At 10:33 am on May 6th 2024 I received this email to correspond with a private message I got from the Wattpad Team to my account.

Basically telling me that the entirety of The Night Court, including two drafted parts (one of which was unfinished, I forgot about, and has never been seen by readers) was taken done for violating content guidelines.

Obviously, this came as a shock to me. The Night Court has been a part of Wattpad’s Paid Stories program for two years so one would assume the content was up to guidelines. It was also recently added to the premium picks promotion, meaning it is one of 5 offered free reads for certain members under certain conditions. Which just means I signed an additional contract with Wattpad in order for it to be a part of this promotion. So, at this point I assumed if something was wrong with my content that I would be told.

Immediately at 10:39, I send my initial response. I send another email at 11:11 am (make a wish) because I’m starting to feel upset and scared. I’ve been on this website for 11 years. I didn’t jump ship when all my other friends left. Let me be clear, The Night Court was removed and then I did take down my other stories out of concern and confusion as to what this meant towards my relationship with the site. Maybe I jumped a few steps and we can discuss if I was too hasty, but I was upset and getting messages from readers who had to find me on my other socials to find out what happened to a story they were in the middle of reading.

I’m clarifying this because in a message I posted to my Wattpad account page, I realize it sounded unclear if they removed all my stories or just the one. I removed the others.

At 1:04 pm, I get a response that states that restored The Night Court. I’m feeling upset because there is no explanation as to why this happened. Was I flagged by a bot? Was this is an accident? When my income is reliant on people being able to access my stories, I don’t really think accidents are plausible. I will upload nothing until I know exactly what happened.

Their first response came after just a few short hours so I am hoping to hear back soon. I would like this to be resolved because my next steps are bound to what my future is with Wattpad and if I have one at all.