Episode Strike 2019 Opinions

I think it’s childish. To cut it short.
I also think that if a large portion of your story depends on someone else’s created character - you have a serious lack of creativity. And if u used just ur friends appearance for the character - just remove the mention and u r good. No one is going around searching for these violations like it is with the hidden backgrounds and props.

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Exactly. You’re punishing people who don’t deserved to be punished if you go on strike.

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I honestly have mixed feelings over the strike. Yes, this rule is a stupid rule. But I’m still gonna write either way. People, this ain’t the HUNGER STRIKE.

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Ikr? This strike is going against an app that allows you to choose your own story. I can understand why people are on strike, but like @/fcukforcookies said, it’s pretty childish

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Yeah, at first, I was obviously upset with the rule but then I just moved on. This rule is an idiotic rule either way.

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Agreed. Episode doesn’t respond to strikes and petitions anyway so it’s honestly kind of pointless. There are legitimate concerns about how the guidelines have been applied and how they are currently worded, but they’re just being drowned out right now by a lot of screaming and accusations. It’ll blow over soon, and then Episode will come up with another obscure application of their TOS, and we’ll repeat the cycle all over again.
Anyway…strikes don’t do anything except for either 1) providing entertainment to Episode staff or 2) genuinely annoying Episode staff.

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I can empathize with the authors that are upset. I think Episode can do a better job of making the guidelines more explicit and detailed. As I’ve said previously, though, not doing crossovers isn’t an issue to me. It just means a few extra minutes of creating a character that isn’t based on one of my friends from the community.

As for the strike, I don’t support it because part of it is rooted in a huge lie and the people involved are coming off as rude and immature.

I am so not here for all the people telling lies about Episode targeting Ink authors and forcing them to start writing in Limelight. They might not be updating Ink anymore, but we still can use it. And Ink authors aren’t being targeted. They do, however, seem to be the only ones sharing the emails they receive from the review team.

Limelight authors have been told to change their content. Limelight authors have been told to change their story covers. I have noticed though, that fewer Limelight authors are sharing these emails. But just because an author isn’t live ranting about changes they have to make, doesn’t mean it isn’t happening.

These authors that are supposed to be striking are still logging on the portal to make memes about how they hate Episode, thus continuing to drive traffic to the website. They regularly upload to their stories about how much they hate Episode and how they’re quitting. They try to direct their fans to harass other people. They stole a moment from an artist Episode featured on Instagram to bombard it with questions about Bukii.

I also feel it’s unfair to users who aren’t involved in the community. You guys have to remember that people on the forums and Instagram make up only a segment of the userbase. There are a lot of readers that probably don’t have the slightest clue what’s going on. And when they find out, they’ll be fed misinformation.

We should air out our grievances with Episode. But a lot of authors are showing their asses lately, and it’s starting to remind me of the rankings glitch. Remember how a whole bunch of authors went on “strike” and refused to update their stories because of that? :roll_eyes:

Again, I think it’s reasonable to be upset. But if you’re creative enough, not being able to have a crossover or a real person in your story isn’t going to stifle your creative process. If you’re creative, you’ll figure it out.

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We don’t talk about the ranking glitch strike. :skull::rofl:

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There’s a new strike every month kfkdsjsdk

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I’ve tried to stay out of this conversation, as I don’t like arguments, however I do feel like some things have to be mentioned. Being honest, most of these rules are not new and none of these rules are style exclusive. I’ve seen many people say that only ink authors and stories are being targeted which isn’t true, all three styles must adhere to all of the guidelines. Any story of any style that doesn’t adhere to the rules (and is flagged by enough community members) will be dealt with by Episode.

  • Episode has never allowed real people, businesses or privately owned locations (amusement parks, shopping centers, entertainment areas, etc.) to be included in stories in order to avoid copyright, that’s why fan-fiction is not allowed.
    -Admittedly, I didn’t realize that this included other authors and characters on the app, that being said, technically Episode is correct in saying that they fall under the categories of real people and copyrighted material.

I personally still don’t agree with this, I believe that if you have the consent of the author/ person to use them or their characters you should be allowed to but :woman_shrugging:t2:.

  • The five - ten punches and five swear words per episode rules have been around for well over two years now. Also, it’s 5-10 punches per scene, not per story! Although this rule may still seem a bit extreme, in order for the app to maintain its pg-13 status, they have to be implemented.

  • In terms of the hidden assets that haven’t been released, unfortunately, they never will be. There are still dozens of hidden outfits and hairstyles in the classic style that will never be released either.
    -Episode has stated that this is due to copyright and agreements that they’ve made with different people, it’s explained in the art highlight on their Instagram.

Ultimately, I completely understand why the community is upset (honestly, I am as well) but I also know that Episode more than likely won’t change any of these rules- no matter how many people they upset, so I find the strike to be a bit pointless. I also believe that this protest is coming off as rather petty and immature due to the way that it was organized and the manner in which people are going about it (personal attacks against the episode staff, calling out certain community members and stories, the language being used, etc.). This is just my personal opinion on the matter, I’m not trying to offend anyone and I apologize if I have. I’d also like to point out that there are apps like Wattpad and Choices that are good alternatives to Episode for all of the people who would like to find a new platform to share their work, personally I use Wattpad in addition to Episode :eyes:

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PG-13 movies don’t even have this rule. Also, Episode has been proven past the PG-13 status with its constant promotion of sex, nudity, teacher and student relationships, I can go on.

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Although I do agree with what you’ve said, the difference is that Episode isn’t a movie, it’s a game so I believe that they have different restrictions (though I’m not positive). I’m not too sure about ads, however, excellent point! :heart:

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If they were reinforcing a guideline that people were ignoring or unaware of why not tweak it to the needs of the community? :unamused:
Work with the community not against it.
Tell us that you’re working on how to manage crossovers and that you’ll implement a system/forms to insure the safety of an author’s work. And while they work out the kinks during a set time period, kindly ask the community to not do crossovers so it doesn’t hinder the end goal.
Seems fair enough, no? :thinking:

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  • I think everyone should have the right to strike whatever they want to whether I, or anyone else agrees or not.

  • I, however, think it’s inappropriate to advertise a strike within Episodes own forums and Episode has every right to remove such threads/advertisements from their own platforms. (Episode seems very tolerant of negative opinion, but advertising a strike on their own forums… you might have crossed a line.)

  • I personally feel like many (not all) people are jumping on the strike-train without really looking at the bigger picture and every point-of-view.

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Idk. This is, what? The second, third strike since last year and has Episode ever done anything about it? No.

Episode doesn’t technically make their money directly from authors, they make it from readers. So if people go on strike then their readers would just have to sit there (and/or somewhat piss) and read other stories. So they aren’t losing anything. Overall, I guess it’s kind of pointless and tbh a little overreacting to me.

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Also… I think that the new guide-lines have a LOT to do with previous strikes.

They heard you, made changes to try to satisfy readers, employees, and writers alike (this takes compromised actions), then this…?

I think to say Episode is not making changes is an unfair assumption, in my opinion. The whole cause of the strike is due to…well… changes, right?

No disrespect meant toward those who disagree with this…
This is an opinion thread… this is mine.

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I really don’t know what to feel about it. I’m just staying away from all of the drama. I doubt episode will listen to the strike.

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I’m not even a writer but if my favorite writers aren’t updating because of episodes then there’s no reason for me to have the app. Their feature stories aren’t good and the need for gems while playing each chapter is ridiculous. I will gladly delete the app until there’s a change.

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People are airing out their frustrations and I’m fine with that but some people are taking it overboard. They’ve commented negative things on the Hidden Gems post that Episodecreators posted. To me, that is so disappointing. It is the author’s chance to shine and it’s being overshadowed by some of the negative comments. Like come on, there’s plenty of other posts you can comment under, but really the hidden gems one?! When authors want to enjoy being on a shelf? It’s their chance to shine, don’t ruin that for them. Also, some people who are going on strike aren’t going to be reading Episode stories and there’s an adventurous contest going so they need support (I believe they’re refusing to read and write stories as a part of the strike). Honestly, I wasn’t planning on doing crossovers or using other people’s characters but others were, so I can see why they’re sad but some people have gone extremely overboard to the point where people are being misinformed. Someone even thought ink was being discontinued off Episode while others took the five punches thing too far. Everything is just so crazy right now, on the Forums and social media. Some of us just need to relax.

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I’m pretty new to the community and literally JUST released my first story a couple hours before I started seeing rants about this strike and the posts on insta. I only vaguely know whats going on and im still confused why so many people are so upset? Is it soley because of enforcing a rule that was already there? Are people being forced to take their hard-worked stories down just because they used the author’s characters WITH the authors permission? Even if they give proof of an agreement they still have to take it down? Because with how dramatic some people are being about it, thats what it sounds like. In that case I understand the outrage.

And I admire the community banning together for a strike. But on the flip side, hard working artists and authors will be affected because their work isnt being appreciated if no ones looking at it, readers will be affefted because the authors on strike arent updating their stories, etc. And if episode does nothing about it, theyre either gonna be on strike for eternity or cave in and do all that waiting for nothing.

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