quick message to ao3 community members

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TLDR: stop being toxic.

This will be deleted later, I just need to get something off of my chest for a moment.

In the past about a week or so, there has been a lot of negative comments thrown towards the wattpad community by the Archive of Our Own community.

For background, a lot of wattpad writers and readers said they would move to AO3 due to new wattpad guidelines, and the AO3 community was not happy about it.

Some of the comments I have heard are:
"Do not bring your reader inserts here. We don't want them."
"Get better grammar and then we'll read it."
"All wattpad stories are trash."
"Yeah, we don't want your shitty books on our site."

I don't think they realize how much of an impact those words have on a writer. While it may seem over-sensitive, a lot of us, myself included, have spent months or even years honing down our writing skills into something better. A lot of us are self conscious in our work or don't like them, and hearing that other people find your book terrible is not comforting in the slightest.

Wattpad is mainly an app for beginner writers. Those poorly written books you're complaining about? That was probably written by a 13 year old girl in 8th grade who just found a new source of entertainment. That bad grammar may be because of a person who doesn't do well at English but is trying to learn. Those 'garbage' books may be coming from somebody who is just trying out a new hobby.

If you don't like a book, don't read it. If you don't like 1st person POV, don't read it. If you don't like reader insert, don't read it. It is much easier to not click on a book than it is to be an asshole and bash something you haven't read.

I have been on this app for 4 years now. Over those four years I have evolved my skill level to something I am proud of, and even then I still am not very proud of it sometimes. Hearing people ridicule others for doing what I did when I first started writing is terrible. Not everyone starts out at a Pulitzer Prize writing level. It takes work, it takes dedication, and it takes courage.

So to any AO3 writers and readers out there who are bashing our platform and form of expression, please stop. If you didn't mean to be mean but were expressing your opinion-which you are completely entitled to do-please find a better way. If your intention is to hurt and bring down others just because you like something else than them, please reevaluate your priorities and think about what effect your words could have on people.

It hurts a lot of people, even seasoned writers, to know that you believe their stories and form of comfort shouldn't exist. There are many better things for you to do than bring people down.

𝕚𝕟𝕗𝕚𝕟𝕚𝕥𝕪 | p.p. x reader | book two.Where stories live. Discover now