Thedude3445

To all GLORY OF BOWSETTE readers: I'm going to post the series publicly on this site again. All your old comments will reappear like magic.
          	
          	I also have a reader survey. It only takes 1-2 minutes, so please check it out.

zigazav

@Thedude3445 You going to bring the whole story back? Chapter 1 is still the only remaining part after the rest got deleted, it's a shame the rest of the story is gone. I may have finished reading the story long ago, but stories are a form of art, and need to be preserved. If you have anywhere else you keep this fanfiction and your other stories, please do tell me. Just know, I won't be quick to reply, as I rarely visit this website, but I do care about your stories, as I was a fanfiction writer myself, not here, but elsewhere. I've long been stuck in writer's block, unable to come up with anything for stories, which is why I've stopped writing fanfictions.
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Thedude3445

To all GLORY OF BOWSETTE readers: I'm going to post the series publicly on this site again. All your old comments will reappear like magic.
          
          I also have a reader survey. It only takes 1-2 minutes, so please check it out.

zigazav

@Thedude3445 You going to bring the whole story back? Chapter 1 is still the only remaining part after the rest got deleted, it's a shame the rest of the story is gone. I may have finished reading the story long ago, but stories are a form of art, and need to be preserved. If you have anywhere else you keep this fanfiction and your other stories, please do tell me. Just know, I won't be quick to reply, as I rarely visit this website, but I do care about your stories, as I was a fanfiction writer myself, not here, but elsewhere. I've long been stuck in writer's block, unable to come up with anything for stories, which is why I've stopped writing fanfictions.
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Thedude3445

I am considering closing my entire account and deleting all stories. I would have done this in February except a few of my stories still have active readers and I didn't want to upset them. However, with the putrid response to the data breach and now the forum closure, it's probably a sign that this site isn't worth continuing on (and may very well ban fan fiction soon too, with the way things are going). If any followers want to convince me to leave the account open, now is your chance, but otherwise please understand.

Thedude3445

Oh great, all our data was hacked and released publicly last month (and Wattpad still hasn't said a word to the actual users affected). I knew I shouldn't have kept this account going...

Thedude3445

Yep, my info was breached... I am aware that Wattpad addressed the issue, but what they have not done is individually contact the people affected, and that is an absolute travesty if they do not do so extremely soon. That's the reason I'm so angry about it. Wattpad legally has all of our info and haveibeenpwned has a list of all the email addresses whose accounts were breached, so it's not acceptable to leave users in the dark who do not actively use the site or for those who don't realize what has happened and continue to use the site happily.
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Animal_Crosser

Your Bowsette stpries are so great!  Have you ever thought of making more stories like it?

Thedude3445

@Animal_Crosser Thank you! I write extensive original fiction posted on other sites, much of it very similar in silly-but-genuine-character-development fashion. I also have a full-on girlxgirl fantasy novel that is growing pretty popular on Tapas. If you're interested in any of it I can link it, though it is to non-Wattpad sites/apps.
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Marcel-Jones

Bro, I stumbled upon one of your threads from last year by accident, but I'm glad I did, 'cause I too have been looking for a "superhero" community on Wattpad, and you're right, it's close to nonexistent. 
          
          I'm writing a "superhero" inspired novel series myself, but I'm not gonna be that guy and beg you to read it. If you want to, it's on my profile and I'd be happy. If not, that's cool too. Ain't no thing. 
          
          However, I was wondering if you've found any other websites and/or communities outside of Wattpad that you could introduce me to? Gaining traction on here isn't impossible, but I'm uncertain if the ends justify the means remaining solely on this platform for the demographic I'd like to reach.

Marcel-Jones

@Thedude3445 Bruh! That's awesome, man. Many thanks!
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Thedude3445

@Marcel-Jones I made this list a while back that you can check out: https://www.reddit.com/r/litrpg/comments/fkhlhd/if_youre_looking_for_free_litrpgs_to_read_while/ 
            
            Superhero stories have traditionally been hosted on their own sites or wordpress/blogspot blogs and haven't been as popular on any of the web fiction hosting sites, but some have broken though!
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Thedude3445

I made a blog post about the entire web fiction community, what it means to me, and the ways I think it needs to change: http://thedude3445.quinlancircle.com/2020/03/30/2010-2019-the-web-fiction-community/

Thedude3445

@K_R_Wright Thank you so much for this comment from a really long time ago; Tapas has been such a welcoming community and much better experience than any of the other sites I had used, to the point that it is likely to become my main writing website... and I didn't even fully realize that they had web novels one year ago!
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K_R_Wright

@Thedude3445 it’s a good site :)
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Thedude3445

@KR_Williams It's funny that I didn't really know Tapas web fiction even really existed a couple months ago, because dang that site is such a better fit for my work and the types of stories I like than Wattpad (and definitely a better fit than Royal Road). Besides the character limit, it's great. Tapas is actually really nice from a reader perspective!
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Thedude3445

HANDS HELD IN THE SNOW has been unpublished from Wattpad and I will no longer post new stories to this website. Please follow me via the various links in my account description.

Thedude3445

@TwistedNym  Oh, I never saw these replies until now lol. In the months since I removed most of my work from Wattpad, I've found the only change is that I don't go on the forum idly which is a big positive lol. I think the site itself is alright besides the really bad search options, but I think the forum is a very tight-knit community that is too difficult for most people to break into, and so it always felt to me like I was failing to have real conversations about stuff, but also failing to actually promote my work either lol. 
            
            I certainly think there's some other web fiction sites with better communities (for me, at least), though I do think I'd have probably stuck with Wattpad even so if one of my stories had accidentally cracked the code, just because this place is so much bigger than any other. It's alright, though, the world of web fiction is wide!
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TwistedNym

@Thedude3445 "The time investment to post on here simply does not have any real reward." I agree, you probably have more experience and see it more professional than I do. I like hanging around wattpad for creative reasons and feedback but also just because of social interactions and procrastination. If the procrastination and the fact that someone doesn't even watch numbers clearly falls flat, the site proves to be faulty for what you want to accomplish.
            
            
            I don't have that much time to attach myself to yet another site. But I will still check the possibilities for the future. This is some legit critique. I wish you all the luck.
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TwistedNym

@Thedude3445 @Thedude3445 Sorry for the late reply and that is a very detailed response, thank you.
            
            --"The algorithms are broken and your story simply will not be shared to potential readers;. The search functions are limited and sorting between "rising" and "hot" finds little difference. There is no real curation that goes on and what little that does is reserved for a very specific set of niches."--
            
            This right here. I agree. The search function is terrible. I only find stories I am not interested in even if I search for a specific title. I read they will change that, finally, but it will probably lead to more faulty bugs than it already has, at least for a while. Wattpad fixes one mug or glitch and produces ten new in it. And the new paid feature didn't help in any of this regards. Not problem solving. And especially not in discovering authors, or giving more spotlight. All of the paid stories are naturally finished and older works from already known people.
            
             community is a somewhat insular circle and it's hard to break into unless you're already in there... just like the site algorithms. "
            
            It is pretty sad. But rn I can see that. I follow a bunch of writers , and they all circle around each other in some strange group. I sometimes interact on the surface but I am not a part of it. Same with the fandom I wrote for. None of the authors ever interact with me sans one or two that aren't in the "over 6k reads" branch. Also the RfR is on the rise again.
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Thedude3445

HANDS HELD IN THE SNOW has reached 3,700 views on Royal Road, and 1,100 views on handsheld.quinlancircle.com! Those are some incredible numbers this early on and I am overjoyed at how quickly the story has grown in just a month and a half.
          
          ...And then on Wattpad the story still hasn't passed 250 views...

Thedude3445

New HANDS HELD chapter is posted. I didn't realize that Wattpad's formatting options are so limited; I didn't get to indent or do any special formatting for an in-story letter that appears. I did make it right-aligned and italicized, and I can guarantee someone will say that that was a bad idea someday lol