tanemrin
ago
More than an evaluation of my entire book as a whole, ratings for individual chapters can help me more accurately identify what worked for my readers and what didn't. Ratings are quick and easy to do, I reckon more so than typing out a comment, and can suggest, by comparison with other chapter's ratings, which ones the readers liked or disliked.
I think this might be overused at controversial important plot points that not all readers will like but I think it might be helpful.
Perhaps add 'Overall score' and 'Advanced review' buttons to the comment UI.
I think the system Wattpad uses for this is pretty good. You can “vote” on every single chapter to give the book another star. What i like about it is that limiting it to a binary choice makes it a lot simpler for larger amount of feedback from people who don’t necessarily know how to rate something properly. A lot of reviews don’t deviate a lot from either five stars or zero stars anyway, so something like that could be better for those types of people. It reduces the effort needed to give feedback by placing it in the very chapter you are reading, and compensates for that by limiting the complexity of that feedback. It would have to be an almost seperate rating system though.
Huge +1 on this, would be a great addition to existing metrics for authors
I don't like this idea I've been on Wattpad for years and some chapters never got as many votes as other chapters making me pretty sad. I don't want a Wattpad clone, am trying to get away from that failing platform. Things are great as they are royal road has a uniqueness to it and I want it to stay this way..
Not to mention rate trading would start causing more problems! Instead of authentic reviews, you get fake ones giving a hollow false bump to a number making the ratings worthless.
Hello, authors! In my opinion, adding more ratings per chapter is not necessary. Based on the implementation of the database, this can be a trivial thing or a huge change. The effort to implement it may be not worth the benefit / business value. Ideally I believe fictions should be rated as a whole, not on a chapter by chapter basis. Based on the structure of a story, it’s inevitable that some chapters will be more favorable towards the readers based on its impact and what’s at stake. Some chapters are written to be the build up for the climax. It’s a bit unfair to compare the build up and the climax when they are actually parts of the same body, and can’t work without the other.
On the other hand, I understand the need for authors to gauge reader’s favorability and to gain as much metric as they can to build a better story. That’s why I’d like to point you to an underutilized feature in royal road, Polls.
As I understand, authors can put polls in the pre chapter and post chapter author notes. As a reader, I rarely see authors take advantage of them. In my opinion, Polls are way more powerful than simple cold ratings. Here’s a few example:
What do you think of Chapter 28?
Do you like what you see in Chapter 29 ?
Can I get rep for Chapter 30 please? ('tis just hypothetical rep)
That’s way more organic and fun than just a cold 0.5 star, 3.5 star, or 5 star.
I don’t know why only a few authors use this feature. Is it because the data visualization isn’t that good? I don’t know since I’ve never written a Poll on this platform before. But one thing I’m sure is, if there are polls like these, I will put my vote in! Because it’s fun!
One downside I can think of is readers may be bored and ignore your polls if you bombard them with the same questions all the time, but if you space them out every few chapters, or put a creative twist on each of the questions, I think you’re good to go.
This way, it’s a win-win-win! Authors get to gauge readers’ favorability and chapter quality metrics, Readers get more enjoyment from filling funny polls, and Royal Road gets more engagement, traffic, users, and profit!
It doesn’t necessarily have to be public, but I think if the authors have a better sense of what their readers like, then they can improve their stories.
Currently, the comment section performs this function to a degree and can provide targeted feedback. I think a lot of readers skip commenting though, either because they don’t want to spend the time or have nothing more to say other than ‘I liked/disliked it’. Personally, if a author comes out with a boring chapter in an otherwise good story, I’ll simply move on without mentioning it.
I do like the idea of using polls for this purpose, but, as mentioned in a different comment, they're rarely used. I don't know whether it is due to taking the time to set up the poll or not even realizing it's an option, but if a poll isn't there then I as a reader can't add it myself.
Rating individual chapters could give readers a fast and easy way to let the author know how good of a job they’re doing. Again, this feature doesn’t necessarily have to be public and can be for the authors personal use only.