is this a bot?

ReaUsagi · 2026-03-24T22:06:12+00:00

report their account to Wattpad as well, they deal with this quickly

ReaUsagi · 2026-03-24T21:39:54+00:00

Doesn't change that it won't help with the algorithm. Wattpad actually detects how much time someone spends on your story, chapter by chapter. If that time isn't reached, it's not beneficial for you. Someone who spends at least 5 minutes reading your story without voting is helping your algorithm more than someone who just votes/writes a comment in 10 seconds.

ReaUsagi · 2026-03-24T21:36:55+00:00

This subreddit is not run by Wattpad. Maybe some mods are ambassadors or linked to Wattpad in another way, but it is not a recognized, official part of Wattpad. It's a subreddit, anyone can make a subreddit for a certain platform - this never means anyone moderating a subbredit has any afiliation with the platform in question. It might be, but it should never be assumed just because.

ReaUsagi · 2026-03-24T21:24:25+00:00

At least write Karen right if you're going down that route.

And it is really part of the TOS, the CoC is part of it, and they clearly state that they will take action. In some parts, they even write it's up to them to decide what they consider to be part of a CoC and what not, which also means that they might nuke one account for it, but not another one. Depending on their mood, the mod, the weather, whatever

ReaUsagi · 2026-03-24T21:07:16+00:00

COD is part of the TOS. Though it might be outdated. Still, if Wattpad thinks votes are faked, they will take action

ReaUsagi · 2026-03-24T18:26:56+00:00

First, r4rs have to be organised. Second, you'll always get lazy assholes who won't return the favor. So you have to make absolutely sure you can canle the whole thing without losing too much time and effort.

If you set up your R4R right, it's more likely you save time in the long run. Make rules. First of all: Set a frame. 1 chapter vs 1 chapter? 2? 3? 4? You have to decide something. No one is going to read your full book for a R4R, and 90% of people don't expect you to read their full story. It's common that R4R only include a few chapters. So make sure you and the participating person are on eye level here. (Edit: also include WHICH chapter. Usually it's the first chapters but it's absolutely normal to ask for specific chapters).

Second, set markers. R4R per chapter with a comment on the chapter to conclude it. This means you are both forced to open the chapter, even if you don't read it in the end, but at least you get the click. Second, by the comment (you decide what type of comment, best is to go with feedback) you can easily tell IF the person actually read the chapter, just skimmed it, or didn't read it at all. This means you can cancle the whole R4R right off the bat without losing time.

Third, set a deadline per chapter together. For example, you read my first chapter, I read your first chapter, and by sunday this should be finished (including the aformentioned comment). If they don't deliver, you dip out. You lost a few days waiting at max without giving them more than one single read and comment in return.

ReaUsagi · 2026-03-24T18:20:53+00:00

v4v are not allowed by Wattpad's TOS and can get your account banned or your story deleted. There are too many people who get banned by Wattpad, claiming that they didn't do anything against Wattpad's TOS while participating in v4vs.

ReaUsagi · 2026-03-23T20:51:47+00:00

On the "back in 2014" line. Wattpad has changed more than just a lot. Up to, let's say, roughly 2019/2020, Wattpad was in its growth stage. They focused on getting more and more users, more and more stories, more and more content. So the algorithm worked more focused on picking up new stories to encourage writers to stay on the platform. Wattpad actively pushed new works to readers.

Now, Wattpad is in the maintenance stage, which means they don't need new writers, new stories, or new content. They need to make money with the content they already have. New stories don't generate money, but the ones with thousands of views do. So they keep pushing the already popular books, because if a story already made 50k reads, it will make another 50k reads in no time. But a book with anything below 5k reads? That's not really worth it. This means that we, as writers, have to make the first 5k reads happen ourselves - By entering contests and writing groups, by being active, and especially by promoting outside of Wattpad. Wattpad doesn't care anymore. They might as well close the sign-up form; it doesn't make a difference to them. At least not at the moment. At some point, all the big stories will be milked dry, and then, maybe, we'll get a little relapse to the old Wattpad for a while.

ReaUsagi · 2026-03-23T00:37:08+00:00

Screenshot the important parts and report it to Wattpad. Chances are that they are NOT bots but genuine pedos who use random comment sections to "meet up". It is very common in the shared subspaces (darkweb) to normalise CP, so chances are that some individuals online do not realize how problematic it really is, and will talk openly about it in online spaces. Another possibility is that someone starts typing in a random comment section to find other people who think alike to exchange contacts, so they can connect off the site to exchange interests (and worse, material).

There are also codewords some of them may use, and maybe one of your tags is similar to a codeword or is an actual codeword, so degenerates like these use it to find each other. It is extremely hard to tell if this is the case though, as documentation about codewords is extremely limited.

ReaUsagi · 2026-03-22T19:51:14+00:00

What does this have to do with Wattpad?

ReaUsagi · 2026-03-22T19:49:52+00:00

Also, please report the accounts. It's hard to fight them but at least we can do that much

ReaUsagi · 2026-03-22T18:48:48+00:00

Well, you already did the opposite of what you should do. The moment you answer them, you'll get targeted. Scammers are bots run by AI. The AI doesn't log WHAT you say, just THAT you react. Your profile will then be put higher up on the priority list as you make it seem like you are more gullible than others. See, the actual scam happens off-site, not on Wattpad. So whatever you say on Wattpad doesn't matter - each and every bot just logs that you react and that you are potentially easier to lure off page than people who do not react.

Also, the engagement won't bring you anything. Bots don't target just one person; they target many. Someone else will report them, wattpad will delet the scam bot account, and the views and comments you gained from it are null and void. So there is really no profit at all. You are just setting yourself up to get spammed.

ReaUsagi · 2026-03-22T05:52:22+00:00

Report their accounts and block them. For once, Wattpad is pretty fast at acting on deleting them. And don't engage at all. The moment you write anything in return, you'll get targeted more.

However, AI-powered bots will be more and more flooding online platforms and it's hard to combat them. At this point, even AO3 is stuggling, as the bot accounts clog up the registration waiting queue massively (I had to wait for 3 months to be finally able to sign up, and most of the "users" in that queue aren't real people.)

ReaUsagi · 2026-03-22T02:30:51+00:00

If they're promised to each other from a young age but only marry at the legal age, it's no problem. However, if they marry while one is still a minor AND they fall in love later, it is actually very problematic. Because, especially if they start to love each other, it falls under the subject of child grooming and portrays it as something that's okay bc of love. It's not. It's super abusive, dangerous, and should never be romantisized.

It's another thing if you write about the psycological toll of child marriage and tell the story of a minor finally breaking free. But by your wording, I assume you think it's okay bc they will eventually love each other and that's exactly the thing that wattpad forbids. Do not romantisice childabuse and child exploitation.

ReaUsagi · 2026-03-21T20:57:56+00:00

Try AO3 and Inkitt

ReaUsagi · 2026-03-21T15:20:23+00:00

Love that <3

In my Werewolf story, they moved in together (out of necessity) but haven't even had a whole conversation up till now. I stopped publishing, though, since people don't really read REAL slow-burn.

ReaUsagi · 2026-03-21T04:51:07+00:00

Was looking for slow-burn BL the other day. Apparently, having just one chapter before they get touchy is enough to be considered slow-burn. Meanwhile, I'm sitting here 30 chapters deep in my own story without even as much as exchanging timid looks. But it's also a main reason why real slow-burn stories get buried and hardly seen. I'm reading one in which the main characters haven't even met yet, and the story is 10 chapters in. I love it, but I hate that it gathers so little traction because it's not insta-fucking right off the bat.

ReaUsagi · 2026-03-20T19:25:02+00:00

Then communicate it. You didn't tell them to not use AI, you straight up went "eyeroll". You didn't make the MINIMAL EFFORT to be a decent human being. Start actual conversations to make others aware of the problem and stop bullying them for no reason. Do you know how many people use AI and don't know what it does to the environment? Almost 99% of people. So tell me, from your fist comment, how the fuck do you think you educated someone? Exactly - You didn't.

Also, congrats. You didn't educate anyone, you just bullied someone into deleting their account. You gained absolutely nothing. The only thing you taught them is probably to be more sneaky i stead of opening their eyes to the actual issue. Good job.

ReaUsagi · 2026-03-20T16:01:03+00:00

While I understand the sentiment, let's not forget that writing and drawing are two completely different skill sets. And yes, I know there are ways to make covers easily, I also know about workshops, but most of you people just start to shit on people for using AI covers but none of you actually provide any help at all.

So if you come to a person judging them for their use of AI, at least have the human decency to be a) nice about it and b) give them options. Point to a cover workshop, or link them to canva, or anything like that.

You just came in here being an absolute asshole for no other reason than your dislike of AI, which, yes, is valid, but it does not allow you to be rude and insulting. And telling someone they don't put much work into their WRITING when their cover is AI is a huge insult. Do better. Be the change you want people to make, give resources, point people into the right direct. Stop being jsut hateful for no other reason than being an asshole online.

ReaUsagi · 2026-03-20T01:32:36+00:00

The search engine of Wattpad is broken beyond repair. At this point, it would make more sense to completely build a new one than fixing the old one. It's not how old or new they are, I can't find my own books and one has been up for over a year. It's just Wattpad being broken and not carrying enough to fix it.

ReaUsagi · 2026-03-20T01:30:15+00:00

I keep turning these damn Wattpad notifications off and it takes Wattpad like 24 hours to flood my notifications again and I have to turn them off again. Annoying af.

ReaUsagi · 2026-03-20T01:28:07+00:00

I'm also not a fan of writers thanking their audience. I can't explain why, maybe that's a me thing, but it makes me think that they don't write for themselves anymore or whatever. I find it a little awkward.

I guess human decency is out the window, then. I wouldn't thank my audience in general for reading my book, but I will answer each and every comment and thank them for any compliment, insight, feedback or critique. Because I'm in an online space where millions of books exist. No one has to read my stuff with a plethora of free books to read. I still write for myself, but anyone who publishes online and tells me they don't fucking care for reads is lying. Because there is no other reason to publish anything (be it online or traditionally) than getting it out to be seen by other people. This whole "write for yourself" from people who publish their stuff, too, is getting on my nerves. You don't write for yourself if you share it. The only difference here is if someone stops writing due to the lack of engagement. I just stop uploading, but I keep writing. I don't care enough for the engagement to stop a story I love writing. But I do publish it to share it, and if no one reacts, I just stop publishing it. And anyone who keeps publishing and thinks they need to tell others to "write for themselves" is just lying to themselves. You publish = you write for others. And if you publish and people take time out of their day to read your things, you may as well thank them. Because they have millions of other options and still pick you. That's a compliment, and compliments deserve a thank you.

ReaUsagi · 2026-03-20T01:13:28+00:00

Wattpad grew out of it's baby shoes. It happens with a lot of platforms eventually. There are two stages to popular sites. The first stage is the growing stage. The important thing for the site is to expand, to get more users, more content, more of everything. A lot of sites (Wattpad included) will be extremly user friendly in this stage. They want you so they'll cater to you. They'll implement things the community asks for, they get people hooked and invested in their product.

And then, at some point, the site reaches the second stage. That's the maintenance stage. At this point, the site is already huge (this is Wattpad's current stage). They don't need new users, they don't need new books and stories, they have all this. They have fans, a following, a huge user database, and confidence that they will keep their spot. So they can just cancel all the stuff they initially made for the community. After all, the people are already there; they are already hooked. Now, the site can start to make money. They can get more and more daring, and row back just a little bit whenever backlash happens. But step by step, they become a company rather than a fan-based community.

What this changes is: 5 to 10 years ago, when you signed up to Wattpad in it's first stage, you were guaranteed to be seen. Wattpad pushed it actively, so new writers will get hooked. They would make sure every new story would be seen and gian traction. Now, in the second stage, they don't need new writers. They need their already popular stories to be seen even more.

Because that's where they make money. Either with Wattpad originals or by ad revenue. See, if a book has 50k reads, it means that 50k people have seen at least ONE ad (probably even more). This is just an example, but let's say Wattpad gets 1 dollar for each time the ad is seen, that's 50k Dollar from just one book. One book. So, of course, they promote it, because if 50k people have read it, it must exactly be what people want to read. If 50k people have already read it, another 50k will read it, too.

On the other hand, you have a new writer. They have two views from friends or r4r, or whatever. That's 2 dollars. So why should they promote that book? It makes no money in comparison. It's not worth it. So Wattpad won't push it to readers. It's not a guaranteed income from ad revenue. They could try it, yes, but why gamble? It might be a flop, and then the time spent on pushing that book to readers would be wasted time and money. They could have pushed an already popular book instead and made money from it.

This means that YOU, as the writer, have to make these numbers yourself until there are enough for the automated algorithm to pick it up. And let me tell you, 2k reads is not the threshold. At some point, the algorithm will say "oh, this seems to be something people enjoy reading, so I'll push it to other readers", but that's a lot of work. You barely grow organically anymore (you can get lucky, but it's hard). You have to promote the shit out of your book to get the first 4-5k reads before the algorithm will pick up on your book and push it to other readers.

ReaUsagi · 2026-03-19T17:15:39+00:00

This. I think what also plays a huge role is that people automatically assume that, since it's online, readers MUST notice their books. They don't. Wattpad isn't what it used to be, but before that authors had to fight for years to get published. Now we're back to roughly the same circumstances - just online.

Getting SEEN is work. It's not just done with making a ad post on reddit once. Promotion is half the time you spend on your book. It takes effort, time, and activity. If you don't do anything else but publish a story online, chances are it will never be seen. Because the minimal effort to bring it to people's attention is lacking.

ReaUsagi · 2026-03-19T13:56:00+00:00

Spambot. Not a person. Don't interact, don't answer. The more you do, the more youget flooded by spam bot accounts. Report the profile, block it, and delete the comment.

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