Is it just me or are readers on here less critical than on Royal Road?

[Aefener]

Unlike RoyalRoad I can easily filter your genre in SH. BL caters to a niche of fujos and their novels never to be seen by the average reader and nobody that isn't interested in that shit would filter it immediately.

And I totally respect that someone doesn't like BL just as I don't enjoy gore or harem, for instance. But I'd never give a novel 1 star rating just because it's a genre I don't like. Yep, the filter system on SH is brilliant. RR should adopt something similar. It would make everyone happier.

 

[Askun]

I don't use RR nore I am familiar with that website. I am much more welcome critical feedback. Is more irritated that people here give one star and silent. I want to know why I get one star. But I guess, I will never know.

 

[CupcakeNinja]

Bow down before me old man! You came here way too late!

seriously? how? i could swear i saw the SH creation announcement back at NU.

 

[SailusGebel]

I honestly don't see the issue with Royal Road everyone here is always complaining about. I find the community to be quite pleasant over there in terms of the feedback they give. I mean, yes, I really do get a lot more critiques over there, but the criticism I have received over there has been 100% of the constructive and helpful variety. 100%. I am entirely serious about that. I have not received a single critique over there that wasn't accompanied by a "here's why, and here's what you can do better" type explanation, and it is always done with a rather friendly tone.

Maybe it was because your story was of better quality from the get-go plus the genres you wrote were something they won't hate?

 

[CupcakeNinja]

Bow down before me old man! You came here way too late!

....arent you a mod at NU? Then this dont count, you had inside knowledge. The site was up a few days before the announcement, wasn't it.

 

[Daitengu]

I think it's because RR is older and some authors have gotten very good over the years. Which created a more seasoned bias among the readers.

What started with mostly highschool and uni kids writing has readers who've seen through their graduations and getting jobs and what not. Like Andur and Vihyungrang have been around hobby writing for 7 years now.

 

[AliceShiki]

seriously? how? i could swear i saw the SH creation announcement back at NU.

Maybe I got it from inside knowledge? I'm unsure if Tony was the Hell's Family Group PM at the time of release of Scribblehub.

... I think it's possible. Blanc joined one day before me for one. And she was also on Hell Family PM at the time.

....arent you a mod at NU? Then this dont count, you had inside knowledge. The site was up a few days before the announcement, wasn't it.

I'm not a mod though! Tony never offered me the position! xD

I do have access to a private subforum that is mostly used by the mods (A tag cleaning subforum... Which is mostly useless nowadays because there aren't really much to be done on tag cleaning on NU nowadays), but that's about it. No mod powers on my end~

But yeah, the site did go up in late December, but the announcement on NUF was on January 1st, so I did get privileged access and was able to make the acc before most people even knew the site existed, ehehe~

 

[CupcakeNinja]

Maybe I got it from inside knowledge? I'm unsure if Tony was the Hell's Family Group PM at the time of release of Scribblehub.

... I think it's possible. Blanc joined one day before me for one. And she was also on Hell Family PM at the time.

I'm not a mod though! Tony never offered me the position! xD

I do have access to a private subforum that is mostly used by the mods (A tag cleaning subforum... Which is mostly useless nowadays because there aren't really much to be done on tag cleaning on NU nowadays), but that's about it. No mod powers on my end~

But yeah, the site did go up in late December, but the announcement on NUF was on January 1st, so I did get privileged access and was able to make the acc before most people even knew the site existed, ehehe

insider knowledge is illegal

 

[OtherSlater]

My experience at RR has been on and off. On the one hand I get a better support system and more commenters, on the other hand it seems that a lot more people one star your shit for no reason whatsoever.

 

[AliceShiki]

insider knowledge is illegal

*pat pat pat*

There there, you're still a fairly old member. Don't feel bad about it~

 

[Temple]

RoyalRoad has a higher standard. RoyalRoad is also way more vocal than Scribblehub. If you combine those two together, there will be bad eggs that will show, and yes it can be toxic at times, but that's the internet anyway. You should focus on the positive. Once you get a bunch of followers, it's really more fun to have an interactive and vocal readership.

Just sharing my experience, my SH followers are 1/3rd the number of RR followers. I just finished my previous volume and uploaded a chapter sort of thank you message, and talking about writing and that kind of stuff to commemorate the completion. Here on SH, that chapter got like six comments that weren't my replies. Since my RR readership is triple, you'd expect 6x3= 18 comments there. But no, that chapter had like eighty (80) comments (only one was critical).

It definitely is more fun to have a vocal readership as a writer. It goes without saying, that if people are more vocal, there are some of them that probably should shut up, and that's where the perceived RR toxicity comes from. But you can't have one without the other. Yes, SH is more chill, but it's also very quiet.

I think it's because RR is older and some authors have gotten very good over the years. Which created a more seasoned bias among the readers.

I don't think a lot of people know this, but about six, seven years ago, RR has an approved reviewer group literally called "The Group". They handed out extremely critical reviews that can stretch for pages. The "harshness" of RR now is nothing to when The Group was around. They became like the Inquisition actually. The RR admins regretted that move because of the toxicity it brought and The Group disbanded. However, a sort of side effect of that was the level of writing of the community was raised, and people became more critical and have a higher standard than other writing sites. And it was passed on to this day. Still, RR now is way more chill than when The Group was around.

 

[K5Rakitan]

I like the community better here overall. I don't think I've gotten ANY comments on RR, but then again, I may have just forgotten.

 

[lambenttyto]

Maybe it was because your story was of better quality from the get-go plus the genres you wrote were something they won't hate?

Nah. One dude messaged me today. He said I used "fake tags" for the genre, lol. The nature of the "isekai" is a bit iffy in the story, and I did title it LitRPG "lite" so there's no stats, just abilities.

I don't think a lot of people know this, but about six, seven years ago, RR has an approved reviewer group literally called "The Group". They handed out extremely critical reviews that can stretch for pages. The "harshness" of RR now is nothing to when The Group was around. They became like the Inquisition actually. The RR admins regretted that move because of the toxicity it brought and The Group disbanded. However, a sort of side effect of that was the level of writing of the community was raised, and people became more critical and have a higher standard than other writing sites. And it was passed on to this day. Still, RR now is way more chill than when The Group was around.

I never knew this. That's interesting. Glad they're gone, lol.

They are. Plus they are a lot smarter than the coomers here

Are you crappin' in your own pond? lol

However, I don't understand why some people call it toxic. I've been posting over there for almost two years and have been reading for much longer, and have never seen a comment that was simply "mean".

Don't get me wrong. I'm certainly not complaining about RR. I've always praised it as a pretty nice place.

 

[BenJepheneT]

insider knowledge is illegal

*pat pat pat*

There there, you're still a fairly old member. Don't feel bad about it~

 

[CupcakeNinja]

you know, Benny, i knew your grandma. I liked her better after she lost her teeth. Care to guess why

 

[SailusGebel]

Nah. One dude messaged me today. He said I used "fake tags" for the genre, lol. The nature of the "isekai" is a bit iffy in the story, and I did title it LitRPG "lite" so there's no stats, just abilities.

I was talking to Jemini, who said that RR readers are kind and helpful. Because RR readers are not better or worse than others, they are probably the same. It just heavily depends on your luck. If you are lucky, you will get those kind and helpful reviews that will boost you. If not, well, you will gain readers and reviewers like mine.

 

[Anon2024]

This might be a hot take... but I've read on both sites and been a long time lurker before creating my account here 3 days ago.

I find that Royal Road has a lot of formulaic stories with similar intros and thoughts on "what makes good fiction." The thing about fiction though is that it's often subjective. I'll give an example: The first Webnovel I've read was on wuxiaworld.com and it was 'I Shall Seal the Heavens' by Er Gen. I found that novel interesting in some parts but as it went on I found it more and more boring where scenes dragged on for days. Among those who like chinese fantasy novels however, it's highly rated and even the staff I met at the San Diego Comic-con from Wuxiaworld praised it as a novel they all really enjoyed... I also find a lot of the praise for stories that are similar depending on which site you go to.

I've been finding that this also applies with Royal Road in that the formula is descriptive to a fault and the characters are well... let's say I don't really like most of the characters.. BUT... the majority of people on RR consider it 'good writing' and their audience enjoys it.

SH has a different kind of enjoyment. Generally speaking, Japanese Webnovels have far crazier premises than most western novels and the audience here likes that stuff. Because of the crazier premise it is much more difficult to be formulaic and thus most of the readers here are open to different writing styles and different niches which is why ratings are generally higher here.

This isn't to say one site is better than the other, but RR demands a certain style and formula for the audience who frequents there and give up their cash. If you want the cash you have to cater to their tastes and likes, which is fair and normal.

RR critics are going to be pushing the author to use that same formula they like and are familiar with, but in reality writing and fiction is subjective and unless you're trying to get money from people and cater to an audience for monetization... which I guess is what most writers on RR want to do, there is no point in listening to their criticism unless you want to cater to their type of reader.

I don't enjoy the formulaic approach at RR and honestly find most of their stories boring. The content I'm posting here on SH probably wouldn't be approved there anyway due to the R-18 and taboo items I'll be introducing as it goes on which is why I'm not publishing there. I don't even expect what I write to do well on this site because it's very niche and I'm doing it as stress relief because what I do want to monetize will be based on those criticisms and edited multiple times before I publish on Amazon.

The other thing is RR has a lot of people who take pride in their criticism to show how knowledgeable they are. It's not a bad thing as it could help you improve in catering to the audience that pays, but there is a sense of pretentiousness there.

Really, it boils down to what you're writing and why you're writing. If you're seriously writing to make money then going to Royal Road and listening to all the criticism and moving your writing in that direction is a good idea. If you're just doing it for the lulz and seeing how far a new style or story can go then SH has a much more open user base from what I've read.

 

[BenJepheneT]

you know, Benny, i knew your grandma. I liked her better after she lost her teeth. Care to guess why

if that roast had pronouns they'd be she/it

 

[CupcakeNinja]

if that roast had pronouns they'd be she/it

If your grandmother was still alive her pronouns would be slutty/blowpig

 

[BenJepheneT]

If your grandmother was still alive her pronouns would be slutty/blowpig