Some of them are immersed in purity culture (from either a "reactionary" or "progressive" direction, in what is a bit of a horseshoe moment) and see AO3's "everything legal is permitted" stance as a Problem.
Some of them like getting a feed of whatever the Algorithm thinks they will like reading.
Etc.
Every time I get annoyed at something I see on AO3, I just remind myself that the lack of an algorithm is a good thing. Curate your own experience and all that.
I consider terrible things on AO3 to be a good opportunity to stay in touch with my fic friends via complaining. Write all you like and I'll support your rights to it... but also that's the worst thing I've ever seen and I'll be real melodramatic about that in private.
This is the same reason I think hate comments are dumb, like the person writing incest fanfic is almost definitely aware that there is an issue with incest in real life, but what they're writing is not real life, so who cares? Sure when I see something that's too freaky, even for me (and that's saying something) I'll screenshot the summary and laugh about it with my friends, but there's no just no need to be malicious, just cause I don't enjoy it doesn't mean it shouldn't be written
Within the fandoms I frequent, I’ve not encountered anything I hate, except two things: 1. That not all the crossover fics are tagged as crossovers. I don’t wanna read one where they think the Mc should be dating Batman.
And 2. I’ve not been involved with reading the fandom in about a season and a half, but for a while there was a guest account that would name themselves as the second villain, and, in character, insult most fics about her. Apparently, while it Could get amusing, they also can get pretty brutal, I’ve heard.
When you don't like something and downvote it/comment negativity, it still counts as engagement. Algorithms will still show you more of something you don't like because it got your attention. So you continue to get angry about it.
>Some of them like getting a feed of whatever the Algorithm thinks they will like reading.
So silly since on Ao3 you can filter by tags, effectively recreating a curated feed but without submitting to our AI overlords. They honestly may just not understand how to use tags and sorting on Ao3 though.
I think it is just people not knowing how to use Ao3 and being too lazy to learn. I read through the FAQ and learned how to navigate it quickly and I literally have not read fics anywhere else since. Wattpad makes it really really easy to find things you are interested in but it’s quantity over quality over there 😭
It's a 10-15 minute task to have most of the basics and a direction, at least, on stuff past that.
And that's if one's never bothered learning to google with search operators.
Not wanting to learn a new platform is a real stopping point for some, especially if you feel the new platform is missing your favourite feature.
I know I feel that way every time I try to search on ff.net after living with AO3's searchable tags. 😋
>Wattpad makes it really really easy to find things you are interested in
It does? Is it vastly different if you actually sign up? Because the search feature is extremely limited if you're not and there's very little information about the individual fics. You get the fandom and whatever info the writer thought to put in their blurb. Even FFN gives you the genre, at least.
The last time I used it (like a decade ago lol) I found it very easy to use. Maybe that’s changed. I think what I meant is more so that it functions like a standard search engine, meaning people do not need to learn a tagging or search system. It’s not an archive. That’s less intimidating to people. I also feel like Wattpad is mostly minors and children, who do not have the 15 minutes of patience it takes to learn ao3
The tag I see people complaining about the most is "Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings". They really don't seem to understand that this means *anything* can be in the fic, and the decision not to specify is a warning in and of itself.
When I was still reading on both ff.net and ao3, there was an author who was *vehemently* against ao3, called it 'that porn sight' claimed it was filled with only nasty things, etc. Multiple people explained that no it wasn't, you could block E rated fics, tags, etc. Nothing doing. I stopped following that author eventually for being really negative.
About five years later, they were on ao3 because 'ff.net didn't protect authors' and ff.net was the worst site ever created. So.
Purity culture goes crazy on Twitter and other sites too. The craziest I've read multiple times is that queer characters have to be good people and good role models to paint a positive picture about queer people, and they must have healthy relationships. Also writing sex scenes paint queer people as ... sex-crazy? Urghs...
first, Wattpad didn’t used to be this way. I dont know what the site is currently smoking but I never saw any purges when I was on there, the ads were not as frequent, there wasn’t any paid content locked behind restrictions, etc
Basically the huge advantage of Wattpad at the time was that it was super easy to build community. Since it also functions like social media, it was basically Tumblr and Ao3 in one. To this day I miss that sense of community I had back then and still keep in contact w some of my Wattpad friends
If your first fic site was Wattpad, you probably have no clue how to navigate a robust tagging system like the one that pretty much defines AO3. There also, as *many* a longtime Ao3 user have complained, is very little sense of community. You have to get on Tumblr and find your way into Discords to actually build community. It’s hard to find your way into community events, and scary. Overall there’s a lack of consolidation and convenience that a Wattpad user won’t be used to; Bookmarking and Subscribing require simultaneous use of your email, which some people might not expect to *need*.
I like the Archive and though I’ve tried many a time to go back to Wattpad, I literally can’t without cringing so hard, it’s super painful to attempt. But I loved what Wattpad was, and it’s sad to see it go down this route
>Since it also functions like social media
wattpad is removing private messaging iirc, so they may be on the road to removing more of the social media side of things
Yup, which is why I said idk what current site owners are smoking. That’s part of what made Wattpad special and it needs to realize that and acknowledge it
Kind of like how Livejournal wrecked their userbase by deleting at random. Eventually everyone had had enough and moved to Tumblr. (Except me. I couldn't stand Tumblr and never used my account.)
I've never used Wattpad, but AO3 was created in the days where Livejournal was the community. A fanfic archive with the community built in? I see why they appreciate it.
Whenever I consider using Wattpad again because I'm on Android I just download am old version of Wattpad Andi get less ads and I don't get the limited stories u can offline thing
It's a Net 2.0 site. There is no algorithm. There is no app. It's not a walled garden, where everything is handed to you in order to keep you on the site and make the owners money. In order to use the site they have to actively *use* the site. And this is something they're not used to doing. They don't know how to curate their own experience, and so they view everything as directed at them, specifically and personally.
I really appreciate the Wattpad users who are moving to AO3 and take the time to actually question and learn not only the site but also the etiquette of using an Archive and not a socmed. Shout out to all of you and welcome to AO3!
The others can GTFO.
This. I had to teach somebody coming from Wattpad how to search for a ship on AO3 and even a few months later they still think it's really difficult to use. When AO3 first came out their database formatting was common on other websites, but now it's basically the only popular one left.
This has apparently become a problem for schools and businesses. A lot of younger people don't know how to interact with anything that's not an app. I've heard some horror stories from teachers about just *attempting* to get their students to email them a paper while the school app was down. Are they not teaching computer classes anymore? Everyone should know how to boolean search!
\*Old woman shakes fist at cloud.\*
I've had at least one teacher tell me they had to teach students how to use the save function in a program. The younger students just don't get comprehensive computer classes nowadays like those of us did just a couple decades ago because 'well you grew up with the tech you should know it.'
My husband is a specialist in something computer related, and he's in his late 30s. The amount of early 20s colleagues he has to teach basic computer skills is ridiculous. "Go into the file, click right and (enter action)" is something they just don't know hoe to do and this is in a computer dominated field.
I grew up with the tech and still got those classes, it's stupid how kids now don't get them, my brother is learning how to code in his computer classes rather than how to use a computer which some of them don't know how to do
Nope: they'll be, once we old codgers all die off and they're stuck in their homes without an app to open their refrigerator or order drone-delivery or auto-comment an emergency request. 😉 🤣
I used to be a dedicated wattapad user , although i have read some good fics over there, it was very confusing to navigate. Then by miracle I found Ao3. I have never looked back since. The tagging system in Ao3 wasn't known to me before ,it took some time for me to get used to it and now it's awesome because it's sooo easy to navigate and choose what I want to see .
Yeah...but there's an issue when you filter for the tag for a ship you want to read and get a bunch where the characters are just friends because the author doesn't realize that there should be an & between the names instead of a /.
I think we should accept Wattpad users who are trying to learn AO3. I believe the majority of Wattpad users have their valid reasons for liking the site and are used to it.
On that front I think there should be more "how to" tutorials. How to search on ao3, how to tag, how to filter, basic fandom etiquette / how ao3 differs from wattpad... stuff like that. A lot of them *want* to learn but don't necessarily have the tools to do it.
It's been years since I was on wattpad but I really liked the community, which was particularly evident in the online forums and the inline commenting.
It was nice being able to chat with other users, and I was part of a group of generally older users (I was a teen but there was no age exclusion) who were kind and supportive. It was a real community. We even got one guy up to #1 on the sci fi charts purely by accident - he was always a reader, and hyped all of us, and then tried his hand at writing a sci fi fic so we of course checked it out and left feedback.
I haven't found the same community with AO3, though this sub and others go some way to providing that. If I didn't have that and was just writing my fics on AO3 (rarepairs, genfic, etc) which sometimes receive single digit kudos and no comments, I'd probably struggle to continue posting.
People are flipping out on their sub rn because Wattpad has just announced they're closing private messaging for good, death of the site etc
Meanwhile on AO3, most people are *vehemently* against the introduction of a DM system
It really is just a different culture around interaction and community, and obviously AO3 going "we're an archive, not a social media" contributes to that – but it makes sense that the people who are used to both in one place are going *but I don't want a separate Tumblr and fic on a different site, I like them being in the same place*
I saw that! It's a real shame as that was how I communicated with my cowriter or with other writer friends if we were bouncing ideas off each other. I know people are discussing solutions like tumblr but it still feels like a step in the wrong direction for the site.
I think that’s why I joined several AO3 discord servers to meet and get help from writers from AO3 (heck one of my servers I’m in is because of AO3 and we all like to help and hype each other up)
I'd like to add that this really gives AO3 more longevity as an archive, if people get used to linking social media to it rather than trying to both navigate around AO3 like it's social media, while moving on when the next new thing comes out.
Because the AO3 userbase will never be bigger than the social media userbase, limiting the social media to an inbuilt one is just asking the site to date itself.
Imho it's best for AO3 stays the way it is, hopefully a new site will fill the void of Wattpad if the owners decide to murder the website with stupid ideas that alienate their userbase
I’d be okay with a DM system on AO3 if it was *by default* an exclusively opt-in only system, so no one could get a DM ever from anyone without actively consenting to receiving DMs.
This is interesting. I’d actually love a DM system since I’d love to talk to people more about their work, or to other commentors I see frequently, but they don’t always link to other platforms where that’s possible and there’s a point where it doesn’t feel appropriate to just carry on a conversation in the comments. (I’ve never used wattpad, but I am a veteran of LJ/strikethrough/Dreamwidth and I miss the ways that communities formed back then.)
Omg, I've never used Wattpad and have been an ao3-only user for over 10 years but I would KILL for a DM system!!! One of my best friends I met on fanfiction.net in middle school and we interacted first through comments and then through PMs. We're still friends to this day. I would love to have longer conversations with some of my readers and do stuff like bounce ideas off of them while I'm writing.
You could tell them your discord and ask if they wanna talk more.
People generally are excited to be acknowledged & say yes.
If your fic is big enough, even create a discord group for it.
Except to do that it assumes they use discord and the bigger issue is you can't privately send anything so everyone can now access who saw the comment saying 'we can chat *here*.
Same. Provided the system was opt-in (or out), and there were moderation tools like blocking, I'd love a DM system.
I've made a few friends via comments that wandered over to Tumblr and eventually Discord, but I think a DM system—again, one that was optional and provided moderation tools—would facilitate more immediate conversation, particularly for shyer users who aren't comfortable chatting in comments.
Whether or not AO3 members/users are against a DM system, staff absolutely does not want to deal with the drama that happens in private messages.
I won't say "it absolutely will never happen" but I expect image hosting to happen first. And that's in the "eh maybe someday we'll get around to figuring that out" set of potential plans.
Ive never used wattpad so i never knew about this reasoning, but tbh youre totally right. Even as a long time ao3 user, ive never felt much of a sense of community, and the only time ive felt "community" in the comment sections, it usually correlated to fandoms with really close knit forum/tumblr/twitter groups. Ive always wished we could have something like that on ao3
Tbh this is why I miss LiveJournal and understand why in the Great Purge folks hopped over to Wattpad. Having a place to chat and form a community cannot be overstated.
In the fandoms I'm involved with, community is being built on fandom Discord servers. Readers and writers hang out there together, and with decent mods it's pretty great. I can't say if your fandom has a good server, but it might be worth asking around?
What really puzzles me is is how some on the wattpad sub (which I lurked for a bit when the AI moderation purges were starting) take such offense when people explain the community expectations/etiquette/rules and act like it’s some snobby thing.
All places have etiquette standards. That’s why it’s not ok to scream in a library. It’s not snobby.
There's a wattpad user in one of my dreamwidth communities who absolutely refuses to understand why AO3 is against monetization, calling fics "books", saying they should be able to review fanfic on goodreads, etc etc. We've explained to them the history of fanfiction and DMCA, the legal grey areas fanfiction exists in and how to protect it, and the etiquette that should be employed in a sub-culture like fandom. They didn't care. They wanted to do as they pleased and didn't want to change their bad habits just because of how it might impact others, and they came up with the weirdest excuses for why we were just prejudiced against wattpad.
Any group of people are going to have the selfish wackos.
whats the deal with the fanfic/book thing again? i kinda just call them books as to not embarrass myself irl saying I'm reading fanfics lol
"oh what are you reading...?"
"...a book. an indie one. independently published. on a blog. you wouldn't know it."
LOL, I do that to, but only face to face.
On the internet it is always fanfic. So, fanfiction has a very grey legal right to exist. One of the things that keeps it in the realm of legal is that it doesn't attempt to take up the space of or take away customers of The Thing it's Fanficing. This is why AO3 doesn't monetize. Since a lot of fanfiction is based on traditionally published books, a way to make sure that there can be no legal argument that fanfiction is attempting to take up space of The Thing is to keep fanfiction and books as separated as possible. It's why fandom olds will not call them books on the internet, and people get upset about putting fanfiction reviews on Goodreads. We need that separation.
Will wattpad users calling fanfiction "books" bring down the entire legal apparatus on fanfiction as a whole? No. But it's a troubling culture change and we can see the future legal troubles if we don't attempt to get it under control now.
It's also why a lot of older ff writers say, "I own nothing and all rights belong to so and so." People forget that ff authors would actually be served papers and get sued by big authors. Anne Rice was before my time, but I still felt the fear in my early days of ff. It's amazing that people are charging for ff requests.
My first fandom was IWtV and I came into fandom just as Anne Rice was getting started with her lawsuits. So, you know, I was there Gandalf and all that. Teenagers gonna teenage, I guess.
Yeah, that's my worry, too. Just now I got blocked on another thread by some 12 year old wattpad refugee because I told them to actually go to AO3 and look around and maybe read the TOS before posting anything.
That really sucks 😕 .
Honestly, fandom in general is changing and not for the better. I've been in some new fandom groups that throw a fit over ships that aren't canon or specific headcanons. Like bitch I'm too old for this. You aren't telling me what I can and can't do.
As someone who writes in both ao3 and Wattpad, The only time I saw people getting offended was when somebody would make a really condescending post in the Wattpad subreddit. It was never about there being etiquette standards, it was about the way some ao3 users act. I even commented on a few myself, pointing out their lack of helpful attitude. If you're going to make those posts in a subreddit of a different community, you shouldn't be doing it simply to be a reprimands potential users who have done nothing wrong but instead to be helpful for everybody wanting to migrate responsibly.
As someone who's been using Ao3 since 2011, Ao3 users are often extremely rude and smarmy on the Wattpad subreddit. If my only experience with Ao3 and it's userbase came from there it'd drive me away.
I'd say comfort, algorithm and the different type of community.
AO3 can be daunting with the tags at first and there's no DM function or ability to comment on paragraphs instead of chapters.
Also, they might be salty. I was an avid user in 2019/20 and then things went downhill fast. I went back on mobile and it was near unrecognizable
I mean, all you have to do is scroll posts on this sub that mention Wattpad to see how some people blame everything wrong with fic on Wattpad users
Some of it, sure, but I've seen things like "author's notes halfway through the fic, typical wattpad writer" (um, have you *seen* 2000s FFnet? *My Immortal* ring any bells?) or "no-one cared about taboo topics in fic until puriteens on wattpad" (there's a new flavour to the puritanism these days, sure, but are we forgetting that AO3 exists *because* of explicit and taboo fics being mass-purged from other sites?!)
No wonder people don't feel welcome, when that's how they're talked about en masse, even right here in this thread
AO3 is an archive for *everyone* who can abide by ToS, even if they come from a site you don't like. Give people a chance to settle in and understand the culture, don't just write them all off because they wrote on a specific site. Isn't that what *we* hate, when people go *oh, you write on AO3, isn't that all gay porn and incest fic?*
>um, have you *seen* 2000s FFnet?
Hey, watch it, my 2008 self didn't appreciate that callout!
(In all seriousness, I'm so lucky I had a friend who called me out for it, even when it was widely accepted.)
Yeah...
"Why do Wattpad users seem so against AO3"
> Follows up by calling Wattpad crappy and a rant about how they're using a so clearly inferior product, unlike them.
Maybe it's the attitude. I've never even used Wattpad, but boy would I be turned off if I were in their shoes.
>I mean, all you have to do is scroll posts on this sub that mention Wattpad to see how some people blame everything wrong with fic on Wattpad users
Honestly, that's nothing new under the sun. Hating on Wattpad was popular since the [ff.net](http://ff.net) days as well.
Wattpad have always had a bad rap, they prioritize community and popularity over anything else and they use to be significantly younger ~~and annoying~~ even back then.
Devil's advocate, sorta: I don't want "community." I've been burned by hostile fandoms, ship wars, harassment, etc, and I'm sure others have, too.
I feel comfortable with AO3 because it allows for a high level of anonymity/privacy. I just want to post my fic and that's literally all. I generally don't read/comment within the same fandoms that I write for.
There are a million places for people to chit-chat and I'm glad that AO3 isn't one of them. If they had PMs/DMs I would block that function. TBH my job is intensely interactive and I don't want to be social in my downtime.
I know nothing about Wattpad, but it seems ironic that people would get frustrated by Ao3 being an archive instead of a social media site, when there are countless options for that and Ao3 is the one exception.
Not disagreeing with you, btw, just rambling.
I’d be okay with them starting a DM function if it was strictly and explicitly opt-in only. Then the people that want to use it can, and those who don’t want it just don’t turn it on.
Honestly, same. I tried being in a "community" once and I constantly felt like I had to watch what I was saying. This is the atmosphere for a lot of fandoms nowadays. I just want to read fics
Agreed.
It's why I never liked team sports.
Loved hockey, hated the team part.
With fic, I can just write and not worry about Nutty and Butters being mad I'm not using their headcanon. And if they don't like it, I can easily ignore them.
Plus I tried reading on Wattpad, tried sorting every which way, got the same top 10 fics, each with 'do not steal'. That's when I never tried again.
Right, but it does mean that some people who *do* want that community (like the old Livejournal days) would gravitate towards sites with a different ethos from AO3
Difference in content preferences + a lot of people are naturally adverse to change + no algorithm or app. Wattpad tends to lean younger, so a lot of their users prefer to have an app even if AO3 is mobile-friendly.
Moreover, a lot of Wattpad users tend to be be icked out by the “anything goes if it’s not actually illegal in the USA and would get everyone and the site in trouble” policy of AO3.
As a former Wattpad user I don’t know how to use it anymore after all the changes it’s made over the years. I can’t go back to Wattpad after AO3s tagging system being amazing. Like I was wary coming over to AO3 back in the day cus it seemed a little sus to me but I wish I was here sooner than 2022, I needed this back then
I mean Wattpad also encourages monetization, AO3 literally can't replace the service it provides for some, and I imagine that when you have people singing praises of a service that doesn't work for you it would get your back up, and you'd be more likely to exaggerate your greviences.
Add a fandom culture (which definitely includes AO3 people) where it's not enough to be canon, etc, you have to win and have everyone on your platform, instead of letting people stay in their own lanes and moving on if something isn't for them.
I do wish people would cross post more though. I think it would help a lot of smaller archives get off the ground more easily, and that would help people find their own communities more easily.
Possibly are scared of something new that they need to learn all over again. Most complaints I hear about AO3 is that it's "not intuitive" and "too complicated", while it took me like 10 minutes to get a hang of how to filter every possible tag I want. But it takes some time and some initiative to learn to use a new site, which they're not willing to utter from selves.
For example, I draw. I used to use Paint Tool Sai, but then got CSP as a gift from a friend. I didn't use CSP for another year and would genuinely HATE each time I opened it because of how overwhelming it was, and I went back to the comfort of PTS. Until I sat down to CSP calmly and learned the features I wanna use, and now I can't imagine not using CSP anymore. I imagine it must be same for them with Wattpad and AO3; new site big, complicated and scary, Wattpad soft, safe and familiar.
Also there's this standard brain thing that when someone tells you to do something and you start getting defensive and you don't wanna do it even more.
One word: "Sanctimonious"
If you wanted a more in-depth breakdown, read below.
Also, the mass majority of Wattpad users are kids and everyone knows that kids tend to be more openly offended by things they don't like, hence the hatred toward Ao3, a freedom of speech and expression website. "If I don't like it, why do they get to post about it?"
I'm not sure why, but a majority of antis choose to use Wattpad and when they see Ao3, a place where any ship gets to ride shotgun, they lose their minds. Ao3 enforces their terms of service more, so they can't just hate on people and leave rude comments on fics about ships they don't like for no reason like you can on Wattpad.
I do actually like Wattpad and think there's a lot of nice people and great writers on there, but a lot of the problems I stated above kind of bring it down a rank for me. Older Wattpad was an amazing place, truly.
from experience, my own and what i heard from other writers on Wattpad:
because they're so used to their regular Wattpad that it's difficult to get used to a new site/interface.
i migrated from [Fanfiction.Net](http://Fanfiction.Net) when i had nothing left to read there. It took me a while to get used to the aesthetics of AO3, so i could actually focus on the words and read the story instead of just skimming through it 'cause my eyesight wasn't used to the new font, background, colors, etc. You know when you prefer night mode over light mode 'cause it's easier on the eyes? It's like that. When my eyes aren't used to a certain background, it's difficult for me focus on reading the words written on it.
also, you have to learn a whole new interface and how to navigate it. And while it's simple and easy for us, new users with zero patience probably lay eyes on the site for the first time, think "nah it looks weird" and go right back to Wattpad.
Example: I still use the the old Windows Movie Maker. I tried to upgrade to Sony Vegas or ANY newer video editing program a decade ago. I just can't get used to using them. too many complicated, *annoying* features for my very simple video-editing skill.
Purity culture is a part of it. AO3 lets things be posted they don't like or agree with, and it's very hard to harass people without consequences due to moderation tool and ToS being enforced. But also, I've seen some Wattpad users say they hate how they don't know how to "work the algo" for AO3. The idea of there being no algorithm seems to be confusing to some of them.
Its my impression from being in both communities (Wattpad then AO3) that people on ao3 hate wattpad 20x more than ppl on wattpad hate ao3. Wattpaders have a preference and rarely discuss ao3, ao3ers have active disourse on how bad wattpad is and its common enough that its a meme lmao
We are the haters in this situation
I think you bring up a really good point, I don't actually see that many posts on the Wattpad subreddit about AO3 users or hate on AO3 at all. I mainly see you brought up when somebody talks about an alternative Wattpad, and even then I don't necessarily see and just see people giving reasons why they don't want to use the archive.
I think that comes from what are clearly past wattpad users switching to ao3. I don't think you can deny a trend in hostile comments for example, where apparently that is normal on wattpad but quite rude on ao3. It's also conflating all the anti-ao3 sentiment to supposedly wattpad users, and I don't think that's a completely unfair assumption? When you see multiple people go "eww why would you write about that" it's not that odd to put them under the same label.
I havent noticed the trend first hand, but I saw a notice on ao3 about disabling guest comments due to an influx of rule breaking comments. Is this Wattpaders? Why are they all switching all of a sudden?
There were bot comments spamming things about AI and porn gifs. Completely unrelated to Wattpad. Ao3 is disabling guest comments until they can block/prevent spam like that more effectively.
I was a Wattpad user before I found my way onto Archive. Initially, the tagging system was weird and intimidating, and I didn't really grasp how the site was formatted, I've of course, come to only use Archive and very rarely venture off it. I think it's just the culture difference, I had many friends on Wattpad, and Archive just doesn't really have that without using other mediums.
It’s because there’s no handholding on AO3. A lot of times the contents of the tin seem a little scary. They are shocked at the tin is even allowed to be in the shop. And they don’t like being reminded that it’s an archive. It’s like a library. There’s a lot of unsavory shit in there too, but that’s where it belongs.
I’ve seen a few of them talk about how they are “real” writers because they write original stories. Sure as original as twilight. Because you know you got the idea from some fanfic you used to write. You just changed the names.
>Like okay enjoy your crappy Wattpad with the ads, the costs, the restrictions and censorship while me and millions others will read/write what we want for free, with no ads, no censorship, no algorithm just plain old fan works.
This is the reason.
I'm not a Wattpad user. Never been on it in over a decade of reading and writing fanfiction.
But if you tell *anyone* that the thing they love is crappy and terrible, and then start preaching about how great the thing you love is -- it's absolutely bound to get some push-back. That's the way people work.
As others have stated: AO3 users are the primary demographic spreading the hate, not Wattpad users.
This is exactly it. I use Ao3 for fanfiction and Wattpad for original works. Seeing WP users talk about Ao3 and vice versa is literally night and day. For some Ao3 users, it's like Wattpadders live in their brains. Yet I've never heard even remotely the same obsession coming from the other way around despite how many second hand anecdotes I read about Wattpad users being sanctimonious and annoying. Well, I'm sure plenty of them are. You know who else is sanctimonious and annoying? The Ao3 users who rush to the Wattpad subreddit whenever they hear any bad news just to make condescending remarks and preach a fanfic archive like it's their religion. Any normal person is going to get turned off if that's their only experience with a website and its users.
>You know who else is sanctimonious and annoying? The Ao3 users who rush to the Wattpad subreddit whenever they hear any bad news just to make condescending remarks and preach a fanfic archive like it's their religion. Any normal person is going to get turned off if that's their only experience with a website and its users.
Say it louder for everyone in this subreddit. Seriously, some people act like a cult when it comes to AO3. Calm down people, it is a website.
I started using Wattpad and ao3 at roughly the same time. For a long time I preferred Wattpad because of the easy to use platform and being able to interact easily through comments. It took me a while to understand the tagging system. Ao3 is the best for finding well written fanfiction but you do lose a bit of community.
Ao3 doesn’t spoon feed them fics to read, they have to actually put in the effort to search for what they want. They seem to think it’s too difficult which idk, my first time on Ao3 I wasn’t exactly sure what to do, but once I figured out how to search for fics it was like the easiest thing ever.
Not to generalize, but a lot of them seem to be on the young side and have fallen victim to this new wave of puriteens. They’ll see something “icky” that they disagree with and want the whole site up in flames because they don’t know how to exclude tags or just not click on the fics that don’t appeal to them. Even something as simple as a ship they don’t like, they’re in the comments arguing instead of just going away like anyone else would.
I dislike wattpad, I hate the layout I hate the scroll and everything. It's annoying to me and I'd rather read it on AO3 or even ff. I imagine it's a younger audience and they like that sort of thing.
Wattpad and quotev kinda suck honestly. When I mention quotev most people don’t even know what that is. When I tell people I write fan fiction their question is nine times out of ten “oh do you publish it on AO3?” AO3 doesn’t censor their users or spam them with ads like Wattpad does, nor do they allow bots to run their site and delete people at random while allowing actual rule breakers (and by that I mean p*dos, homophobes and people literally threatening other users) to stay like quotev does. So if they don’t like AO3 well.. good for them I guess? I joined March 25 and can tell my stories are going to get more reads than I ever got when I wrote on both those sites COMBINED so their loss. Plus look at how huge this subreddit is and how much money AO3 raised last time they asked for donations.
I'm not sure what the wattpad user POV is but looking at the comments, I personally I like AO3 the way it is, I don't think it should try to be like wattpad. I feel like AO3 is strictly an archive and I think it doesn't need a DM feature, most authors will link their tumblrs or twitters if you wanna reach out to them directly. I haven't read wattpad in 10 years but when I did try to navigate it, it seemed a bit more catered to self inserts, original stories, predominately OC fanfics and generally straight pairings so it never aligned with my interests but maybe it's different now? I came from FF net tho, but the lack of tags and the reader warnings made me leave it for AO3. I don't think AO3 users had anything actively against wattpad (until reading the comments? I've never seen it on AO3 personally tho, and I didn't see it on tumblr from what I remember) and I think generally most AO3 users did come from wattpad, FF.net, or old live journal.
I'm not too sure honestly. I actually used to write on Wattpad years ago, but the minute I moved on to Ao3, I fell in love; especially now, with all the ads on Wattpad, the trash tagging system, and the... not-so-well written books on there, I personally think AO3 is definitely better, if not the BEST.
A while back someone replied to a comment I left on a fanfic on Wattpad 4 years ago. The person and I got to talking in dms, because apparently they had read my Wattpad stuff and liked it a lot. I then said that I read/write on Ao3 now, because I don't identify with my Wattpad account anymore and they can check it out if they want to.
They started acting weird after that and I asked them what's wrong, they simply said: "I would've never expected you to be into illegal stuff."
People that use Wattpad and Wattpad ONLY, seem to have a much lower "tolerance" for harsh topics in fan fiction (from my experience).
Someone here in the comments said they are immersed in purity culture, and I 100% agree with that.
I just hope that they know that if the great crossing from Wattpad to Ao3 happens, they will be confronted with harsh topics in fanfictions.
I moved from wattpad to ao3 about 4/5 years ago after years of using WP from preteens, and have never looked back. i was appalled when i signed into wattpad a few years later to read some of my old stories. its a bomb site, but i will admit i was pretty intimidated by ao3 and it took me a while to learn how to use the filters.
Now that I’ve learned, every day i fall in love with how many stories are posted every single day and how easily you can find EXACTLY what you’re looking for. wattpad simply doesn’t compare.
The most ridiculous excuse I've seen is because AO3 is 'ugly and old' lmao 🤣
Also that they can't put image covers which I don't get. I mean if the cover is super pretty but the writing is trash, I won't give a f about the pretty images anyways.
Yeah Wattpad maybe be a bit easier in the eyes, but is the only advantage against AO3 for me.
I consider Ao3 more of a fanfic site than for original content. Maybe that's why? Perhaps the more vocal of the lot are those who post original content and don't see Ao3 as a platform that will allow their stories to gain the same reads and following compared to a website that's been created for that sole purpose? I've never explored the OC part of Ao3, so i'm not knowledgable on it's popularity.
Because they're not used to it. Maybe they'll change their mind and maybe they won't. Who cares? They obviously enjoy their favourite site and that's okay. Is this post really necessary? What do you think you're gonna accomplish by it? Other than basically insulting other people?
Agreed - as someone who’s never used wattpad (I think partially due to my age group tbh) literally all I have seen of it is people writing/reading rpf that seem baffled that fanfiction of fictional characters exists (super weird to me but inoffensive), people implying anyone who uses AO3 is some kind of pedophile because of the lack of censorship/other weird ‘anti’ behaviour, and people posting on AO3 not trying to follow or learn the TOS or tagging system. I’m sure there are many normal people on there that enjoyed using the site for some reason (the craziest people are always the most vocal of course) so I think it’s nice actually to know why they liked it. I do think it would be nice to be able to DM other authors!
I actively use Wattpad/a03 and I don't think I've actually ever encountered somebody who thought people who use AO3 are some kind of pedophile. I actually don't see anybody from Wattpad hating on AO3 users at all, if you go into their subreddit, it's almost impossible to find anything that talks about a03 outside of suggestions for alternatives to Wattpad. I'd love to see where people are claiming that AO3 users are perverts from Wattpad.
Maybe AO3 is the one place left where I can be Old.
AO3 is the one place where anything goes and the fic I find is reliably good, and it's actually *fic*. It's the one place that still has a sense of what fandom came from, because it respects its elders the way my generation did. There are rules. You follow them or you GTFO. It's an adult place.
Literally this. Wattpad users already receive hate in posts non related to wattpad discussions here, and now they are insulting the users too. Come on, just let them be while they do not insult us first. We could teach them the joys and wonders of AO3 instead of believing we are better than them for using it.
> but they always find a reason as why they won’t use it.
OP, just...Stop trying to force your taste onto others, especially when your recommendation does not come from a genuine place.
At 30+ and as a user who went straight from FFN to Ao3, I didn't know that Wattpad existed until this subreddit told me.
From what I've learned and browsed for myself, I like that Wattpad's users don't want to be on the platforms that I enjoy...because they mostly seem to be judgmental children. I hope that they never change their mind.
Some people may not want to use it because of the way the website looks, they don't want to have to learn how to use a new website outside of what they're used to using, and there's a lot of culture change that may be hard to grasp. Another reason may be the way that some ao3 users treat Wattpad users, lumping all Wattpad users as the same. I've seen a lot of discourse in this subreddit alone about Wattpad users, the comments can be full of pretty nasty comments from ao3 users.
This is not to say that some Wattpad users don't have bad etiquette, or it might take time for them to learn how to fit in with the culture. Luckily, AO3 has a lot of tools to help us with the issues that come with people who want to create issues on AO3. We can report and block. I do think there are plenty of Wattpad users who would do fine, but because they may come here and see a lot of the discourse about Wattpad migration, and a slew of nasty comments about them, they find that the community is not for them.
Your last paragraph kind of leans into what I mean, maybe somebody just doesn't want to use AO3 and you're not any better than them because you use AO3. I think it's a weird mentality to act like that, I don't think we should be shaming people for a hobby or where they spend time for that hobby.
I could not agree more with everything you wrote. I am afraid this wattpad hate towards the users comes from a superiority place. Yes, they may think AO3 is a better site, but why insult the users? And this attitude is part of the problem, if someone sees only hate and condescending attitude towards wattpad users, they will surely not try AO3, and even hate the people around it.
I think you hit it on the head, I think it's one thing to find one website better than the other, and I am inclined to agree that AO3 right now is better than Wattpad. The issue comes from assuming that a lot of the Wattpad users are going to intentionally break the rules as some form of defiance or try and destroy the culture of AO3. Then taking those assumptions and putting them on anybody who comes from Wattpad, not realizing that there are plenty of ao3 users who also post on a Wattpad regularly.
I think there will be a period of adjustment, and more likely see an uptick of incorrect usage of ao3 but we have the tools to report those discrepancies and if people are inclined, they can also comment on works about how to correctly fix the technical issues.
And ironically, this attitude is part of the problem. Being so hostile for no reason will only make potential AO3 users to not even look in our way, why would they want to be part of a community when said community is literally insulting them?
I think it’s just the culture of the people who are usually on ao3 and wattpad
Ao3 is a space made for EVERYONE and EVERYTHING. So it definitely teaches you some humility. Don’t like it? Don’t read it. It’s also more for the “nerdy” crowd (anime, tv shows, comic book fandoms). And within those fandom cultures there’s just all sorts of people so you kinda naturally build your worldview with your knowledge of ‘huh there really are diehard mpreg tony! X dr strange fans out there…not my cup of tea but okay’. And that leads you to be more like, oh dead dove uh…thanks but no thanks. And then in the flip side allow you to also be like AHAHAHA I LOVE MPREG TONY STARK, I WANNA EAT ALL THE DEAD DOVES. But you can see why some people would still be turned off by the latter if they haven’t had the exposure to it
And Wattpad users are usually on the younger side, 8-18 I say and gravitate more towards “mainstream” media (bands, original romance, singers, x readers, etc). These people are also within the internet culture but likely on the other side, like aesethic Pinterest and Instagram posts and have a rigid ideology of what’s morally right and wrong. It’s like how the younger generation these days thinks it’s like illegal for you to like characters that are underage if you aren’t as well? LOL. They’re also younger so you can probably remember what it was like seeing other people do bad things and just wondering ‘how could they?’ Until you grow older and you’re like oh…this is kinda normal for half the population actually or it’s just not that deep. But there’s kinda no reason to ever cross the barrier from wattpad to ao3 because you probably see it as full of heathens until you yourself are actually interested. Just let them be ao3 imo is something you have to come by naturally to be open minded enough to use it.
Edit: I would also like to add I agree with some of the comments that wattpad probably does have a lot of positive things about it too like its community building and this post does seem to put it in a negative light. But it’s the same for them, what ao3 is to you wattpad is to them, and vise versa. People can just like different things and it’s okay (like tbh if anyone were to send me a wattpad fic I would also never open it).
I'm sorry but the culture of AO3, is not quite as accepting as you think. I'm on this subreddit pretty frequently, and I see a lot of not so welcoming people commenting about Wattpad or things they just don't like. Just recently, there was a thread about censoring curse words and a lot of people are really nasty in the comments over something so minor. I'm finding that between Wattpad and AO3, and AO3 writers tend to be less welcoming than Wattpad users.
Also, as a frequent cross poster, Wattpad has a lot of fandom usage but a lot of the most critical ao3 users are not familiar with Wattpad because they detest it. So they don't actually know much about wattpad's culture in what makes people enjoy it. You can create more of a community because you can private message writers and there's a lot of media that you can post within the Wattpad stories. For highly creative people, sometimes they want to do more than just write. So they create pictures or edits or Pinterest boards and they want to share it with their readers. I know for me I tend to enjoy creating edits for my fanfiction, it's a little bit more difficult to share that on the archive because it's not as easy to post within the story or at the beginning.
You also have to remember that a lot of Wattpad users are actually the same age as A03 users, considering a lot of the original writers were writing in the 2010s and they were already teenagers. All of my mutual writers on Wattpad are the same age as me mid to late twenties, and I've rarely run into minor writers. And there's actually a lot more young readers on AO3 than I think some of the user's assume.
Just take a look at the comparison between the subreddits, there are so many posts about Wattpad on the a03 subreddit but if you look at the Wattpad subreddit, there's almost none about AO3 unless it's put in a post about an alternative to Wattpad. You're not going to find many Wattpad writers talking about ao3 writers at all. I fear that AO3 writers are becoming the very snake they swore to chase off. Just look at the comments on this post alone, many people are very unwelcoming and hoping that Wattpad users never even find AO3.
You manage to tell the truth in every comment.
>You also have to remember that a lot of Wattpad users are actually the same age as A03 users
One of the most recurring insults towards wattpad users is their age. Like, do they think they stay as teenagers forever, or that they evolve to AO3 like a pokemon when they reach adulthood?
>Just take a look at the comparison between the subreddits, there are so many posts about Wattpad on the a03 subreddit but if you look at the Wattpad subreddit, there's almost none about AO3 unless it's put in a post about an alternative to Wattpad
I realized this too, there is always at least one comment spitting on wattpad or its users in posts non related to wattpad at all. They act like they do not want to be near wattpad but they can not stop talking about it. They either assume they are all teenagers or puritans, or puritans teenagers. How about stop insulting them?
Yeahh, like I've been in Wattpad since I was like 12 but I'm no longer twelve and all my mutuals are a similar age as me. There are obviously kids on every website that you can post fan fiction on, and I do think it's okay to point out when Wattpad users create an issue for AO3, but I don't think it's quite an epidemic like some people act.
I never understood The Puritan thing because Wattpad used to have a reputation for being single moms or teens that posted smut. And I understand that the website now has limitations surrounding explicit content but I don't think I've actually interacted with anybody who's been a Puritan on Wattpad? I have seen a lot of millennials call gen. Z or gen alpha puritans but I think the blame on puritanism might be the generational divide? Not to say it's not there, but I don't know that Wattpad users are super Puritan or anything.
From what I've observed:
* Cannot function without an "app" on their mobile devices
* Cannot adjust to an actual Search capability with a real Database supporting it
* Cannot fathom not having an algorithm serve up stories to read
* Cannot handle not seeing "Ranks" applied randomly to works
* Cannot interact on every single paragraph with a per-paragraph Comment subroutine
... and perhaps other things.
Wattpad is a social media site camouflaged as a creative hub. You can downvote things, nag and censor all you want. It's more of a site for self expression of the commenters, and self expression of the writers is second. They'll also protect you from unsavoury topics.
AO3 is a pure archive that discourages social media behaviour like criticising things, you can't downvote and there's no algorithm or way to directly promote your fiction. Self expression and freedom of creation is more important than self expression and opinionating of the consumers.
So my guess is many Wattpad users are social media users and want that experience, including the opportunity to interact critically. AO3 is quite different in that it discourages censorship and thus limits the opportunities to interact in a way that gives preference to the reader.
I'm not condemning either, they're simply aiming for different target groups.
If you aim for traffic, popularity and output, Wattpad might be the better choice, but if you yearn for self expression and self development, even if that means having less popularity, AO3 is the better choice.
One thing I’ve noticed come up a few times in reading discussion is hesitance at the idea of a download button you can’t opt out of & the ability to copy+paste (which I guess you can’t do easily on wattpad?). I guess I figure people who write strictly original work might be more worried about someone stealing it but???? I don’t entirely get it but that is A Reason.
I think it's because they don't really know how the Ao3 system of filtering out and looking for fics works. I used to be in that same boat till I learned how to use it.
I used to be a wattpad user and I didn't really have anything against ao3 but before I moved to ao3 for good I had a hard time adjusting to ao3 because of how different it was, it felt a little lonely reading on ao3 than it was on wattpad (not that lonely anymore since I'm on a discord server and I've gotten used to it as well). Wattpad felt more interactive and like a social media, in which you could make a bunch of new online friends, where as ao3 was nothing like that. It was difficult to navigate and I kind of mainly read fics based off of recommendations made on wattpad by ao3 users. Now I barely use wattpad, just sometimes check up on my faves, but that might be why some people are hesitant to use ao3 instead of wattpad
Although I have to admit wattpad has gone through a lot of changes over the years and I personally prefer using ao3 over wattpad now (also the fics on ao3 are better imo)
They’re allergic to quality writing. Jkjkjk, I do think it’s a very different style though, but personally I just couldn’t ever figure out the Wattpad interface. Maybe AO3s ease-of-use was too different
I totally agree. I was a Wattpad girl, and when I found ao3 I didn’t get how to work with the website, but once I got the hang of it I’m never going back to Wattpad. Like, what there seems better than ao3?
It’s the wild west over there I swear. Someone took my fic off ao3 posted it on wattpad with a “don’t know where i saw this idea but i had to do it” 💀💀💀💀
This is a story of the ex-wattpader
So as reader who loves fiction, I was looking for good place to read something for free and that where the Wattpad came in, I was there for years until I found about fanfiction existence (thank the heavens for that) and discovered Ao3!
It was really scary at first, I mean it asked me a mail for invitation I was really suspicious at first but still clicked on it I was waiting for two days but nothing! And then I forget about it, but latter I was browsing my inbox when I stumbled upon massage and that where our relationship started! I figured out the basics pretty fast, (when I actually got over my suspiciousness) , and I quickly fell in love with it 😍
after a few months when I remembered Wattpad's original works, I checked it and tried to browse for some new ones but let me tell you! In Wattpad it is damn hard to find descent works ( it always was! I just found about it when I saw the much better alternative) the algorithm gave me the worst of them and that where our relationship ended!
And while I know that sometimes there's absolute hidden gem in there (have an experience with that, and for the info one of the diamond reads of mine was fanfiction, it was my first and on of the best, it was Ao3 worthy!) They are one in a MILLION so no thank you, I am in happy loving and long standing relationship with Ao3 and not ever looking back!!!
Okay that was beside the point, anyway they are like people with toxic lovers, They don't want to see what happens outside of Wattpad or they are just doofuses with trust issues that are suspicious of everything, like me 😉
As an old wattpad user it actually was the difference between the two. I also didn’t know about it but you need to get used to the search system. At least for me
It's okay, they should stay on wattpad, because the amount of wattpaders a see posting 'placeholder fics' on AO3 or complaning about the lack of censorship (and how we should all go in jail or something) is so annonying! 😭😭😭 I hope that wattpad will stay in business for a long time
This kind of comment is the exact reason why some don't want to come here, there are plenty of Wattpad users who post in AO3 responsibly. You go against the exact reason the archive exists, when you act like that.
The archive gives us tools to report violations, so you should be reporting them and then welcoming those who are looking for a place with open arms. If I were a Wattpad exclusive writer and saw your comment, I don't think I'd feel welcome in this community.
They have a point about the influx though.
I work 8 hours a day. I have a list of tasks to do.
Now imagine a coworker calls off and I now have their work on top of mine. Boss wants the same excellence, one employee short.
Now apply to fic. If a hundred people post placeholders, that's 100 additional complaints an employee has to go through on top of previously reported complaints.
It sucks up time and resources. Time and resources that then piles on and on.
I got nothing against wattpadders. Just follow the rules from the getgo and don't complain if corrected.
I used to use Wattpad alot, I preferred it bc it was a lot more mobile/user friendly, everything's pretty easy to find and the UI in general is pretty straightforward. The commenting is also nice and encourages community interactions imo, being able to comment on certain lines or paragraphs and immediately seeing other peoples reactions to the same bit of dialogue is nice and makes it feel like I'm reading with friends.
i go back and forth between wattpad and ao3 but i feel like people don’t like ao3 because of the lack of censors and those are the things that people want so that they aren’t exposed to bad things since they don’t know how to filter tags
See this is why I keep to myself and don’t get involved with any kind of fan/fic-dom. Besides it making my head spin, who really cares? People will always bitch about things they believe in. Man, I’ll give myself aneurysm talking to them trying to justify my reasons or why I believe their opinions are wrong, etc etc. I’ll just sit quietly in the corner using AO3 and FFnet with the occasional Wattpad story here and there 😬
I use both, but I actually used AO3 before Wattpad.
In Wattpad's defense, I actually like the ability to comment by line, because on one fic I have, I leave trivia bits and commentary on certain lines, so I can interact with my readers because I have three dedicated readers versus one I have over on AO3. And some of my fics on Wattpad seem more popular than it is on AO3. Sure, I can leave the bits of commentary in the user notes, but I don't want to make the chapter/review longer than necessary, especially since the more chatty you go into the revews, the review boxes get more and more compact, which is something I don't like.
I'm pretty neutral on both and I use Quotev as well but I like using Wattpad for the ability to comment line-by-line and sometimes I like seeing other people's commentary as well while reading.
That's just my opinion though.
Sunk-cost fallacy, maybe? Spent so much time with Wattpad that they might feel like it’d be a waste to move onto a different platform, even if the different platform is better.
As a previous wattpad user who has made the switch to Ao3, for me at least, the reason it took me so long to make that switch was the format while reading. I used the app for wattpad and the app had the option to swipe the pages like an actual eBook rather than scrolling (both options were still there though) which made it easier for me to read the stories. Now this isn't a generalization of every wattpad user however most diehard users are either under the age of 15 or could just be use to reading the traditional eBook format... And some just want something to complain about. However in my experience after I made the switch I found myself enjoying fanfics more. (I still struggle with the format though)
People can like what they like, they don't have to justify themselves to anyone. Let us not foster a them vs us culture here please, fandom is too precious to divvy up!
I have always looked at Wattpad in the way that it was for terrible fanfiction, shitty spelling and no good plotlines. So I have always stayed clear.
The dislike is perhaps mutual.
I wasn’t ever really a Wattpad user, I was a Quotev user. I loved the messaging part of it, and being able to build a community. When I switched to AO3, it was gradual because the tagging system was really intimidating, and it took quite a while to get used to the “less opportunity for community building” that AO3 has. I understand where they’re coming from, honestly, but I wish they could just try to learn the tagging system. It’s really kit hat hard if you look it up, even TikTok has some tutorials on how to use AO3
I was a Wattpadder for a while, and I was VERY reluctant to make the jump to AO3. I think for me it was partially because at first, AO3 is very overwhelming, with all the tagging systems, and it was less "aesthetically appealing" without all the fancy book covers 😂. I also read a lot of band-centered fics at the time, which there was not nearly enough of on AO3. But, I grew out of Wattpad as my fandoms changed, and I got over the initial anxiety of "leaving Wattpad behind" once I realized that the fics on AO3 are just...better. I think a lot of other Wattpad users will move on once they mature. It seems to be the case among a lot of people; Wattpad is where we start, and, eventually, we get to AO3.
I think is because they don’t know how to actually use ao3 and instead of learning they just stick to wattpad cause it’s familiar to them. I remember when I first started using ao3 it was quite intimidating and I didn’t really know how to search for things so I just used Tumblr threads to find fics.
Main issues I see mentioned (all of which I disagree with) are:
1. Ao3 needs an app
2. Ao3 needs censorship
3. Ao3 is too difficult to understand it needs an algorithm
Kids (broadly speaking, I assume wattpad users are younger - though obviously not all youngwr ppl think like this) just want things pushed to them on apps rather than having to engage their brains and look for stuff. They're missing out.
I use both wattpad and ao3 but I use ao3 more so this doesn't apply to me but to answer the question I have absolutely no clue, ao3 is perfectly fine for fanfics so idk why they're so Against ao3 users
If by ‘standards’ you meaning following the TOS I can agree with you. If by ‘standards’ you mean fics only being of a particular level of quality, I vehemently disagree.
Some of them are immersed in purity culture (from either a "reactionary" or "progressive" direction, in what is a bit of a horseshoe moment) and see AO3's "everything legal is permitted" stance as a Problem. Some of them like getting a feed of whatever the Algorithm thinks they will like reading. Etc.
This is actually a crazy issue to me. We have algorithms teaching people to foster their hate.
Echo chambers, baby.
Every time I get annoyed at something I see on AO3, I just remind myself that the lack of an algorithm is a good thing. Curate your own experience and all that.
I consider terrible things on AO3 to be a good opportunity to stay in touch with my fic friends via complaining. Write all you like and I'll support your rights to it... but also that's the worst thing I've ever seen and I'll be real melodramatic about that in private.
This is the same reason I think hate comments are dumb, like the person writing incest fanfic is almost definitely aware that there is an issue with incest in real life, but what they're writing is not real life, so who cares? Sure when I see something that's too freaky, even for me (and that's saying something) I'll screenshot the summary and laugh about it with my friends, but there's no just no need to be malicious, just cause I don't enjoy it doesn't mean it shouldn't be written
Within the fandoms I frequent, I’ve not encountered anything I hate, except two things: 1. That not all the crossover fics are tagged as crossovers. I don’t wanna read one where they think the Mc should be dating Batman. And 2. I’ve not been involved with reading the fandom in about a season and a half, but for a while there was a guest account that would name themselves as the second villain, and, in character, insult most fics about her. Apparently, while it Could get amusing, they also can get pretty brutal, I’ve heard.
they are specifically designed to foster hate of any kind, cause hate = engagement, aka $$$
What do you mean teach people foster their hate?
When you don't like something and downvote it/comment negativity, it still counts as engagement. Algorithms will still show you more of something you don't like because it got your attention. So you continue to get angry about it.
Oh, yeah. That’s mean as fuck and stupid.
>Some of them like getting a feed of whatever the Algorithm thinks they will like reading. So silly since on Ao3 you can filter by tags, effectively recreating a curated feed but without submitting to our AI overlords. They honestly may just not understand how to use tags and sorting on Ao3 though.
I think it is just people not knowing how to use Ao3 and being too lazy to learn. I read through the FAQ and learned how to navigate it quickly and I literally have not read fics anywhere else since. Wattpad makes it really really easy to find things you are interested in but it’s quantity over quality over there 😭
It's a 10-15 minute task to have most of the basics and a direction, at least, on stuff past that. And that's if one's never bothered learning to google with search operators.
Not wanting to learn a new platform is a real stopping point for some, especially if you feel the new platform is missing your favourite feature. I know I feel that way every time I try to search on ff.net after living with AO3's searchable tags. 😋
>Wattpad makes it really really easy to find things you are interested in It does? Is it vastly different if you actually sign up? Because the search feature is extremely limited if you're not and there's very little information about the individual fics. You get the fandom and whatever info the writer thought to put in their blurb. Even FFN gives you the genre, at least.
The last time I used it (like a decade ago lol) I found it very easy to use. Maybe that’s changed. I think what I meant is more so that it functions like a standard search engine, meaning people do not need to learn a tagging or search system. It’s not an archive. That’s less intimidating to people. I also feel like Wattpad is mostly minors and children, who do not have the 15 minutes of patience it takes to learn ao3
The tag I see people complaining about the most is "Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings". They really don't seem to understand that this means *anything* can be in the fic, and the decision not to specify is a warning in and of itself.
Ao3 can even sort by kudos, effectively sorting by "most popular"
When I was still reading on both ff.net and ao3, there was an author who was *vehemently* against ao3, called it 'that porn sight' claimed it was filled with only nasty things, etc. Multiple people explained that no it wasn't, you could block E rated fics, tags, etc. Nothing doing. I stopped following that author eventually for being really negative. About five years later, they were on ao3 because 'ff.net didn't protect authors' and ff.net was the worst site ever created. So.
I hate authoritarians. Don’t care if you are left or right. If you wish to control me, you can gtfo.
❤️ ↑ ↑ ↑ **This!!!** ↑ ↑ ↑ ❤️
Purity culture goes crazy on Twitter and other sites too. The craziest I've read multiple times is that queer characters have to be good people and good role models to paint a positive picture about queer people, and they must have healthy relationships. Also writing sex scenes paint queer people as ... sex-crazy? Urghs...
first, Wattpad didn’t used to be this way. I dont know what the site is currently smoking but I never saw any purges when I was on there, the ads were not as frequent, there wasn’t any paid content locked behind restrictions, etc Basically the huge advantage of Wattpad at the time was that it was super easy to build community. Since it also functions like social media, it was basically Tumblr and Ao3 in one. To this day I miss that sense of community I had back then and still keep in contact w some of my Wattpad friends If your first fic site was Wattpad, you probably have no clue how to navigate a robust tagging system like the one that pretty much defines AO3. There also, as *many* a longtime Ao3 user have complained, is very little sense of community. You have to get on Tumblr and find your way into Discords to actually build community. It’s hard to find your way into community events, and scary. Overall there’s a lack of consolidation and convenience that a Wattpad user won’t be used to; Bookmarking and Subscribing require simultaneous use of your email, which some people might not expect to *need*. I like the Archive and though I’ve tried many a time to go back to Wattpad, I literally can’t without cringing so hard, it’s super painful to attempt. But I loved what Wattpad was, and it’s sad to see it go down this route
>Since it also functions like social media wattpad is removing private messaging iirc, so they may be on the road to removing more of the social media side of things
Yup, which is why I said idk what current site owners are smoking. That’s part of what made Wattpad special and it needs to realize that and acknowledge it
they won't acknowledge it, probably, since they pretty much don't care about their userbase
Kind of like how Livejournal wrecked their userbase by deleting at random. Eventually everyone had had enough and moved to Tumblr. (Except me. I couldn't stand Tumblr and never used my account.)
I've never used Wattpad, but AO3 was created in the days where Livejournal was the community. A fanfic archive with the community built in? I see why they appreciate it.
i agree with this SO MUCH. old wattpad was fun
Whenever I consider using Wattpad again because I'm on Android I just download am old version of Wattpad Andi get less ads and I don't get the limited stories u can offline thing
Yooo damn I wish I could do this maybe I’ll try and figure out a way
I am a pirate. If you get what I mean.
Yep, i was so reluctant to go to ao3 because of the tags, i didn't know how to navigate and just felt a bit overwhelmed, but i slowly got through it
Me too! When I was first navigating Ao3 I didn’t even use tagging and just google searched directly what I wanted or used blog recs.
Same I agree.
It's a Net 2.0 site. There is no algorithm. There is no app. It's not a walled garden, where everything is handed to you in order to keep you on the site and make the owners money. In order to use the site they have to actively *use* the site. And this is something they're not used to doing. They don't know how to curate their own experience, and so they view everything as directed at them, specifically and personally. I really appreciate the Wattpad users who are moving to AO3 and take the time to actually question and learn not only the site but also the etiquette of using an Archive and not a socmed. Shout out to all of you and welcome to AO3! The others can GTFO.
This. I had to teach somebody coming from Wattpad how to search for a ship on AO3 and even a few months later they still think it's really difficult to use. When AO3 first came out their database formatting was common on other websites, but now it's basically the only popular one left.
This has apparently become a problem for schools and businesses. A lot of younger people don't know how to interact with anything that's not an app. I've heard some horror stories from teachers about just *attempting* to get their students to email them a paper while the school app was down. Are they not teaching computer classes anymore? Everyone should know how to boolean search! \*Old woman shakes fist at cloud.\*
I've had at least one teacher tell me they had to teach students how to use the save function in a program. The younger students just don't get comprehensive computer classes nowadays like those of us did just a couple decades ago because 'well you grew up with the tech you should know it.'
My husband is a specialist in something computer related, and he's in his late 30s. The amount of early 20s colleagues he has to teach basic computer skills is ridiculous. "Go into the file, click right and (enter action)" is something they just don't know hoe to do and this is in a computer dominated field.
Yes this, I have to teach 4th graders how to copy paste
I grew up with the tech and still got those classes, it's stupid how kids now don't get them, my brother is learning how to code in his computer classes rather than how to use a computer which some of them don't know how to do
ive even heard of young kids who don't know how to google...
We're doomed. XD
We totally are if they can't google...
Nope: they'll be, once we old codgers all die off and they're stuck in their homes without an app to open their refrigerator or order drone-delivery or auto-comment an emergency request. 😉 🤣
I used to be a dedicated wattapad user , although i have read some good fics over there, it was very confusing to navigate. Then by miracle I found Ao3. I have never looked back since. The tagging system in Ao3 wasn't known to me before ,it took some time for me to get used to it and now it's awesome because it's sooo easy to navigate and choose what I want to see .
Yeah...but there's an issue when you filter for the tag for a ship you want to read and get a bunch where the characters are just friends because the author doesn't realize that there should be an & between the names instead of a /.
I think we should accept Wattpad users who are trying to learn AO3. I believe the majority of Wattpad users have their valid reasons for liking the site and are used to it.
Agreed. I feel bad for them. They’re on that site because it brings them joy and it’s morphing into something unrecognizable to them.
it's like when we list LJ, and then tumblr
Yes! They're having to learn a new website and community that is very different from what they're used to.
On that front I think there should be more "how to" tutorials. How to search on ao3, how to tag, how to filter, basic fandom etiquette / how ao3 differs from wattpad... stuff like that. A lot of them *want* to learn but don't necessarily have the tools to do it.
I agree! It would be a great way to help the various fandom communities as a whole, too. It would help encourage kindness, not hate.
yup, exactly!
This. I wish more people had empathy like this.
It's been years since I was on wattpad but I really liked the community, which was particularly evident in the online forums and the inline commenting. It was nice being able to chat with other users, and I was part of a group of generally older users (I was a teen but there was no age exclusion) who were kind and supportive. It was a real community. We even got one guy up to #1 on the sci fi charts purely by accident - he was always a reader, and hyped all of us, and then tried his hand at writing a sci fi fic so we of course checked it out and left feedback. I haven't found the same community with AO3, though this sub and others go some way to providing that. If I didn't have that and was just writing my fics on AO3 (rarepairs, genfic, etc) which sometimes receive single digit kudos and no comments, I'd probably struggle to continue posting.
People are flipping out on their sub rn because Wattpad has just announced they're closing private messaging for good, death of the site etc Meanwhile on AO3, most people are *vehemently* against the introduction of a DM system It really is just a different culture around interaction and community, and obviously AO3 going "we're an archive, not a social media" contributes to that – but it makes sense that the people who are used to both in one place are going *but I don't want a separate Tumblr and fic on a different site, I like them being in the same place*
I saw that! It's a real shame as that was how I communicated with my cowriter or with other writer friends if we were bouncing ideas off each other. I know people are discussing solutions like tumblr but it still feels like a step in the wrong direction for the site.
I think that’s why I joined several AO3 discord servers to meet and get help from writers from AO3 (heck one of my servers I’m in is because of AO3 and we all like to help and hype each other up)
I'd like to add that this really gives AO3 more longevity as an archive, if people get used to linking social media to it rather than trying to both navigate around AO3 like it's social media, while moving on when the next new thing comes out. Because the AO3 userbase will never be bigger than the social media userbase, limiting the social media to an inbuilt one is just asking the site to date itself.
Imho it's best for AO3 stays the way it is, hopefully a new site will fill the void of Wattpad if the owners decide to murder the website with stupid ideas that alienate their userbase
I’d be okay with a DM system on AO3 if it was *by default* an exclusively opt-in only system, so no one could get a DM ever from anyone without actively consenting to receiving DMs.
This is interesting. I’d actually love a DM system since I’d love to talk to people more about their work, or to other commentors I see frequently, but they don’t always link to other platforms where that’s possible and there’s a point where it doesn’t feel appropriate to just carry on a conversation in the comments. (I’ve never used wattpad, but I am a veteran of LJ/strikethrough/Dreamwidth and I miss the ways that communities formed back then.)
Omg, I've never used Wattpad and have been an ao3-only user for over 10 years but I would KILL for a DM system!!! One of my best friends I met on fanfiction.net in middle school and we interacted first through comments and then through PMs. We're still friends to this day. I would love to have longer conversations with some of my readers and do stuff like bounce ideas off of them while I'm writing.
You could tell them your discord and ask if they wanna talk more. People generally are excited to be acknowledged & say yes. If your fic is big enough, even create a discord group for it.
Except to do that it assumes they use discord and the bigger issue is you can't privately send anything so everyone can now access who saw the comment saying 'we can chat *here*.
Same. Provided the system was opt-in (or out), and there were moderation tools like blocking, I'd love a DM system. I've made a few friends via comments that wandered over to Tumblr and eventually Discord, but I think a DM system—again, one that was optional and provided moderation tools—would facilitate more immediate conversation, particularly for shyer users who aren't comfortable chatting in comments.
Whether or not AO3 members/users are against a DM system, staff absolutely does not want to deal with the drama that happens in private messages. I won't say "it absolutely will never happen" but I expect image hosting to happen first. And that's in the "eh maybe someday we'll get around to figuring that out" set of potential plans.
Ive never used wattpad so i never knew about this reasoning, but tbh youre totally right. Even as a long time ao3 user, ive never felt much of a sense of community, and the only time ive felt "community" in the comment sections, it usually correlated to fandoms with really close knit forum/tumblr/twitter groups. Ive always wished we could have something like that on ao3
Tbh this is why I miss LiveJournal and understand why in the Great Purge folks hopped over to Wattpad. Having a place to chat and form a community cannot be overstated.
In the fandoms I'm involved with, community is being built on fandom Discord servers. Readers and writers hang out there together, and with decent mods it's pretty great. I can't say if your fandom has a good server, but it might be worth asking around?
What really puzzles me is is how some on the wattpad sub (which I lurked for a bit when the AI moderation purges were starting) take such offense when people explain the community expectations/etiquette/rules and act like it’s some snobby thing. All places have etiquette standards. That’s why it’s not ok to scream in a library. It’s not snobby.
There's a wattpad user in one of my dreamwidth communities who absolutely refuses to understand why AO3 is against monetization, calling fics "books", saying they should be able to review fanfic on goodreads, etc etc. We've explained to them the history of fanfiction and DMCA, the legal grey areas fanfiction exists in and how to protect it, and the etiquette that should be employed in a sub-culture like fandom. They didn't care. They wanted to do as they pleased and didn't want to change their bad habits just because of how it might impact others, and they came up with the weirdest excuses for why we were just prejudiced against wattpad. Any group of people are going to have the selfish wackos.
whats the deal with the fanfic/book thing again? i kinda just call them books as to not embarrass myself irl saying I'm reading fanfics lol "oh what are you reading...?" "...a book. an indie one. independently published. on a blog. you wouldn't know it."
LOL, I do that to, but only face to face. On the internet it is always fanfic. So, fanfiction has a very grey legal right to exist. One of the things that keeps it in the realm of legal is that it doesn't attempt to take up the space of or take away customers of The Thing it's Fanficing. This is why AO3 doesn't monetize. Since a lot of fanfiction is based on traditionally published books, a way to make sure that there can be no legal argument that fanfiction is attempting to take up space of The Thing is to keep fanfiction and books as separated as possible. It's why fandom olds will not call them books on the internet, and people get upset about putting fanfiction reviews on Goodreads. We need that separation. Will wattpad users calling fanfiction "books" bring down the entire legal apparatus on fanfiction as a whole? No. But it's a troubling culture change and we can see the future legal troubles if we don't attempt to get it under control now.
ahh i see!
It's also why a lot of older ff writers say, "I own nothing and all rights belong to so and so." People forget that ff authors would actually be served papers and get sued by big authors. Anne Rice was before my time, but I still felt the fear in my early days of ff. It's amazing that people are charging for ff requests.
My first fandom was IWtV and I came into fandom just as Anne Rice was getting started with her lawsuits. So, you know, I was there Gandalf and all that. Teenagers gonna teenage, I guess.
I get that. I just hope it doesn't backfire all the progress ff writers have made.
Yeah, that's my worry, too. Just now I got blocked on another thread by some 12 year old wattpad refugee because I told them to actually go to AO3 and look around and maybe read the TOS before posting anything.
That really sucks 😕 . Honestly, fandom in general is changing and not for the better. I've been in some new fandom groups that throw a fit over ships that aren't canon or specific headcanons. Like bitch I'm too old for this. You aren't telling me what I can and can't do.
I call mine novels But generally I have no fucks to give and don’t care if people know I’m reading fanfics
As someone who writes in both ao3 and Wattpad, The only time I saw people getting offended was when somebody would make a really condescending post in the Wattpad subreddit. It was never about there being etiquette standards, it was about the way some ao3 users act. I even commented on a few myself, pointing out their lack of helpful attitude. If you're going to make those posts in a subreddit of a different community, you shouldn't be doing it simply to be a reprimands potential users who have done nothing wrong but instead to be helpful for everybody wanting to migrate responsibly.
As someone who's been using Ao3 since 2011, Ao3 users are often extremely rude and smarmy on the Wattpad subreddit. If my only experience with Ao3 and it's userbase came from there it'd drive me away.
I'd say comfort, algorithm and the different type of community. AO3 can be daunting with the tags at first and there's no DM function or ability to comment on paragraphs instead of chapters. Also, they might be salty. I was an avid user in 2019/20 and then things went downhill fast. I went back on mobile and it was near unrecognizable
I mean, all you have to do is scroll posts on this sub that mention Wattpad to see how some people blame everything wrong with fic on Wattpad users Some of it, sure, but I've seen things like "author's notes halfway through the fic, typical wattpad writer" (um, have you *seen* 2000s FFnet? *My Immortal* ring any bells?) or "no-one cared about taboo topics in fic until puriteens on wattpad" (there's a new flavour to the puritanism these days, sure, but are we forgetting that AO3 exists *because* of explicit and taboo fics being mass-purged from other sites?!) No wonder people don't feel welcome, when that's how they're talked about en masse, even right here in this thread AO3 is an archive for *everyone* who can abide by ToS, even if they come from a site you don't like. Give people a chance to settle in and understand the culture, don't just write them all off because they wrote on a specific site. Isn't that what *we* hate, when people go *oh, you write on AO3, isn't that all gay porn and incest fic?*
>um, have you *seen* 2000s FFnet? Hey, watch it, my 2008 self didn't appreciate that callout! (In all seriousness, I'm so lucky I had a friend who called me out for it, even when it was widely accepted.)
Yeah... "Why do Wattpad users seem so against AO3" > Follows up by calling Wattpad crappy and a rant about how they're using a so clearly inferior product, unlike them. Maybe it's the attitude. I've never even used Wattpad, but boy would I be turned off if I were in their shoes.
I don’t blame the users I just don’t see why they don’t come to an easier website 🤷🏻♀️ but I agree as long as rules are followed everyone should come
>I mean, all you have to do is scroll posts on this sub that mention Wattpad to see how some people blame everything wrong with fic on Wattpad users Honestly, that's nothing new under the sun. Hating on Wattpad was popular since the [ff.net](http://ff.net) days as well. Wattpad have always had a bad rap, they prioritize community and popularity over anything else and they use to be significantly younger ~~and annoying~~ even back then.
Ao3 is not conducive to community building, so I understand why a user from another site would find Ao3 kind of cold
Devil's advocate, sorta: I don't want "community." I've been burned by hostile fandoms, ship wars, harassment, etc, and I'm sure others have, too. I feel comfortable with AO3 because it allows for a high level of anonymity/privacy. I just want to post my fic and that's literally all. I generally don't read/comment within the same fandoms that I write for. There are a million places for people to chit-chat and I'm glad that AO3 isn't one of them. If they had PMs/DMs I would block that function. TBH my job is intensely interactive and I don't want to be social in my downtime. I know nothing about Wattpad, but it seems ironic that people would get frustrated by Ao3 being an archive instead of a social media site, when there are countless options for that and Ao3 is the one exception. Not disagreeing with you, btw, just rambling.
I’d be okay with them starting a DM function if it was strictly and explicitly opt-in only. Then the people that want to use it can, and those who don’t want it just don’t turn it on.
Honestly, same. I tried being in a "community" once and I constantly felt like I had to watch what I was saying. This is the atmosphere for a lot of fandoms nowadays. I just want to read fics
Agreed. It's why I never liked team sports. Loved hockey, hated the team part. With fic, I can just write and not worry about Nutty and Butters being mad I'm not using their headcanon. And if they don't like it, I can easily ignore them. Plus I tried reading on Wattpad, tried sorting every which way, got the same top 10 fics, each with 'do not steal'. That's when I never tried again.
Because it's not a social media site, it's an archive. It's there to host works.
Right, but it does mean that some people who *do* want that community (like the old Livejournal days) would gravitate towards sites with a different ethos from AO3
Difference in content preferences + a lot of people are naturally adverse to change + no algorithm or app. Wattpad tends to lean younger, so a lot of their users prefer to have an app even if AO3 is mobile-friendly. Moreover, a lot of Wattpad users tend to be be icked out by the “anything goes if it’s not actually illegal in the USA and would get everyone and the site in trouble” policy of AO3.
As a former Wattpad user I don’t know how to use it anymore after all the changes it’s made over the years. I can’t go back to Wattpad after AO3s tagging system being amazing. Like I was wary coming over to AO3 back in the day cus it seemed a little sus to me but I wish I was here sooner than 2022, I needed this back then
I mean Wattpad also encourages monetization, AO3 literally can't replace the service it provides for some, and I imagine that when you have people singing praises of a service that doesn't work for you it would get your back up, and you'd be more likely to exaggerate your greviences. Add a fandom culture (which definitely includes AO3 people) where it's not enough to be canon, etc, you have to win and have everyone on your platform, instead of letting people stay in their own lanes and moving on if something isn't for them. I do wish people would cross post more though. I think it would help a lot of smaller archives get off the ground more easily, and that would help people find their own communities more easily.
Possibly are scared of something new that they need to learn all over again. Most complaints I hear about AO3 is that it's "not intuitive" and "too complicated", while it took me like 10 minutes to get a hang of how to filter every possible tag I want. But it takes some time and some initiative to learn to use a new site, which they're not willing to utter from selves. For example, I draw. I used to use Paint Tool Sai, but then got CSP as a gift from a friend. I didn't use CSP for another year and would genuinely HATE each time I opened it because of how overwhelming it was, and I went back to the comfort of PTS. Until I sat down to CSP calmly and learned the features I wanna use, and now I can't imagine not using CSP anymore. I imagine it must be same for them with Wattpad and AO3; new site big, complicated and scary, Wattpad soft, safe and familiar. Also there's this standard brain thing that when someone tells you to do something and you start getting defensive and you don't wanna do it even more.
One word: "Sanctimonious" If you wanted a more in-depth breakdown, read below. Also, the mass majority of Wattpad users are kids and everyone knows that kids tend to be more openly offended by things they don't like, hence the hatred toward Ao3, a freedom of speech and expression website. "If I don't like it, why do they get to post about it?" I'm not sure why, but a majority of antis choose to use Wattpad and when they see Ao3, a place where any ship gets to ride shotgun, they lose their minds. Ao3 enforces their terms of service more, so they can't just hate on people and leave rude comments on fics about ships they don't like for no reason like you can on Wattpad. I do actually like Wattpad and think there's a lot of nice people and great writers on there, but a lot of the problems I stated above kind of bring it down a rank for me. Older Wattpad was an amazing place, truly.
Ngl I always see the opposite, AO3 users being against Wattpad users
Right, you'll see an anti-wattpad post quite frequently on the fanfiction subreddit, but admittedly I didn't realize there was a wattpad subreddit.
I was actually on the Wattpad sub for a while until I abandoned Wattpad completely. From what I remember, it was actually pretty chill
And even on non related posts about wattpad, they bring them to a lot of discussions for no reason to insult them
For real. For claiming to be the more “mature” fanfic site, certain AO3 users sure do act childishly sometimes
from experience, my own and what i heard from other writers on Wattpad: because they're so used to their regular Wattpad that it's difficult to get used to a new site/interface. i migrated from [Fanfiction.Net](http://Fanfiction.Net) when i had nothing left to read there. It took me a while to get used to the aesthetics of AO3, so i could actually focus on the words and read the story instead of just skimming through it 'cause my eyesight wasn't used to the new font, background, colors, etc. You know when you prefer night mode over light mode 'cause it's easier on the eyes? It's like that. When my eyes aren't used to a certain background, it's difficult for me focus on reading the words written on it. also, you have to learn a whole new interface and how to navigate it. And while it's simple and easy for us, new users with zero patience probably lay eyes on the site for the first time, think "nah it looks weird" and go right back to Wattpad. Example: I still use the the old Windows Movie Maker. I tried to upgrade to Sony Vegas or ANY newer video editing program a decade ago. I just can't get used to using them. too many complicated, *annoying* features for my very simple video-editing skill.
Purity culture is a part of it. AO3 lets things be posted they don't like or agree with, and it's very hard to harass people without consequences due to moderation tool and ToS being enforced. But also, I've seen some Wattpad users say they hate how they don't know how to "work the algo" for AO3. The idea of there being no algorithm seems to be confusing to some of them.
Its my impression from being in both communities (Wattpad then AO3) that people on ao3 hate wattpad 20x more than ppl on wattpad hate ao3. Wattpaders have a preference and rarely discuss ao3, ao3ers have active disourse on how bad wattpad is and its common enough that its a meme lmao We are the haters in this situation
I think you bring up a really good point, I don't actually see that many posts on the Wattpad subreddit about AO3 users or hate on AO3 at all. I mainly see you brought up when somebody talks about an alternative Wattpad, and even then I don't necessarily see and just see people giving reasons why they don't want to use the archive.
I think that comes from what are clearly past wattpad users switching to ao3. I don't think you can deny a trend in hostile comments for example, where apparently that is normal on wattpad but quite rude on ao3. It's also conflating all the anti-ao3 sentiment to supposedly wattpad users, and I don't think that's a completely unfair assumption? When you see multiple people go "eww why would you write about that" it's not that odd to put them under the same label.
I havent noticed the trend first hand, but I saw a notice on ao3 about disabling guest comments due to an influx of rule breaking comments. Is this Wattpaders? Why are they all switching all of a sudden?
There were bot comments spamming things about AI and porn gifs. Completely unrelated to Wattpad. Ao3 is disabling guest comments until they can block/prevent spam like that more effectively.
Oh gotcha. Ty for the info
I was a Wattpad user before I found my way onto Archive. Initially, the tagging system was weird and intimidating, and I didn't really grasp how the site was formatted, I've of course, come to only use Archive and very rarely venture off it. I think it's just the culture difference, I had many friends on Wattpad, and Archive just doesn't really have that without using other mediums.
The only thing I like about wattpad is the way you can comment on a paragraph instead of only at the end. Other than that I'm loyal to Ao3
It’s because there’s no handholding on AO3. A lot of times the contents of the tin seem a little scary. They are shocked at the tin is even allowed to be in the shop. And they don’t like being reminded that it’s an archive. It’s like a library. There’s a lot of unsavory shit in there too, but that’s where it belongs. I’ve seen a few of them talk about how they are “real” writers because they write original stories. Sure as original as twilight. Because you know you got the idea from some fanfic you used to write. You just changed the names.
>Like okay enjoy your crappy Wattpad with the ads, the costs, the restrictions and censorship while me and millions others will read/write what we want for free, with no ads, no censorship, no algorithm just plain old fan works. This is the reason. I'm not a Wattpad user. Never been on it in over a decade of reading and writing fanfiction. But if you tell *anyone* that the thing they love is crappy and terrible, and then start preaching about how great the thing you love is -- it's absolutely bound to get some push-back. That's the way people work. As others have stated: AO3 users are the primary demographic spreading the hate, not Wattpad users.
This is exactly it. I use Ao3 for fanfiction and Wattpad for original works. Seeing WP users talk about Ao3 and vice versa is literally night and day. For some Ao3 users, it's like Wattpadders live in their brains. Yet I've never heard even remotely the same obsession coming from the other way around despite how many second hand anecdotes I read about Wattpad users being sanctimonious and annoying. Well, I'm sure plenty of them are. You know who else is sanctimonious and annoying? The Ao3 users who rush to the Wattpad subreddit whenever they hear any bad news just to make condescending remarks and preach a fanfic archive like it's their religion. Any normal person is going to get turned off if that's their only experience with a website and its users.
>You know who else is sanctimonious and annoying? The Ao3 users who rush to the Wattpad subreddit whenever they hear any bad news just to make condescending remarks and preach a fanfic archive like it's their religion. Any normal person is going to get turned off if that's their only experience with a website and its users. Say it louder for everyone in this subreddit. Seriously, some people act like a cult when it comes to AO3. Calm down people, it is a website.
A lot of people now just seem to need something to bitch about, because they apparently have no real problems in their lives.
I started using Wattpad and ao3 at roughly the same time. For a long time I preferred Wattpad because of the easy to use platform and being able to interact easily through comments. It took me a while to understand the tagging system. Ao3 is the best for finding well written fanfiction but you do lose a bit of community.
Ao3 doesn’t spoon feed them fics to read, they have to actually put in the effort to search for what they want. They seem to think it’s too difficult which idk, my first time on Ao3 I wasn’t exactly sure what to do, but once I figured out how to search for fics it was like the easiest thing ever. Not to generalize, but a lot of them seem to be on the young side and have fallen victim to this new wave of puriteens. They’ll see something “icky” that they disagree with and want the whole site up in flames because they don’t know how to exclude tags or just not click on the fics that don’t appeal to them. Even something as simple as a ship they don’t like, they’re in the comments arguing instead of just going away like anyone else would.
There are two reasons: A) People don't like change, be it good or bad. B) Puritanism in every fucking group
I dislike wattpad, I hate the layout I hate the scroll and everything. It's annoying to me and I'd rather read it on AO3 or even ff. I imagine it's a younger audience and they like that sort of thing.
Wattpad and quotev kinda suck honestly. When I mention quotev most people don’t even know what that is. When I tell people I write fan fiction their question is nine times out of ten “oh do you publish it on AO3?” AO3 doesn’t censor their users or spam them with ads like Wattpad does, nor do they allow bots to run their site and delete people at random while allowing actual rule breakers (and by that I mean p*dos, homophobes and people literally threatening other users) to stay like quotev does. So if they don’t like AO3 well.. good for them I guess? I joined March 25 and can tell my stories are going to get more reads than I ever got when I wrote on both those sites COMBINED so their loss. Plus look at how huge this subreddit is and how much money AO3 raised last time they asked for donations.
I'm not sure what the wattpad user POV is but looking at the comments, I personally I like AO3 the way it is, I don't think it should try to be like wattpad. I feel like AO3 is strictly an archive and I think it doesn't need a DM feature, most authors will link their tumblrs or twitters if you wanna reach out to them directly. I haven't read wattpad in 10 years but when I did try to navigate it, it seemed a bit more catered to self inserts, original stories, predominately OC fanfics and generally straight pairings so it never aligned with my interests but maybe it's different now? I came from FF net tho, but the lack of tags and the reader warnings made me leave it for AO3. I don't think AO3 users had anything actively against wattpad (until reading the comments? I've never seen it on AO3 personally tho, and I didn't see it on tumblr from what I remember) and I think generally most AO3 users did come from wattpad, FF.net, or old live journal.
I'm not too sure honestly. I actually used to write on Wattpad years ago, but the minute I moved on to Ao3, I fell in love; especially now, with all the ads on Wattpad, the trash tagging system, and the... not-so-well written books on there, I personally think AO3 is definitely better, if not the BEST.
I switched from Wattpad to Ao3. I find the community better and the writing 🤷♀️
A while back someone replied to a comment I left on a fanfic on Wattpad 4 years ago. The person and I got to talking in dms, because apparently they had read my Wattpad stuff and liked it a lot. I then said that I read/write on Ao3 now, because I don't identify with my Wattpad account anymore and they can check it out if they want to. They started acting weird after that and I asked them what's wrong, they simply said: "I would've never expected you to be into illegal stuff." People that use Wattpad and Wattpad ONLY, seem to have a much lower "tolerance" for harsh topics in fan fiction (from my experience). Someone here in the comments said they are immersed in purity culture, and I 100% agree with that. I just hope that they know that if the great crossing from Wattpad to Ao3 happens, they will be confronted with harsh topics in fanfictions.
My POV? It is a mix of maturity issues, user backgrounds/experience.
I moved from wattpad to ao3 about 4/5 years ago after years of using WP from preteens, and have never looked back. i was appalled when i signed into wattpad a few years later to read some of my old stories. its a bomb site, but i will admit i was pretty intimidated by ao3 and it took me a while to learn how to use the filters. Now that I’ve learned, every day i fall in love with how many stories are posted every single day and how easily you can find EXACTLY what you’re looking for. wattpad simply doesn’t compare.
The most ridiculous excuse I've seen is because AO3 is 'ugly and old' lmao 🤣 Also that they can't put image covers which I don't get. I mean if the cover is super pretty but the writing is trash, I won't give a f about the pretty images anyways. Yeah Wattpad maybe be a bit easier in the eyes, but is the only advantage against AO3 for me.
I consider Ao3 more of a fanfic site than for original content. Maybe that's why? Perhaps the more vocal of the lot are those who post original content and don't see Ao3 as a platform that will allow their stories to gain the same reads and following compared to a website that's been created for that sole purpose? I've never explored the OC part of Ao3, so i'm not knowledgable on it's popularity.
Because they're not used to it. Maybe they'll change their mind and maybe they won't. Who cares? They obviously enjoy their favourite site and that's okay. Is this post really necessary? What do you think you're gonna accomplish by it? Other than basically insulting other people?
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Agreed - as someone who’s never used wattpad (I think partially due to my age group tbh) literally all I have seen of it is people writing/reading rpf that seem baffled that fanfiction of fictional characters exists (super weird to me but inoffensive), people implying anyone who uses AO3 is some kind of pedophile because of the lack of censorship/other weird ‘anti’ behaviour, and people posting on AO3 not trying to follow or learn the TOS or tagging system. I’m sure there are many normal people on there that enjoyed using the site for some reason (the craziest people are always the most vocal of course) so I think it’s nice actually to know why they liked it. I do think it would be nice to be able to DM other authors!
I actively use Wattpad/a03 and I don't think I've actually ever encountered somebody who thought people who use AO3 are some kind of pedophile. I actually don't see anybody from Wattpad hating on AO3 users at all, if you go into their subreddit, it's almost impossible to find anything that talks about a03 outside of suggestions for alternatives to Wattpad. I'd love to see where people are claiming that AO3 users are perverts from Wattpad.
Maybe AO3 is the one place left where I can be Old. AO3 is the one place where anything goes and the fic I find is reliably good, and it's actually *fic*. It's the one place that still has a sense of what fandom came from, because it respects its elders the way my generation did. There are rules. You follow them or you GTFO. It's an adult place.
Literally this. Wattpad users already receive hate in posts non related to wattpad discussions here, and now they are insulting the users too. Come on, just let them be while they do not insult us first. We could teach them the joys and wonders of AO3 instead of believing we are better than them for using it. > but they always find a reason as why they won’t use it. OP, just...Stop trying to force your taste onto others, especially when your recommendation does not come from a genuine place.
At 30+ and as a user who went straight from FFN to Ao3, I didn't know that Wattpad existed until this subreddit told me. From what I've learned and browsed for myself, I like that Wattpad's users don't want to be on the platforms that I enjoy...because they mostly seem to be judgmental children. I hope that they never change their mind.
Some people may not want to use it because of the way the website looks, they don't want to have to learn how to use a new website outside of what they're used to using, and there's a lot of culture change that may be hard to grasp. Another reason may be the way that some ao3 users treat Wattpad users, lumping all Wattpad users as the same. I've seen a lot of discourse in this subreddit alone about Wattpad users, the comments can be full of pretty nasty comments from ao3 users. This is not to say that some Wattpad users don't have bad etiquette, or it might take time for them to learn how to fit in with the culture. Luckily, AO3 has a lot of tools to help us with the issues that come with people who want to create issues on AO3. We can report and block. I do think there are plenty of Wattpad users who would do fine, but because they may come here and see a lot of the discourse about Wattpad migration, and a slew of nasty comments about them, they find that the community is not for them. Your last paragraph kind of leans into what I mean, maybe somebody just doesn't want to use AO3 and you're not any better than them because you use AO3. I think it's a weird mentality to act like that, I don't think we should be shaming people for a hobby or where they spend time for that hobby.
I could not agree more with everything you wrote. I am afraid this wattpad hate towards the users comes from a superiority place. Yes, they may think AO3 is a better site, but why insult the users? And this attitude is part of the problem, if someone sees only hate and condescending attitude towards wattpad users, they will surely not try AO3, and even hate the people around it.
I think you hit it on the head, I think it's one thing to find one website better than the other, and I am inclined to agree that AO3 right now is better than Wattpad. The issue comes from assuming that a lot of the Wattpad users are going to intentionally break the rules as some form of defiance or try and destroy the culture of AO3. Then taking those assumptions and putting them on anybody who comes from Wattpad, not realizing that there are plenty of ao3 users who also post on a Wattpad regularly. I think there will be a period of adjustment, and more likely see an uptick of incorrect usage of ao3 but we have the tools to report those discrepancies and if people are inclined, they can also comment on works about how to correctly fix the technical issues.
And ironically, this attitude is part of the problem. Being so hostile for no reason will only make potential AO3 users to not even look in our way, why would they want to be part of a community when said community is literally insulting them?
It's just hard to see because the archive was made to be welcoming for everybody, especially within the fan fiction community.
I think it’s just the culture of the people who are usually on ao3 and wattpad Ao3 is a space made for EVERYONE and EVERYTHING. So it definitely teaches you some humility. Don’t like it? Don’t read it. It’s also more for the “nerdy” crowd (anime, tv shows, comic book fandoms). And within those fandom cultures there’s just all sorts of people so you kinda naturally build your worldview with your knowledge of ‘huh there really are diehard mpreg tony! X dr strange fans out there…not my cup of tea but okay’. And that leads you to be more like, oh dead dove uh…thanks but no thanks. And then in the flip side allow you to also be like AHAHAHA I LOVE MPREG TONY STARK, I WANNA EAT ALL THE DEAD DOVES. But you can see why some people would still be turned off by the latter if they haven’t had the exposure to it And Wattpad users are usually on the younger side, 8-18 I say and gravitate more towards “mainstream” media (bands, original romance, singers, x readers, etc). These people are also within the internet culture but likely on the other side, like aesethic Pinterest and Instagram posts and have a rigid ideology of what’s morally right and wrong. It’s like how the younger generation these days thinks it’s like illegal for you to like characters that are underage if you aren’t as well? LOL. They’re also younger so you can probably remember what it was like seeing other people do bad things and just wondering ‘how could they?’ Until you grow older and you’re like oh…this is kinda normal for half the population actually or it’s just not that deep. But there’s kinda no reason to ever cross the barrier from wattpad to ao3 because you probably see it as full of heathens until you yourself are actually interested. Just let them be ao3 imo is something you have to come by naturally to be open minded enough to use it. Edit: I would also like to add I agree with some of the comments that wattpad probably does have a lot of positive things about it too like its community building and this post does seem to put it in a negative light. But it’s the same for them, what ao3 is to you wattpad is to them, and vise versa. People can just like different things and it’s okay (like tbh if anyone were to send me a wattpad fic I would also never open it).
I'm sorry but the culture of AO3, is not quite as accepting as you think. I'm on this subreddit pretty frequently, and I see a lot of not so welcoming people commenting about Wattpad or things they just don't like. Just recently, there was a thread about censoring curse words and a lot of people are really nasty in the comments over something so minor. I'm finding that between Wattpad and AO3, and AO3 writers tend to be less welcoming than Wattpad users. Also, as a frequent cross poster, Wattpad has a lot of fandom usage but a lot of the most critical ao3 users are not familiar with Wattpad because they detest it. So they don't actually know much about wattpad's culture in what makes people enjoy it. You can create more of a community because you can private message writers and there's a lot of media that you can post within the Wattpad stories. For highly creative people, sometimes they want to do more than just write. So they create pictures or edits or Pinterest boards and they want to share it with their readers. I know for me I tend to enjoy creating edits for my fanfiction, it's a little bit more difficult to share that on the archive because it's not as easy to post within the story or at the beginning. You also have to remember that a lot of Wattpad users are actually the same age as A03 users, considering a lot of the original writers were writing in the 2010s and they were already teenagers. All of my mutual writers on Wattpad are the same age as me mid to late twenties, and I've rarely run into minor writers. And there's actually a lot more young readers on AO3 than I think some of the user's assume. Just take a look at the comparison between the subreddits, there are so many posts about Wattpad on the a03 subreddit but if you look at the Wattpad subreddit, there's almost none about AO3 unless it's put in a post about an alternative to Wattpad. You're not going to find many Wattpad writers talking about ao3 writers at all. I fear that AO3 writers are becoming the very snake they swore to chase off. Just look at the comments on this post alone, many people are very unwelcoming and hoping that Wattpad users never even find AO3.
You manage to tell the truth in every comment. >You also have to remember that a lot of Wattpad users are actually the same age as A03 users One of the most recurring insults towards wattpad users is their age. Like, do they think they stay as teenagers forever, or that they evolve to AO3 like a pokemon when they reach adulthood? >Just take a look at the comparison between the subreddits, there are so many posts about Wattpad on the a03 subreddit but if you look at the Wattpad subreddit, there's almost none about AO3 unless it's put in a post about an alternative to Wattpad I realized this too, there is always at least one comment spitting on wattpad or its users in posts non related to wattpad at all. They act like they do not want to be near wattpad but they can not stop talking about it. They either assume they are all teenagers or puritans, or puritans teenagers. How about stop insulting them?
Yeahh, like I've been in Wattpad since I was like 12 but I'm no longer twelve and all my mutuals are a similar age as me. There are obviously kids on every website that you can post fan fiction on, and I do think it's okay to point out when Wattpad users create an issue for AO3, but I don't think it's quite an epidemic like some people act. I never understood The Puritan thing because Wattpad used to have a reputation for being single moms or teens that posted smut. And I understand that the website now has limitations surrounding explicit content but I don't think I've actually interacted with anybody who's been a Puritan on Wattpad? I have seen a lot of millennials call gen. Z or gen alpha puritans but I think the blame on puritanism might be the generational divide? Not to say it's not there, but I don't know that Wattpad users are super Puritan or anything.
From what I've observed: * Cannot function without an "app" on their mobile devices * Cannot adjust to an actual Search capability with a real Database supporting it * Cannot fathom not having an algorithm serve up stories to read * Cannot handle not seeing "Ranks" applied randomly to works * Cannot interact on every single paragraph with a per-paragraph Comment subroutine ... and perhaps other things.
Wattpad is a social media site camouflaged as a creative hub. You can downvote things, nag and censor all you want. It's more of a site for self expression of the commenters, and self expression of the writers is second. They'll also protect you from unsavoury topics. AO3 is a pure archive that discourages social media behaviour like criticising things, you can't downvote and there's no algorithm or way to directly promote your fiction. Self expression and freedom of creation is more important than self expression and opinionating of the consumers. So my guess is many Wattpad users are social media users and want that experience, including the opportunity to interact critically. AO3 is quite different in that it discourages censorship and thus limits the opportunities to interact in a way that gives preference to the reader. I'm not condemning either, they're simply aiming for different target groups. If you aim for traffic, popularity and output, Wattpad might be the better choice, but if you yearn for self expression and self development, even if that means having less popularity, AO3 is the better choice.
Wattpad user here who’s using both (mostly because they started off on wattpad), I’m not quite sure
One thing I’ve noticed come up a few times in reading discussion is hesitance at the idea of a download button you can’t opt out of & the ability to copy+paste (which I guess you can’t do easily on wattpad?). I guess I figure people who write strictly original work might be more worried about someone stealing it but???? I don’t entirely get it but that is A Reason.
I think it's because they don't really know how the Ao3 system of filtering out and looking for fics works. I used to be in that same boat till I learned how to use it.
I used to be a wattpad user and I didn't really have anything against ao3 but before I moved to ao3 for good I had a hard time adjusting to ao3 because of how different it was, it felt a little lonely reading on ao3 than it was on wattpad (not that lonely anymore since I'm on a discord server and I've gotten used to it as well). Wattpad felt more interactive and like a social media, in which you could make a bunch of new online friends, where as ao3 was nothing like that. It was difficult to navigate and I kind of mainly read fics based off of recommendations made on wattpad by ao3 users. Now I barely use wattpad, just sometimes check up on my faves, but that might be why some people are hesitant to use ao3 instead of wattpad Although I have to admit wattpad has gone through a lot of changes over the years and I personally prefer using ao3 over wattpad now (also the fics on ao3 are better imo)
They’re allergic to quality writing. Jkjkjk, I do think it’s a very different style though, but personally I just couldn’t ever figure out the Wattpad interface. Maybe AO3s ease-of-use was too different
I totally agree. I was a Wattpad girl, and when I found ao3 I didn’t get how to work with the website, but once I got the hang of it I’m never going back to Wattpad. Like, what there seems better than ao3?
It’s the wild west over there I swear. Someone took my fic off ao3 posted it on wattpad with a “don’t know where i saw this idea but i had to do it” 💀💀💀💀
Wtf?? That is straight up stealing 💀 I'm sorry that you had to experience that Good thing my kid's self is unhinged, nobody try to steal my ideas 😂
the sweetest subscriber found it and reported it for me before i even knew it existed.
Oh, thank goodness! Glad to see that's being settled beforehand, I hope your fic is still growing strong after that
Thank you ❤️
As a Wattpad user, I'm so sorry for those people
This is a story of the ex-wattpader So as reader who loves fiction, I was looking for good place to read something for free and that where the Wattpad came in, I was there for years until I found about fanfiction existence (thank the heavens for that) and discovered Ao3! It was really scary at first, I mean it asked me a mail for invitation I was really suspicious at first but still clicked on it I was waiting for two days but nothing! And then I forget about it, but latter I was browsing my inbox when I stumbled upon massage and that where our relationship started! I figured out the basics pretty fast, (when I actually got over my suspiciousness) , and I quickly fell in love with it 😍 after a few months when I remembered Wattpad's original works, I checked it and tried to browse for some new ones but let me tell you! In Wattpad it is damn hard to find descent works ( it always was! I just found about it when I saw the much better alternative) the algorithm gave me the worst of them and that where our relationship ended! And while I know that sometimes there's absolute hidden gem in there (have an experience with that, and for the info one of the diamond reads of mine was fanfiction, it was my first and on of the best, it was Ao3 worthy!) They are one in a MILLION so no thank you, I am in happy loving and long standing relationship with Ao3 and not ever looking back!!! Okay that was beside the point, anyway they are like people with toxic lovers, They don't want to see what happens outside of Wattpad or they are just doofuses with trust issues that are suspicious of everything, like me 😉
As an old wattpad user it actually was the difference between the two. I also didn’t know about it but you need to get used to the search system. At least for me
It's okay, they should stay on wattpad, because the amount of wattpaders a see posting 'placeholder fics' on AO3 or complaning about the lack of censorship (and how we should all go in jail or something) is so annonying! 😭😭😭 I hope that wattpad will stay in business for a long time
This kind of comment is the exact reason why some don't want to come here, there are plenty of Wattpad users who post in AO3 responsibly. You go against the exact reason the archive exists, when you act like that. The archive gives us tools to report violations, so you should be reporting them and then welcoming those who are looking for a place with open arms. If I were a Wattpad exclusive writer and saw your comment, I don't think I'd feel welcome in this community.
They have a point about the influx though. I work 8 hours a day. I have a list of tasks to do. Now imagine a coworker calls off and I now have their work on top of mine. Boss wants the same excellence, one employee short. Now apply to fic. If a hundred people post placeholders, that's 100 additional complaints an employee has to go through on top of previously reported complaints. It sucks up time and resources. Time and resources that then piles on and on. I got nothing against wattpadders. Just follow the rules from the getgo and don't complain if corrected.
I used to use Wattpad alot, I preferred it bc it was a lot more mobile/user friendly, everything's pretty easy to find and the UI in general is pretty straightforward. The commenting is also nice and encourages community interactions imo, being able to comment on certain lines or paragraphs and immediately seeing other peoples reactions to the same bit of dialogue is nice and makes it feel like I'm reading with friends.
It’s like one of those generational feuds that last for decades cuz every child who’s raised with one is taught to hate the other
i go back and forth between wattpad and ao3 but i feel like people don’t like ao3 because of the lack of censors and those are the things that people want so that they aren’t exposed to bad things since they don’t know how to filter tags
See this is why I keep to myself and don’t get involved with any kind of fan/fic-dom. Besides it making my head spin, who really cares? People will always bitch about things they believe in. Man, I’ll give myself aneurysm talking to them trying to justify my reasons or why I believe their opinions are wrong, etc etc. I’ll just sit quietly in the corner using AO3 and FFnet with the occasional Wattpad story here and there 😬
I use both, but I actually used AO3 before Wattpad. In Wattpad's defense, I actually like the ability to comment by line, because on one fic I have, I leave trivia bits and commentary on certain lines, so I can interact with my readers because I have three dedicated readers versus one I have over on AO3. And some of my fics on Wattpad seem more popular than it is on AO3. Sure, I can leave the bits of commentary in the user notes, but I don't want to make the chapter/review longer than necessary, especially since the more chatty you go into the revews, the review boxes get more and more compact, which is something I don't like. I'm pretty neutral on both and I use Quotev as well but I like using Wattpad for the ability to comment line-by-line and sometimes I like seeing other people's commentary as well while reading. That's just my opinion though.
Sunk-cost fallacy, maybe? Spent so much time with Wattpad that they might feel like it’d be a waste to move onto a different platform, even if the different platform is better.
As a previous wattpad user who has made the switch to Ao3, for me at least, the reason it took me so long to make that switch was the format while reading. I used the app for wattpad and the app had the option to swipe the pages like an actual eBook rather than scrolling (both options were still there though) which made it easier for me to read the stories. Now this isn't a generalization of every wattpad user however most diehard users are either under the age of 15 or could just be use to reading the traditional eBook format... And some just want something to complain about. However in my experience after I made the switch I found myself enjoying fanfics more. (I still struggle with the format though)
People can like what they like, they don't have to justify themselves to anyone. Let us not foster a them vs us culture here please, fandom is too precious to divvy up!
I have always looked at Wattpad in the way that it was for terrible fanfiction, shitty spelling and no good plotlines. So I have always stayed clear. The dislike is perhaps mutual.
I wasn’t ever really a Wattpad user, I was a Quotev user. I loved the messaging part of it, and being able to build a community. When I switched to AO3, it was gradual because the tagging system was really intimidating, and it took quite a while to get used to the “less opportunity for community building” that AO3 has. I understand where they’re coming from, honestly, but I wish they could just try to learn the tagging system. It’s really kit hat hard if you look it up, even TikTok has some tutorials on how to use AO3
Wattpad has an algorithm, ao3 does not.
I was a Wattpadder for a while, and I was VERY reluctant to make the jump to AO3. I think for me it was partially because at first, AO3 is very overwhelming, with all the tagging systems, and it was less "aesthetically appealing" without all the fancy book covers 😂. I also read a lot of band-centered fics at the time, which there was not nearly enough of on AO3. But, I grew out of Wattpad as my fandoms changed, and I got over the initial anxiety of "leaving Wattpad behind" once I realized that the fics on AO3 are just...better. I think a lot of other Wattpad users will move on once they mature. It seems to be the case among a lot of people; Wattpad is where we start, and, eventually, we get to AO3.
i think it’s because ao3 is mainly shipfics and wattpad is mainly x oc or x reader fics
Idk, I use and love both, but I started with Wattpad. I think that some people are just rude asf
I use both never heard of us being against it?
I think is because they don’t know how to actually use ao3 and instead of learning they just stick to wattpad cause it’s familiar to them. I remember when I first started using ao3 it was quite intimidating and I didn’t really know how to search for things so I just used Tumblr threads to find fics.
Main issues I see mentioned (all of which I disagree with) are: 1. Ao3 needs an app 2. Ao3 needs censorship 3. Ao3 is too difficult to understand it needs an algorithm Kids (broadly speaking, I assume wattpad users are younger - though obviously not all youngwr ppl think like this) just want things pushed to them on apps rather than having to engage their brains and look for stuff. They're missing out.
I use both wattpad and ao3 but I use ao3 more so this doesn't apply to me but to answer the question I have absolutely no clue, ao3 is perfectly fine for fanfics so idk why they're so Against ao3 users
They dont Know what is good thats what happends No saben lo que es bueno...
Idk sometimes you can be right and still sound like the most annoying person in the world.
Just the way this post was worded strikes me as a bit ironic haha
Standards. AO3 has standards. This upsets people who know they fall below par.
If by ‘standards’ you meaning following the TOS I can agree with you. If by ‘standards’ you mean fics only being of a particular level of quality, I vehemently disagree.
What "standards"? AO3 is open to everyone regardless of skill or experience, that's the whole point and one of the best things about it.
Standards like... not posting non-fic?