Rant: Why Is Royal Road like this?

[Representing_Tromba]

RR crushes their dreams of being successful as an original author and indoctrinated them into what is popular.

 

[beast_regards]

When you mention this, are you referring to the trending list? Cause it was my understanding that as long as regular chapter updates are made there, you still make the "recently updated" list, which should boost visibility even with low stats. I'm asking because, you mention soft deletion, and I wonder if you mean by means of the author or by means of site moderates. If it is the latter, I'd be concerned and look into it.
Your initial point is easy to understand though. Many big business models have this kind of trap build-in with the way big investors see things: Red Profit Line must always go up, no matter the cost.

It's rather a combination of factors created by the way their algorithm works and how they affect the visibility of the story.

It affects not only what is suggested to you on the first page but also the order in which the search results are presented. There is a way around it, I think, but it's intentionally very counterintuitive.

Stories that do not grow are stuck in the same form of limbo where they are no longer presented to the readers even if their actual stats are actually quite good on average for a Royal Road standards. It's a situation where you may have rating within 4.5 to 5 stars on the Royal Road, and few thousands followers, something that appears good on paper for the readers, but the Royal Road would not show your story to anyone voluntarily since its grow had stopped. Trending list on the Royal Road is a legacy system at this point which the mods phased out, but remains few clicks away, it a bit of the undead state of being for stories that refused to die even after new readers stopped coming.

 

[RedMuffin]

The censorship affects creative works by imposing limitations on what authors can express. When platforms enforce strict guidelines on content, it can restrict themes, language, and ideas that might be considered controversial or inappropriate. This stifles creativity because writers are forced to adjust their work to fit within the boundaries of what is allowed, rather than exploring their ideas freely. This results in a more homogeneous output, where many stories begin to resemble each other, lacking the boldness that can only come from unrestricted creative freedom.

On more open platforms, where censorship is less strict, authors can take risks which can leads to more creative diversity and the flourishing of innovative content.

As far as I'm aware, the censorship mentioned is mostly applied to heavily focused mature content, and I can't see how restricting it can impact creativity.

There are pseudo censorships where the algorithm becomes your enemy, your story isn't recommended as much or even no longer is recommended, you would've to search it or scroll long on the list to find it. At least that is how it functions on YouTube and probably applies to RR too.

As far as I know, the recommendation system works based on similar taste of the users with similar interests, and if we talk about the rising stars, well, it's more like a temporary boost for newer works to increase their audience faster, and ultimately, it's temporary since more story would be uploaded and they would replace the old stories on the list.

There is the most direct connection between the two. You want to write GL, GB(gender bender), BL, or smut on RR. Before you can do it, you have to pass anal moderation. What if your story is, I don't remember the percentage, let's say 20% smut, BL, GL, or GB? If it is, you can't post your work there. Simple as.

The RR's policy is designed in a way for the contents to be accessible to the audience above 13 years old, and a good part of their audiences are underage, so it's a given for it to be some restrictions on mature content.

You want to explore gender bender stuff? Welp, explore it somewhere else.

Nope, there's no problem with that, it's possible to write gender bender on RR AND get the story on one of the lists such as rising stars.

 

[PancakesWitch]

As far as I'm aware, the censorship mentioned is mostly applied to heavily focused mature content, and I can't see how restricting it can impact creativity.


As far as I know, the recommendation system works based on similar taste of the users with similar interests, and if we talk about the rising stars, well, it's more like a temporary boost for newer works to increase their audience faster, and ultimately, it's temporary since more story would be uploaded and they would replace the old stories on the list.


The RR's policy is designed in a way for the contents to be accessible to the audience above 13 years old, and a good part of their audiences are underage, so it's a given for it to be some restrictions on mature content.

Nope, there's no problem with that, it's possible to write gender bender on RR AND get the story on one of the lists such as rising stars.

 

[beast_regards]

RR crushes their dreams of being successful as an original author and indoctrinated them into what is popular.

The Royal Road is like a tank the admins used to drive before they realized the money could be made on the Internet. It too crushes your hopes and dreams, and one RPG is not enough to stop it.

 

[RepresentingWrath]

The RR's policy is designed in a way for the contents to be accessible to the audience above 13 years old, and a good part of their audiences are underage, so it's a given for it to be some restrictions on mature content.

Nope, there's no problem with that, it's possible to write gender bender on RR AND get the story on one of the lists such as rising stars.

You asked me how it affects creativity, not why they do it. I answered. I recently started reading a very interesting r-18 webtoon. It's about a guy who has sex addiction. Whether the webtoon will turn into something good or not is a separate question, but the idea is right here.

Let's say I want to write the same thing. Obviously sex scenes are important to this kind of story, you can argue they are not, but it will lead us to nowhere. I think it is important, let's put it like this. I'm not writing them for the heck of it, I use them to explore sex and\or porn addiction, and the effect it has on a person. I can't write it on RR. Does it stiffle my creativity? It does. Why they do it is of no importance to me and the topic. I'm not here to discuss it. The question is, how censorship affects creativity? I provided explanation, and an example.

Also, those were the most simple and obvious illustrations of this problem from the top of my head.

and one RPG is not enough to stop it.

I see what you did here.

 

[RedMuffin]

The question is, how censorship affects creativity? I provided explanation, and an example.

Right, I kinda forgot my original question and went off topic.

 

[RepresentingWrath]

Right, I kinda forgot my original question and went off topic.

No harm done.

 

[lambenttyto]

Royal Road has devolved into pure insipid, tasteless slop producing factory, and its time to accept the truth.

Well, I don't read or write that dross they call LitRPG. (No offense to people who want to read their video games .)

 

[beast_regards]

The Royal Road expects the 13 year olds to have both intelligence and emotional maturity to objectively rate the literary work on the scale 1 to 10, but don't trust them with revelation that the gender exists and the sexual attraction is possible.

 

[RedMuffin]

Well, I don't read or write that dross they call LitRPG. (No offense to people who want to read their video games .)

LitRPG is not about video games...

It's about...

BLUE BOX ROMANCE AND NUMBERS GOING BRRR!!!

 

[Lysander_Works]

It's rather a combination of factors created by the way their algorithm works and how they affect the visibility of the story.

It affects not only what is suggested to you on the first page but also the order in which the search results are presented. There is a way around it, I think, but it's intentionally very counterintuitive.

Stories that do not grow are stuck in the same form of limbo where they are no longer presented to the readers even if their actual stats are actually quite good on average for a Royal Road standards. It's a situation where you may have rating within 4.5 to 5 stars on the Royal Road, and few thousands followers, something that appears good on paper for the readers, but the Royal Road would not show your story to anyone voluntarily since its grow had stopped. Trending list on the Royal Road is a legacy system at this point which the mods phased out, but remains few clicks away, it a bit of the undead state of being for stories that refused to die even after new readers stopped coming.

That does sound bad. Sounds like they are putting profits before the customer, which is not surprising coming from anyone.
Guess all I can do there is post in their forums and hope people get curious.

Well, I don't read or write that dross they call LitRPG. (No offense to people who want to read their video games

Not every single Lit RPG is a video-game world import. There are exceptions.

 

[beast_regards]

That does sound bad. Sounds like they are putting profits before the customer, which is not surprising coming from anyone.
Guess all I can do there is post in their forums and hope people get curious.

The Royal Road value their customers.
Problem is you are not their customer.
None of their users, or writers, are.
You are their commodity.

 

[lambenttyto]

LitRPG is not about video games...

It's about...

BLUE BOX ROMANCE AND NUMBERS GOING BRRR!!!

Oh yes, of course. My mistake.

 

[ThisAdamGuy]

I'm more bothered by the way the RR mods play favorites. If your story is popular enough, you're allowed to troll and harass people in the forums. If you're an unknown, they'll ban you for being "argumentative."

 

[Hans.Trondheim]

It's already in the name: Royal Road. ??

But yeah, seriously, that's what you get when people encourage exclusivity. Of course, many would like to be popular and make money out of their works, and there's little to no money and popularity in being unique. Add to that the harsh and often nonsensical feedback, and you'll have Royal Road.

After all, everyone has their threshold of how much they can take bullshit from idiots.

 

[PancakesWitch]

But yeah, seriously, that's what you get when people encourage exclusivity. Of course, many would like to be popular and make money out of their works, and there's little to no money and popularity in being unique. Add to that the harsh and often nonsensical feedback, and you'll have Royal Road.

After all, everyone has their threshold of how much they can take bullshit from idiots.

This review is so ridiculous it feels like its ironic. Also feels kind of outdated, gore and sex scenes is no longer allowed on Royal Road anymore or you get shadow banned. You can't even be too descriptive with fight scenes anymore. Also edgelords dont get too popular, the popular ones are the weird in between acting like a "sigma male" and an edgelord, but also being sociable and have a beard.

 

[Hans.Trondheim]

this is clearly out

This review is so ridiculous it feels like its ironic. Also feels kind of outdated, gore and sex scenes is no longer allowed on Royal Road anymore or you get shadow banned. You can't even be too descriptive with fight scenes anymore. Also edgelords dont get too popular, the popular ones are the weird in between acting like a "sigma male" and an edgelord, but also being sociable and have a beard.

Tis from 2020, which you can see from the date (including the hour and the minute it was posted). I left Royal Road around that time coz I have no patience for deliberate idiots. Still, my statement applies, coz I got friends posting on that site, and they got the same treatment.

 

[PancakesWitch]

Tis from 2020, which you can see from the date (including the hour and the minute it was posted). I left Royal Road around that time coz I have no patience for deliberate idiots. Still, my statement applies, coz I got friends posting on that site, and they got the same treatment.

tbh hardly, you dont even get any visibility at all, unless you chug out $55 for an ad, your novel is never surpassing 100 followers. You dont even get bad reviews if you dont even get readers...

 

[Hans.Trondheim]

tbh hardly, you dont even get any visibility at all, unless you chug out $55 for an ad, your novel is never surpassing 100 followers. You dont even get bad reviews if you dont even get readers...

My work once reached around 155 readers, before Melvin Wong got on his crack and posted that review. Likewise, a good friend of mine from this platform amassed quite a following in RR, which made his novel a target of people with short attention spans. He screenshots the feedback and post it in our Discord to have a good laugh at how ridiculous these comments are.