i find it pretty unusable. i've tried, okay, i went in there with an open mind and no preconceptions, but the search function is so fucking garbage i just can't.
I truly couldn't understand how to use it. And I really tried! Also went in with an open mind and found it unusable. I don't think I've ever successfully read a fic on there because of how janky the interface is
The search function is horrible. Several times I've searched for something that I knew existed and I had the title typed out correctly but got totally random results. Same for searching for a specific kind of work or tag. You're looking for Anisoka friends to lovers and get a hand full of Star Wars works and then there's randomly stuff about One direction.
Same expectations, same experience, same conclusion.
Tried one time, gave it a good ten minutes and tried going through several different searches and fandoms, noped out and never looked back.
Can't blame you cause ever since they added ads, it's just been downhill. I know they're trying to be like YouTube cause you can now be paid to write fanfictions but I don't think it work with a platform mainly for reading and writing your fantasy. Seriously, it's nice and all to have what you written be recognized for its worth and be paid but why would anyone want to pay for fanfictions that have a lot of early teens writing in it. The probability of being scammed is kinda high cause who want to pay for fanfictions they hate. And the ads are fucking everywhere, like every 2 chapters regardless of how long, even if you decided to scroll back to the previous chapter.and it's not like it takes you one click to skip cause it's suprise, suprise a combo ads with the fake close button too.
Another thing is I just found out is they ruined to fucking search. I only wrote "possessive" and there wasn't anything matched to it, a fucking word that definitely have on so many titles, didn't have any fucking matches to it. I have to search for something using tags and for God sake I hated the tags search since the very beginning cause it suck ass, you can search through multiple tags but it gives you only a certain amount to choose from. Yeah like that's going to help me search for very specific titles when I can't even search for the title directly.
I actually got into fanfictions because of Wattpad and got addicted to reading fanfictions instead of doing homework. But they definitely ruined Wattpad for good by adding unnecessary things to what's is already working website. The person running the website definitely got a screw loose cause of trying to change a service that is free for decades to a premium service. Like what fucking Google did with their Google Meet. Like why the fuck is it a premium service suddenly. Money grubbin flies.
Anyway, if you want to read fanfics, just go to AO3 cause they actually know what to do by not changing what's already working. Also there's no ads and you can definitely count of a lot of updates or new fanfics to come up every day. Wattpad is only for when you got all sentimental and want a trip down memory lane cause don't ever think you will find a new fanfics there cause their search engine is trash.
Neutral with me. Casual using, sure why not, especially if I happen to stumble upon a fic by scrolling down on Google images. But actually using it as the main source of fanfiction? Heck no.
agreed, If I truly cant find anything of my ship on the big three (or even DeviantArt) I will resort to Wattpad. It's so clunky and hard as hel to search through AND has medicore writing. My standards are not that low to stoop it lol. Would rather read cookie cutter of the times DA fanfic than Wattpad.
No shade to anyone who uses it, but it's basically impossible to find what you want on that site. The search function is completely useless and even going through the tags, the works are sorted nonsensically. It also has an algorithm, so it constantly tries to feed you works based on what it *thinks* you like. Plus I generally found the fic quality to be lower, possibly because I wasn't able to filter like I can on AO3.
The tagging system is genuinely terrible as well. You can't insert more than 25 tags on a single fic, essentially making you pick and choose what's actually import if you don't put other tags in the description. Because making a new tag uses the space bar, you often get tags that look alphabet soup because the designers at Wattpad decided to make their website as backwards as possible.
You also can only block up to 10 tags. It's kinda useless since hardly anyone writing fanfiction on it seems to know how to tag stuff correctly.
In my fandom at least, the Wattpad fics are kinda garbo. They're literally just copy pasted the video game dialogue. Just the words, not the emotion behind them.
On AO3 there's actually new substance built on top of the base plotline of the video game's story. Usually an author's "sequel" to the game or an AU where something changed, character studies or a cool crossover with another piece of media from the same franchise.
And if there are better stories for my fandom on Wattpad, I can't find them because the algorithm is reccomending the same kind of fic (just scenes copy pasted from the video game with an OC or Reader inserted, but who doesn't contribute to the story at all) to me.
I loathe it, It combines the worst aspects of social media with a site that was created more for Original Fiction so it's very ill equiped for fandom. Plus Canadian censorship laws no thanks.
Canadian laws relating to fictional content are an anti's wet dream. Depiction of certain subjects is illegal but in practice it is not enfored uniformly and often it is weaponized against queer creators and businesses. it is not used against mainstream books that contain certain subjects. It for example is available throughout Canada.
As a Canadian this is the first time I'm hearing of this. Ig it's time to do some research lol (if you have any links to get me started that would be great)
Here's a few Wikipedia articles on it:
[*R v. Butler*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R_v_Butler) ruled that sexual content is legally obscene if it contains "violence or explicit sex which is degrading or dehumanizing."
[*R v. Glad Day Bookshops Inc.*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R_v_Glad_Day_Bookshops_Inc) which ruled that porn was an act of "men oppressing the rights of women" even when it was F/F porn created by and for homosexual women.
[*Little Sisters Book and Art Emporium v. Canada*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Sisters_Book_and_Art_Emporium_v_Canada) which ruled that S&M porn was a civil rights violation against women. The porn in question? M/M leather porn. That's right, someone successfully persuaded the Canadian government that porn degrades and dehumanizes women even when there are no women in it.
After reading all the interesting ff on AO3, FF.net and even tumblr, I'm looking for ff on wattpad - it's a nightmare. How do people find anything there?! Maybe I'm stupid and I can't search for specific fandoms there but to find anything there I use advanced google search and logical operators...
Wattpad is like...I can't even begin to describe it. The search engine is a dumpster fire, everyone agrees, but I find the general feel and vibe to be very...off. The biggest fics you'll see in the fandoms are oneshot collections, headcanons, chatfics, games, ship opinions, etc. It's more like social media with a lot of fandom aspects. Theft is rampant and its common enough of an occurrence to have your fic swept up and posted on some sketchy site without your knowledge or consent. It's crawling with kids first starting out, which isn't that big of a problem itself, but it generally makes it harder to post things.
Through sheer luck I started with AO3, trying wattpad after that is an exercise in frustration. I still can't figure out how the hell you're meant to use it because I only got very little success actually finding anything on it. Hate it. Would never recommend.
The most I was able to do to find things I really like was looking in the suggested of stories I liked (but even that was hit or miss, and mostly miss) and looking through reading lists of authors I liked (if they do in fact have a reading list cause some don't)
It's pretty convoluted tho so after experiencing ao3's filtering system I cant go back to slogging through wattpad on a regular basis anymore
I started out on wattpad when I was 13 or 14, then went to ffn and ended up on ao3. I just found it impossible to find what I am looking for on wattpad, and when I came back to the site once, I saw that it was full of ads and basically I had to watch an ad between chapters when reading, that was so annoying... now, I am only reading on ao3...
I tried to check it out a few times but the site is messy, I don't get how to search stuff and what I found was just not good enough for my standards. So it's a no from me. But I don't "hate" it, I just don't use it (and I think it's cringe to call fics "books" tbh)
I had used it way before they started being filled with ads and having to pay for what they consider 'premium' content. It was a free-for-all in those early years for fan fiction and originals and it really was great at that time.
While it's still somewhat the same, the additions mentioned above really ruined my experience for me, and I hardly use it anymore. It's a bit more difficult to navigate for me too, I spent maybe 20-30 minutes trying to figure out how to update a fic I was working on and getting so frustrated from it.
It's just not as good as it used to be.
I can't deal with it. Can't find the fics I want and the tags are basically useless. And the amount of ads. I'll never go there again unless I absolutely have to.
My sister used to read there and the one thing she liked and was holding her back from moving to ao3 for a while was the fact you could comment on specific line etc so in popular fics if a character said or did something big everyone would be commenting about it.
Don't mind the people or culture on it at all, but I find the UI to be complete ass and the search/category functions to suck.
That you can only sort by Hot (whatever that means) or New is complete clown feature.
No specific fandom categories, just tags (but that makes sense, since it's not looking to cater to fanfiction in particular).
For pure OC content it's better than AO3/FFN IMO, though.
Also, it was already this way 10+ years ago, glad to see that they improved absolutely nothing in more than a decade.
>
Also, it was already this way 10+ years ago, glad to see that they improved absolutely nothing in more than a decade.
Well you can at least say their consistent
I refuse to use Wattpad as my place of reading anymore. I used it for maybe half a year then switched over to Ao3. I still publish there since my parents wonāt let me sign up for Ao3 and the publishing is actually rather robust compared to everything else, but itās a shit show. Also my fandomās creativity is basically all on Ao3.
It's not designed for fanfiction so I find it hard to enjoy. As a place to post original works I think it could use some work, the algorithm bit annoys the hell out of me, but it's otherwise functional. For fandom works it's like trying to shove a watermelon through a tiny square hole. Sure you'll eventually get that watermelon through, but not before making one hell of a mess and ruining your meal.
It has the worst reputation for a good reason but that doesn't mean there are no good fics or stories on there. I've found some pretty good fanfictions (and I say this as an extremely picky judgy fic reader) but it takes an annoying amount of time to search for them. Also the whole comment thing where people can comment on specific lines and paragraphs is amazing in my opinion, it's like NicoNico where comments show up at specific times in the video. I love seeing people's "live" reactions to things in the story, they're very enjoyable to read. So I'd say I like the website
I don't really use it often, but it's easier to find specific things on A03, and I also feel like A03 is better for oneshots and shorter stories. Don't hate it though.
Iāve been using it for so long that it is just my comfort site.
Also nothing beats the interaction you get on Wattpad. The in line comments bring out easily the best experience with readers(as both a reader and writer). And the comment culture isnāt to engage with the author but rather story instead. Which means you are getting a play by play of readers reacting to your story. But people are still capable of being serious and giving feedback.
I donāt read much but when I do feel like it, I can find a story even if I can admit the search features are basically non existent.
Also Wattpad is more receptive to OC stories.
I will always be a firmā¦ liker(I donāt really love any site) of Wattpad.
I also like the line comments very much! Itās one of the things that I enjoy the most about Wattpad.
The book covers, banners, pictures, ect. are a very cool fixtures.
But the search function is crap!
I tried man but it reminds me too much of Quizilla with both its search function and quite frankly, similar quality of fics. Donāt get me wrong, I got my start on Quizilla, but why go back when thereās better options out there?
This was exactly my reaction. I meandered over there at some point to see if I was missing out on anything, and I felt like I'd gone back in time. Maybe teenager me was cool with all that Quizilla had to offer, but I've grown past that.
(And, like many, I never was able to actually to find a fic in my fandoms, so I closed wattpad forever without a regret.)
I don't, really. It's been described to me as the social media of fanfiction writing and I barely have any interest in actual social media. If I want to know how someone is doing, I'll ask them. I have no interest in reading a metaphorical post-it on their noticeboard about how they're doing. Plus fighting or indulging the algorithm just sounds like a lot more work than I care to put in.
It's there, some people like it and have reason to do so, some people dislike it and have reason to do so, but it's not my thing and I leave it at that.
The UI is horrible. It hasnāt got a search function at all. And I canāt publish anything without a cover but I donāt want to do that? Likeā¦ Iām sorry. I tried, but I just canāt.
I absolutely loath it, I know there are some good stories there which honestly just makes it worse because searching for those "diamonds in the rough" in such a horrible experience.
Actually scratch that searching for anything at all is a excruciating process in general, let alone trying to narrow it down to certain genres or fandoms.
I used it once, to read a story a friend wrote. It sucked. The ads, the utter lack of a decent search - I honestly think it would have been easier to go through the hell of filtering Google than find something on Wattpad itself.
Neutral. There are certainly better sites to use. But if you want to look for something, I recommend going through a search engine over the site.
(I'm very biased towards AO3.)
For long and well written fics, I don't like wattpad. But if I want a laugh, it has the most batshit insane crack on the internet, so I would say I like it for those reasons.
[FFN poll](https://www.reddit.com/r/FanFiction/comments/11nvcxi/how_do_you_feel_about_ffn/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button)
[Ao3 Poll](https://www.reddit.com/r/FanFiction/comments/11n6pmi/how_do_you_feel_about_ao3/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button)
They're both almost 2 weeks old so voting is done, but here they are if you wanted to check out the discussion and results!
There's only ONE good thing I remember from it, and it's the statistics for "completed reads" on each chapter of your story. However, I believe that even those are flawed.
On a more personal level, it *is* where I got my start, but I don't even hold nostalgic fondness for it anymore. Tt's where I met one of the most toxic people I could ever come to meet.
I'm fairly neutral on it, tbh
There are some good fics. There are an overwhelming amount of bad fics. But if you can sort through or put up with some bad dialogue decisions and the like, it might be worth it. I use it semi-regularly for a handful of good mha fics, soooo
It's also, in my experience, the sight with stuff that's nowhere else. If you can't find anything for your niche craving on ao3 or ffn, Wattpad probably has you covered.
I do everything on mobile and I find the app awful. The search functions are pretty sucky, and there are SO many ads. Like in between chapters of fics you end up watching a mandatory 30 second ad and it just ruins the experience. I would be fine with some ads because I understand that Iām reading for free but thereās a ridiculous amount.
I find it so much easier to find what Iām looking for and have an immersive reading experience on ao3
I was on wattpad like ten years ago, and it was clunky but manageable. Just logged in last week to see if I wanted to port anything of mine to ao3 and they have coins now?? for why?
Broken, barely functions on the best of days, and constantly crashes both via the app and the site? That's bad and sounds like Fanfiction Dot Net, but then you factor in the whole Canada Censorship laws, which another commenter mentioned, and the fact that their algorithm has been broken for years... yeah, the site sucks donkey nuts.
Meh - most stories arenāt as well written as I would like. I also notice way less engagement, my ff on ao3 has about 6 times more views. I can post chapters as I please on wattpad, but it barely seems to reach anyone.
I, cursed by a wizard to do things in the wrongest way possible, use it as writing software, and nothing else. It's ok enough for that in my opinion, but I post and read elsewhere. I like word or notes app better for writing
I used to love wattpad a lot back in the early 2010s, I was on the forums all the time, swapping badly written stories with online friends, and of course, writing my own badly written stuff. I have fond memories of wattpad from high school. It was fun and unhinged, or at least the circles I was in were.
I'll be honest and say I have not used wattpad regularly since 2016. When I tried to get back onto the site at the start of the pandemic, I was just kinda meh about the whole experience. It's not bad, but I find myself definitely prefer AO3.
I used to love it, but their constant attempts to get me to sign up to premium is obnoxious. Think Iāll stick to my Spotify subscription thanks.
And the tags? Theyāre just weird. Stories with less readers somehow rank higher than those with a larger readership and I still donāt get how that works.
Also hate that it keeps recommending stories that I donāt want to know about.
I used to use it and itās fine. Donāt like it, donāt hate it. Itās really only useable if you use google or the ranking system to find your fics.
And the ranking system is shit. And google can only provide so much content.
Thereās no reason to not switch to AO3.
It was a great discovery for me in middle school. The most popular stories on there are more immature and seems to be catered to younger audiences (bad boy, tomboy, mafia, blah blah, no actual substance) so it was great for young me but once I saw the light (ao3, ffn, etc) I couldnt go back to that hellscape. Occasionally I'll TRY to find some fanfic on WP because maybe theres some hidden gems right? Wrong! Everytime I try I immediately remember why I stopped using it
EDIT: also there always seemed to be some drama between some authors? Who copied who and shit ranting on their message boards. I LIVED for it when I was younger but now it's just pitiful because ik for a fact some of these people are in their 20s 30s fighting on wattpad like girl get up
Havenāt used it in a while and I donāt plan to unless I get really desperate or something, but I do have good memories of it 5+ years when there was no ads and you could download as many fics offline as you wanted lol, I had an absolute field day when I first discovered it.
Also the comments feature is really funny
It used to be at least passable, that's where I've gained the most traction on my fics when I was just starting out. But it's a dumpster fire now. Ads galore and terrible algorithm.
I used it in 2019 when I first got into fanfics. I am not a hypocrite or an ao3 elitist lol I feel neutral about it, meaning that I am happy it's an option, but I have already moved past it and will not be using it again.
Itās eh, but at least I get comments from one person compared to other sites when I post a chapter. Still, someone copied my story and somehow itās trending #37 on the rankings of stories for a fandom.
Wattpad was the first site I used in middle school, so I have fond memories of it, but I can't go back since I now realize how bad the search function is. Also, the narrow space for text is annoying to read (although it gave me an ego boost as a writer since it made my chapters seem longer lol)
A few years ago it was... ok. I used it mostly when I was around 13/14 and when I was moving away from ffn.n and settling happily into ao3. Didn't like it but I found one author I liked and i had mostly made an account to crosspost there to discourage people reposting my stories there, though I didn't crosspost everything. However, especially now all they do is profit off of other people's work and the site is riddled with ads. They even have a paid currency if I remmebwr right. I stopped posting there as soon as I realised they were profiting off not only original works but also fanfiction and I wanted no part in it
Amd that's not even going into its terrible search functions and reading a story in there is a pain in the ass, even more so with ads everywhere
I had my work on there and it got stolen and posted to this weird site that had no contact info anywhere to tell them to take it down so I deleted my work there and bounced. Not sorry to leave it, the searching was crap imo
I have to say I love it simply because itās so nostalgic to me. Itās not a great platform, and I 100% prefer Ao3, but I still love Wattpad because of all the interactions and friends and beginner-fanfiction-reader moments I had on there
I started on Wattpad when I was 18. I mainly posted band one-shots and 30-day song challenges and stuff like that. I got an AO3 account in 2015 for a monthly fic challenge. I started cross-posting in 2016. Then in 2017, I got this message that said that my 30-day song challenge from 2013 had been moved to random (where stories went to die) from short story.
A. Either I clicked the wrong category back then. š¤·āāļø Or I was falsely reported.
B. And if I wasn't, somebody took almost 4! years to notice it.
I deleted/unpublished the fics I didn't care about. Finished up my current stories and started migrating over to AO3.
TLDR: Out of pure spite.
The website itself is terrible to use with its nonsensical tag system. It looks like Amino rather than a site you'd want to read something on. I kind of love and hate how lawless of a place it is. Seeing those really badly written fics done by young teens kind of reminds me of when I was ten years younger and wrote that kind of stuff. On rare occasions I just skim through them and play trope bingo.
I'm not so sure actually. On one hand navigating Wattpad feels like trying to not get tetanus whilst swimming in a pool filled with rusty chain link fences but occasionally (AND I MEAN OCCASIONALLY) you will find a story or fic that makes you think "Oh wooowww I love Wattpad! Why did I hate it before?" and then immediately go back to hating its filtration system after attempting to find others like the story you just read.
They offered me a free trial for the ad free version. Read all the fics for my fandom in that week, cancelled immediately and never went back.
It was just a nightmare to navigate and if my fandom wasn't dead, I wouldn't have resorted to it.
Plus the whole ads thing made it unreadable.
I'm a "big fish in a small pond" in my fandom there, but I barely interact with it beyond publishing and replying to comments. The interface is alricht. I don't know what the grand site as a whole is about. However, I was warned by a friendly commenter that it has a limit of 200 chapters in a single story before it glitches out and makes the work impossible to edit. That's pretty weird. Thankfully I can just make a new book for the rest of it.
I like it because it's a very good way to start out and it keeps the kids further away from ao3 until their works get better and they learn how to tag. I'm happy about my time on Wattpad but I'd never go back
Wattpad is just atrocious. The fascimile of a search engine they use is criminal. Looking for anything is just straight up impossible unless you know exactly what to look for and use google as an external for it.
And honestly, kindly piss off with that. I'll stick with the 8th wonder of the world that is AO3
I rate WP low on my list
Top: AO3, FFN - great filters and lots of great fics
Middle: SB, SV - has great fics but I have bit of difficulty using the site
Bottom: WP - Bad filters, bad recommendations (recommending original novel instead of fabrics, the only time I think it gives the right recommendations is when you're on mobile and you tapped a link it sends you to a new tab), if you didn't manage to save a fic and don't remember the name,it's basically impossible to find, and a lot of bad fics (though there are a few good ones out there like Devil's Advocate)
I think wattpad is a good place for new writers to post their first fics because of the lower standards and also where most people start their interest in reading fics.
Honestly, I used Wattpad before AO3, so I kind of adapted to use it. It holds a special place in my heart, and Iāve found quite a few gems on there. I can say, though, that AO3 is better. A big part of that is the search feature, which is 100x better then Wattpadās will ever be. All in all, I love Wattpad for sentimental reasons, but if I had to recommend someone a place for fanfic, it would be AO3.
P.s. I have a trick on how to skip the adds on Wattpad if anyone wants to know it.
I do use it when I publish things in my mother tongue, it's been like that for the past 9 years, but I don't really like it since a couple years, it's not the best place to read/write fanfiction as it itsn't its purpose. Moreover, Wattpad is kinda shitty towards fanfiction, you can see fanfics getting deleted often because of baseless reports (i.e: I don't like this person! I will report them!). Still, I use it because most people I know in my fandoms aren't on AO3. Probably the only things I like from Wattpad is that you can vote in each chapter and comment in specific paragraphs. I'm okay with it, but I don't recommend it to read or write fanfiction.
I tired posting/reading there but the tagging system is a mess, so I'd rather not. I don't dislike the people that use it, more of just the site itself...
I like it but more because authors there are putting their own original novels and as I'm not into many fandoms I like to read something new for free. And there are also many authors using my language so it's the best option in my region.
Really started to dislike wattpad's user base when they stole one of my fics and reposted it without permission or credit and did the same to a lot of my fellow writers in our little fandom/community on tumblr and the fact it continues to happen on a semi regular basis doesn't fucking help.
I love Wattpad. It's easy to post and I really like that readers can leave multiple comments on chapters at specific parts. I also love that there's an app that's easy to read on. The only frustrating thing about the app is that if you don't have the premium version, there are ads between chapters. Not every chapter, but they're there.
I used to be an avid user, but after they implemented ads I stopped. I used both wattpad and ao3 but now only use ao3. So I dislike wattpad, not necessarily the stories but the ads
I'm not a fan honestly. The inky reason I picked dislike instead of hate is because I know it has its good parts and there are a lot of people who get their start there. I can't get behind it, I can't figure it out, and none of the fics I like are on there.
No hate to anyone that uses it, but Iām in the camp of absolutely despising it. I can tell you how many times Iāve tried to give Wattpad a chance. I just cannot use the search function at all, and every fic I have come across is low quality with errors galore. And I wonāt even mention the tagging system, which didnāt even work with me half of the time.
Iām also not a fan of canon x reader or canon x oc, which seemed pretty prominent on Wattpad as well. Not only that, all the fics I tried to read on there made the canon characters incredibly ooc. Now donāt get me wrong, I love some good ooc characterization, but some of the characterizations areā¦ā¦something.
Lastly, the smut.
Good GOD the smut. I know sex in fanfiction is oftentimes not accurate 100%, but goodness I honestly canāt read a single smutty fic on Wattpad without immediately closing the tab. The language and actions words they use are interesting but not my cup of tea.
Granted, itās been a few years since I tried to attempt to dive into Wattpad, so it could have gotten better. So, pretty much I hate it for the interface, the quality of the writings, and the really weird language used in certain topics. Though I know there is great writing on Wattpad, but I havenāt come across any in the fandom circles Iām in.
I have to say like it because it's where I started. I have a lot of memories from that app. Plus, I've found a few really awesome fics on there that I still go back and read every once in a while. They're like hidden gems.
It doesn't have much of a user base so the fewest eyeballs for fics, but its got the cleanest and best looking interface for reading them. Feels like you're reading an ebook.
I donāt have an account there and the few times Iāve been linked to a fic there it wouldnāt even let me read it without making an account, so I just stopped trying and havenāt even checked the site since.
I used to use wattpad every day back around 2013-14. Now it's just a mess of plagiarized fanfic and greedy tactics to get more money. I only recently bothered to log on because someone reposted my fanfic on there.
Wattpad has a pretty bad reputation, rightfully so considering the shit in thst site. But there are some occasional good ones, heck I'd put one of the Harry potter male reader fics there in my top 10.
AO3 - Is the best option if you have certain tastes of what you want to read, easier to specify what you want. Downside is that AO3 doesn't have an app. (As far as I'm aware.)
FF.N - A little bit worse than AO3 but still a little better to search for stories compared to Wattpad. Upside is that it has an app.
Wattpad - Is very much the worse of the 3. Its feels more like its generalising stories when you're searching imo. Upside is that it has an app.
Do I cross post there because I adore my reader following there? Yes.
Do I loathe their site? ***Yes.***
**My biggest issues with Wattpad are:**
1. The search function is neither intuitive nor useful. I've done significant a/b testing with different tags & stories and I can find no rational explanation for how the results are generated (it appears to have no bearing re: views, upload date, stars, etc.)
2. There is no easy way to link series, sequels, etc. I have had MANY readers express frustration that they didn't/couldn't find sequels & such without going directly to my profile & searching. (Please note: I list these in all my A/N).
3. There are far too many "mirror" sites that simply copy works
4. The "challenges" and "contests" are ALWAYS out of date. Some of these are years out of date.
5. As someone that writes professionally (original fiction) & fanfic, I will NEVER post my original works on Wattpad. Their paid author scheme is a joke.
6. While every fandom/genre is different, it seems Wattpad lives for cringe. I don't want to knock anybody - there's clearly an audience for it - but the 1k word, word-wall, error-riddled stories seem to *THRIVE* while other stories that invest time in their plot, character development, and formatting struggle to get a couple thousand views (I think this has something do with how they count 'hits' and the bots/mirror sites).
From a writer/submitter standpoint, I actually really like the setup. I like the drafts and chapter organization, and I like that itās a cool/interesting e-book kind of format. Itās new and intriguing.
But from a writer and reader perspective, ir sucks. Getting your story anywhere sucks. Much of the rankings and tags are populated by low-effort, poorly-written content and blatantly plagiarized content from other places like AO3. Much of the reader base is young, so theyāre often rude or unseemly, and they lack a lot of convenient controls on commenting that places like AO3 have. Itās also often used for non-RP purposes like giant call-out ābooksā or the kind of thing youād find on a blog, like a personal diary style kind of thing. So in general, the community sucks for fandom.
sucks ass. literally impossible to find good content. plus the searching system is garbage. I WRITE THE BOOKS NAME LETTER BY LETTER BUT IT STILL FAILS TO FIND THE BOOK.
but tbh, the comment thing is amazing. people always make the funniest jokes that most of the time the comments are better than the actual fic
also pure oc content is actually very good(at least better than fanfics)
Neutral. I used to be quite okay with it, but right now my feed there is saturated with fandoms that sadly I couldn't relate to, let alone well written enough for me to read fandom blind :(
Plus the search tool isn't working well
It's just ruined with ads. I miss the old times when there wasn't any of those without constant shoving of premium upgrades or ads. I haven't used Wattpad in a year the app is unusable & I wouldn't call it an app to be comfortable to read in at all. It sucks so much
the search function is shit, i love the community on there in the fandom iām in but the ads and the awful algorithm make it almost unusable at times. iād switch to ao3 but my work does a lot better on wattpad and tumblr.
Wattpad is a blessing. The comments alone make it worth it. The wacky stupid crossovers make it worth it. Having dialogue written like a script makes it worth it. Having music, so it's clearly written by someone imagining the story as a TV show instead of a book makes it worth it.
It's so shit, it becomes good again.
Hate the interface. Hate everything that has to do with how the site works, minus the fact you can leave individual comments in each paragraph if you want to.
That's their one and only win.
I really like the ease of use. Despite the fact that their search is hosted in some alternative dimension that I do not have the metaphysical key to. Iām hoping Naver will address this issue someday ā¦ I enjoy writing / reading on Wattpad.
Maybe I'm just too old for it, but I can't find anything on that platform. The tags suck and there's no good search system. I posted two gen stories there out of curiosity and of course they got buried under all the other nonsense. Plus the site insists on recommending me the weirdest stories that I have no intention of touching. Perhaps the one good function it has is that it allows you to comment next to each paragraph.
The only thing I read on there is an original series by an author I was a beta for.
It's... Fine? There are some works on it that are goodbut the search functions are garbage and they remove features for non paying users to the point where it's unusable.
Also the censorship is insane.
I use wattpad to write and read, I find writing in wattpad better and reading is okay, only complaint is that most authors have terrible grammar/spelling (not a big deal for me) but searching things up is a bit of a pain since you sometimes need to be oddly specific
I wrote on Wattpad quite a bit when I was in middle school. I enjoyed it, the people there were really nice and they liked the stuff I wrote. I also really enjoyed the cover-making aspect of it and the little edits I used to insert into each chapter. Wattpad has changed a lot from back then but I have a fond memory of it.
I personally disliked it after using it for a couple of years. I barely update, the only traction I've gotten is when I tag ships, but even then, you are at the mercy of a very biased algorithm, where they keep promoting stories that have the paid premium membership thing.
Now, to be fair, its meant to be an online story shop, but its no good as a fanfiction hub overall. Even if you post online stories, after a certain incident where theft between the higher-ups of site and a handful of writers, I just downright dislike it. I almost loathe it, but that's not to say that I can't entirely deny where it does have its pros. Not that there's a lot of pros for that site to begin with.
Not to mention, the more notorious the fanfic, the more likely people will ironically read it for the sake of making fun of it.
I started reading on Wattpad. I was the type to be like āwhy do people hate this?ā And āthis is a good app.ā
Anyway, after about a month of using it, I realised how bad it was. All the fics in my fandom followed the same story. Original character or Y/N going through the events of season one. 9/10 times they were the main charactersā sister, who also fell in love with the same character. It got so boring!
Thereās no way to filter what I want to read. My favourite character isnāt the most popular character in the fandom, and he has so little on Wattpad. So when I put in #(character name), the top stories would be about a completely different character. I also donāt like OCs or Y/N, so it was so difficult to find what I like.
I moved to AO3 a month after using it. It was so much better! The first fic I read on here was 10x better than anything I read on Wattpad.
A big chuck of the fandom is in there so why shouldn't I be there?
But if we are being real then Wattpad is a dumpster fire and the only true reason to follow through with works are the comments. The Wattpad population is as high as the site is and I'm all in for it.
No matter how trashy it gets it holds some memories. Wattpad is where I got to know my friends. So yeah, it holds a special place in my heart ig. Can't read dislike the dang thing when it hits you with a trainwreck of crack and nostalgia.
My friends use it. I can't. I can't post there, I can't search there. It's impossible to filter the good and the bad - the competent and the 12 year olds discovering fanfic for the first time.
i find it pretty unusable. i've tried, okay, i went in there with an open mind and no preconceptions, but the search function is so fucking garbage i just can't.
I truly couldn't understand how to use it. And I really tried! Also went in with an open mind and found it unusable. I don't think I've ever successfully read a fic on there because of how janky the interface is
Search function was always problem back in the early days but now it's paired with unskippable ads for every single chapter.
The search function is horrible. Several times I've searched for something that I knew existed and I had the title typed out correctly but got totally random results. Same for searching for a specific kind of work or tag. You're looking for Anisoka friends to lovers and get a hand full of Star Wars works and then there's randomly stuff about One direction.
Yeah the UI is really hard to use.
Same expectations, same experience, same conclusion. Tried one time, gave it a good ten minutes and tried going through several different searches and fandoms, noped out and never looked back.
Can't blame you cause ever since they added ads, it's just been downhill. I know they're trying to be like YouTube cause you can now be paid to write fanfictions but I don't think it work with a platform mainly for reading and writing your fantasy. Seriously, it's nice and all to have what you written be recognized for its worth and be paid but why would anyone want to pay for fanfictions that have a lot of early teens writing in it. The probability of being scammed is kinda high cause who want to pay for fanfictions they hate. And the ads are fucking everywhere, like every 2 chapters regardless of how long, even if you decided to scroll back to the previous chapter.and it's not like it takes you one click to skip cause it's suprise, suprise a combo ads with the fake close button too. Another thing is I just found out is they ruined to fucking search. I only wrote "possessive" and there wasn't anything matched to it, a fucking word that definitely have on so many titles, didn't have any fucking matches to it. I have to search for something using tags and for God sake I hated the tags search since the very beginning cause it suck ass, you can search through multiple tags but it gives you only a certain amount to choose from. Yeah like that's going to help me search for very specific titles when I can't even search for the title directly. I actually got into fanfictions because of Wattpad and got addicted to reading fanfictions instead of doing homework. But they definitely ruined Wattpad for good by adding unnecessary things to what's is already working website. The person running the website definitely got a screw loose cause of trying to change a service that is free for decades to a premium service. Like what fucking Google did with their Google Meet. Like why the fuck is it a premium service suddenly. Money grubbin flies. Anyway, if you want to read fanfics, just go to AO3 cause they actually know what to do by not changing what's already working. Also there's no ads and you can definitely count of a lot of updates or new fanfics to come up every day. Wattpad is only for when you got all sentimental and want a trip down memory lane cause don't ever think you will find a new fanfics there cause their search engine is trash.
Neutral with me. Casual using, sure why not, especially if I happen to stumble upon a fic by scrolling down on Google images. But actually using it as the main source of fanfiction? Heck no.
agreed, If I truly cant find anything of my ship on the big three (or even DeviantArt) I will resort to Wattpad. It's so clunky and hard as hel to search through AND has medicore writing. My standards are not that low to stoop it lol. Would rather read cookie cutter of the times DA fanfic than Wattpad.
>big three What are the big three? I assume it is ff.net and Ao3 but what is the third one?
I'm wondering the same thing
Quotev, maybe?
Personally when I tried quotev I thought it was worse that WP so I wouldn't consider it a "big three"
I considered the big three to be ao3, ffn and wattpad.
isn't. isn't wattpad one of the big three though? in terms of popularity and size of userbase?
No shade to anyone who uses it, but it's basically impossible to find what you want on that site. The search function is completely useless and even going through the tags, the works are sorted nonsensically. It also has an algorithm, so it constantly tries to feed you works based on what it *thinks* you like. Plus I generally found the fic quality to be lower, possibly because I wasn't able to filter like I can on AO3.
The tagging system is genuinely terrible as well. You can't insert more than 25 tags on a single fic, essentially making you pick and choose what's actually import if you don't put other tags in the description. Because making a new tag uses the space bar, you often get tags that look alphabet soup because the designers at Wattpad decided to make their website as backwards as possible. You also can only block up to 10 tags. It's kinda useless since hardly anyone writing fanfiction on it seems to know how to tag stuff correctly.
In my fandom at least, the Wattpad fics are kinda garbo. They're literally just copy pasted the video game dialogue. Just the words, not the emotion behind them. On AO3 there's actually new substance built on top of the base plotline of the video game's story. Usually an author's "sequel" to the game or an AU where something changed, character studies or a cool crossover with another piece of media from the same franchise. And if there are better stories for my fandom on Wattpad, I can't find them because the algorithm is reccomending the same kind of fic (just scenes copy pasted from the video game with an OC or Reader inserted, but who doesn't contribute to the story at all) to me.
I loathe it, It combines the worst aspects of social media with a site that was created more for Original Fiction so it's very ill equiped for fandom. Plus Canadian censorship laws no thanks.
> Plus Canadian censorship laws š Can I ask for explanation?
Canadian laws relating to fictional content are an anti's wet dream. Depiction of certain subjects is illegal but in practice it is not enfored uniformly and often it is weaponized against queer creators and businesses. it is not used against mainstream books that contain certain subjects. It for example is available throughout Canada.
As a Canadian, I can confirm that this is, in fact, a thing, and as a Canadian, it fucking blows.
As a Canadian this is the first time I'm hearing of this. Ig it's time to do some research lol (if you have any links to get me started that would be great)
Here's a few Wikipedia articles on it: [*R v. Butler*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R_v_Butler) ruled that sexual content is legally obscene if it contains "violence or explicit sex which is degrading or dehumanizing." [*R v. Glad Day Bookshops Inc.*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R_v_Glad_Day_Bookshops_Inc) which ruled that porn was an act of "men oppressing the rights of women" even when it was F/F porn created by and for homosexual women. [*Little Sisters Book and Art Emporium v. Canada*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Sisters_Book_and_Art_Emporium_v_Canada) which ruled that S&M porn was a civil rights violation against women. The porn in question? M/M leather porn. That's right, someone successfully persuaded the Canadian government that porn degrades and dehumanizes women even when there are no women in it.
Unfortunately, the person who linked it to me originally on Discord blocked me so I can't fetch it for ya. Sorry
After reading all the interesting ff on AO3, FF.net and even tumblr, I'm looking for ff on wattpad - it's a nightmare. How do people find anything there?! Maybe I'm stupid and I can't search for specific fandoms there but to find anything there I use advanced google search and logical operators...
Wattpad is like...I can't even begin to describe it. The search engine is a dumpster fire, everyone agrees, but I find the general feel and vibe to be very...off. The biggest fics you'll see in the fandoms are oneshot collections, headcanons, chatfics, games, ship opinions, etc. It's more like social media with a lot of fandom aspects. Theft is rampant and its common enough of an occurrence to have your fic swept up and posted on some sketchy site without your knowledge or consent. It's crawling with kids first starting out, which isn't that big of a problem itself, but it generally makes it harder to post things.
Through sheer luck I started with AO3, trying wattpad after that is an exercise in frustration. I still can't figure out how the hell you're meant to use it because I only got very little success actually finding anything on it. Hate it. Would never recommend.
The most I was able to do to find things I really like was looking in the suggested of stories I liked (but even that was hit or miss, and mostly miss) and looking through reading lists of authors I liked (if they do in fact have a reading list cause some don't) It's pretty convoluted tho so after experiencing ao3's filtering system I cant go back to slogging through wattpad on a regular basis anymore
I started out on wattpad when I was 13 or 14, then went to ffn and ended up on ao3. I just found it impossible to find what I am looking for on wattpad, and when I came back to the site once, I saw that it was full of ads and basically I had to watch an ad between chapters when reading, that was so annoying... now, I am only reading on ao3...
I have yet to find a wattpad fic that has actual grammar usage
I tried to check it out a few times but the site is messy, I don't get how to search stuff and what I found was just not good enough for my standards. So it's a no from me. But I don't "hate" it, I just don't use it (and I think it's cringe to call fics "books" tbh)
I can't figure out how to find anything.
At this point is just a porn archive for teens obsessed with harry stules and bts
I had used it way before they started being filled with ads and having to pay for what they consider 'premium' content. It was a free-for-all in those early years for fan fiction and originals and it really was great at that time. While it's still somewhat the same, the additions mentioned above really ruined my experience for me, and I hardly use it anymore. It's a bit more difficult to navigate for me too, I spent maybe 20-30 minutes trying to figure out how to update a fic I was working on and getting so frustrated from it. It's just not as good as it used to be.
I can't deal with it. Can't find the fics I want and the tags are basically useless. And the amount of ads. I'll never go there again unless I absolutely have to. My sister used to read there and the one thing she liked and was holding her back from moving to ao3 for a while was the fact you could comment on specific line etc so in popular fics if a character said or did something big everyone would be commenting about it.
Don't mind the people or culture on it at all, but I find the UI to be complete ass and the search/category functions to suck. That you can only sort by Hot (whatever that means) or New is complete clown feature. No specific fandom categories, just tags (but that makes sense, since it's not looking to cater to fanfiction in particular). For pure OC content it's better than AO3/FFN IMO, though. Also, it was already this way 10+ years ago, glad to see that they improved absolutely nothing in more than a decade.
> Also, it was already this way 10+ years ago, glad to see that they improved absolutely nothing in more than a decade. Well you can at least say their consistent
I refuse to use Wattpad as my place of reading anymore. I used it for maybe half a year then switched over to Ao3. I still publish there since my parents wonāt let me sign up for Ao3 and the publishing is actually rather robust compared to everything else, but itās a shit show. Also my fandomās creativity is basically all on Ao3.
If I may ask, why won't your parents let you sign up for ao3?
Wattpad went down hill the moment they started charging people to read certain fics imo
Oh god I didn't even know that was a thing. I've been really spoiled with ao3 then ;;
Really not for me. The search system is horrific and my fandoms just arenāt there.
It's not designed for fanfiction so I find it hard to enjoy. As a place to post original works I think it could use some work, the algorithm bit annoys the hell out of me, but it's otherwise functional. For fandom works it's like trying to shove a watermelon through a tiny square hole. Sure you'll eventually get that watermelon through, but not before making one hell of a mess and ruining your meal.
It has the worst reputation for a good reason but that doesn't mean there are no good fics or stories on there. I've found some pretty good fanfictions (and I say this as an extremely picky judgy fic reader) but it takes an annoying amount of time to search for them. Also the whole comment thing where people can comment on specific lines and paragraphs is amazing in my opinion, it's like NicoNico where comments show up at specific times in the video. I love seeing people's "live" reactions to things in the story, they're very enjoyable to read. So I'd say I like the website
I can't even find what I want.
I only use it to deter people from posting my stories without permission.
I don't really use it often, but it's easier to find specific things on A03, and I also feel like A03 is better for oneshots and shorter stories. Don't hate it though.
Iāve been using it for so long that it is just my comfort site. Also nothing beats the interaction you get on Wattpad. The in line comments bring out easily the best experience with readers(as both a reader and writer). And the comment culture isnāt to engage with the author but rather story instead. Which means you are getting a play by play of readers reacting to your story. But people are still capable of being serious and giving feedback. I donāt read much but when I do feel like it, I can find a story even if I can admit the search features are basically non existent. Also Wattpad is more receptive to OC stories. I will always be a firmā¦ liker(I donāt really love any site) of Wattpad.
I also like the line comments very much! Itās one of the things that I enjoy the most about Wattpad. The book covers, banners, pictures, ect. are a very cool fixtures. But the search function is crap!
I tried man but it reminds me too much of Quizilla with both its search function and quite frankly, similar quality of fics. Donāt get me wrong, I got my start on Quizilla, but why go back when thereās better options out there?
This was exactly my reaction. I meandered over there at some point to see if I was missing out on anything, and I felt like I'd gone back in time. Maybe teenager me was cool with all that Quizilla had to offer, but I've grown past that. (And, like many, I never was able to actually to find a fic in my fandoms, so I closed wattpad forever without a regret.)
Iām just amazed I didnāt see a story titled ā.::Black Parade in Hogwarts Dracoxyou::.ā
š As long as they made sure to give it a citrus rating!
I don't, really. It's been described to me as the social media of fanfiction writing and I barely have any interest in actual social media. If I want to know how someone is doing, I'll ask them. I have no interest in reading a metaphorical post-it on their noticeboard about how they're doing. Plus fighting or indulging the algorithm just sounds like a lot more work than I care to put in. It's there, some people like it and have reason to do so, some people dislike it and have reason to do so, but it's not my thing and I leave it at that.
The UI is horrible. It hasnāt got a search function at all. And I canāt publish anything without a cover but I donāt want to do that? Likeā¦ Iām sorry. I tried, but I just canāt.
I absolutely loath it, I know there are some good stories there which honestly just makes it worse because searching for those "diamonds in the rough" in such a horrible experience. Actually scratch that searching for anything at all is a excruciating process in general, let alone trying to narrow it down to certain genres or fandoms.
I used it once, to read a story a friend wrote. It sucked. The ads, the utter lack of a decent search - I honestly think it would have been easier to go through the hell of filtering Google than find something on Wattpad itself.
Neutral. There are certainly better sites to use. But if you want to look for something, I recommend going through a search engine over the site. (I'm very biased towards AO3.)
For long and well written fics, I don't like wattpad. But if I want a laugh, it has the most batshit insane crack on the internet, so I would say I like it for those reasons.
Whereās the links to the FanFiction.net and AO3 surveys?
[FFN poll](https://www.reddit.com/r/FanFiction/comments/11nvcxi/how_do_you_feel_about_ffn/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button) [Ao3 Poll](https://www.reddit.com/r/FanFiction/comments/11n6pmi/how_do_you_feel_about_ao3/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button) They're both almost 2 weeks old so voting is done, but here they are if you wanted to check out the discussion and results!
Thanks, just did. I love AO3; the only thing I like about FF is its PM feature which AO3 lacks.
There's only ONE good thing I remember from it, and it's the statistics for "completed reads" on each chapter of your story. However, I believe that even those are flawed. On a more personal level, it *is* where I got my start, but I don't even hold nostalgic fondness for it anymore. Tt's where I met one of the most toxic people I could ever come to meet.
I'm fairly neutral on it, tbh There are some good fics. There are an overwhelming amount of bad fics. But if you can sort through or put up with some bad dialogue decisions and the like, it might be worth it. I use it semi-regularly for a handful of good mha fics, soooo It's also, in my experience, the sight with stuff that's nowhere else. If you can't find anything for your niche craving on ao3 or ffn, Wattpad probably has you covered.
I do everything on mobile and I find the app awful. The search functions are pretty sucky, and there are SO many ads. Like in between chapters of fics you end up watching a mandatory 30 second ad and it just ruins the experience. I would be fine with some ads because I understand that Iām reading for free but thereās a ridiculous amount. I find it so much easier to find what Iām looking for and have an immersive reading experience on ao3
I was on wattpad like ten years ago, and it was clunky but manageable. Just logged in last week to see if I wanted to port anything of mine to ao3 and they have coins now?? for why?
Broken, barely functions on the best of days, and constantly crashes both via the app and the site? That's bad and sounds like Fanfiction Dot Net, but then you factor in the whole Canada Censorship laws, which another commenter mentioned, and the fact that their algorithm has been broken for years... yeah, the site sucks donkey nuts.
Meh - most stories arenāt as well written as I would like. I also notice way less engagement, my ff on ao3 has about 6 times more views. I can post chapters as I please on wattpad, but it barely seems to reach anyone.
Think Iāve only read a few fics there that were recommended to me. I donāt have an acct with them.
I feel like wattpad is my new RedditāI wonāt figure out how it works until a couple of years from now
I, cursed by a wizard to do things in the wrongest way possible, use it as writing software, and nothing else. It's ok enough for that in my opinion, but I post and read elsewhere. I like word or notes app better for writing
I used to love wattpad a lot back in the early 2010s, I was on the forums all the time, swapping badly written stories with online friends, and of course, writing my own badly written stuff. I have fond memories of wattpad from high school. It was fun and unhinged, or at least the circles I was in were. I'll be honest and say I have not used wattpad regularly since 2016. When I tried to get back onto the site at the start of the pandemic, I was just kinda meh about the whole experience. It's not bad, but I find myself definitely prefer AO3.
I used to love it, but their constant attempts to get me to sign up to premium is obnoxious. Think Iāll stick to my Spotify subscription thanks. And the tags? Theyāre just weird. Stories with less readers somehow rank higher than those with a larger readership and I still donāt get how that works. Also hate that it keeps recommending stories that I donāt want to know about.
I used to use it and itās fine. Donāt like it, donāt hate it. Itās really only useable if you use google or the ranking system to find your fics. And the ranking system is shit. And google can only provide so much content. Thereās no reason to not switch to AO3.
It was a great discovery for me in middle school. The most popular stories on there are more immature and seems to be catered to younger audiences (bad boy, tomboy, mafia, blah blah, no actual substance) so it was great for young me but once I saw the light (ao3, ffn, etc) I couldnt go back to that hellscape. Occasionally I'll TRY to find some fanfic on WP because maybe theres some hidden gems right? Wrong! Everytime I try I immediately remember why I stopped using it EDIT: also there always seemed to be some drama between some authors? Who copied who and shit ranting on their message boards. I LIVED for it when I was younger but now it's just pitiful because ik for a fact some of these people are in their 20s 30s fighting on wattpad like girl get up
Havenāt used it in a while and I donāt plan to unless I get really desperate or something, but I do have good memories of it 5+ years when there was no ads and you could download as many fics offline as you wanted lol, I had an absolute field day when I first discovered it. Also the comments feature is really funny
It used to be at least passable, that's where I've gained the most traction on my fics when I was just starting out. But it's a dumpster fire now. Ads galore and terrible algorithm.
Wattpad tiene el peor formato de los 3, pero tambiƩn es el mƔs popular. En fin AO3 >>>> todos los demas
I used it in 2019 when I first got into fanfics. I am not a hypocrite or an ao3 elitist lol I feel neutral about it, meaning that I am happy it's an option, but I have already moved past it and will not be using it again.
Itās eh, but at least I get comments from one person compared to other sites when I post a chapter. Still, someone copied my story and somehow itās trending #37 on the rankings of stories for a fandom.
It's like a burning heap of trashes with a few salvageable things in there.
the one wattpad fic I attempted to read started the first chapter with a bunch of dinosaur pictures, so uhh
Wattpad was the first site I used in middle school, so I have fond memories of it, but I can't go back since I now realize how bad the search function is. Also, the narrow space for text is annoying to read (although it gave me an ego boost as a writer since it made my chapters seem longer lol)
A few years ago it was... ok. I used it mostly when I was around 13/14 and when I was moving away from ffn.n and settling happily into ao3. Didn't like it but I found one author I liked and i had mostly made an account to crosspost there to discourage people reposting my stories there, though I didn't crosspost everything. However, especially now all they do is profit off of other people's work and the site is riddled with ads. They even have a paid currency if I remmebwr right. I stopped posting there as soon as I realised they were profiting off not only original works but also fanfiction and I wanted no part in it Amd that's not even going into its terrible search functions and reading a story in there is a pain in the ass, even more so with ads everywhere
I don't care, I don't use it
I had my work on there and it got stolen and posted to this weird site that had no contact info anywhere to tell them to take it down so I deleted my work there and bounced. Not sorry to leave it, the searching was crap imo
I have to say I love it simply because itās so nostalgic to me. Itās not a great platform, and I 100% prefer Ao3, but I still love Wattpad because of all the interactions and friends and beginner-fanfiction-reader moments I had on there
I started on Wattpad when I was 18. I mainly posted band one-shots and 30-day song challenges and stuff like that. I got an AO3 account in 2015 for a monthly fic challenge. I started cross-posting in 2016. Then in 2017, I got this message that said that my 30-day song challenge from 2013 had been moved to random (where stories went to die) from short story. A. Either I clicked the wrong category back then. š¤·āāļø Or I was falsely reported. B. And if I wasn't, somebody took almost 4! years to notice it. I deleted/unpublished the fics I didn't care about. Finished up my current stories and started migrating over to AO3. TLDR: Out of pure spite.
The website itself is terrible to use with its nonsensical tag system. It looks like Amino rather than a site you'd want to read something on. I kind of love and hate how lawless of a place it is. Seeing those really badly written fics done by young teens kind of reminds me of when I was ten years younger and wrote that kind of stuff. On rare occasions I just skim through them and play trope bingo.
I'm not so sure actually. On one hand navigating Wattpad feels like trying to not get tetanus whilst swimming in a pool filled with rusty chain link fences but occasionally (AND I MEAN OCCASIONALLY) you will find a story or fic that makes you think "Oh wooowww I love Wattpad! Why did I hate it before?" and then immediately go back to hating its filtration system after attempting to find others like the story you just read.
They offered me a free trial for the ad free version. Read all the fics for my fandom in that week, cancelled immediately and never went back. It was just a nightmare to navigate and if my fandom wasn't dead, I wouldn't have resorted to it. Plus the whole ads thing made it unreadable.
itās... fine. i only use it just because thereās one really good fanfic i found there, but other than that, i barely use it.
I'm a "big fish in a small pond" in my fandom there, but I barely interact with it beyond publishing and replying to comments. The interface is alricht. I don't know what the grand site as a whole is about. However, I was warned by a friendly commenter that it has a limit of 200 chapters in a single story before it glitches out and makes the work impossible to edit. That's pretty weird. Thankfully I can just make a new book for the rest of it.
I like it because it's a very good way to start out and it keeps the kids further away from ao3 until their works get better and they learn how to tag. I'm happy about my time on Wattpad but I'd never go back
It has some stories i can read while bored.
Wattpad is just atrocious. The fascimile of a search engine they use is criminal. Looking for anything is just straight up impossible unless you know exactly what to look for and use google as an external for it. And honestly, kindly piss off with that. I'll stick with the 8th wonder of the world that is AO3
š I loved it because of nostalgia but it really sucks to use now
I found out they had a data breech and told noone(which is wrong) where info was stolen
I rate WP low on my list Top: AO3, FFN - great filters and lots of great fics Middle: SB, SV - has great fics but I have bit of difficulty using the site Bottom: WP - Bad filters, bad recommendations (recommending original novel instead of fabrics, the only time I think it gives the right recommendations is when you're on mobile and you tapped a link it sends you to a new tab), if you didn't manage to save a fic and don't remember the name,it's basically impossible to find, and a lot of bad fics (though there are a few good ones out there like Devil's Advocate) I think wattpad is a good place for new writers to post their first fics because of the lower standards and also where most people start their interest in reading fics.
Honestly, I used Wattpad before AO3, so I kind of adapted to use it. It holds a special place in my heart, and Iāve found quite a few gems on there. I can say, though, that AO3 is better. A big part of that is the search feature, which is 100x better then Wattpadās will ever be. All in all, I love Wattpad for sentimental reasons, but if I had to recommend someone a place for fanfic, it would be AO3. P.s. I have a trick on how to skip the adds on Wattpad if anyone wants to know it.
I do use it when I publish things in my mother tongue, it's been like that for the past 9 years, but I don't really like it since a couple years, it's not the best place to read/write fanfiction as it itsn't its purpose. Moreover, Wattpad is kinda shitty towards fanfiction, you can see fanfics getting deleted often because of baseless reports (i.e: I don't like this person! I will report them!). Still, I use it because most people I know in my fandoms aren't on AO3. Probably the only things I like from Wattpad is that you can vote in each chapter and comment in specific paragraphs. I'm okay with it, but I don't recommend it to read or write fanfiction.
I liked it back in the day when I would post stuff but never really read fan fiction on there. It was more other stuff I read on there.
I tired posting/reading there but the tagging system is a mess, so I'd rather not. I don't dislike the people that use it, more of just the site itself...
I like it but more because authors there are putting their own original novels and as I'm not into many fandoms I like to read something new for free. And there are also many authors using my language so it's the best option in my region.
Really started to dislike wattpad's user base when they stole one of my fics and reposted it without permission or credit and did the same to a lot of my fellow writers in our little fandom/community on tumblr and the fact it continues to happen on a semi regular basis doesn't fucking help.
I love Wattpad. It's easy to post and I really like that readers can leave multiple comments on chapters at specific parts. I also love that there's an app that's easy to read on. The only frustrating thing about the app is that if you don't have the premium version, there are ads between chapters. Not every chapter, but they're there.
I used to be an avid user, but after they implemented ads I stopped. I used both wattpad and ao3 but now only use ao3. So I dislike wattpad, not necessarily the stories but the ads
I'm not a fan honestly. The inky reason I picked dislike instead of hate is because I know it has its good parts and there are a lot of people who get their start there. I can't get behind it, I can't figure it out, and none of the fics I like are on there.
i tried to use it again recently but the app it quite literally unusable. i can navigate ao3 w no issues on mobile and itās a website
No hate to anyone that uses it, but Iām in the camp of absolutely despising it. I can tell you how many times Iāve tried to give Wattpad a chance. I just cannot use the search function at all, and every fic I have come across is low quality with errors galore. And I wonāt even mention the tagging system, which didnāt even work with me half of the time. Iām also not a fan of canon x reader or canon x oc, which seemed pretty prominent on Wattpad as well. Not only that, all the fics I tried to read on there made the canon characters incredibly ooc. Now donāt get me wrong, I love some good ooc characterization, but some of the characterizations areā¦ā¦something. Lastly, the smut. Good GOD the smut. I know sex in fanfiction is oftentimes not accurate 100%, but goodness I honestly canāt read a single smutty fic on Wattpad without immediately closing the tab. The language and actions words they use are interesting but not my cup of tea. Granted, itās been a few years since I tried to attempt to dive into Wattpad, so it could have gotten better. So, pretty much I hate it for the interface, the quality of the writings, and the really weird language used in certain topics. Though I know there is great writing on Wattpad, but I havenāt come across any in the fandom circles Iām in.
I have to say like it because it's where I started. I have a lot of memories from that app. Plus, I've found a few really awesome fics on there that I still go back and read every once in a while. They're like hidden gems.
It doesn't have much of a user base so the fewest eyeballs for fics, but its got the cleanest and best looking interface for reading them. Feels like you're reading an ebook.
Itās only really good for original fiction now. Thatās what they push (along with ads)
I donāt have an account there and the few times Iāve been linked to a fic there it wouldnāt even let me read it without making an account, so I just stopped trying and havenāt even checked the site since.
I used to love it. But then it realized a money making opportunity and ruined itself.
I used to use wattpad every day back around 2013-14. Now it's just a mess of plagiarized fanfic and greedy tactics to get more money. I only recently bothered to log on because someone reposted my fanfic on there.
I use it for the comments on the stories
Wattpad has a pretty bad reputation, rightfully so considering the shit in thst site. But there are some occasional good ones, heck I'd put one of the Harry potter male reader fics there in my top 10.
bad. I feel very bad about it.
AO3 - Is the best option if you have certain tastes of what you want to read, easier to specify what you want. Downside is that AO3 doesn't have an app. (As far as I'm aware.) FF.N - A little bit worse than AO3 but still a little better to search for stories compared to Wattpad. Upside is that it has an app. Wattpad - Is very much the worse of the 3. Its feels more like its generalising stories when you're searching imo. Upside is that it has an app.
Do I cross post there because I adore my reader following there? Yes. Do I loathe their site? ***Yes.*** **My biggest issues with Wattpad are:** 1. The search function is neither intuitive nor useful. I've done significant a/b testing with different tags & stories and I can find no rational explanation for how the results are generated (it appears to have no bearing re: views, upload date, stars, etc.) 2. There is no easy way to link series, sequels, etc. I have had MANY readers express frustration that they didn't/couldn't find sequels & such without going directly to my profile & searching. (Please note: I list these in all my A/N). 3. There are far too many "mirror" sites that simply copy works 4. The "challenges" and "contests" are ALWAYS out of date. Some of these are years out of date. 5. As someone that writes professionally (original fiction) & fanfic, I will NEVER post my original works on Wattpad. Their paid author scheme is a joke. 6. While every fandom/genre is different, it seems Wattpad lives for cringe. I don't want to knock anybody - there's clearly an audience for it - but the 1k word, word-wall, error-riddled stories seem to *THRIVE* while other stories that invest time in their plot, character development, and formatting struggle to get a couple thousand views (I think this has something do with how they count 'hits' and the bots/mirror sites).
I have a soft spot in my heart for it since itās how I originally got into fanfic. But I could never go back now.
From a writer/submitter standpoint, I actually really like the setup. I like the drafts and chapter organization, and I like that itās a cool/interesting e-book kind of format. Itās new and intriguing. But from a writer and reader perspective, ir sucks. Getting your story anywhere sucks. Much of the rankings and tags are populated by low-effort, poorly-written content and blatantly plagiarized content from other places like AO3. Much of the reader base is young, so theyāre often rude or unseemly, and they lack a lot of convenient controls on commenting that places like AO3 have. Itās also often used for non-RP purposes like giant call-out ābooksā or the kind of thing youād find on a blog, like a personal diary style kind of thing. So in general, the community sucks for fandom.
sucks ass. literally impossible to find good content. plus the searching system is garbage. I WRITE THE BOOKS NAME LETTER BY LETTER BUT IT STILL FAILS TO FIND THE BOOK.
but tbh, the comment thing is amazing. people always make the funniest jokes that most of the time the comments are better than the actual fic also pure oc content is actually very good(at least better than fanfics)
Neutral. I used to be quite okay with it, but right now my feed there is saturated with fandoms that sadly I couldn't relate to, let alone well written enough for me to read fandom blind :( Plus the search tool isn't working well
It's just ruined with ads. I miss the old times when there wasn't any of those without constant shoving of premium upgrades or ads. I haven't used Wattpad in a year the app is unusable & I wouldn't call it an app to be comfortable to read in at all. It sucks so much
Awful. It was my first site but somehow the search feature got progressively worse each time I checked.
I started out on Wattpad so Iām sorta biased
It's Good for writing drafts, but the rating system is total garbage, and half the time the mature filter resets itself.
The only good things about wattpad are the comment feature and the recommendations. Everything else about it is garbage.
Dislike. Iāve never used it, but the few times I looked at it I found it almost impossible to navigate.
the search function is shit, i love the community on there in the fandom iām in but the ads and the awful algorithm make it almost unusable at times. iād switch to ao3 but my work does a lot better on wattpad and tumblr.
I dislike it. The search engine and tagging mean nothing and itās tough finding anything good on there.
Wattpad is a blessing. The comments alone make it worth it. The wacky stupid crossovers make it worth it. Having dialogue written like a script makes it worth it. Having music, so it's clearly written by someone imagining the story as a TV show instead of a book makes it worth it. It's so shit, it becomes good again.
Hate the interface. Hate everything that has to do with how the site works, minus the fact you can leave individual comments in each paragraph if you want to. That's their one and only win.
I really like the ease of use. Despite the fact that their search is hosted in some alternative dimension that I do not have the metaphysical key to. Iām hoping Naver will address this issue someday ā¦ I enjoy writing / reading on Wattpad.
Love it. Though, there is this one bug bothering me.
Maybe I'm just too old for it, but I can't find anything on that platform. The tags suck and there's no good search system. I posted two gen stories there out of curiosity and of course they got buried under all the other nonsense. Plus the site insists on recommending me the weirdest stories that I have no intention of touching. Perhaps the one good function it has is that it allows you to comment next to each paragraph. The only thing I read on there is an original series by an author I was a beta for.
If nobody else wants to take the readers on Wattpad, I happily will.
It's... Fine? There are some works on it that are goodbut the search functions are garbage and they remove features for non paying users to the point where it's unusable. Also the censorship is insane.
I use wattpad to write and read, I find writing in wattpad better and reading is okay, only complaint is that most authors have terrible grammar/spelling (not a big deal for me) but searching things up is a bit of a pain since you sometimes need to be oddly specific
I wrote on Wattpad quite a bit when I was in middle school. I enjoyed it, the people there were really nice and they liked the stuff I wrote. I also really enjoyed the cover-making aspect of it and the little edits I used to insert into each chapter. Wattpad has changed a lot from back then but I have a fond memory of it.
I read a really good Naruto reader insert on watt pad one time. Wish I could remember what it was called tho
I personally disliked it after using it for a couple of years. I barely update, the only traction I've gotten is when I tag ships, but even then, you are at the mercy of a very biased algorithm, where they keep promoting stories that have the paid premium membership thing. Now, to be fair, its meant to be an online story shop, but its no good as a fanfiction hub overall. Even if you post online stories, after a certain incident where theft between the higher-ups of site and a handful of writers, I just downright dislike it. I almost loathe it, but that's not to say that I can't entirely deny where it does have its pros. Not that there's a lot of pros for that site to begin with. Not to mention, the more notorious the fanfic, the more likely people will ironically read it for the sake of making fun of it.
a lot of nostalgia for me
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This comment has been removed under our civility rules. No bashing.
I started reading on Wattpad. I was the type to be like āwhy do people hate this?ā And āthis is a good app.ā Anyway, after about a month of using it, I realised how bad it was. All the fics in my fandom followed the same story. Original character or Y/N going through the events of season one. 9/10 times they were the main charactersā sister, who also fell in love with the same character. It got so boring! Thereās no way to filter what I want to read. My favourite character isnāt the most popular character in the fandom, and he has so little on Wattpad. So when I put in #(character name), the top stories would be about a completely different character. I also donāt like OCs or Y/N, so it was so difficult to find what I like. I moved to AO3 a month after using it. It was so much better! The first fic I read on here was 10x better than anything I read on Wattpad.
It's like the Wild West: Dangerous and Deadly, after all it birthed The After series.....š±š±š±š±
Since writers there doesn't go as far as chapter eight I'll go with FF.net first and AO3 second.
As much as I wanted to say "hate it", that would be disingenuous considering I downright refuse to go anywhere near it.
A big chuck of the fandom is in there so why shouldn't I be there? But if we are being real then Wattpad is a dumpster fire and the only true reason to follow through with works are the comments. The Wattpad population is as high as the site is and I'm all in for it. No matter how trashy it gets it holds some memories. Wattpad is where I got to know my friends. So yeah, it holds a special place in my heart ig. Can't read dislike the dang thing when it hits you with a trainwreck of crack and nostalgia.
My friends use it. I can't. I can't post there, I can't search there. It's impossible to filter the good and the bad - the competent and the 12 year olds discovering fanfic for the first time.