Nakajimas ── Miscellaneous

Wattpadification of AO3?! (Red Arrow)

FIRSTLY NO HATE. I am a hater but I'm not hating today (rare). i'm only interested in examining and opening up a conversation on this topic.

this is just me observing an interesting phenomenon in which the culture of AO3 is being "wattpadified" (via writing and format). 

you can split this debate into two areas, i feel: writing and format. 

i think the conversation about AO3 vs Wattpad is long overdue but also very interesting? especially if you take into consideration the "fandom culture" and also discord. 

writing:

so basically the only reason i'm interested in talking about this is because of a tiktok that came up on my fyp (see below) and the comment section heavily blasting several different fandoms (spider-verse, harry potter, dc, bnha etc.) and writers for OOC characterisation. 

as you can see, the text for the video says "me when i see a fanfic that mischaracterises my faves so bad that i actually have to comment and tell the writer to never write again."

this is quite interesting because it indirectly refers to AO3 comment etiquette imo. comment culture between websites differs heavily but i'll be specific with AO3 because AO3 has a very different kind of comment culture (in my opinion!!) to wattpad.

and this is a hot take but i think a successful ao3 author would go insane if their successful fic became successful on wattpad because of the comments. 

the difference is pretty simple. it's characterised in three ways. 

1. the age of the audience. wattpad has a LOT of minors roaming around, like min age. 12. [not too much of a bad thing, young people want a space to socialise too.] in comparison, i feel that AO3 is often presented with a more adult demographic? like a min. of 16+? (this may be due to format. see later.)

this is relevant because ao3 is full of writers with experience in both writing but also in maturity(?) [doubting said maturity after seeing how ridiculously close-minded they can be about gatekeeping]. while wattpad has a young audience and these readers will view the fiction they're reading online as a personal outlet. 

2. the way the comment function works. ao3 requires you to scroll down to the bottom of the chapter—essentially finishing the chapter, to comment. and comments are also flexible: the author can choose to prevent people from commenting, moderate the comments, or only let people with an AO3 account comment. it's ingenious, imo. 

in comparison, wattpad lets you comment by the paragraph, or when the author hits the enter button and moves to the next line. this means that readers can spam comments—and i mean DOZENS—of comments on one single chapter.

i used to get so irritated omg when people would spam my books but now i don't really care—it's not like you have to entertain them or reply to them, y'know? let them exist in their own silly little sphere. you shouldn't be trying to curate an aesthetic comment section anyway. (even though it is your book, i know. but it's a public space, and lets just laugh at this 13 year old saying how cute dazai is. or delete the comments as you go etc.)

3. ao3 readers often provide constructive criticism or uhh whatever the opposite of constructive is? hate?? hate criticism in the comment sections, like "UHM [nerd glasses] Your writing is kinda repetitive and Deku would NEVER say this", but also y'know they can be super positive etc. in comparison, i often feel that wattpad audiences don't really write abt how good the fic is until specific moments—like specific paragraphs etc. or the very end of the fic. 

they instead focus on commenting their own reactions to the plot of the fic or the writing. like "lolol i wish deku railed me" etc. LOOK ITS NOT A BAD THING IM NOT TRYING TO DISS WATTPAD AGAGAHAJAHJ OK PLS BELIEVE ME.