Hmmm. I think that the app has picked but Clover made valid points. However, I think as with any groundbreaking business they rely on what makes/made them unique to carry them. The competition is coming. With the success of Choices and Chapters, and more coming; Episode no longer holds the monopoly that they rely on.
As LB mentioned, they are confused about their demo. Young adults and adults can afford to pay more. I won’t admit what I’ve spent on both Choices and Chapters. I spend nothing on Episode, save for unlimited when I’m bingeing; or if my friends have gem choices. They try to manipulate and exploit kids which hurts them in the end. Because their target doesn’t have as much buying power.
Let’s also touch on the amount of work that it takes to publish, let’s also look at user stories. Episode got their foot in the door by being original and innovative. They sustained because they opened the app to users, allowing them to create. If we’re being honest it is that community that has sustained the app. A lot of those aren’t being paid but are putting forth labor. It’s not like writing on Wattpad. You need backgrounds which Episode made more difficult to obtain. You need good directing, etc. that is a job.
Episode has taken the community for granted for a while now. They should feel the pain of losing that community. However, they’ve updated the app in a way to only expose new users to Episode Originals. So yeah, they’ll take a hit, but they’ll recover for as long as they can continue screwing over the community that made them and presenting themselves differently to new users. What they aren’t considering is maturation. I discovered the app through my niece who is now in ninth grade and has moved on to Webtoon.
So I guess I’m saying that their model is sustainable for now but not in the long run.
Well, let me start off with this Episode doesn’t hold any sentimental value to me so the only reason I stick around is because I enjoy using the app and the portal. So if I seem biased, I’m not trying to be.
I don’t think that episode’s popularity will decline as of right now even with the new guidelines going on. I mean just look at youtube, more and more people are doing episode videos, even channels as big as Jenna Marbles. With that being said, episode is by no means as popular as it used to be and my guess as to why is because:
The stories they put out are more quantity over quality, not too long ago episode had partnered with Demi Lovato, Mean Girls, Pretty Little Liars and the list goes on. I understand that they may not have the budget to do those things anymore but that was a huge reason that people were excited to start reading episode.
What worked in 2017 doesn’t work now. Looking back we had lots of featured and trending stories alike a few years back that we would now consider cliche. Maybe the stories are actually good but after a while you’re gonna get tired of seeing the same thing over and over just with a different coat of paint.
They’ve gotten rather money hungry, and I get it, in order to run a business you need money but regardless all we see now are countless gem choices that are really expensive. And when they’re pumping out a sh*tload of stories jam packed with gem choices it’s not surprising that people will get turned off
The whole ‘13 chapters to unlock the whole app’ policy turns people off and makes them not willing to give the app a fair chance. This means less new readers.
There have been huge scandals and lots of drama in the community lately, one of the biggest being the removing of certain people off the platform, which is the main reason why those currently in the community, including me have lost all respect for the app and the company
Their inclusivity is pathetic and laughable
But on the other hand, there’s nothing wrong with leaving there’s nothing wrong with coming back either. But remember that you leaving isn’t going to lead to the death of Episode, Episode is in no way dying and threatening to leave isn’t enough to make them change their minds.
In conclusion episode is the best interactive story telling app of it’s kind on the app store, but they’re getting to comfortable at the top. They really need to start listening to their audience again instead of pulling ideas out of the trash. The audience only wants a better experience for their fellow readers after all. They have the potential to peak again but not if they continue taking this route
Episode has peaked. Anyone on the app can admit that readership and engagement has declined as time’s progressed and there’s not much we can do about it. It’s harder than ever for new writers to get their shine and even OG authors are struggling to stay in the game. The added mistreatment of community authors adds a dark tint to the entire scene. They will continue to attempt to stay relevant due to their innovative tech, but it won’t last forever unless real changes are made from the ground up.
I agree. Over the past year and a half, I’ve seen a decline in interaction throughout the Instagram community. There’s less editing accounts, background accounts, help accounts, character accounts than ever before. Overall, the community doesn’t feel like the same community it was even from last year. Many authors are writing posts about the mistreatment and poor communication with the Episode team which is forcing more authors to leave and venture out. Also having new Episodedians read 27 chapters of child-like Episode featured stories, in order to unlock the assets of the entire app, is a joke. This indirectly hinders people from contributing to the app and seeing the amazing stories that the community has to offer. If that were me, I would delete the app after downloading it–most of the stories they write target very young children, which isn’t even the main age group on this app anymore.
In addition, with every style they come out with, I feel like they’re targeting a younger audience. When Episode first came out, Classic was geared to adults. The majority of the stories on here during that time were: creative, mature, and a breath of fresh air, compared to the stories we see now. Once INK was developed, the target audience seemed to be focused on teenagers, and classic folks drifted away from the community. But because INK was overal more “pleasant on the eyes” than robotic Classic, I don’t think this change caused them much harm–most of the readers back then prefered INK over Classic. Limelight feels like another dip in the target population, with characters originally looking like young teenage boys and girls, on top of their featured stories being written in childlike ways… Why steer away from the audience that has the funds to promote this app?
Episode is definitely worse than it was during the classic days. Back then, you could honestly get away with a lot of things.
I can handle the new rules, but I can also see how it’s a little dictator-esque.
Episode isn’t dying, but it’s certainly decaying.
As for the favoritism, it’s unfortunately blatant.
Otherwise, how come everyone makes the LI have the same uneven mouth, button nose, and defined triangle face along with giving girls upturned noses, oval faces and classic terra-cotta lips?!
I think this is a major problem. I remember in the old forums when the first shift in the types of stories they started featuring happened, they practically told the users that got them to where they were that they didn’t need or want our input or participation. You can’t run a business where you treat people as disposable and that is what they have been doing consistently. And when you try to tell them the issue, they just do things like take it personally or try to silence the conversation. They abandoned their original reader base for fast money. Now that other apps are popping up geared towards the reader base Episode told to get lost started doing well, and those apps are doing well considering the target demo actually HAS disposable income, Episode is floundering. They don’t know who their audience is because they chase whatever dollar is in their face at the time. Shortsighted and foolish. And it’s a shame. Either they can learn how to listen and take criticism and actually grow, or they can keep doing things like ignoring unflattering critique and silencing the critics. And it’s a shame because we wouldn’t be wasting their time trying to tell Episode the problem if we didn’t care about the future of the app.
There has never been one instance where this has happened, we have and still do always provide warnings. Unless the severity of the rule violation warrants a different disciplinary action in which case we do skip a warning. For a full list of possible rule violations and the actions taken by the team for each one that is violated you can check out the Moderation Standards and Guidelines by clicking here. It specifically shows the entire community how the team addresses specific violations and how the team handles it. Just wanted to clarify this and address the transparency the team has provided by creating the Moderation Standards and Guidelines. (We can honestly understand if some of the community hasn’t seen it yet. It can often be difficult to catch every thread with the constant activity going on withing the awesome forum community ). If you would like to further discuss it please PM me as I won’t be replying anymore in this thread. Thanks
Wouldn’t say it has changed for the worse, but with the new guidelines, some people fell restricted to what they can write then what is was like a few years ago.
Not really dying. It’s kind of slowed down a bit and it’s not poppin like it was back in the day. A lot of authors have moved to wattpad and I see announcement posts all on my feed.
Better communication. The community should be involved in things. Like the wishlist thread? That was a start
And whatever happen to the 2017 diversity standards?
I’d personally like to see more POC star as the main character in their featured stories instead of always seeing a white MC with limited features… It’s even more disappointing to know that they continue to have POC on their covers as the MC, but once you open the app, the main character is white. If there are any POC or LGBTQIA+ characters, they are always stereotyped.
We’ve had this discussion many times before, Episode is making changes people aren’t rocking with, which is making them leave. In three years, I don’t know what’s gonna happen. The only problem with Episode, is its toxic community. I mean at the end, the world has bigger problems than this app.
I just would like Episode to have a better communication with their community and to finally learn from all the mistakes they have done in the past.
As a new author on Episode, it’s really unmotivating to see that Episode is going into this spiral of errors and more errors.
Popularity and money got to their head more and more and they started not caring about their community anymore.
I REALLY hope they learn their lesson once and for all and decide to follow a better path than the one they’ve been making.
We’ve had this discussion many times before, Episode is making changes people aren’t rocking with, which is making them leave. In three years, I don’t know what’s gonna happen. The only problem with Episode, is its toxic community. I mean at the end, the world has bigger problems than this app.
I guess that’s more power to their competitors since nobody cares about what the consumers say or feel.
Kanye shrug
But I do agree that with people leaving, there will always be people coming in. My concern is that prominent authors are talking about going to other apps due to chronic frustration, and their fan/reader bases will follow them there… which will only hurt the app if readers like those apps more than Episode.
I mean, having waveforms of people leaving based on frustration isn’t a good sign to me. Of course, there are other problems in this world, but isn’t that kind of a simple cop-out of every situation and challenge we face? Even if this app isn’t the end of the world, it’s someone a lot of us came to escape it. If you like something, it’s only natural to complain and give constructive criticism because you want it to reach it’s potential.
It’s kind of sad because the visual aspect of Episode is what most of us love so much about it. This app has a lot of potentials to be amazing, but sadly, the same problems are continuing to grow larger and never addressed.
I can’t say for sure if episode has changed for better or worse because I have been on and off with the app. I can say, however, I stand neutral. Episode has its ups and downs. I agree with what someone said earlier. Episode would be a better app if they had a better management team/system. They lack communication, and sometimes their behavior/decisions are rather questionable.
As for episode dying? No, I don’t think episode is dying. In terms of numbers, I think episode is doing fine. I’ve noticed a lot of authors saying they are leaving episode for another app, but I don’t see that as episode is dying. It just means fewer people episode has to worry about.
Some improvement I would love to see from the team is better communication. Episode only ever communicates with us is when shady shit is going down among community members or when they are changing something around. Less favoritism would be nice as well.
I totally agree. The fact that they came with these new guidelines out of nowhere and only gave us a month to adjust our stories already discourages so many of us and plenty of people will just choose to leave the community instead of waiting for the new “mature app”. Episode really brought this on themselves
There has never been one instance where this has happened, we have and still do always provide warnings. Unless the severity of the rule violation warrants a different disciplinary action in which case we do skip a warning. For a full list of possible rule violations and the actions taken by the team for each one that is violated you can check out the Moderation Standards and Guidelines by clicking 
). If you would like to further discuss it please PM me as I won’t be replying anymore in this thread. Thanks 
