In a previous post, we mentioned Wattpad and described it to our readers as:
A “type and publish as you go” website for authors
Well, now we would like to add a bit more to our documentation of Wattpad in order to warn our readers and also warn potential or existing Wattpad members. For the most part, it’s a site that is fairly bully-free, at least among its members. The same cannot be said of its management, however. Just recently, we were tipped off to a story of injustice on the site, an injustice that happened to a very popular author (we will call him G) who was trying to help another author after she was harshly bullied. We will give you screenshots and proof as to what happened, and describe how it relates to our post on notorious bully, Linda Hilton, and the recent carpet bombs on her books.
First, we will start with Rants ‘n Stuff published by a friend of G who wanted to vent his frustrations about the incident (we’ve blacked any identifying information):
We also found another person who chimed in in a comment thread discussing the topic:
(Note: “hates” refers to a book of essays G was writing.)
Although the author of the article, Rants ‘n Stuff, will not name this member of hq who lied, we have no reservations in doing so. His name is Nick Uskoski and he is a member of the Wattpad Support Team:
He sounds very professional, doesn’t he?
Think again. We have screenshots that reveal his true colors. Here, he is mocking G, the author he banned:
In these screenshots, he calls G a troll and a tool:
In this next one, he continues to make derogatory comments about him:
We also have evidence that Nick doesn’t even follow Wattpad protocol:
So, how did this all get started? What was Nick’s excuse for banning G?
Well, the answer goes back to the post we did on Linda Hilton. G read Linda’s comment saying she supported down-rating authors’ books as a form of “punishment”:
Then, he shared this with his friends and followers on Wattpad, telling them that he did not agree, but specifically stating that he did not wish any harm to be brought down on her for saying it. He also shared with his WP friends the story of another author who was just recently bullied by Linda and her ilk from BookLikes. As a result, Linda’s books were suddenly carpet-bombed to oblivion and the bullied author received over 100 5-star ratings on her books. The devastation done to Linda’s books was out of G’s control, but he was nonetheless blamed for it.
Now, how does this get back to Nick? In order to retaliate against G, Linda contacted Wattpad, i.e. Nick, and made up a story that G had sent her death threats, which was a complete lie. She even admits to making up a story in this screenshot below:
Then, Nick, already having a grudge against G, decided to ban him permanently from Wattpad with NO warning or explanation. And that’s how it all happened. An abusive WP admin gets a hold of a lie coming from one of Goodreads’ and BookLikes’ notorious bullies and decides to ban an innocent person with no warning.
Pretty shitty, isn’t it?
That’s not all. To add insult to injury, G’s friends started a discussion thread on the topic, asking what happened to him. They were told to remain silent by WP management and their thread was closed:
So, this is why we are warning our readers about Wattpad. We realize that many authors love the site and rightfully so, just be careful of corrupt WP mods and managers. Apparently, there are some bad apples among them.
