Improve Your Writing

@SofiaHB - acknowledgement of your comments is the best response I can give I'm afraid. As I said, I do understand your point of view, and that of some others who have a similar point of view. But, I cannot promise that ads will be removed, or demand that the leadership team remove many millions of users so that we can go back to where we were in 2013. That said, there are definitely regional variations in use and perspective, whether you appreciate that viewpoint or not.
            
            As I have also said though, there are more changes afoot that I think will help assuage your concerns and other concerns that the community have raised, but they are still in the pipeline so I cannot publicly announce to you what they are as yet. But I do think you'll like them, as as a writer and user myself I'm rather looking forward to seeing them in action.
            
            With what I know of the Wattpad staff from personal experience, I would also note that the term 'money hungry' does not apply to them, that's just not how they roll. They are very aware of community, very aware of sentiment around ads and platform changes. We're working on it.

@TheOrangutan I understand this is your role, and that your response was more of an acknowledgment than a direct engagement with the points I raised. That’s common in positions like yours.  I was very deliberate in my wording. I said “many,” not “everyone.” I never claimed to speak for all users. By reframing my critique as subjective or regional, it turns a discussion about specific platform changes into a matter of opinion, rather than addressing the REAL changes that have taken place  such as:– the increased frequency of ads, which could be reduced
– the restriction of offline reading for saved books which is obviously so people can pay premium 
– the decline in organic discoverability for new writers, coinciding with increased monetization and promoted content
– and the fact that external platforms are now required for writers to gain visibility, whereas community engagement within the app used to be more than enough.  This is REAL changes to reading and writing experience itself, not matters of personal preference. It pushes readers to pay for premium when it should be possible to have a good reading experience without it. I’ve also been on Wattpad for many years, and the loss of the earlier community feeling is something I — and many others — genuinely mourn. Growth used to happen inside the app. Feedback, interaction, and discovery were part of the ecosystem. That is no longer the case in the same way.My point has never been that Wattpad shouldn’t make money. It’s that the way money has gone way over their heads and monetization has shifted the platform’s priorities, and that shift has directly affected new writers’ ability to grow and readers’ experience of the app.If discoverability were still functioning as it once did, there wouldn’t be such a widespread reliance on external platforms for promotion, and it wouldn’t be so common for the most visible and successful stories to be those written years ago.

@SofiaHB - Wattpad gets all sorts of feedback from all sorts of users which is always interesting. And your take on 'necessary' may not align with other areas of the world, Wattpad's, or even other users in the same region as you. 
            
            That said, I get it, there's some things we used to have that I kinda miss, and there's definitely some that I don't. I've been on here since mid 2010 as a writer, reader, Ambassador and staff and I've see all sorts of things change. 
            
            There's all sorts of things that could be done but, as with all things, it's a balance.
            
            Also, I've not for a second said that you're "anti-business" though, you're very much allowed your point of view on things, and I'm allowed mine, and that's what discussion is all about. I do like to know what people are thinking, and that's why I do try to engage with our users, and always have done. 
            
            The community on Wattpad is always something I've championed, and I will continue to do so for as long as I work for wattpad, but I would note that you do not speak for all 95 Million users of Wattpad. Wattpad do listen to our users, whether through direct feedback like this or via the App feedback areas, and we do try to make it a good world for all of them, but sometimes we can't keep everyone happy all of the time. But we do try our best.
            
            To your point on 'repeating a comment to get attention', I would suggest that there's normally a gap between the repeat comments, so you do one, wait for a response, and then repeat if you've not had one, rather than making all the comments at the same time. 
            
            Also, please do remember to tag me if you'd like a response. Thanks, Gavin

@TheOrangutan @IrisMoonshadow_18 thank you

@IrisMoonshadow_18 - If you're looking for information on what's going on in the community then you're best off following the @ambassadors and @wattpad profiles. They will give you good insight into what's going on and where.