If any new story starts as unreviewed… Does it mean it starts as invisible on app or it will be vidible just “marked” as unreviewed?
If it means “invisible” than this is deadly to all new authors without fanbase… Can episode in future make such precautions that you will be able to guerantee that stories will be reviewed withind let say month max? So the new stories do not have to wait so long in future? Because it is extremly demotivating if new author publishes and get no reads.
Yes first reads can be done by R4R but we all know that best advertisment for the story is being seen high on the app ranks in the genre or trending section.
Which means then it would be automatically reviewed. I think this new process is a good thing because it ensures that big authors stories that violate guidelines aren’t automatically visible and pushed to the top of visible trending. If it ranks in top 100 of the genre, it will get reviewed, which means we will know that all stories visible in trending aren’t don’t violate guidelines. Not very many people scroll past top 100 to find stories, if they use trending section to find stories. I know for me, at least, I find stories through word of mouth or reviews from Instagram groups such as Axiom, Luxe, and Advocates.
I’m happy about this too, but that doesn’t mean that other stories should be invisible in the trending. I know that not many people will scroll through 100 stories, but if there’s at least a few readers who do that, then this process puts new authors in an even worse situation.
Also, I think this was already brought up by @LiyahxWrites, but what if a story usually trends outside the top 100, but then the author updates and it goes up to, let’s say #70 for a few days, then drops? Will it be still reviewed, or do they review only the stories that have a permanent spot in the trending? If they review the story, I’m pretty sure that it won’t be done immediately, which means that these authors completely lose the advantage they would normally get when they publish new chapters.
Sorry everyone for my whining, but I think this is a probably not intended, but great way to discourage new authors to join. If I was one, the only reason I would write is that I genuinely enjoy it, since other than that, publishing and updating my stories would seem kinda pointless.
Of course, this is all talking about automatic reviews. I would think that, just like now, authors can request their stories to be reviewed so that they appear on the app. That’s what I’d do it I was an author. If I’m ready to publish a new story, I’d send it a ticket for it to be reviewed and not rely on chance that it makes top 100 and gets auto reviewed.
I agree with the idea of the new rules making everyone behave but there are a few things that confuse/worry me, I guess?? For one it now sounds like only the stories in the trending section will be automatic reviewed and then if we request stories. But what about the stories not in the trending section that don’t get reviewed because the authors don’t request it? While I agree the trending sections need to get more in line, I’ve done read for reads and I’m not even joking/being sarcastic when I say I’ve found stories with under 100 reads have guideline breaking content or borderline guideline breaking content. I agree the app needs to get more in line with the idea of being pg13, but if that’s the case we have to include all the stories. And yes I know trending stories get seen more but it’s the principle of the thing to me.
That would be nice in theory but I sent my story in before it was even published (I wanted them to review my first episode because I figured them doing it in parts might be easier??) That was the 16th or 17th of September. Since then my story now has 7 episodes, has been published nearly a month now, and still has no review done as far as I can tell if it’s reviewed yet. I should also add that I asked them to review my whole story the 27th of September. (And I know you’re not supposed to send in two report tickets, but I’m a newb and didn’t realize that).
While I think the highest I’ve gotten in the trending is somewhere in the 300s, I wonder this too. I don’t think it’s fair if on the off chance I get up high enough between 1-100 that I might potentially not have the chance to benefit from it (especially since it’s been over a month since I first started trying to get a review done of my whole story).
I will also add that when the entire guideline debacle came out we were all: trending section, non trending, those of us without stories even published yet encouraged to send our stories in for review.
Thats exactly what she said, it will be automatically reviewed IF it ranks high enough. If it doesn’t, then it won’t be reviewed. I may be wrong, but hasn’t that always been the case with reviews? I think what changed is that stories won’t show up in trending UNTIL they are reviewed, so if your story doesn’t trend high enough, I’d send it in for review.
I know a LOT of authors who requested reviews at the beginning of September who still haven’t been reviewed and many who have been reviewed two and three weeks ago, but their stories are STILL not showing up in the trending section. Right now I think they are still trying to play catch up with all the stories requiring review. There are a LOT more stories that have been reviewed that are still not showing up.
But that’s the point??? If I, say, in some mystical fairy land get in the top 100. Let’s say I get to 88 in Romance for the fun of it. The trending section/rankings change constantly! My rank will move around so many times in 24 hours. Having to potentially wait weeks and weeks to actually be “seen” on the trending section could mean I’d lose my chance unless I got back on/found a way to stay up there.
Also, I’m well aware I’m not the only one waiting for a review.
I agree with you here. At this point, it feels like sending a review in for my stories were pointless if episode is focusing on the top 100’s first. That means big/popular authors who release a new story and immediately gets in the top 100’s are automatically going to get reviewed and those who once were in the top (for a bit) or who submitted their stories before this new story was released, is going to get pushed back.
In this case, Annie’s question/concern is very important and I hope it gets answered.
The few (those who don’t take guidelines seriously and write “smut” for lack of a better word and heavy violence) always do ruin it for the many. Sadly, many of those exact people are the ones who are consistently top trending, which is exactly why the new system is needed.
I don’t think anyone here is saying it’s not needed. It just sucks that those of us who obey/do our best to understand the guidelines are/could potentially be punished through this.
That’s what I feel, I’m writing an action story and I requested a review on the first weekend after the anouncement just avoid having something that could be considered excessive violence on my story. I had already edited a part because someone warned me as when I was writing it didn’t occur to me.
Because excessive is so subjective… And I haven’t heard back since then.
What really makes me more confused is that people that received notifications saying their stories were clear aren’t showing and other have their stories showing without receiving any confirmation.
I get it that the automated response is getting started to make things more clear but still…
Automatic reviewal of the trending section and not the app overall is the only way for them to realistically do this. There are thousands of stories and growing every day. They wouldn’t even be able to cover all the stories on the app now, let alone keep up with new stories. Best we can do is report the ones that aren’t trending and have this new system for ones who do. The principle of giving all stories equal attention isn’t feasible for Episode.
I actually agree that smaller stories can have much more explicit content - probably because they haven’t gotten caught yet imo. I’ll never forget this one that had women being sold for sex slaves.
But I’d still argue that having the trending section be automatically reviewed is a good idea. If that’s where most people are first seeing stories, it’s important they fall in line with the values Episode is presenting. I’m way more interested in making sure someone doesn’t see on-screen assault in the first episode of a trending story with thousands of reads than I am a story with sixty reads.
My biggest issue for a long time is that popular authors would be in trending and always post new chapters with various levels of inappropriate content - usually in later episodes. Harder to take a look and report said chapters as a user because you have to go deeper to get there and fans don’t really report. Which is why automatic reviewal is game-changing to me.
I think a FAQ from the team would be useful in making sure the new process is understood, but I don’t personally believe it will make getting to trending a lot harder than it is normally.
So, if no one will ever show up on the ranking system until they hit < 100 (which is a horrendously bad decision that will do nothing but hurt small authors), then what was the point in making everyone go through the review process?
As you’ve stated here, they’re most likely not going to rank or trend anyway, which was the whole point of removing all the stories and putting them in story-limbo. Now it seems that you’re saying it was all for naught.
This post doesn’t feel like an effort to be transparent at all. What it feels like is Episode made a major policy change for 7 weeks and then decided to hit the backspace button and made everything people did to work towards that policy meaningless.
On September 10th, you indicated that a review was optional and not mandatory and that its purpose was to help authors determine if their stories needed alterations because of the new guidelines.
On October 1st, you went back on that and said all stories must be reviewed to partake in the ranking system and potentially get to trending status.
On October 31st, you decided to shower the community with tricks instead of treats by announcing that the previously mentioned criteria will no longer be valid since stories won’t rank or trend unless they hit 100 or below.
As I mentioned, this move will do nothing but hurt the small authors. Small authors have always struggled in this community, but at least there was a sliver of hope. Where is the hope for them now, when their story won’t even be on the genre shelves? I used to enjoy going through my favorite genres and finding stories that were lower on the trending list — seeking out those hidden gems that I wouldn’t have found otherwise.
Then there are those that worked diligently to edit all of their chapters in compliance with the new guidelines. Some have been waiting 2 months for a review that you now have stated will be irrelevant anyway for current and all future stories unless they trend.
Do you not see the contradiction in all of the statements? None of us know up from down at this point. I’d hate to think that Episode enjoys the chaos, but why else would it be this difficult?
Transparency through clarity? Not so much. Instead, you are Lucy Van Pelt, and the community continues to be Charlie Brown in hopes of one day finally kicking the football.
But first, I imagine the Episode team is an extremely busy team. @Liz is only one person that has a huge job. The whole Episode team have a lot to do between reviewing stories, responding to tickets, taking down inappropriate content, doing social media, responding to the forums, managing their team, etc, etc. What a lot of people don’t understand is there is a lot that goes into making an app run day to day operations. Take all of that and add in content guideline changes, review changes, and a lot of users who are upset…It is a huge mountain to tackle. I’m sure answers will come but the all of this has just been implemented. Give them some time to work on it.
Second, I have a background in novel writing. I have also written on a site called Quotev. So perhaps due to this background, and due to me being older than the standard user of this platform, I’m not mad if my story won’t be in the ranks or that people can only find it by searching for it. As a novel writer, when you publish a book, nobody knows you have published a book. Marketing, promoting, utilizing social media is your job unless you have a team that handles it for you (like if you are given a book deal by a publisher and they supply a marketing team). More often than not, you do the work to write a story? You do the work to make sure people read it.
Being in the ranks is something that should be earned by the hard work you put in. Not given because you want easy reads because your story is in the top 100. That’s not now the NY Times Bestseller list works, and that’s not how, in my opinion, it should work here either.
There are many ways to promote yourself as a small author. Network. Use social media. Like other authors’ posts on social media. Get exposure. Promote on the forums. Build your platform. Anybody who is that determined to get reads should be that determined to work for it. Because that is how it works in the real world. Take YouTube for example. Your views don’t come from nowhere. Your video doesn’t automatically show up in the most popular or recommended. You have to promote your own channel for it to grow. If 13 year olds can do that for their YouTube channel, they can certainly do it for Episode stories.
Sincerely,
A girl tired of hearing people upset that something won’t be handed to them.
Sorry if I pi**ed anyone off. This is my opinion. (patiently waits for the hate mail )
However, I guess Episode gathers a number of stories, and then releases them into the app on a specific date.
(patiently waits for the hate mail 
)