The Dragon's Lair

Rant-ish: The New Wattpad Update (again)

This is referring to the web update. I have no idea if the app has changed. And if you find this too long, go all the way to the end for a shorter version. (Too Long; Didn't Read)

        So last year or so Wattpad released a new update for the profiles. A great number of us hated it, but they didn't change it back. It's still annoying, but I hate to say but I getting used to the damn thing. (I was going to rant about that but I ended up procrastinating and It wasn't worth posting anymore.)
(P.S. And to new people who never saw the old profiles, you missed out on great stuff.)

        They also posted a new update for my works and book title pages, Which was actually a rather good update. It was helpful and not too messy.

        But this time is ridiculous. This is worse than the new profiles. The new reading mode is stupid and ridiculous. I shall repeat:

        THE NEW READING MODE UPDATE IS UTTERLY STUPID AND RIDICULOUS.

        Now let's list a few reasons why:

Reason One: Scrolling Instead of Pages

        So what is apparently the biggest change of the new update is the fact that there's no more multiple pages. Now all the text in a chapter is one giant scroll with page breaks that you scroll all the way through to read. Sounds good right? No more excessive clicks and things right?

        Yeah...I don't think so. The biggest issue is that it's basically one big chunk. Most people I know of would be put off by seeing a giant chunk of text to go through. It feels better to read one section at a time (aka one page) then to have to read the chapter all at once, which having one long page mentally urges us to do. The separated pages before gave us a sort of break, so that we can stop to do think over the story before moving on.

        In addition, it removes our ability to easily judge how long the chapter will be simply by checking for the number of pages. As a result, we can't judge whether or not we should read the chapter due to time constraints or such.

        And the final issue with the scrolling is long chapters. I have seen chapters that are 10, even 20 pages long. If that is all put on one scroll page, then that makes the chapter extremely tiresome to go through. (If this post is long enough, you may see what I mean).

        If I could suggest a change, it would be to add the option to switch between scrolling or paging, as in the mobile app. Or just get rid of the scrolling altogether.

This feature is so important that it will be mentioned again several times.

Reason Two: Ads

        As I have just been introduced to the new update today, I have yet to experience this issue. But based on the accounts of of others, advertisements tend to randomly appear IN THE MIDDLE of chapters. That would be extremely annoying, and would heavily disrupt the flow of the text and the mood it gives you. Although it is a minor change, it is very important, so it gets the #2 mention.

        If I could offer suggestions, I would  say to either place the ads before the beginning of the text or after the text ends. Or maybe off to the side, as it used to be. Although I honestly would prefer to do away with ads, but that is probably possible.

Reason Three: Comment Section

        The comments section is a place where we give feedback, ask for understanding, or to see what crazy stuff others say, among other things. One pleasant feature of the comments section was that it was always conveniently located at the bottom of a page. Now with the new scroll mode, it is located at the waaaaaaayyyyy bottom of the page. So, if you are reading a chapter (this applies more to longer chapters), and decide to do something that requires the comment section, you need to scroll all the way to the bottom, comment, then scroll back up and hunt for where you left off.

        Another thing that annoys me about the comments section is the fact they now hide replies. Sure, it's annoying to scroll through a comment conversation sometimes, but being able to see the responses helps engage me. For example, lets say @notreal comments "I don't get it." The responses to @notreal end up making my day because they end up being hilarious or deep. But if I go through the comments section and see only the original post, I would continue on my merry way and miss out and things.

Reason Four: Visuals and Functionality

        One of the most obvious reasons for not liking this update: the look SUCKS. Like the introduction, immense lack of color drains my emotions. Color was previously given by the book cover on the side, the book suggestions, multimedia, and, honestly, ads, and other colorful shades of gray and orange scattered about. What about now? I am hit by a wall of drab white, gray and black. What happened to the color? Things that made the Wattpad experience lively?

        And the little book banner on top is hella annoying.

        Onto functionality.

        First, the multimedia is now at the top of the page, which isn't too bad. Except you see that and go, "What's this for?", only to read and go "oh" and go back up to take another look.  And if you don't pay attention, you may miss the little arrow that says, "There's more."

        Also, there's a new auto-bookmarking feature that I don't  fully understand. But that might just be me. Other bad functions have already been mentioned above. And there probably things I missed.

Reason Five: WE DON'T WANT IT!!!!

        I read the comments section of the Official Wattpad News & Update book for the new reading mode. I read all 95 comments (as of 3/18/2015 @7:04PM), and guess what? Only two comments praised the new update. TWO out of NINETY-FIVE. 98% of this group dislike the update. And I'm pretty sure a huge amount of other people who did not comment also wish to change back.

        So why wouldn't Wattpad change it back with all of this negative backlash? Some people have a lot of reasons they think so (money, etc.) but the main reason is that they just don't care. When the new profiles came out they didn't care. Why should they now? I sarcastically dedicated this to the official Wattpad account, but they probably won't bother to look at this or anyone else's rants.

        And probably their greatest tool are new people to Wattpad. They will start with this new format, and they wouldn't want to change it, so Wattpad'll take that and be like, "See, people want this!" and not change anything for the rest of us.

Anything Good?

        Well,  at the least the text is larger and easier to read. And the table of contents, while in an inconvenient location, is slightly easier to use. Dedications, Cast, and Multimedia is more prominently featured. I don't really see anything else.

Final Words

        While this update introduced a few good things, overall, I think this was an update that did not need to happen. And based on history, it's most likely to stay, so unless SOMEONE(S) can get Wattpad HQ to change their frigging minds, we've gotta deal with this. Sadly.

TL;DR

THE NEW READING MODE UPDATE IS UTTERLY STUPID AND RIDICULOUS.

Reasons why:
1) The scroll mode is not as great as it seems.
2) The placement of ads is terrible.
3) The comments section isn't the same.
4) It looks bad and is not very practical.
5) No one really wants it.

Wattpad is most likely not going to change this so we gotta deal with it. Sadly.