(no subject)

[olivermoss]

One of the big 3 fic archives, Wattpad, is being sold for $600 million

No wonder there have been so many attempts to monetize fanfic and it's hosting, it's cash money content.

Not sure how this will play out, but my money is on scary TOS changes. I've sometimes considered also posting there, but I never have. Logically, it's a good idea and would get more eyes on my fic. But everytime I go to make an account I just nope out.

Comments

[evilinsanemonkey]

ehhhh i have some of my original stuff up there and uh i may have to Remove It

[olivermoss]

Not a bad idea. Every acquisition I've ever seen has had TOS changes, policy changes and trying to tighten grasp on content. You can always re-post later. But if they change TOS and make you accept it to even log back in as other sites have done, that would suck.

[evilinsanemonkey]

yeah i'm gonna have to break down and make my own website. which i should've done anyway but y'know

[olivermoss]

Good luck. My photography gets massively more exposure on my own site than any other where I am sublicensing my work to Zuck or someone. But I am still dealing with WP changing it's editor.

[mistressofmuses]

Oh damn, I hadn't heard about that!

I've had the same experience... I've low-key felt like I *should* make an account, just for new eyes on my fic, and a place to host any original work I actually manage to get into a readable state.

But I've also heard somewhat discouraging things about how hard it is to *get* anyone to see your work if you aren't lucky/writing something extremely popular/super prolific.

I definitely think I'll wait and see how this goes... because I think you're absolutely right about "Scary TOS Changes" being the next step.

[olivermoss]

Yeah, I felt like I'd be at a huge disadvantage on that site. When you do certain niche things you are unfindable unless a site has tagging like Ao3. Twitter keeps giving me suggested content based on have retweeted some Untamed stuff, but the suggested tweets are always about het Untamed ships. That's what algorithms are like.

There was a news story in Variety that Wattpad users are going to have the change to give feedback on who pilot scripts and I'm just like ... that sounds like they are dangling promises in front of the userbase and in the end no user will have any real impact. Reminds me of certain dodgy publishing BS from the past.

[mistressofmuses]

Definite same. I *love* AO3 for its extensive tagging and utter LACK of algorithmic suggestions. Like yes, you CAN sort things by popularity, but your fic isn't going to be hidden from search because it's had too few hits/kudos/etc. If I go to an author's page, or to a tag, or to a fandom, I can see everything in a nice reverse-chronological format regardless of the author's popularity, and not have to deal with it trying to decide which things I really want to see.

Twitter baffles me. I do have an account, but I don't think I've ever used it, lol.

Oof, yeah, that sounds REAL sketch. I know some authors have gotten "discovered" on Wattpad, but this sounds like it's almost trending toward pay-to-play type schemes. (It's not there yet, but that's the kind of "promise" I know I've seen on that kind of site.)

[olivermoss]

Twitter is clearly broken because my content is awesome and I have like only 3 real people followers.

Yeah, Wattpad has seem sketchy to me from the start and some of their tools creep me out. I still kept wanting to make an account because, eh, it's better to try things. But like I said I kept trying and noping out.

[luthienberen]

Wow, yes, that is rarely good when a site is bought out. I never posted on Wattpad (though considered it), but it is a popular site for so many. I hope whatever TOS changes occur the writers are given a chance to remove their stuff if needed.

[olivermoss]

It's got a larger user base than Ao3, so an exodus would be interesting.

A lot of fic is going to wind up deleted.

[luthienberen]

I wonder how many would come to A03? It certainly will be interesting where the authors find new harbour.

I agree that much fic will be deleted sigh.

[olivermoss]

The mental image of a lot of Wattpad folks suddenly flooding over is amusing, but yeah I think what will mostly happen is deletion. It wont be a for a while. They'll buy, do a few tweaks, and then when people are off guard they'll start reworking the site.

Speaking of which, I still wonder why Wordpress bought Tumblr and what the heck they plan to do with it. I still wonder if Wordpress knows.

[luthienberen]

An amusing image indeed, but I concur, I think most fic will be deleted.

Wordpress buying tumblr is a mystery, because Tumblr is so markedly different to the journal site I don't know how they can transform Tumblr into a site that makes profit. I never got the hang of Wordpress, but between the two if I had to pay for a plan it would be Wordpress for like dw and LJ the site has proper features I would use and actually performs the role of an archive with easily searched posts, customisation etc.

[olivermoss]

Wordpress did a bunch of changes to chase what Wix and Squarespace is doing and disrupted their entire userbase. I hate the changes like burning.

I know I'm likely wrong, but it feels like WP bought Tumblr just because it was so cheap.

IDK, WP is either being very very smart or very very dumb right now. I really don't know which it is.

[luthienberen]

Ugh, I hate it when a site changes for the worse. :/

To be fair, I think your proposal is pretty likely. Tumblr has been sold for a loss (twice now?) and WP may have thought it could do something with it.

Ditto on not knowing whether WP is being really smart or dumb right now. I would think that WP needs to be considering seriously a plan for Tumblr to make them profit ASAP if they haven't already. As for Tumblr, I do wonder about its longevity. Dreamwidth and Livejournal have survived (and I hope they continue to do so and especially for dw to thrive) because they understand what userbase they want and outside fandom the sites are relatively popular with users who are willing to pay for features and in the case of LJ agree to ads for features also. Dreamwidth in particular is doing its best to update its coding without jeopardising their original mission.

It will be interesting to see what happens now that pillowfort is open to the public and whether any future changes at Tumblr cause the userbase to go there, here, LJ or elsewhere.

Alongisde wattpad fandom may be up for more changes in platform..