I am not a “big, trending, popular” author, but I agree with you. I admit, sometimes I feel weird about seeing all the same stories in the trending section, but this new system hurts big and SMALL authors too. And when I looked at the comedy genre, there were a lot of stories with “Just a test” “Do not read” etc. This is not good for anyone, big or small authors. It also can be the glitch, like people above said. I think what we need is some proper explanation and COMMUNICATION with the Episode team.
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Not trying to be rude/mean but this is a really nice change for one. Small authors are getting more noticed but some big authors (not all) are being kind of weird about it. Some have COMPLETED stories that have been trending for months and are complaining that they dropped. Like give some people a chance sheesh.
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Thank you someone finally said the truth.
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I’m just sick of this. Where was this “strike” when Episode promised us diversity and still haven’t forfilled it yet?
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Whew, Chile true colors are been shown in this thread.
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Sigh. Im not sure if you read all the posts I made for you hours ago, but it does the opposite of this. This new update favours the already trending authors. The problem is that the current GLITCH is forcing a lot of people off the trending completely when they don’t deserve it. It’s a GLITCH and this is not how the app will be working according to the new update.
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Exactly. Episode need to get their act together.
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They can get upset with this but get upset with other issues too!
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Know I’m gonna be bashed for this but it is the truth.
Some of the authors only cornerned about the reads 
if it hasn’t got anything to do with the money they are gonna make some don’t even care. And this glitch is definetely freaking them out. Not speaking for those who have continued to pursue and continue writing for the community to enjoy and for themselves.
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Facts! 
Much more important issues no one complained about the ranking yet they tamper with it. If something doesn’t need fixing, leave it alone.
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Episode messed up and yet the community rather put their energy on this rather than other things. We are both in the wrong honestly.
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Now onto the topic of putting “all eggs in one basket”. Writing for Episode when you have a living income from it is about as unstable as being any other kind of freelancer or self-employed person. If someone who owned a shop wasn’t able to open it for 2 working days, they would lose a LOT of income from it.
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They should continue to update their stories because then the authors will lose money in the end and Episode would just be happy to pay them less.
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The difference there is that usually when that happens, a shopkeeper has PLANNED for this sudden loss of income. Of course, some unforeseeable events can also cause a person to have to shut their shop or not open it, but at the end of the day, this was COMPLETELY UNEXPECTED. If some of these authors were told “we’re doing trending updates so there may be some technical issues” a few days ago, people could have prepared.
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@SarahtheBeaut Hello! I can definitely see where you’re coming from, but I respectfully disagree. I’m looking at this from a business perspective because that’s what fuels the app. You see, when Episode was created they intended for a youtube-like platform. People get rewarded for what they produce. In our case, reads are views. That is similar to wattpad works as well.
Yes, there are a lot of ‘hidden gems’ that deserve recognition. However, isn’t that why we have shelves or the editor’s picks? Or monthly contests? There are other ways to reward those authors than screwing up the hard-work of all the other authors. The trending section serves one purpose, it showcases the stories that obtain the highest reads within a 24-hour interval. That’s what a trending section is, it displays what’s trending in numerical order. Sure, a lot of the stories up there are highly repetitive, but that’s what people read. That’s what brings in the highest revenue. It’s also not rare for a story with an authentic plot to be trending once in a while. If the readers like it, they will read it. For example, adrenaline by Ebonni. All the stories up there that are trending are stories that the readers enjoy. Do you think Episode is going to profit if they have random stories up there? That makes absolutely no sense, it’s a trending section. Therefore, it should be calculated based on how “trendy” a story is.
I completely understand your point about saying a lot of stories deserve recognition, but there are other ways to fix that problem rather than damaging their biggest form of revenue. They can implement shelves, feature them, or add them to the editor’s pick. I don’t mean to sound rude when I say this, but “other authors deserve to be seen” is not a good business strategy. A lot of the stories up there right now haven’t been updated in ages in comparison to some of us who update on a daily basis.
I’m well aware that there are numerous authors in the community that complain about the trending section, mainly due to their belief that they deserve the same recognition. But you know how many more people enjoy the stories that are up there? They wouldn’t have millions of reads for no reason, you know. How do you think the readers (their main source of revenue) will feel when their favorite stories are nowhere to be found? People are aware that if they want to read a story with a unique plot they can simply look through a shelf or an uncommon genre.
I’d also like to point out that this is a system that is hurting all authors. The system isn’t rewarding people in an organized manner, a lot of the stories up there are randomized. There have been several small authors with unique stories that update on a daily basis. What did this system do to them? It completely screwed them over, made all their hard work invalid. If this system is hurting all authors, how is it a good addition?
Lastly, I’d like to address a theory! Many individuals believe that Episode implemented this theory because they want to pay their writers less. Well, if this is the case, why don’t they simply reduce the price per read rather then developing a system that scams everybody? This is just a theory that a lot of people in the community are currently discussing, I don’t know whether it’s true or not.
To wrap up, I believe this system is unfair. Many people’s years of hard work is being thrown away, doesn’t matter how big or small the author is. It is a randomized system that is ruining the purpose of a trending section. As I stated before, some of the stories up there are illogical and are no way trending. For instance, a story named “testing”? I don’t think so. A story that hasn’t been updated in ages? Nope, no way. If your main argument is that other authors deserve recognition as well, there are more logical solutions for that (shelves, editor’s picks, features). By definition, a trend is the subject of many posts online within a short period of time. It’s not a randomized reward center. It showcases the people what they read the most. It’s a natural system that should have never been screwed with in the first place. Every popular entertainment app has one of these (Youtube and Wattpad). It tends to be their highest source of revenue. Lastly, I’d like to point out that the trending authors work immensely hard as well, with constant updates and clever strategies. They once had no reads as well, so don’t discredit their work. At the end of the day, this system is damaging the ranks for everyone. Thank you for reading, I’m only here for a civil discussion, nothing more.
UPDATE:
I’d also like to address the situation with new stories and new authors. With their story not being placed in the ranks until 48 hours, mobility is very difficult for newer authors, which was easier with the old system. With stories moving up every hour, it was much simpler for readers to be exposed to newer stories. However, that’s not the case anymore. I personally believe it’ll be difficult for newer authors to move up and get recognition because the only people who will read their freshly published story in that 48-hour interval is the people they shared it with! Thus, their story is completely screwed when it’s moved to the trending section. Authors with more followers will have an extra help because they can simply share it with their followers. I don’t know, it makes me sad. How do you guys feel about this issue? If they genuinely cared about gems, they wouldn’t constantly bombard their homepage with absurd featured stories (quoting Shanni here). Everyone works hard and this system is unfair to all of us who work hard. As Shanni stated, “So before, if you were smart, you could time your updates for when you knew there’d be a greater number of readers on the app so the spike happens in conjunction with a higher level of people to see the lowering of your rank. There are so many authors out there who started growing themselves by first relying on that small spike that they got immediately proceeding an update to push them up the ranks, which gets them more readers in the long-run. As an author starting from absolutely nothing, you slowly get extra readers,” It seems like the only person who benefits from this is Episode?
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. Some authors attitude and true colours have really been shown.
Like some people said authors that were in the top 100, (some not all.) are really just showing what they really are. This new algorithm may not even last a week folks and some authors are just completely losing the plot by bashing new authors in the top 100 and acting like they don’t deserve it. First off, these small stories sometimes never have the chance to shine so you might as well deal with it now. It was not fair before when completed stories would sit in the top 100 for months at a time not allowing new stories to be noticed ( this is my opinion.)
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People need to think: Who is really winning in the situation? Because by the strike, it seems like Episode.
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Authors who are being payed to WRITE should WRITE if they don’t then episode would have no reason to pay them since they are not doing their job.
Going on strike is a win for episode.
However I do see why they are doing it, episode did make it harder for people to get high on the ranking. This may be seen as unfair.
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