#Wattpad Purge

[not-mary-sue]

Alright, to ao3's soon to be arriving Wattpad Refugees, a basic guide to general user culture:

1.) Unlike Wattpads vote system that let's you like each chapter, the ao3 equivalent kudos only allows one per work. Everyone is generally quietly annoyed about this. To engage with each chapter, you're heavily encouraged to comment. Trust me, it makes people's day.

2.) Ao3 has no algorithm. By default it's latest updated work first. You can find things to your taste through searches, filters and tags.

3.) 'No archive warnings apply' and 'user has chosen not to use archive warnings' mean two very different things. No archives warnings means the work is free from any content that could require a warning tag (character death, graphic depictions of violence, non-con, etc). User has chosen not to use archive warnings means it could contain any of the warning content, be it hasn't been explicitly tagged. Treat it like an allergen. No archive warnings apply is allergen free. User has chosen not to use archive warnings, may contain traces or whole chunks of the allergen. If you're likely to have a bad reaction, maybe don't take the risk.

4.) Speaking of warnings, ao3 has very few restrictions on the type of work that's allowed. Whatever your personal thoughts or feelings on that are, thats how the site is. You're likely to run across some dark subject matters and a lot of people are uncomfortable with reading that. You're well within your rights not like these works and have your opinion on whether they should be allowed, but harassing the authors of such works (or any works) is more likely to come back on you than them. Ao3 operates on a strong policy of 'don't like, don't read'. Use the tagging system to your full advantage to only engage with the kind of works you want to see.

We look forward to welcoming you all and seeing the fantastic works you create. Happy writing!

[taikeero-lecoredier]

If you migrate from Wattpad to Ao3....

I'm fucking begging you to actually tag your works properly AND DO NOT CENSOR WHAT YOU WRITE OR TAG !!! Terms like "unalive" "sewer slide" and other censored terms are NOT welcome here, and you wont be punished by the algorithm for talking about death and blood and stuff BECAUSE THERES IS NO ALGORITHM ! Also making place holders IS NOT ALLOWED BY AO3 TOS. It just clogs up the archive for nothing, if you do this, thats a sure way to get your stuff reported. Please learn how Ao3 works, its nothing like Wattpad.

[auntie-venom]

Just saw Wattpad is starting their very own purge. As a fandom elder who lived through the MANY purges and fansite deletions of the aughts prior to Ao3’s existence, I give everyone my deepest sympathies.

Good luck creators.

I highly recommend migrating to Ao3. There is a learning curve but it is ultimately superior IMO.

[touchoffleece]

Why Ao3 is the way works and runs is so important to fandom

We got ourselves a new fanfiction purge in fanfiction website going on. Wattpad (which unlike Ao3) makes it's money via selling fanfiction via Ads and thus have to work (and to an extent were already working under before this) under Capitalism ideals of what is "profitable" and "unproblematic" introduced an AI flagging system and has flagged, shadow banned, and deleted some works over there the last few days. In other words increased moderation tools has caused a purge on fanfictions over on Wattpad due to being labeled "problematic". Masterpost on the summary of things from the r/Wattpad subreddit

If there's anything people take away from this is 1.) This is why and Ao3 was made. To preserve fanfictions no matter if they are labeled "problematic". 2.) Ao3 Donation Drives aren't the evil certain people make them out to be and help sites run free from a worry of money and censorship letting writers and readers focus on the art of writing. 3.) AI tools as they are now are too unrefined to use en masse, and come off more as lazy and cutting corners for corporations, business owners, and individuals who want to save money.

[disaster-goose]

Me, an ancient millenial watching another fanficition purge:

[azeutreciathewicked]

Heads up! Wattpad Purge is happening now - check the megathread on reddit for information.

From the post, a quick summary:

What's Happening?

The past week or so, there have been reports of user's stories getting shadow-banned (delisted from rankings) and sometimes even removed. This is due to Wattpad's recent deployment of an AI-powered tool used by their support team. (Source) The tool is designed to aid Wattpad in flagging guideline-breaking content with manual reviews of the stories flagged. When a story gets flagged, it is "shadow-banned" (i.e. removed from rankings and searches) until it's been reviewed by staff.

If your story has been removed, you can contact Wattpad Support to appeal the decision.

Also important: Wattpad's "age of consent" rule has been updated. Previously, it followed the Canadian federal law of sixteen (16) years or older. On April 15th, 2024, the guidelines will be updated to reflect the new age of consent requirements of 18+.

That means for content including sexual acts between characters, both characters must be eighteen (18) or older. More tame acts (i.e. kissing, holding hands) between underage (16+ years old) characters is still fine and sex can be alluded to, but may not be described. Please review the News and Updates channel for the full text.

Also, LGBTQ+ content may be getting disproportionately targeted. (surprise, surprise) I do not publish on Wattpad nor have any connection to the platform. But I support free speech and creative works. I am also someone who was there during the Livejournal Strikethrough of '07 and know what happens in these purges. Now there is AI, which is notoriously bad at accuracy, as well as new puritans across the political spectrum who don't distinguish between art and advocacy.

[tozettastone]

I've heard there's a wattpad exodus going on right now due to a NSFW crackdown?

In the unlikely event that any of those poor wattpad users follow me: most longer-term AO3 users will have a few invitations they can give you so you can skip the sign up queue! But you must promise to tag what's actually in your fics and never post placeholders. 😔

[biscuitdragonwithastick]

Oh dear, there’s been a Wattpad purge of explicit content. Just like with ffnet and livejournal, peoples works have been deleted and there will probably be an influx of wattpad refugees coming onto Ao3.

o7

[onetruechromosome]

I hope Wattpad deletes the stories I wrote when I was 15 and can’t get rid of because I lost access to my account and their paranoid customer service won’t believe it’s me.

UK government phone lines have less strict security than this site.

[psychic-refugee]

Congrats to AO3!

I know it's a time honored tradition for antis to virtue signal their distaste for AO3 and bitch about the drive, but hopefully with the Wattpad purge they get a clue that minimal censorship is better than full censorship.

I know most antis don't have experience with critical thinking, otherwise they wouldn't be antis, but let this be a wake up call that the censors in power rarely have the exact same values as you.

I promise you, the leopards will eat your face.

Otherwise they should bask in the purged wasteland of Wattpad because it's what they asked for.

[imgae-insertshockedgasps-16]

hey wattpad refugees please please i'm begging you to properly tag your works

there's no algorithm on ao3

you won't get punished for tagging "problematic" things

you will be generally disliked for purposely mistagging, not tagging, or tagging with placeholders

[ally0ally]

For all the Wattpad Refugees that'll be coming to ao3, if you're woried about your internet conection or if you just don't wanna pres the next chapter button, when you open a fic there are all these buttons up top.The ones that say like 'bookmark' or 'mark for later'. There's this button that says 'entire work'. Click that and you'll have the entire work in front of you with one click. You won't have to do anything for another chapter to show up. It'll be just there.

And if you'll like it you can mark it in the preferences so that every work will show up as a whole.

That's the button:

Have fun.

[somefanficrecomendations]

Wattpad Purge?

As some of you might be aware, Wattpad is currently undergoing a purge. TLDR; there's an AI bot that flags content for review, people's stories are being shadow-banned or deleted. Moving to ao3 is highly encouraged.

If you want more information I highly recommend the Mega-thread on Reddit. Here's an accompanying thread on transitioning to ao3 for new users, and an excellent tumblr post on the same topic.

[stalpra-and-100-fandoms]

Should i cross-post my shitty teenage cringe black butler fics from wattpad to here? Just in case?

no pressure opinions: @akhlys-san, @tare-chan, @gray-faery, @literallynpbody, @just-a-queer-fanboy, @azulasragdoll, @darlingchronicles

[gareteddybear]

Apparently, I heard about the Wattpad purge. I know I'm late. No wonder the search function (this is usually while being logged in) is extremely bad and some of the categories are missing.

[ribbononline]

long time no meme post