehub is a growing website, so these criterias are bound to change.

 

[Deleted member 45782]

People have a habit of putting the blame on writers for not doing enough. There are writers that write good stories but you might not see them on Trending. Some people say there are flaws, but they're not that open to suggestions. I am not really won over with the OP's suggestion, but at least its a suggestion. Rather than just sticking it to the fault of a writer.

How can a story even lift of when no one looks at it? It is not just because readers are not interested in it, its also due to the fact that they can't even find the story in the first place, so how will they even be able to see a story that might actually interest them?

Yes, there's a lot of stories that aren't popular because they suck.

However, if someone writes a good story, it can still fail on SH because...
a) The genre they're writing in is listed as a tag and not genre or there's no genre nor tag for the type of story they're writing. So they have to pick the second closest genre that fits which isn't as accurate as what its actual genre would have been. People don't like writers tagging their stories in the wrong genre or tag already. But writers got no choice cause the option they want doesn't exist. Here, the system failed the writer.

b) Updating times and constant updates. A good story doesn't mean it always have constant updates or many chapters. A good 50 chapter updated once a week may be better than your 213 chapter story that updates 2-3x a week.

c) Telling a writer to write by just what's popular on here is a limiting creativity factor. It limits creativity because they have to construct and conform to popular trends. I say screw that piece of advice. Writing just by what's popular on here doesn't mean your story is actually good, it just means that you followed a trend like what many others did.

Advice: Continue writing your story out; it may not be popular on here bc its not litrpg/smut/isekai, but it may be popular on other places so branch out to other platforms. If your story is really good, then make a dash for it. See if you can break the system so that more writers are inspired to diversify into other genres. Don't give up if someone tells you that you're out of luck just bc your story isn't in the trending direction. It is not trending for their place, doesn't mean it won't trend elsewhere or be trending in the future.

Webnovels are popular because of constant updates and easy accessibility over the web. But pushing out so many chapters all the time can also be a big flaw. Some are paid just to write many words and you know how some of that goes. Story can become a drag and just suck.

I'll wait until a better suggestion is brought up, but since we are delving into how come some stories aren't getting a lot of views again, I just wanted to point this out. Stories aren't always overlooked just because they suck. Just like many artists in life, some get the publicity but there's ton of actual good underrated ones that get looked over and stepped on. And if one suggest to "game" the system, why is an anti-cheat system in place to stop people trying to "game" said system?

 

[CadmarLegend]

Then it becomes this endless feedback loop. How would the audience be "uninterested" if it never took off in the first place? Yes, the genre or content itself might put off the initial few who see it from the Latest Series section, but is that it? We give them this ONE SINGULAR CHANCE to prove himself in a one-way time window and if they fail, it's on them? What if it's sandwiched, yet again, among three other LitRPGs with no chance to breaking past the mould? Time of upload is a non-factor; I can attest to that. The site BARELY gives any mention to recent, smaller series anyway.

It's not really fair to dictate the audience interest of it's never given the chance market itself in the first place.

Meanwhile, all the other genres gets this MASSIVE feedback loop where they gain readers through popular tags alone, jump on the springboard, and reach terminal velocity, whereby the system notices and puts them on YET ANOTHER pedestal via the Other Series or the Trending section. Hell, maybe even an ad on NUF.

So what does this leave for the other series? False flag? """Game""" the system by adding fake tags? Yeah, it's definitely their fault, but what other choice were they given? They saw the system, understood it, and exploited it the only way they knew how.

Or, they could just write the most popular shit, regardless of personal interest.

But at that point, is the system serving the author, or is the author bending to the system?

Well, you can pretty much find out about the percentage of readers who like the story, even with few views, by looking at overall views and then at valid reads. You can do a bit of math and find out the percentage. That would help you at any amount of time because the statistics could just give you an idea of how much your audience is interested. Of course, the percentage of valid readers to just 'one-look-and-i-hate-it' readers would be able to grow with more of an audience through exposure, but even then a story's audiences' favorability is still able to be seen by the author if they try hard enough. Since the author themself is trying to accomplish their goal of getting recognition through hard work and effort, the person in question can find out this much and then try building up above it.

And the thing with popular genres... I would like to say that the 'gaining readers' system is almost like how you can inflate a currency's value and then observe the drawbacks and gains of that event.

If a genre is popular, then there will be more of an audience. For most authors, gaining an audience first using what the audience likes is how they might start off and then venture off into their favorite genre they like to write in. This will give them more of a foothold when creating their other stories. However, it isn't really that easy, per se. You need to look a bit more into it....

You see, if it will be easy to get more readers by starting off with a popular genre, won't many other authors also come to this conclusion? That they should make a story there? So, in equation form:

more chance of getting readers = more competition

Being an author in a popular genre, you can't cut any slack. You need to be trying your hardest to actually get recognition. If you don't then that can basically mean that the fanbase isn't really interested in your story. Now, this can sound very unfair to popular genre authors, but remember, less popular genre authors are also losing their chances of getting as many readers like the popular genre authors.

The equation for less popular genre authors:

less chance of getting readers = less competition

Now, think about it.

Don't those equations kinda look... balanced? The more popular something, the more competition. The less popular something, the less competition. In the end, getting involved in either a popular genre or a not-so-popular genre is the same in the sense that everything is fair. Even though it might look like the genre with more popularity is better as a way to write, you need to consider the effort you'll need. Sure, the author might get a few thousand views, but then another, more promising story could pop up that would make the readers less interested in the author's story and just leave as quickly as they came. The author might also get lesser and lesser views per chapter after that. The same with less popular stories. You'll start off with very few competitors so you can go at it quite relaxedly, not fearing that a more popular story could pop up in this lazy life of yours, but you would almost have a never-gonna-grow reader base. But, chances are, since they are reading this unpopular genre, they also won't leave you.

At some point in time, the views of the reader base will match up, at some point. Though, it might just look like the popular genre is going to win forever, it won't really be so. It's almost like one of those math questions that I can remember from my time in elementary...

Example: so and so starts off with this much and earns this much per year. then, so and so's friend earns this much per year but doesn't start off with this much. at what point in time will they earn the same amount?


See?

Though, this doesn't really involve underrated writers but is just me telling my pov on how I think people aren't really thinking more deeply about the 'popular' genres.