PWA 2019 Tag
Alright, I've been putting this off for a while, but let's get started with the PWA 2019 tag from the PokemonWatties! I know this is a long post and not many people will read it, but I just wanted to add my input, no matter how small my voice may be.
1. Which entry are you excited about the most for PWA 2019?
Well, I don't want to say much because I am a judge, but I am looking forward to reading basically all of the books in the Adventure category! The Isles of the Gracidea by Cora-chan has been a work I was waiting to finish so I could binge-read it (Which I did, lmao). I'm looking forward to reading Linkage by blue___22 because Cynthia is my favorite champion and I'm excited to see the spin put on her.
2. What is your favorite thing about the PWA?
My favorite thing about the PWA, by far and away, has to be how dedicated the staff are in wanting to make the PWA better each year.
As someone who has been a judge for the PWA for the past few years and as someone who has observed firsthand the amount of effort that goes into the PWA, I have so much respect for every single person who works so passionately to make sure the PWA is the best it can be.
I have so much respect for every judge who has sacrificed time and energy to allow the competition to run smoothly.
In particular, I would love to give a shotout to d_s_t_e for all the hard work she does behind the scenes. She has done so much for the PWA in spending days working on the live streams and also in being such an active member of the server, as well as being such a helpful fanfiction inspector!
Also, I think Sheare deserves attention too for how much work she has put into improving the efficiency of the PWA. I'm honestly baffled by her attention to detail and the level of care she has put into every single decision she has made related to the PWA. Thank you for working so hard as the PWA administrator for 2 years, and you really will be missed.
3. What is your least favorite thing about the PWA?
Well, I'll be honest, I don't have a least favorite thing about the PWA itself. I think the people working for it are passionate and try so hard to cultivate competition you feel invested in that runs smoothly. I get so happy every year to see people reacting to how they did, especially when authors get the excitement of seeing they placed whether it's the first time they entered or the third.
But I'll get to what everyone is expecting me to bring up. The current community situation.
I've made it a point to read other people's PWA 2019 tags to make sure I have a completely accurate view of what's happening and everyone's feelings on the matter. I've read the opinions of seven other people, read the comments of these posts, and have heard complaints personally from others.
If being abroad as an exchange student has taught me one thing, it's to be quick to observe, but slow to judge. I've made several observations while reading these tags, and I'm going to list them before I start making judgments about the situation. I aim to understand everyone's viewpoint, even if we may disagree, I want to know the reasons behind the problems everyone has.
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The facts I have observed from other's tags:
-It is a common opinion that people feel as if the community is divided. This comes in many forms. Some people feel like the community is divided by their opinions on the PWA, others believe the community is a group of elitist cliques.
-Some people are of the belief that members of the community have high expectations that stifle creativity and writing.
-Some have observed that the competition present causes many contestants to almost expect to win and throw around accusations when they do not.
-The clashes in the community frustrate and sadden many individuals.
-The PWA causes extreme feelings in people.
-Some people believe that everyone, judges and contestants, can be very hateful to each other.
-There are lower levels of engagements.
-People want to grow from this and promote kindness.
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Now I guess it's time for my "judgements." I see them more as inferences based on the information I was given, but I have to be consistent since I said to be quick to observe but slow to judge.
One critique that I personally have found very interesting is the claim that the very high standards of the community stifle writing and creativity. I find this interesting because some people seem to blame this on the competition of the PWA and the community, but when you look at the comments, the reasoning is completely different.
I find this so interesting because, on a specific comment thread of someone's tag, everyone expressed how much they struggled with self-doubt because they kept comparing themselves to other members of the community rather than there being an atmosphere in the community.
I relate to this on many personal levels. I suppress incredibly large amounts of paralyzing self-doubt when I just throw myself out there and say "Fuck it, I'm going to write whatever I want and not care about the opinions of others."
However, I don't see this issue as being specific to the Pokémon community, but rather everywhere. When I was active in art communities online, people constantly compared themselves to other people to the point they stopped drawing because they thought they could just never be good enough.
When I was talking to one of my Language Camp counselours for my exchange year, he told me that he stressed to every student to NEVER compare their exchange year to another student's, especially if it was just being viewed through social media. There is an epidemic of people comparing themselves to others on social media and believing they will never be good enough; this is not a problem endemic to the Pokémon Wattpad community.
Unfortunately, there isn't a real fix to this besides learning to ignore the feelings of self-doubt, which is much easier said than done. I am so happy to see other people trying to help other writers in getting over their own insecurities and self-doubt, and I'm excited to see how this plays out with the HeartSwapClub.
The next biggest complaint I've seen is lack of engagement and new writers. I've seen several reasons given to why this is from many writers having high levels of self-doubt, bias causing fractures in the already developed community (Which is an argument I personally don't understand because new writers just start writing and aren't really aware of the atmosphere of the community at first. I genuinely don't understand it and would really appreciate it if someone explained it to me.), and also the reason I find most compelling: changes in Wattpad itself.
I'll be honest, Wattpad is a terrible website for writing fanfiction and the only reason I use it is for the community. If you want engagement, you don't use Wattpad; you use FF.net because it is so much easier to be found there as it is dedicated to fanfiction.
Wattpad is the website to be on if you want to write general fiction mainly for the young adult audience, and Wattpad as a company has focused more and more on monetization and what can make them money; this is why you always get to see ads between chapters now. Wattpad can't make money off of fanfiction, so it makes sense why they wouldn't be making an algorithm advantageous to fanfiction.
I genuinely think it is the changes in Wattpad making other websites more appealing that has done the most damage. Most people only stay here for the friends they make, not the excellent system for fanfiction writing that Wattpad has, so it makes sense that new people who don't have a vested interest in the site due to previous friends they made would stick around when the algorithm makes their books so hard to find.
This perfectly explains in my mind why there aren't any new people. Accounts have been made to attempt to reach out to new writers, but the Wattpad algorithm buries them from being found. Furthermore, the average Wattpad age demographic is not the same as the average age in the Pokémon community.
According to the Editorial Lead of Wattpad, the majority of Wattpad is 18-30, which is much older than the majority of the Pokémon community. Credit to d_s_t_e for finding this. I was originally going to post your full comment, but it didn't flow as well with the rest of the post.
The community is shrinking, but I genuinely think it's because of Wattpad itself. There are thriving communities of Pokémon writers on Fanfiction.net and Archive of Our Own that have their own fair share of fractures and cliques, yet they're doing just fine despite the same community problems Wattpad has. The only difference is that Wattpad's algorithm is disadvantageous for fanfiction, while these websites were built off of it.
If this theory is true, no amount of changing the current community will make substantial changes to the PWA.
And that sucks.
We can change the community, but we can't change Wattpad. And that means there's nothing we can do to keep the community we all hold so dear from slowly dying.
And I don't really want to think about that.
This entire fiasco has made me just as sad and frustrated as everyone else. I've had to watch good friends and people I admire suffer so much despite all the hard work they put into improving the community.
It is so much easier to blame other people who you might already have issues with because it really hurts to accept that you can't change anything. We just drive people away by doing so and make our community wither and die out even faster.
I've lost a lot of respect for everyone in terms of maturity level. I suppose I should have known better considering the average age of the community, but I thought we wanted to help each other and write amazing stories.
This is a lesson I think everyone should apply to their everyday life and is the number one thing every exchange student learns: open communication is one of the most valuable tools you can own. If you have a problem with an individual, please just tell them personally. Open communication could have fixed many of the problems we've encountered.
When you have problems with how the PWA is run, send them a PM or leave a comment. I know the PWA has tried to encourage this by posting feedback polls very often, but nobody really answers them. For example, a pretty low number of people showed up to the focus groups made to address and listen to the issues being posted about in these tags.
Whether it's in your daily life or online, please tell people when you have a problem with them. I know it's so much easier to avoid conflict and just complain to other people, but that never turns out well.
...
Well, that was all rather sad, wasn't it? I have something more exciting to share.
I'd like to suggest an idea that was floated by more creative minds than me.
A Pokémon fanfiction contest not just for Wattpad, but for Fanfiction.net and Archive of Our Own.
Talk about boosting engagement.
The actual logistics would be difficult, but I think it's a valid idea to debate in order to increase engagement. It would bring together so many different writers and boost competitions. Admins from every site could get together to make sure everything runs smoothly and advertises the competition to their community.
I'm not saying this will happen, but I think it's a great idea that could revitalize the community.
So many people are attached to the Pokémon community due to the friendships they've fostered, and I genuinely understand and sympathize. I understand people's reactions, good and bad, because this isn't just about fanfiction. It's about community.
Most of the people in the community are teenagers and young adults struggling to find a place in the world, and Wattpad gave them a place. Now that things are changing in the community that gave them so much comfort, they react negatively. I get it. I really do. I'm just as attached to the clommunity as you are.
2I know this has been long, and I really do appreciate it if you read this entire thing with an open mind to this point. Anyway, everyone, take off some time for yourself. Get yourself some hot chocolate and read a book or watch a movie. It'll genuinely make you feel so much better.
Until I see y'all next~
-Ellison
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I'm tagging a bunch of people I know and more, so I'm sorry if you've already written this tag.
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