Discussion Why are NU readers so critical?

Discussion in 'Novel General' started by Damshooter, May 7, 2022.

  1. Damshooter

    Damshooter Well-Known Member

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    Why do readers leave comments like
    It takes time and effort for the author to write a novel, and for translators to translate a novel. Leaving such a comment really leaves a bad taste, if you dislike a novel, it may not be to your taste but no one's forcing you to finish it, so move along.
    If you really need to leave a 1 star comment, at least leave a constructive feedback...

    Ok, I'm just voicing out my frustration at this point... so hopefully I don't get attacked for writing this discussion
     
  2. Shizukani

    Shizukani Chronically stressed

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    I think the same! :blob_teary: Those kind of comments are everywhere though. So I just tend to not read them so it doesn't affect my impressions on a novel. :blob_pout:
     
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  3. BeardyRABBIT

    BeardyRABBIT <Not a Rabbit>

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    Maybe because they crave for something really good or at least different, I've read dozens or maybe hundred Webnovel from this site and along the line you'll get tire of the site same novel, the thrope, your taste change, your preference change as well. For example, i use to like OP xianxia novel like Against the God but today I can't stand it. I became more critical, i often drop the Novel halfway through, and i became very critical and nitpicky, where i often criticize every little thing. But now i just casual reader, i drop it if i don't like it, no reviews or anything. Just read if i like it or drop it.
     
  4. Emissary Nouvelle

    Emissary Nouvelle Well-Known Member

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    Dude, not to be confrontational. And I've done less than 5 reviews mostly because I'm too lazy to submit one buttttttttttt.

    Authors have literally trash plot with zero logic and no sense at all. Like portraying someone as 10 000 year old cultivator and martial expert but he loses to a teenager, acts like one, can't think critically and is just majorly flawed.....many examples but I'll leave that one. Translators are also not all good the ones on wuxiaworld yes and some single good ones who probably do it in there spare time, otherwise it's not really all that impressive. Add to that some hardly update and drop novels frequently I don't think one should be 'overly' considerate.

    People leave reviews, bad ones, to warn others of red flags. Like if you don't like this don't read, I didn't like this with the connotation being if this annoys you as well don't bother.

    I like reading reviews that inform me that the mc is an idiot with valid points like he trains all his life and he's so talented and broken yet other characters manage to keep up with him due to plot armour with no valid reason. Ouu. I remember one now . DMWG the reviews say some BS happens like all his friends being reincarnated gods and he has other reincarnations in addition to the main story one plus some messed up sht he does for his 'brothers' which was enough to drop it for me, totally believable and plausible with the AMOUNT of chapters and based off what I already read the author can and would do that.
    Soo Stuff like that, there are many more but I would have to look for some bad novels as reference but I don't think I should go that far.

    Basically bad reviews are valid.

    But.

    They shouldn't tell you whether to not read a novel 100% of the time, take the flags, read a few chaps and this happens to me all the time "if he's making decisions like this now say this stage it's only gonna get worse, and based off the reviews this fool would actually do that sht".

    The reviews help when searching through novels and not wanting to waste your time.

    Again there are some enjoyable trash that people can out up with I have a few myself that I don't take too seriously like Invincible although haven't read in a while, but the flags tell you not to read for plot, some harem haters would also like to know what happens, etc etc and whatnot.


    I've dropped many novels due to authors idiocy with storylines and characters and sadly translators dropping it (before I started mtl recently).
     
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  5. ForeLeave Clover

    ForeLeave Clover Well-Known Member

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    When I consider reading a novel, I first check the ratings, then read the most popular review. If I want to get a better view of the novel, then I'll continue checking out the reviews, but only the good ratings, so I know what I should expect and anticipate. I tend to skip over the low rating reviews though, because they mess up my view of the novel, and might make me give up reading it (this is from experience, I've read many low reviews, and they either make me not interested in the novel, or make me read the novel with low expectations). This is not to say that the low reviews shouldn't be read, but rather, they should be read after the first chapters, so that they don't make you give up on reading the novel
     
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  6. crimsonrogue

    crimsonrogue Well-Known Member

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    I mean to be fair most of the authors featured here aren't going to ever know their novels were translated. Most of the translation work isn't done with the author's approval at all. To the point I can genuinely only think of like two novels I've read where the OG author actually gave the translator their blessing and knew it was being translated. So leaving constructive criticism is a bit of a moot point.

    Personally as a writer this comes with the territory. When you put your work out for public consumption and especially out for monetary gain, you invite criticism. Most of these authors also get much, much worse comments on the original sites the novels are hosted on. To the point that there's no shortage of novels that changed entire endings or huge twists like Viridescent Crown due to criticism they received on their original hosting sites. If you take issue with receiving criticism - and to be fair I completely get that and am not mocking people who have a hard time hearing it - then you shouldn't be putting your work out for sale.

    That said if it bothers you either as a reader or a writer to read then criticism I'd advocate ignoring it. And if you're on fanfiction sites most sites have tools in place to do just that. It's unlikely that NU will ever get similar tools given it's status as an aggregate - but the reviews far down the page and very easy to ignore unless you go looking for them.
     
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  7. Emissary Nouvelle

    Emissary Nouvelle Well-Known Member

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    Same. ratings aren't everything SOTR is rated high but I don't like it, so is My wife is a beautiful CEO although touche I did love it at first but later on it became personally triggering that he's the successor of an Olympian God, Hades of all people yet he's China's bitch and his wife's family like telling him what to do. I like reading about gods but when cultivators and other family can tell him what to do the 'god' is just a plot device and not a cool characteristic anymore, he's just some ordinary Chinese mc (hate the mother and his birth family as well, I like my orphans staying orphans) and lessens the *xxx* (the word escapes me, forgive my low IQ).


    Anyways 4 and over is likely good but not always but definitely don't read anything under 3 stars from what I've experienced believe your fellow readers there is a reason it's rated so lowly. I remember when I liked some tags for a novel and ignored the ratings and reviews but boyyyyyyy was it utter and complete garbage!
     
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  8. crimsonrogue

    crimsonrogue Well-Known Member

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    Agreed there's been more than a few stories I've loved that just get rated lower and lower as time goes on. People just have different tastes and it's alright if they don't vibe with what you like. Just because some people dislike it, it doesn't mean the story is worth less than any other or that your enjoyment of it is somehow wrong either.
     
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  9. vithc

    vithc eternity's nerd

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    This! I get that sometimes things are just that bad, or people having way too high expectations, but atleast bother with a reason or explanation. Feedback is also good and all but on NU, almost none of the authors would get to read them so even just context for the other potential readers that might get affected by said reviews/comments would be nice
     
  10. Esha07

    Esha07 ☄your favorite meanie࿐ྂ

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    TBH I don't look at the ratings that much....I will read the Synopsis and if it's a cup of my tea, I would pick it up and will gladly start reading it.

    But yeah negative ratings are valid too, just requesting readers , if you don't like the novel or the translation , just leave a constructive comment, not just directly gushing out after leaving some disrespectful remarks. Ya'll mental health>>> anyway :))
     
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  11. asriu

    asriu fu~ fu~ fu~

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    eh? critical? nope, nah, nada~ most just casual sure with some bite but imo nah far off from critical~
     
  12. Ekisiel

    Ekisiel Well-Known Member

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    I've read some novels that are hyped and praised but didn't match my taste. I didn't leave any review or rating but if I'm not the only one that had this experience, I think they're just being picky, disappointed and being vocal about it. :blobnobully:

    I like reading negative reviews on series that I don't like though so I encourage this petulant behaviour :blobpeek:
     
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  13. ToastedRossi

    ToastedRossi Well-Known Member

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    I would say that the opposite is true; and that readers on NU aren't critical enough. The reality is that the vast majority of the books on NU are written by complete amateurs and you'd expect most of them to be terrible. But is that what happens on NU? No! Instead, we get a ton of books with superb ratings (4+), and that's just can't be representative of how good they actually are.
     
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  14. sjmcc13

    sjmcc13 Well-Known Member

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    As bad as NU is, and it is bad for overly "critical" "It is not 100% what I wanted so it is utter trash everyone must hate" type of reviews and ratings, I have fount reviews/comments on Manga sites worse Because there it is obvious to anyone not a overly cocky and self sure teenage idiot that the comments are flooded from stupid posts form overly cocky and self sure teenage idiots who have not matured enough to know some basic things like you can noy judge a story form its first chapter alone, you can not tell how a story will progress from 1 chapter alone, using a similar framing device/introduction method as another story is no where close to enough to claim a story is a copycat work especially when both stories are part of a (sub)genre and the shared elements are in the list of things common for that gene

    Ya they are everywhere, anonymity brings out the worst in people, and the less mature get even worse for it.
    That does not explain or come close to justifying the hate here though.

    If you want quality do not go to free sources. you need to pay for stuff that has been professionally written and professionally edited, it is very rare to see high quality in works that are not edited, and rarer still in amateur works. NU is mostly translation of unedited amateur authors.

    I do not expect 4+ star dining when I go to McDonalds, and would be called out for my insane expectations if I went there and complained it was not 4+ star dining.

    Though based on some of the comments I have seen, to many of the people listing such requirements/reasons have no clue what different and/or good actually is and are applying an extremely narrow definition that sets the bar at extreme levels where the only intelligent option is to go to sites that are not dominated by people following trends.

    I really do not think you understood what this is about. This is not about valid bad reviews, but that the site is filled with ratings and reviews from people who do not have the mental capacity to register the simple truth that not liking something is not the same as it being bad or horrible. As well as people just leaving comments that something is horrible and NOT EXPLAINING WHY WHICH IS A REQUIREMENT FOR A VALID REVIEW, that and you need to have given the story a fair chance for your review to be valid.

    If I say I hate the story because of X elements, list the parts I hate, and they are all valid non-trivial parts of the story then that will be a valid negative review as I have told people what I dislike so if that is also an issue for them it is a sign to not proceed, if it is not an issue or even a positive they can go ahead and try the story. There are things I hate that others love, like Yaoi which I just ignore any story with that in the tags. I am not leaving a review or rating on a Yaoi story because I know I will be biased against it and not able to give a proper fair review

    The example given at the start of this thread is the exact opposite of that, and screams of the same kind of mentality/maturity that is taking place when (and yes this happens a lot) people give 1 star ratings without even reading the story, or skimmed just enough to find something that they do not like so they and look smart/superior by pointing it out as a justification for why the story is horrible. Though it seems more then half the time that is a feature that has 0 relevance to the quality of the story, and only confirms the "reviewers" biases.
     
  15. aattss

    aattss Well-Known Member

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    Sadly, sturgeon's law is accurate, and perhaps even optimistic. If a novel is shit, I'm going to rate it as shit whether or not the author wanted it to be shit.
     
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  16. Rumby

    Rumby Rumbly Tumbly

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    Well since they're quoting other reviews, and I assume just leaving a one-liner dissing others' review with no explanation on why they dislike it, then you can report the review to remove it since it doesn't sound like following NU review guidelines

    Since reviews are supposed to explain why they like or dislike the novel but also not attack other reviews...
     
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  17. Lemonlyn

    Lemonlyn ♥[ Incubus ] Onee-san Seducer♥

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    I agree!!! I would only say something like that if the author purposefully writes themes that are triggers but brush them off lightly (mental illnesses as a example and how bam love changed everything.) at times like that I would just say nothing but make my own mental note that I will not read it by accident again

    I agree! Sometimes o er hyped novels are decent but my expectations are too far off bec3of how people kept praising it for a certain aspect. It might also just be that I didn't like that specific theme. Not the authors problems but my preferences? Idk
     
  18. JustPassingBye

    JustPassingBye Well-Known Member

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    The frustration of not being able to find any good novel and their time being wasted probably got into them.
     
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  19. Miami

    Miami Active Member

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    You will find comments like that no matter which site you go to. It doesn't mean all readers are critical. It's just that people who ARE especially critical are usually the ones to leave more comments.
     
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  20. BeardyRABBIT

    BeardyRABBIT <Not a Rabbit>

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    Hate? I think you missing something, I've been describing my own experience. I do not justified anything, from new to the genre/web novel in general (being casual reader that read everything regardless of the quality) to being grumpy and critical about everything, very nitpicky to being casual again. Also don't quote only part of my comment, at least read all the way.