Jenna On Twitter: 217. I Got Money For Mac
In a about Jenna Glatzer's founding, building, and eventual sale of Absolute Write, author Ted Gross states: We miss you, Jenna! If the new owner(s) and moderators choose to use it for their own personal ends, something that Jenna never did, AW will fall by the wayside. If they choose to allow a differing of opinions then AW may flourish.
They will need balance and wisdom. They will require certain innate qualities which no one can know they have until it is put to the test. They will have to learn the elements of respect and fear and know how to understand each.
That only the future will tell, and thus no amount of discussion will do any good. A bare few months pass with the 'new guard' in charge. The same Ted Gross, who spoke so highly of Absolute Write community, becomes one of the first targets of mob mentality. When a member of Absolute Write used a swastika in his signature line and the moderators did nothing about it, Ted, who is of Jewish descent,.
The questions he asks may sound familiar to some readers: Where the hell are the police mods who seem to be all over when heaven forbid, someone says something not to their liking? Where the hell are the 'open-minded' people who run this board? Could it be that if you say something not kind about Absolute Write you will get banned but showing a swastika is considered 'freedom of speech'? Lisa (yes, that Lisa, a la Spangenberg) feels it her duty to on what he is and isn't allowed to be offended about, and how the swastika had meaning for centuries before the Nazi's began using it. I would love to see someone post 'gay people suck,' and then lecture Mac and Lisa on how the word 'gay' had meaning for centuries before homosexuals starting using it, and then tell them they aren't allowed to be offended because it means 'happy people suck.'
I'm too big of a coward, but someone should do this. With popcorn. Private messages sent to the owner and other disagreements with the owner may be publicly posted and everyone invited to trash them. They play favorites ridiculously, and also get way too overinvolved, shutting down threads etc. All this mess, while constantly telling everyone else that the number one rule is 'Respect Your Fellow Writer!'
- The Absolute Write Water Cooler is active enough, but has more than their fair share of condescending know-it-alls. If you’ve ever been there for any length of time, it’s like being back in high school. I didn’t like high school the first time around. That thread is bewildering. What in God's name is wrong with these people? And where do they find the time for all that arguing?
- I realize being banned from AW is the norm, but for the following message. That crowd has gone totally nuts. Look at this quite simply.
You have a freewheeling chat board packed with anonymous and amateur posters, as well as poorly credentialed moderators and holier-than-thou owners. Now, add to that a hostile cultural tone feeding on ignorance and prepared to compete with itself, and what do you have? - People outside this mess just don't understand what the real victims of this website are talking about.
It's like driving down the highway to work one morning and seeing that someone has overnight built a billboard on the highway with your face and name, and beside it are images of a bunch of other people you've never seen and don't know calling you a loser and a fraud and a crook and an idiot and whatever other insult they can think of. You can't get the billboard taken down because a new law prevents anyone from having to take responsibility for it even if they know the whole thing is a lie., and you can't sue the people on it because you've found out they are all fake, and every day you have to answer for these insults and hope that sane people will see this kangaroo trial by billboard for what it is and also hope you will not be fired from your job as a result.
The owner and her sock puppets and assorted gang not only shred people all day for amusement and publicity (as someone pointed out, the mediocre writers get publicity for their poorly written books each time they post) and monetary gain (substantial revenue from advertisements), the site itself purports to offer good advice to writers when in fact it does no such thing. Advice is amateurish and quite often just plain wrong.
Jenna On Twitter 217. I Got Money For Mac Vine
How people like Melodi can sleep at night is beyond me. As far as I am concerned, she is nothing but a criminal.
But you know, that's just my educated opinion. All writers should definitely stay away from this site. There are several moderators on this site who will start a fight with you and then kick you out for responding back. In addition, the advice that one receives on the forums is pedestrian and the kind of advice that any beginning writer would give.are you kidding me with this?
- Correct me if I am wrong, but my book blog should be about books and what I want to include. If you do not see what you want to see, that doesn't make me fake. Then came the next disturbing element of this unfolding drama.
So we've been certified as fake. The forum moderator HapiSofi bashed the book club in more than one thread. She was applauded for her 'detective' work. I’ve lost count of the number of “gang bangs” I’ve witnessed and it keeps getting worse.
So many good writers have been banned or alienated there’s hardly anyone left worth reading, bad and misleading advice abounds and trolls seem to use it as a gathering place to discuss their next campaign. The site owner believes herself accountable to no one, so the mods range around the site like a gang of outlaws in Dodge City picking fights with anyone they don’t like the look of. I must admit it is a fascinating study in groupthink but hardly a congenial atmosphere for serious discussion. IMPORTANT: 'ADVICE' CIRCULATING IS PROVIDED BY RANK AMATEURS, ANONYMOUS CREATURES, AND PUBLICATION BOTTOM-LISTERS, AS WELL AS VARIOUS FRAUDULENT IDENTITIES PRETENDING TO BE AN EDITOR FROM A MAJOR PUBLISHING HOUSE.
THE AW FORUM OWNERS, MELODI SHERMAN AND LISA SPANGENBERG, HAVE NEVER WRITTEN FICTION, NOR HAVE THEY EVER EDITED FICTION IN ANY PROFESSIONAL OR ORGANIZATIONAL CAPACITY. DO YOUR RESEARCH CAREFULLY AND DO NOT TAKE AT FACE VALUE ANYTHING YOU 'LEARN' ON AW CONCERNING THE MARKET OR ANY ASPECT OF FICTION WRITING. The mission of W.A.R. Is to expose the incompetents and bullies of for who they really are and to provide a verifiable record for anyone to examine; and to gather information and colleagues necessary to engage in legal proceedings against the owner and her cronies engaged in acts of libel against writers and legitimate businesses. In the days before 'Macallister Stone' (aka Melodi Sherman) took over, Absolute Write was useful and more fair.
However, that time has passed. They have become a lynch mob who daily engage in smear tactics of the worst kind against people who just don't deserve it. The time has come to fight back and make it as difficult as possible for the bullies to win. Let's take the fight to them.