The Write of Way [Work in Progress, Member Driven]

The Ugly Garden Gnome, R.E.S.P.E.C.T. and WattPad Bullying

Down the street your neighbour has erected the ugliest garden gnome you've ever seen.

What you do, or not do about it--says a great deal about who YOU are and a great deal less about who *they* are.

You look out your window and that ugly garden gnome drives you batty. Why it has anything to do with you when you can look the other way, baffles me.

That, in a nutshell, is poor writing on Wattpad. Yes, that garden gnome may bring down the cost of real estate. However, how seriously does it impact on the value of your house?

Not by much, I expect.

Let's assume you go to your neighbour's then stand on their lawn and yell in the window, "That is the WORST garden gnome I have ever seen!"

Then they throw YOUR azz off their lawn by deleting your comment. That is their right on their own lawn. Which, in real life, is exactly what would happen.

On Wattpad the next step is a big rant about how after you, without asking permission, just invaded your neighbour's lawn, insulted their garden gnome and HOW DARE THEY toss you off or tell you to STFU!!! The NERVE of them! After they publicly stuck their garden gnome out there for all the world to see! The Draaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaama!

Then a whole pile of other neighbours come over and commiserate with you about how hard done by you are...because the owner of the garden gnome refuses to see the kindness you bestowed upon them, in the form of an opinion they didn't ask for in the first place.

Doggess forbid--if the gnome owner comes on your page to defend their love of the ugly garden gnome--they'll be gang-banged by dozens of your followers in the form of insults about their gnome, their IQ level and their mother's virtue.

Then THEIR friends, who like them, whether or not they like the garden gnome, fight back for the rights of ugly garden gnomes, everywhere.

This, in a nutshell, is much of the bullying drama that occurs on Wattpad.

It is a pure lack of respect for other writers no matter what level they can write at.

It happens every day on Wattpad.

It is a lack of common courtesy, it is contagious venom and I, for one, refuse to be a party to it.

Just because someone sticks an ugly garden gnome on their lawn publicly does NOT give the right to roving bands of bullies to come by and kick the garden gnome or yell insults at the house.

Some writers say, "Hey over here! I'm open to criticism about my lawn ornaments! I want to know if you like the colours or if you think I should arrange them differently."

That STILL is not an invitation to insult their garden gnome but it IS an invitation to tell them honestly how to improve their garden statuary, if you have that knowledge.

Contrary to popular opinion, Wattpad is NOT a critiquing site although that is part of it's function. Some people are just here to put up their garden gnomes. They are proud of them and they want to show them off, or they are just learning to create lawn ornaments and they need some support because it is scary to paint your garden gnome in public for the first few times.

When in doubt ASK. "Can I suggest to you a better way to make garden gnomes"? If they tell you 'yes', then proceed.

There'd be a damned site less drama around here if we all stuck to that.

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This is dedicated to some1eleven whose incredible depth of vision about why writers do what they do never ceases to amaze me.