Missy Writer's Book o' Randoms: Arts, Ideas and More

The Reasons Why People Become Inactive or Left Wattpad

Pardon me for typing this, but this has me intrigued in a way to overcome my anxiety issues.

I have to make this short this time. I mean, yeah, we have some of our followers leaving this site that somehow diminished our follower counts, and it's kinda sad to say it.

So, in the way I predicted it, here are the reasons why your followers left the site or become inactive online:

1. Busy schedules
(Most common reason for college/university students, family members or working commoners.)
Wattpad was more of a leisure site to read books and interact with people, it's not like Facebook or anything, but they have other things to consider for being busy, such as studies, work hours, etc. The time they have might be long, which meant less time to read books here and everything else.

2. Lost interest
(Most common for most of Wattpaders with no social or online interaction in this site other than reading books.)
Somehow, they came only to read our books, those that shows their favorite cartoons or movies or anything else that were made into fanfiction. They have only a common profile pic that shows their interested character/movie and a simple username. They usually have only one reading list and a few followers. Eventually, they will leave just as everyone else, because once their interest is lost, they won't come back. When they did, they simply log out and left for good.
The reasons for them losing interest here are several, and some of them are listed right here as separate ones.

3. Mental health issues, such as depression and anxiety, ADHD, among others
(Most common for people with mental health problems.)
People can't stand being left alone. They just wished for some interaction and they don't have it. Or perhaps they just want to be known but didn't get the chance because they were too scared. Or perhaps just recently entered the site and they didn't know much about the rules except for the very simple ones, such as signing in and typing out a username.
In some cases, they came only to read books and interact to ease up their sadness or fears. Anything bad being struck on them, and they instantly left immediately. Also, when they have anxiety, it means that they simply left in fear of being rejected, bullied, or shamed for not being good enough. (I really have to work harder on the explanation of this one.)

4. Self-shaming and blaming, when they felt like their work isn't good enough and simply gave up
(Most common reason for most beginner writers and people who wanted to share their story to others.)
Imagine being a storyteller. You have made a story. You followed the guidebook steps, you made your story, you published it. You made a good title and got a book cover for the book. But then, you saw that your work, with only a few reads and a crappy book cover, was unlike those who have a lot of reads and votes, and even have amazing cover images and a great story structure. You, on the other hand, have poor grammar (more common for non-English speakers and amateur students), lack of knowledge and poor social interaction. Simply put, you gave up and left Wattpad, but not before deleting the so-called "story" you made.

5. Victimized of cyber bullying
(More common for vulnerable types or on people being a supporter on socially controversial topics, such as LGBTQ or Black Lives Matter, or for people who gets easily bullied for no explanatory reasons)
I have encountered a few of those guys in my life, and what hurts me most is that my friend left the site because of those bullies constantly teasing her for being homophobic (even though she isn't and also a Mormon) and that she disrespected LGBT communities.
I have even met a few of my followers, in which one of these followers of theirs have been bullied for some extent that they quitted to avoid it.
We don't get the full extent of the reasons why they do so, other than entertaining themselves by making others miserable the same way as they were. Religion, politics, and social issues have big impacts on those, too, but it was just according to my opinion. All I'm saying is, they might have removed the bully from them by blocking their accounts and reporting them, but the impact they have on their minds still remains, and when it was too much that they left for good and spent themselves living in sadness. They have become victims of bullying, and this is a serious issue. We are here to interfere to avoid it from happening. No person should become a victim of bullying, ever.

6. Increased interest on other fanfic sites such as AO3 and Fanfiction.Net
(Most common reason for some fanfiction writers)
Wattpad is a fanfic sharing site, too, but it lack the other features other fanfic sites have, such as categorizing characters, specific tags without tag limits, excluding other books writers find disinterested and boring, and finding the specific fandom it came from. Yeah, some writers even share their stories here when they already have copies of the story on other story sharing sites, but they might not get more readers compared to other sites where they first posted the story from. Of course, most fanfic writers prefer the site they're most familiar and comfortable to share their stuff with, rather than sharing it here and get crappy readers and stolen book covers. At one occasion, they become inactive here, left their stories for them to read, and went to stay on where they're most comfortable.

7. Tiredness of usage/having enough
People who have been here for who knows how long sometimes decided to leave so to get back on whatever feels comfortable for us. Simply put, when our time is done here, we leave for a while, but not before saying thanks for those who supported you so far on those years. Writers might leave their books behind and become inactive for a very long while, or they delete them, posted them somewhere else, and then left for good.
It's kinda sad to bear it, but moving on was part of life. And leaving the place was just included in it.

8. Removed by the admins for violations on their rules
Some of those folks were removed by the admins of the place itself for certain violations. Either they posted an inappropriate picture or story, or have hurted someone, or even came in here to do hacking or scams. Whatever the reason, it has to happen, since they're only doing it for the sake of the other folks and their well-being and stuff. They don't want people hurting people even while online.

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Welp, that's it with that.

Now if you excuse me, I have to slap my face onto a pillow and have a break.

Stay tuned for more updates.