Former WP Star here. Where to even start? The company is corrupt from the top down. There is ZERO consistency in Wattpad’s application of their own rules. Certain authors are exempt from the rules, if they fit a specific criteria. The Wattys are a total sham. Nick is an employee who ran the Wattys for years. After Nick’s mother won a Watty, the veil was lifted a bit. The absolute arrogance of them thinking nobody would find out about the nepotism is startling. Wattpad is a joke of a company that values and promotes mostly low quality literature. They appeal to the lowest common denominator. They’ll say it’s because it’s what the readers want, but they just attract what they promote. If they promoted high quality literature, they’d be taken more seriously. Everything they do revolves around pushing very specific political ideas, which you will see from taking a quick glance around the top lists. Free speech is limited on WP. The algorithm is frustrating at best and broken beyond repair at worst. Slowly but surely, Wattpad choked itself out by removing the news feed and forums. It now feels like a ghost town. This sentiment is echoed by MANY Stars. For years, it’s been extremely hard to get reads as an established author. It would be damn near impossible to start from scratch today as a new user. Very discouraging. They often close down accounts with no warning, so use WP with extreme caution and ALWAYS back up your work elsewhere. Ambassadors (unpaid and poorly trained volunteers) have way too much power and control (re: what they can see and what they can do to other users’ accounts). If you post your original work on Wattpad, expect it to be plagiarized by multiple mirror sites. You aren’t safe on Wattpad, plain and simple. Wattpad is trash.
