Why Your Story SUCKS | Writer's rants & discussions

The misconceptions of NovelHD & Teenfic.net (stop acting like Karens)

This type of outrage isn't helpful. Nor is bugging Wattpad support/HQ or the sites themselves. You emailing Teenfic.net or wattpad demanding they remove your Drarry fanfiction isn't working for reasons that should be obvious. Stuff like this creates fear and misinformation which will just stress people out. I've seen a lot of users say they're literally scared of it happening to them, and why are they scared? Because of people spreading false info and reacting so much.

15k signatures is a lot sure but, signatures mean nothing. This issue is legal, a bunch of people clicking a button on change.org isn't going to take these sites to court or open a case investigation.

NovelHD and Teenfic.net are typically something called "mirror websites".

What is a mirror site? Wikipedia's explanation: 

Mirror sites or mirrors are replicas of other websites or any network code. The concept of mirroring applies to network services accessible through any protocol, such as HTTP or FTP. Such sites have different URLs than the original site, but host identical or near-identical content. Mirror sites are often located in a different geographical region than the original, or upstream site. The purpose of mirrors is to reduce network traffic, improve access speed, ensure availability of the original site for technical or political reasons, or provide a real-time backup of the original site.

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Now they're essentially looking at the site [wattpad], through their own webpage with their own logo slapped over it, like a lens. Hence why they have all of Wattpad's books, even their paid stories. As I said, they're not hunting stories individually to plagiarize, it is, however, plagiarizing Wattpad itself as a whole.

But also according to r/wattpad on Reddit when it comes to NovelHD in particular:

NovelHD sticks out in particular for no longer being a mirror website. Instead of just displaying content, they are actively copying and uploading content from Wattpad without prior permission. This has been noted because of some actions NovelHD has taken, such as removing notices of the work only being posted to Wattpad.

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So, NovelHD may no longer be a mirror site, but it is still a "Truyen" site, and so are Teenfic.net and others that do this.

I don't have a definition to clearly explain what a Truyen site is, but from my understanding, it is a Vietnamese version of sites [mirrors] to simply generate revenue. (Through things like the overbearing porn ads the sites host. No, they are not selling your book and making money off of you).

They contain malware, you may think you can go on them without any issues but viruses aren't always obvious at first. (It's filled with stealth viruses like trojans).

So even though you want to venture on the site to see if your story is there, don't. And if you're worried you may have gotten a virus from them, scan your device with an antivirus. Even still, an antivirus can't always detect or remove them so don't think if you just scan your phone/computer afterward you'll be fine.

And for those of you who try to argue they are sniping profiles because your story is on there but someone else's isn't, or vice versa, don't be fooled.

Because it is.

Your story is most definitely on a Truyen site, it's simply not visible from search. As I said, these sites mirror wattpad completely, meaning your book too, not just certain ones. As to why some are visible and others aren't? I couldn't explain exactly, but mirror sites mirror the entire original website, not just certain parts.

Wattpad has been dealing with these sites for years. Mirror/truyens aren't new. The thing is, they will always pop back up after finally getting taken down. Wattpad has been working on getting these sites taken down, but what I find frustrating is the number of people who, as I mentioned, act as if hounding wattpad to work faster will gain results or that this is an easy process.

I'm no Wattpad stan by any means and I've been a very hard critic of the platform and trust me, Wattpad has A LOT of issues all around as a company. But I do not agree at all with people ragging on Wattpad about this stuff or screaming how unfair to users Wattpad is being by "allowing" this to happen. This type of stuff, again, spreads misinformation that Wattpad doesn't care and it scares people.

Removing a website for copyright issues is not straightforward or a quick easy thing. It involves law, and legal cases take a while. And considering these sites are from countries with lackluster copyright laws, that increases the difficulty. This is the reason why filing a support ticket about this does not work either or will just give you a generic message. Wattpad is well aware of this issue already.

What can you do about your book?

According to Reddit, people have gotten their stories "removed" on the sites, from the search engine that is. This means, their stories are still most definitely on the site, just not searchable, which, Idk about you but I wouldn't really consider that worth filing a DMCA request over (Filing a DMCA request is detailed and requires extensive personal information, email, phone number, full name, DOB, address, etc).

And yes, of course finding out this thing you worked so hard on is in a place without your consent is frustrating and it makes you upset. I understand the reason why people react in rage, their stories are very personal to them. But creating petitions, spamming Wattpad, or running around like your head's cut off isn't the answer.

I know people won't like being told this but this situation is not worth it. It's not worth stress, it's not worth worrying over, it's not worth being scared about. There's nothing you can do to actually have your book removed, unless you unpublish it from Wattpad. Besides, again, these sites will always pop back up in the future, Wattpad will never get rid of them.

And considering the sites are full of malware, porn pop-ups, and other stuff, it really is not like your story's stolen version has a huge audience of people that's reading it but doesn't know it's written by you on Wattpad.

But if you do want to let your readers know, add a message to your story in an Author's Note. Something along the lines of:

"If you are reading this story on any other platform other than Wattpad you are very likely to be at risk of a malware attack. If you wish to read this story in its original, safe, form, please go to (Wattpad User Link). Thank you."

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^ That is from Wattpad's official statement on this. I didn't add it because I couldn't find it outside of other novelHD posts and since you can't copy text on wattpad and was a little long, I wasn't typing it all out cause I'm a lazy bastard. It says the same things I did though.

(Unlike the petition said, you can't just copy and paste stories with key controls. Trust me I just tried and it doesn't work cause wattpad specifically blocks it and has blocked it for years. There are ways to bypass it but the way the petitioner says you can do it is false. Unless they meant you can copy the story from NovelHD/Teenfic which might be true but I'm not getting a trojan virus on my computer just to see nor do I believe many people are stealing stories using NovelHD.)

The sites update with stories so it will show on their version as well. But if the Reddit claim is correct, NovelHD can/will remove the note stating their version is stolen. So in that case, your second option is to add "A Wattpad Novel" or "A Wattpad Exclusive" to your book cover. NovelHD doesn't seem to change book covers. But like I said, this issue isn't worth worrying about and trying to fix at all, and these sites will come right back after removal.

The hard truth and bottom line is, if you're serious about your story as in you want to do something with it publishing-wise and don't want it stolen, whether be it by a Truyen site or another wattpad user, do not publish it in full. Only publish a sample/chunk of your book, preferably not the final, fully edited draft either.

Wattpad is a free site open to anything and anyone. Unfortunately, theft is simply a risk that people need to remember, be aware of, and be smart about.

That's about all I have to say on the issue. I just wanted to help spread the word that this isn't some internet mafia, Anonymous hacker organization hunting profiles and robbing authors of their books to sell and get rich off of.

If you don't mind, share this information with anyone you see screeching about their story getting stolen.