One Voice

[EC] LET THEM HAVE COINS

Ever since the release of Paid Stories and the new Wattpad coin currency, users have been asking for a way to earn coins by watching ads. Wattpad Staff, at the time, claimed it was on the table and it was being discussed. That discussion is seemingly over because the feature is in beta right now for a select number of users. Soon, it will be released for everyone but before that happens, let's talk about what it means.

As you can see in the image above, users will be able to earn a maximum of two coins per day by watching ads. The two coin per day limit allows users to amass coins for unlocking features without making paying for stories a moot point. Paid Stories authors will still be able to earn money from their stories, regardless of how the user acquired the coins, and more people will be able to access the stories.

One of our major concerns, however, is that users are limited to earning two coins per day when a single part of any Paid Story costs three coins. Users watching ads will have to wait two days before they are able to unlock one chapter and three days to unlock two chapters. This can be off-putting to some because there isn't anything useful you can do with two coins besides save them and wait. Now, saving and waiting seems reasonable at first glance, right? Well, someone in the forums did the numbers...

(Note: The numbers above are accurate as of September 30th, 2019 and may have changed since then.)

To the untrained eye, the images above probably look like a confusing array of numbers. Before we go further into discussing these findings, it's worth noting how to read the chart in the first place. Each row, aside from the header row, is dedicated to one paid story. In the first column, the amount of paid parts per each Paid Story is listed (e.g. "A Different Virus: Heartfire" has 184 parts that can be unlocked with coins). In the second and third columns, the total price for all of the locked parts are given – the full price being what a user would pay if they bought each part individually (three coins per chapter) and the discounted price the one that users would pay if they bought all of the locked parts at the same time. In the fourth and fifth columns, the amount of days one would have to save up their allotted two coins per day are listed for both the full price and the discounted price. Notice how two of the books (noted with an asterisk) require 221 and 99 days, respectively, to buy them for the discounted price. For users earning coins via ads, this is impossible because coins earned via ads will expire after 90 days of earning them.

Saving your coins day after day seems like less of a solution, doesn't it? Especially if you want to pay for all of the locked parts at once in order to pay less. Plus, who wants to wait a few months of spamming ads just to read a single book? For those impatient enough to unlock one chapter at a time, you'd end up spending more coins by the end and you can't even unlock one chapter per day. This results in a time consuming and tedious process veiled under the guise of Wattpad trying to help the community.

Many users so far have praised this decision, unaware of how limiting and frustrating this process is. They see the earning coins feature, but they don't see the actual numbers. On one hand, we understand that Wattpad wants to limit it for a reason. If they were too generous with how many coins you could earn per day, then who would pay for coins out of their own pocket? However, on the other hand, the way this feature is set-up is too limiting. Even if the limit was increased to earning three coins per day, it would make a world of difference. If not that, then extending the life of earned coins so they don't expire as quickly as they do now would make the process at least somewhat more reasonable for Wattpad users.

This is where you all come in. If Wattpad is able to see our frustrations as users of the site, they may listen and create improvements. Now, more than ever, it's important that we spread the word. Feel free to comment, DM, or check out our thread "One Voice" in the forums. If you're unsure what that is or where to find it, the forums are a discussion/help area on Discourse under wattpadwriters.com where users can talk and discuss new features, opinions, and feedback. Hop over there and leave your opinions, thoughts, or ask questions. HQ has made it clear that they watch the threads for ideas and to gain user input so if you have something to say, don't be afraid to make your voice heard. The more we speak up, the better.

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