A fair warning, the title might be clickbait-ish. Again.

I don't know how much of this is actual tea but I'm not saying what happened or anything. This is purely my thoughts about 'exposing people' on Wattpad.

Writing exposé and exposing people felt like a trend on Wp in the time period of 2020-21. It was also the time when lockdown was imposed in almost every country in the world and people like you and me suddenly had too much time on our hands and no way to know what to do with it. I mean, yes, people were here since 2015 but covid made this place even more active.

I became in 2020 too and I thought maybe I could just publish some of my work and see where it goes bcuz before that I never had this much time that I could solely give to writing although I wanted to.

Anyways, I made many friends, joined awards and communities and had fun. But during this time I also started seeing this whole toxic side of Wp and how some people wished to bring it to light.

There are still toxic people around, it's impossible to completely be free of them. There are also those who plagiarise, be it books or graphics and even bios. Bio one is a crazy one tbh but whatever. (I literally have zero sense when it comes to bios.)

So, those who were affected by it obviously first talked it out, came to an agreement, that sort of thing. If it continued, followers came up to the defence and then the victim would kind of expose them, I guess, saying this happened to me. They would often share screenshots of the original and plagiarized stuff to show what exactly happened and all, like presenting the facts and letting people judge.

There were also exposé made about people writing inappropriate stuff in their books and promoting toxicity or anything along that line.

These are the sort of exposé that I don't think are completely wrong to do. It's to make people aware of things happening around them. And in a way when it comes to plagiarism, I don't think anyone should stay silent. Your creativity being copied and being sold by someone else is not a good feeling and it is unacceptable. So, a group of people coming together to help the victim is not wrong but obviously, there is a way to doing it. You can't just go ahead and scream, 'bitch, you copied, Imma kill you.'

No, that's not how you do it. You should maintain a level of civility and humanity even if you think what the other person did is horrendous while dealing with issues like that. The behavioural stuff is a whole discussion for another time but yeah, outright hostility isn't the best way around it.

However, this is exactly what happened everytime an exposé went 'viral' and what followed was a whole another drama of the perpetrators saying sorry and leaving wp for good bcuz the cyberbullying scarred them for life.

Some came back after 2 days but that's another story once again XD

I won't say that I haven't promoted such "books". If you scroll down my mb, like way down, I'm sure you'll find the evidence. I don't know if they are still up but yeah, the announcements should be there. I rarely delete my announcements.

But I will also say that the ones that I promoted were the ones that revealed the extreme kind of plagiarism, trickery and toxicity. I didn't just blindly promote anything bcuz that's not how I roll. I don't do anything about an issue unless it has reached the height of its existence. And sometimes I don't even do that bcuz I don't find it that important.

Especially on an online platform such as Wattpad.

The third kind of exposé that got famous was the type that exposed a problematic person. I'm not saying what they posted on wp. I'm talking about the behaviour kind of problematic people, like those who treat others like trash or are using inappropriate language or demeaning people, that sort of thing. Or if a huge fight happened and someone exposed the one in the left corner, that kind thing.

Honestly, I don't support these kinds at all. I think they are extremely meaningless and unnecessary and just plain stupid to do online. And I firmly believe that doing such things leads to more animosity, hatred and negativity than resolving the issue.

Still, I didn't realise the extent of how damaging it could be till a close friend of mine got caught up in it. I won't go into details bcuz it has traumatized my friend enough. Though I will say that seeing all that happen shifted my views about exposing people changed drastically.

The issue could have been solved silently, like real silent if the people involved had decided to talk about it openly to the people who actually had been involved instead of trying to "clear up stuff" on wp. Bcuz talking on wp did nothing but worsen situations and friendships.

It was a time when we couldn't meet people so online friends became closer than real life friends. Also the fact that people online are far less judging when just chatting, so it's kind of liberating.

Now, after that happened, I was shit scared of being exposed myself bcuz more often than not I have strong opinions about certain things and when I feel like talking, I don't hold back. So, obviously I've had few conflicts with people debating about stuff.

Suddenly though, I was scared of speaking the wrong words. I had to think a million times instead of hundred before saying anything bcuz I had no way of knowing what is considered offensive.

Now, get this, that I started being active on social media at the age of 18. Still my interaction was limited to my real life friends and by the time I turned 19 and was fully active on discord and wp I had missed out on a lot of "global" things. Like, what is offensive to an Indian might not be for someone else. So, there was that gap and I am doing my best to be open minded and to learn new things. I'm not ashamed to admit at all that I didn't and still don't know a lot of things bcuz it wasn't a priority for me until then. My priority was and always have been education so I didn't care about the rest much.

But yeah, to put it simply, I was scared.

You might be wondering why I'm suddenly talking about exposing people out of context but it's not and I'm getting to it.

So, like I said, I was scared of saying wrong things and I don't know when it started but I get anxious talking to people in dms. Like I have no trouble talking in a gc or server but for some reason dms scare me. Especially if the person is someone I don't like very much or I know we don't see eye to eye or just strangers in general. There are just very few people I can talk to freely in dms.

Another thing is, I'm a drama seeker. Like many other people out there I like tea, I like gossips. I do try to stay away from conflict and drama but I'm just as eager to see it. (Sometimes I do take part in it too.)

Why I'm bringing this all up is bcuz of the chaos that ensued after I made a cryptic announcement. I was accused of cyberbullying, goading the person and trying to teach them a lesson. You can see below what I posted.

Now, I agree I was less than civil while talking but I was a little upset. Too many things had been piling up on their account in my notebook and I just thought I'll just make a cryptic remark cuz there's no way I am important enough to be subjected to stalking.

I wasn't trying to make anyone look bad or anything. As a human, I know no one is born bad. There are always two sides to everything, so assuming I was trying to "warn" people or "influence" them was wrong too.

Also, this happened after an argument between a friend and them and it was assumed that I was defending my friend. I was not. I don't need to defend people who know how to do it for themselves.

The only person I defended was another friend of mine and the ones we picked fight with blocked us pretty soon. It was a pointless argument bcuz they didn't know how to read and their thick skulls were impenetrable. But we vented which was nice. We were really angry. So, that's that.

Anyways, back to the main issue. After a week of making that announcement, I find out that my single liner caused such great trauma that they had to block me and had intrusive thoughts. I'm no one to judge so I won't comment on it.

But to assume that I'm trying to "teach a lesson" by posting this on a public platform is just an assumption. I don't have enough attachment nor enough maternal instincts to want to teach a stranger a lesson. What I did was simply stating a fact without revealing names.

The other thing that was brought was why didn't I go to dms if I had an issue. Now, how am I supposed to go about it? Just drop in their dms out of nowhere and tell them they need to reflect on their actions when I know several people have already told them that and there were no changes?

I didn't do it to cause trouble. I just wanted my opinion out bcuz again, dms make me anxious and words can be twisted. At least this way I'm safe knowing that everything is out in the open. I just plain don't want my words to be manipulated.

There were also assumptions about me exposing them which is not true. I did think about exposing someone, in fact 2 people actually. One of them, I left in the past long ago and although the memory still makes me want to disappear, I don't want to rehash it.

The conflict with the 2nd person was a recent one and this one really made me so angry bcuz I was made to feel like I was not good enough. It was a joke for them but their words affected me and several other people in a way that we tried to avoid any and every interaction with them. Idk if they have changed and I do not care.

But the reason I did not continue with that exposé is bcuz it was pointless. Everyone important to me knew what happened and who was at fault and that was enough for me. It made me want to put it past me and I really did until the accusations but whatever.

To be completely honest though, I really don't have time for this shit. I've got more important things in my life to focus on except exposing someone whom I met online. There's also the fact that I'm the older one no matter what and even if they don't care about the age, I do and thought what am I going to achieve here. If I had actually exposed them, it would have been bullying for real and I don't want to do that.

I didn't write this to cause more problems and I'm not writing this to apologise either. I just wanted to clarify a few things and also make peace with my mind bcuz ever since I found out about it I've been troubled and no amount of talking with my friends is helping me.

No, I won't go to dms either. I don't want to do that. I just think it was high time to talk about it and get past it bcuz their absence or presence makes no difference. My exam on 30th was amazing despite having found all this the night before.

Another thing that I want to clarify here is that just bcuz some people don't fight doesn't mean everything is alright. I was an onlooker for so long and I just felt that I had to talk about it finally. I had kept it inside me for too long. I just didn't know that this would elicit such a dramatic reaction and would be blown out of proportion.

I guess what my mom says is true. When a person who never talks finally does, it hits harder than ever.

Me and my friends have already decided to forget this ever happened or that we knew a person like that. I wrote this to get past this for real.

Again, I'm saying that I didn't write this to make matters worse. If you have anything to add or say to me, go ahead. Like I said above, I was afraid of being exposed but not anymore. I don't have anything to hide. I decided to stop worrying the moment I posted that announcement.

I feel like Jordan Peterson in this whole situation 🤡

If you don't who he is, search him up, he is a clinical psychologist. He speaks facts that not many people like and he gets hate for talking statistically and realistically.

The world is one strange place 🤷