What's with the "maybe"?

Used to read a lot, it's gone down to two novels now but that's more because I've finished a lot already (or dropped them...) and some aren't being actively translated anymore.

Maybe a couple is technically right as i for example read a bit of the (decent) Ninja Slayer "novels" after i started the anime to compare and these were originally posted via twitter.
I remember when authors used to complain about the Reader’s Digest form but writing via twitter is the certainly the worst way possible.

I am not even that big a fan of the LN format (these are even more simplified youth novels after all) but good ones exist of course. The vast majority of our web novels though are the height of illiteracy in my eyes as they are written by no-names, have highly questionably translations and basically none target adults. I didn't become a librarian to sink to that level my friends. Moving on...

(I never understood why the word novel is used to describe these as LN´s are usually novella and web novels are basically fictitious blogs.)

Definitely the fourth option for me. The writing's amateurish, the translations are dodgy, and even the titles are off-putting. They're like very poor excuses for light novels; and why should I read poor excuses when I can have the real thing? (Though LN's don't get translated anywhere near as much as they should, imo.)

Lots of them, if you consider 20 or so to be lots.
I started reading them from about 2½ years ago. First I started with the ones related to existing Manga/Manhua/Manhwa and Now I also read the ones I feel interesting.
I would say that I'm quite hooked to couple of them now.

I have been reading novels from way past before I started reading Manga/Manhwa/Manhua (about 12+ years ago).

Lots!

I wish there were real novels in the line of some of those web novels (either in German or English).
I really like overpowered characters that are just going sightseeing and are pretty easygoing with lots of funny antics, while somewhat trying to hide their strength... basically Death March kara Hajimaru Isekai Kyusoukyoku (Novel) is the perfect example of this... and I prefer the web novel beginning of it to the light novel.

i currently am reading two and finished one. I started reading LN's a few month ago. It's difficult to pin a category to teh LN, for me it's not a novel but it's not either a novella, before starting reading i never thought i was going to read a LN as i like a lot to read books i have the same thought of Calstine, then i started reading The Legendary Moonlight Sculptor
and Mushoku Tensei and i couldn't stop reading them

I read quite a number of novels. But not so much anymore, I wish I had more time to read, I have more than 30 novels on my wish list.

P.S. 2 of the novels are actually sitting in my wish list since I registered on the manga updates. I want to read them but they are long and not the type I want to get stalled in the middle of reading...

Translations a bit too dodgy for me to ever read the web novels listed on MU. If any of them ever get truly translated, maybe, but they're still not really my cup of tea.

I don't read web novels. I'm not into reading novels electronically. I prefer having the weight of book in my hands so that just means getting my ass to learn another language. In that regard, I have some qualities of a luddite. Also with issues of back translations and the reliance on words to really activate my imagination, I'd rather not deal with the errs. Of course the same can be said about graphic novels but the pictures are somewhat of insurance to make the translations remain in context.

...
Wait it says web novels?
Crap.
I thought it said "light novel", or just "novel", for some reason...
I voted "maybe a couple", but that's wrong. I don't read any.

Needs an option between 'Maybe a couple' and 'Used to, not anymore'

That said, the vast majority of web novels are shit. You can't go wrong with free but when this community is (mostly) a community of manga pirates, why bother pirating the crappy stuff?

And that doesn't even take into account the effort(?) of the translator(s). (Seriously, I know Google Translate is a good tool, but proofread the damn thing before bragging about your "translation".)

I don't mean to sound like an elitist snob, but I'm going to now proceed to sound like an elitist snob. (Warning! Writerly snobbery ahead!)

On this site, anything with "Novel" in the title or "Adapted from Novel" in the tags makes me run for the hills. But, as a writer and librarian, I hate when people judge the medium as a whole -- "I hate YA" or, "Comics all suck." Those are, after all, silly over-generalizations. So I won't go that far, but I will say that every light or web novel that I've ever attempted to read (yes, even the popular ones -- especially the popular ones) has been irredeemably awful. From my experience, the writing is clumsy, purple, and embarrassingly unfunny (like manga or anime in purely written form -- no, that does not work), and many of them have ridiculously convoluted plots. Common tropes, trends, and devices I've also noticed and that I can't stand: follow-the-leader series (I never want to see another "trapped in a virtual reality game" series again -- ever), ecchi/harem fantasies (especially with the bland generic shounen everyboy self-insert main characters), descriptions in gory detail of each new character (yuck yuck purple yuck), heavy reliance on anime and manga visual tropes (no, you cannot "sweatdrop," and no, onomatopoeia should never be used with that weight or frequency), and gratingly hold-your-hand levels of poorly written descriptions telling you exactly what everything does, looks like, and means so that you don't have to use even one ounce of brain power figuring anything out for yourself. I will give them the benefit of the doubt and suggest that maybe some light novels do have legitimately decent plots and characters. But, in my experience, the writing has been so gut-wrenchingly horrid that I've never been able to read far enough to find out.

Ugh. I know these things are geared toward younger readers (except for the uneasily mature ones??), but there is no excuse for bad writing. That goes doubly when writing for children and young adults. They need good literature even more than us adults do! They're piecing together their own identities! [earnest children's librarian mode=off]

So tl;dr, no, I don't read web novels since they're basically wannabe light novels, which I can't stomach. If I want to read bad fiction (because everyone's a little masochistic sometimes!), then I'll hop onto FictionPress. At least over there I might stumble upon a gem!

But as always, that's just my silly opinionated opinion, so take it as you will. xP

No, I don't read web novels anymore and I wish I could filter those out under latest releases, not just under advanced genre search; it's kind of an eyesore for me. Except it's inplemented already and I don't know how.
There are good written ones and not so good ones but the amount of not so good ones is astonishing, but that's just like any other kinds of media. Although I see web novels mostly on same level as fanfictions so I tend to avoid them.

For the most part, no I don't read Web Novels - way too much of the same generic characters with the same generic narrative, more so than manga. It's quite ridiculous, honestly.

I've toned down on reading manga and watching anime due to various reasons. So started reading those Light Novels or Web Novels. They tend to be more fullfilling though i try to avoid the cliche shounen types which a aplenty...

I also no longer buy figurines or paperback manga. Sticking to digital manga and mostly digital novels.

It's interesting to see how many people reply to this thread about reading web novels compared to the thread about removing web novels. There were a lot more people in the other thread who say they read web novels compared to this thread. Though the poll seems to lean towards people reading web novels.

Anyway, yes Murakami, now that I read.

I read quite a lot of them. It's true that there is a lot of garbage mixed in, but so does everything else. Always good ones and always bad ones.

I find the good ones to be very enjoyable, while the bad ones are just... well, bad.

Never had, never will. It is more than sixty percent of people who don't read it combined with people who only read a couple. I'm actually quite surprised that 30% of people here reading web novels. Hope they are not mistaking it with 'Light Novel' or 'Novel'.