A small Ode to Ooorah

By elveloy

I joined Wattpad on 11th August 2011 and by an amazing co-incidence and totally unconnected, Ooorah was born here a few weeks later on the 3rd October 2011, under the original name of Forbidden Planet. Both of us are celebrating our tenth anniversary in 2021.

I think it is safe to say that Ooorah and its contributors have had a profound impact on Wattpad over the years, I know it has certainly been a significant factor in my writing life.

Let's begin with that venerable resource, The Ooorah Guide to SF Sub-Genre Definitions (started in 2011and amended as required), still heading my Resource Reading List after all these years, and also quite likely to appear in a Google search, just try searching for "definition of bardpunk."

Then there were the Smackdowns, elimination short story contests full of challenging prompts. These were so popular that they needed a new home, and sister profile LayeththeSmackDown was born in 2016.

These were a great way to get one thinking outside the box and discovering sub-genres you'd never heard of until that moment. I wrote some of my most imaginative short stories during those Smackdowns and I have since published many of them in various anthologies. In fact, I dedicated my short story collection, Splinters of Glass, to the Ooorah team. And I'm sure I'm not the only one to use them as a springboard into the world of paid publishing.

And then we come to Tevun Krus. Now up to our 94th issue! Who would ever have thought, all those years ago, it would still be powering on ten years down the track? All those opportunities for different people to contribute articles, reviews and short stories. It would be interesting to add up how many different individuals have been involved. I wouldn't be surprised if there were hundreds (not volunteering to count though!) And no prizes whatsoever for guessing the sub-genre edition with the most reads!