when i created my wattpad account, i created an email account solely for it. of course i didn’t think to do this ahead of time, i was not nearly clued up enough. i had to go back and create it and come back to open the account. i use this email address for wattpad and photobucket only. i never, never go there. (well, hardly ever.) i log on through wattpad to visit wattpad and it takes me directly to my general news feed. it took me months to accidentally figure out i can click on the orange wattpad ‘word’ to the top left to get to the news feed, no matter where on wattpad i am. i’ve not quite figured it all out yet, but here it tells me what my followers and the readers that i follow, are doing, it seems. it says who comments on what and who votes for what and who posts what. and it will tell you which readers started following which other readers. and it is these followers and the one we follow, whose wattpad activity is visible. i think. when one clicks on the large, orange left hand side ‘wattpad’ and you immediately get to the news feed, there are two options. one can stay on the ‘all news’ feed that tells everyone (that’s followed by you or that follows you) who is doing what on here, or you can click on the ‘my news’ button and it immediately takes you to a page that shows only news, votes, comments, follows, etc. that have to do directly with you. and so you can switch between the two as you please. when you click on any link you see in these news feeds, it takes you there or back at the click of a button.
i never work through my emails. never. i think it must be cumbersome and longwinded, but i’m probably being silly. i’m interested to know if it is all the same, whether you work from your news feed or whether you check out your emails. what does not appear on your news feed, is the fact that someone has pm’d you, but i think it shows up in your emails as it does in your instant notification box (that only you can see) if you are on line. pms are not supposed to show on the news feeds, but it has happened, probably when wattpad is glitchy. (mmmm….i know, shocking!) i know how comfortable i am with the news feeds and how unfamiliar with the email ‘system’, but i also know for a fact that for some members it is exactly the opposite. i think that perhaps there really is no difference between the two at all. it just makes sense that both methods should be identical. i’ve never compared and i’m not going to now, but isn’t every single notification one sees on the news feed also emailed to one’s email address for wattpad?
i was thoroughly amused and perplexed by the fact that there are members who never access wattpad through the news feed. just as i don’t access it through my emails. i know some members literally work through their emails one by one until all have been ‘attended’ to. i know this because people have mentioned the number of emails still waiting for their attention, in their inboxes. i think i do basically the same in the ‘my news’ mode. i know that i do not attend to every single notification i get. i take turns and have a method for this as well. maybe not the best method, but one that seems to work, i think. i like readin posts of long standing and new members. there is probably so much i still do not know. have i overlooked the wattpad manual for so many months now? where is it, please? i’m not a computer wizard, but i get by. somehow there always seems to be one who knows less than i do and many who know more, but i get by well enough to read and post and speak to people i’ve grown fond of. i love, love, love commenting. i love looking for books (especially poems) to read and i have a wonderful method of doing this. it really is like a treasure hunt.
what has also happened to me is that something i mean to post later, but is in draft form in my anthology, is added by someone to their reading list while it has not even been posted yet. (yes..!) i’ve checked this by going to another page and coming back again and again. this is what happens sometimes: in the news feed it says that my unpublished poem was added to someone’s list. when i go to it through the news feed, there is my unposted poem, but under the title of an already published poem, (usually the first one on the list in that book) but it is my still-to-be-posted poem. when i go to the reader’s reading list, the poem they meant to add is there, quite correctly. so it is only in the news feed that you seem to get your as-yet-unposted poem, for all to see, should they click on it. (the same thing happened with this piece today and i think it may be that it happens when the unpublished piece is saved in draft form at the top of the already published pieces on the 'my works' page.) i also think this happens only when wattpad is very temperamental. (please note, i have found out that this happens only when one moves one's write to the top of a collection before publishing it.) this is also when private messages end up in the news feeds. scary. it’s also scary, but makes sense to surmise that wattpad stores everything for ever and ever and ever, amen. i’m sure if they were forced they could produce every single word ever typed on this site. this of course would also include all inbox messages. it is certainly very helpful that one can print basically anything that shows on the pages of every one of us, inboxes too, if we are vigilant enough and print it while it is available, because once a reader removes a posting or is no longer a member of wattpad, all their posts disappear too, obviously.
to finish off...it was very convenient to have meebo, even if there were only a few people i typed to in that real time. i needed meebo for them specifically so i'll miss it. i'll also miss the tiny red dot notifications with the little white numbers telling me how many new notifications i have. seeing who was on wattpad right that minute will be the least missed part of meebo as one can pick that up easily enough now through the newsfeed, if one should want to. I'm not sure meebo had any more functions...but then what do i know...?
one last thing. how do writers decide on dedications? some feel guilty about the reads they are not reading. some items are written for a specific person. sometimes you just like someone enough to dedicate in fondness. sometimes you dislike someone and it's weird distorted dedication. sometimes you just want to dedicate everything you write to one single person. sometimes when i write something naughty i so want to dedicate it to the most introverted person i know on wattpad, but then i will probably dedicate it to someone who could carry off the dedication.
YOU ARE READING
fountainhead
Non-Fictionhornet's nest is in here... take care... they took my cover though
