I’ve been on episode since classic was the only style available but for the past 3 years I’ve been absent from the community. I’ve recently decided to come back but was wondering what I’ve missed exactly as far as guidelines changes, rankings (i know it includes something about gem choices but I’m still unclear), current popular stories and authors, and the episode community as a whole (both on the forums and on IG)
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nothings really change that much.
- We got Book Clubs
- Episode changed their Art Release schedule.
- New bgs/ov/animations, hairstyles, characters (dogs, and horses), props etc.
- Everything is still the same with the episode contests.
- Some authors have left the community and some are still here. Not really sure about popular stories unless yr talking about episode original stories or community stories.
- New genres in the writers portal. (LGBTQ+ & Science Fiction)
Hm, this is all I know for now. Check out the threads:
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What @lanafrazer_episode says and: every author can use gem choices to get on the shelves and become ‘popular’.
How more gems you receive as an author, how more you get a chance to come on the shelves and higher in rank with your story. But getting paid for your stories is still the same. You still need millions/billions reads and/or gems for it.
For the rest: as an author you can decide if you form a gem choice written during an episode or that you form a gem choice at the end of an episode (support-the- author, skip-the-wait or early-access).
Personally I would love to see a way the author can ‘shop’ with the gems they earned by writing their stories, for outfits and character-features used for the story. But that is still not possible, unfortunately.
For the rest you have two other styles more, INK and LL. Classic and INK won’t be updated anymore, LL will get updates once a month.
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Moved to Episode Fan Community since this is Episode-related. Make sure to check out our Forum Tutorial for more info about creating topics, and feel free to PM me if you’ve got questions. 
Thank you so much for your help! I’ll check out those threads too<3
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Thanks for the update! Just to clarify, reader retention no longer plays a role in an authors ranking? It’s just the amount of gem choices you put in your story and whether or not a reader pays or declines?
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Episode claimed that stories could still trend well without gems when they first released the gem feature to community authors. In reality, you need people spending lots of gems on your stories to do it. Episode has become very focused on gem transactions. Which, as far as I can tell, has led to fewer and fewer people using the app. And those people aren’t being replaced by new users because you’re now required to read a bunch of episode official story chapters before you can unlock access to community stories. So the first impression new users get is stories where good decisions are locked behind gem paywalls, and if you don’t make those choices, the stories usually shame you for it. Can’t imagine why they’re not sticking around. 
So…yeah. Welcome back! 
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Specifically for featured stories. They’d bombard you with 5 gem choices per episode, and it’s soo expensive. Just imagine 29 gems just to speak up for yourself 
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Or 29 gems to go in a pretty dress instead of your pajamas.
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Those are the ones I hate the most! Pay 29 gems or let yourself be verbally abused and/or shamed, usually by the story’s generic mean girl character.
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Damn after hearing that it makes me wanna run the other way lol. Story ranking isn’t everything to me but every author wants to be seen and reach bigger audiences. Sucks that this new system is making that even harder than it already is.
Are most community authors adding gem choices or rebelling?
Unfortunately, they are conforming to gems.
Most stories feature a few gem choices, some did go overboard, whereas others find nooks and crannies to make gem choices feel natural, such as making points harder to obtain and more punishing if you don’t have enough, so that you buy it 
Tbf, the new story ranking makes it harder for big authors to keep hogging the top spot, whereas smaller authors have more chance to show their stories with the support of gems. I think that the implementation of an alternative keeps the story variation up and going, which is a good thing!
Still, the story quality shouldn’t be neglected. I really experienced it firsthand when I say this, because I have more gem count than read count
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I’ve been on Episode for over 5 years now, and it just keeps going worse! I think the saddest part is that no one talks about it! The stories now are just awful for no reason, and the whole gem situation is frustrating. It’s sad because it used to be such a thriving community, but I feel like Episode is making a bunch of decisions that are leading to its own downfall. From the gems to only releasing a small portion of art updates only once a month, to not even listening to the community base anymore. I’ve loved the app and the portal, but I just deleted the app and I won’t be downloading it again any time soon. 
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Episode has essentially become a metaphor for late stage capitalism at this point. The decisions they’re making are all based on the premise of maximizing profits. Which in and of itself isn’t necessarily bad. They are a company, they need to make money. But they’re sacrificing long term viability to do so. They’ve basically stopped trying to get new users and are focusing on sucking the ones they do have dry. When they can’t squeeze any more out of them, they will shut down.
Most have given in. People want to see their hard work recognized and, unfortunately, the only way to do that is to put gems in your story. Even I do it at this point despite my hatred of the gem system. However, I make a point of never making those in any way, shape, or form necessary. I even repeatedly state that when I do them. There’s nothing I hate more than reading a story then coming across a gem choice that locks off story content or shames you for not choosing it.
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Sorry, for the late answer. But it’s actually both. You can’t get gems if you have no readers.
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