Insightful Reviews of iPredators on Absolute Write

What is An iPredator?

Definition as follows: "A person, group, or nation who, directly or indirectly, engages in exploitation, victimization, coercion, stalking, theft, or disparagement of others using Information and Communications Technology (ICT).
  • iPredators are driven by deviant fantasies, desires for power and control, retribution, religious fanaticism, political reprisal, psychiatric illness, perceptual distortions, peer acceptance or personal and financial gain.
  • iPredators can be any age or gender and are not bound by economic status, race, religion, or national heritage.
  • Whether the offender is a cyberbully, cyberstalker, cyber harasser, cybercriminal, online sexual predator, cyber terrorist, and internet troll or engaged in cyber deception, they fall within the scope of iPredator.

iPredator Behavior on Absolute Write

Below are a select number of intelligent and insightful reviews by writers who have run afoul of Absolute Write iPredators, or who have observed the cyberbullying of others on Absolute Write forums. Some wish to remain anonymous due to fear of their reputations and livelihoods being smeared in retaliation by Absolute Write owners, moderators, and their various followers (or whatever you wish to term them).

We encourage everyone from attorneys to social psyche researchers to take time and read these reviews carefully. The iPredator behavior patterns are apparent and predictable. The reviews represent a random sample taken from over a hundred critical reviews of Absolute Write and its culture.
All it takes is for one question to be asked, or one axe grinder to make an appearance, and the predators smell blood. A swarm of anonymous fairies and fops with ridiculous icons appear and begin fomenting themselves into leaps of logic, unfounded assumptions, and distortions of reality... 
I came to see it that on the whole the Absolute Write forums are an arena of juveniles acting out their fantasies and retaliatory urges on a continuing basis while honestly trying to give each other writer advice, and all the while watched over by people who are just mean spirited and unethical...
  ______________________________________________

@Fiendish writer, no one is lying about Absolute Write. That place is a almost a sewer of negativity. The mods are bullies. They bash self-publishing. They are so pathetic. I don’t know why writers even bother going over there- to have themselves kept in check by a bunch of bums. That’s just my personal opinion, of course. I’ve never been in trouble there or been banned, but I saw how volatile that place was and got away quick. Nobody is lying. Everything they say about that place is true.

      - "The Last of Us" (comment thread)


I'm one to lurk before joining in, and after watching the mods tear apart people for NO reason, then egging on others to bash those people, then carrying on long after they chased the person from the site...yeah I think I will pass on joining in. I've never seen anything so vile. There is a definite "clique" there. The site is great for them, but it looks like it's near impossible to become part of their "in club". Whether I could get in with them or not, I don't think I'd want to because I won't stand behind such poor behavior. This has to be the worst writing community I've ever encountered.

     - The Complaints Board


It's pretty much just what you'd expect. A lot of bad-to-mediocre writers giving bad-to-mediocre advice to bad-to-mediocre wannabe writers... The mods are powertripping jerks, just as many of the other posters have said. I met a handful of nice people, but no reason to stick around. I never posted any work to be critiqued because honestly, so much of what was posted in the critique section was so bad and the advice that was given equally amateur... I just didn't feel like I'd gain anything from it that I didn't already know. And most of the advice from different critters was conflicting, anyway. 

     - Rachel W. - The Missing Sitejabber Reviews


Ironically these “websites / authors” are doing what they claim others are doing, taking advantage of people who are looking in good faith for facts and information, truthful information about the publishing industry. Their responses are reduced to internet babble. A mix of half truths, alleged facts and very personal un-professional remarks and behavior. They tend to be abusive, Holier then thou, and totally off the mark. ALL they have to do is PROVE what they post. Just saying they have “hundreds” of complaint isn’t going to cut it. People are fed up with that attitude. Courts are leaning heavily toward companies and individuals who are entitled to face their accusers and their alleged facts.

One poster stated that they’re “reaping what they sow” how true. All of sudden people are asking them questions about who they really are, besides mutual friends.

So why don’t they just tell the truth?

     - Publishing Facts


I’ve only been a member briefly, and found this blog by searching how to leave the AWWC. It’s horrible. I thought it was an open, honest forum to exchange ideas and learn. I found myself in the middle of backbiting, condescending, bitter people (including two Mods) who were not helpful at all and hide behind screen names.

How am I supposed to take career advice seriously from someone called SuperModerator, when I can’t tell if they’ve ever published anything? I asked a specific question, and when I questioned politely but firmly the uninformed and negative advice an anonymous writer gave, she harangued and condescended like a fishwife.

On another thread, she jumped into a productive discussion and tongue lashed not only me, but every contributor! Lord, it must’ve taken her half an hour just to quote every single one of us LOL It was a ludicrous critique: she said we “had to” provide evidence for everything we said. This, immediately after telling me one of her pets doesn’t have to provide any, and I am rude for asking. 

     - The Cult - Absolute Write Water Cooler (comments)


I will give give "Absolute Write" credit for one thing though, they're very intelligent people. You see, they solved the mystery of my age. Using their version of commonsense and deductive reasoning, they were able to figure out that I am a withering and wilted old man. In a thread on their forum, they were talking about me. As everyone who has been following me knows, my age has not only been a bully obsession, but has baffled them for centuries. It's really all they can talk about... I will go on record and say that I am not one hundred percent positive that "Absolute Write" is a scam, I have no concrete proof of it, but when the owner of the site lies about her real name, and address, and has been sued on multiple occasions, then all of the signs point to ---> Buyer Beware!


     - Carroll Bryant


The main focus of Absolute Write is the "Water Cooler", a huge forum which addresses authorship of any kind. It has begun to suffer from a typical ailment that creeps in most long-standing Internet forums: the dreaded Clique Mentality. This occurs when a relatively small set of users contributes the vast majority of posts, combined with a set of unwritten rules--which are often rather unclear to anybody else than the clique itself. Hapless outsiders who violate these clique conventions will often find a mob of old-standing users pounce upon them like a group of ravenous wolves. I'm not joking--it's not a pretty sight when it happens. I have seen posters on Absolute Write being bullied merely for disagreeing with a clique member on a fairly minor matter. 

 The mob will pull any trick to discredit an outsider: ridiculing, twisting words of out context, and fairly often rather nasty personal attacks. People with few to no publishing credentials will get told that their opinions are unimportant and that their writing "likely sucks."  The irony is that most clique members are themselves writers of mediocre fare dwindling in the lower parts of the midlist, if that ...

     - Anon : The Missing Alexa Reviews


As far as I'm concerned, if a site is run this way it has no value so I will ignore it and encourage everyone to ignore it. It is run by a bunch of lower mid-list (and that may be being generous) old biddies who have nothing better to do than to dictate their rules to others. Free speech does not exist on Absolute Write and where free speech does not exist, I will not go. They talk a good game about "respect your fellow writer" but take umbrage at things in an oversensitive way and pull that respect from you without a second thought.

    - Mark Breuer : No Irish, No DGs


If you're a member of Absolute Write, I guarantee you've seen the moderators sweep into a discussion where the topic is one of their pet peeves, use the unfortunate poster as a punching bag, invite long-time members to join them, and then lock the thread and sometimes boot the member. It's never a straightforward warning about the rules, or a request for clarification. The moderators are not there to facilitate discussion, they're there to drive the discussion. If it ventures out of the bounds they like, even if the discussion is polite, it gets locked if for no other reason than "attitude."

It took me about five minutes to gather some examples. I went to a single topic and looked through the first few pages for locked threads. To be fair, two of the threads I saw were locked for legitimate (at least, what most forum admins would consider legitimate) reasons: resurrecting ancient threads. The rest were examples of moderators treating members like garbage.


     - Absolute Wrong : Silencing the Lambs


So whatever the merits of the campaign against Absolute Write, or the motivations of those behind this campaign, I have to (reluctantly) say that those in charge of Absolute Write Water Cooler richly deserve it. In the short time that I had an identity on that board, I would cringe every time that I logged on, in anticipation of the latest gratuitous, public insult that the board moderators had lodged against me, along with the warning "don't you dare talk back, or it will turn out badly for you" (their exact words).

     - B.Q. : Haters Gonna Hate (Comments on Victoria Strauss Troll Battle)


This morning, we found out through a few book club members that a forum known as the Absolute Write Cooler had identified us as a fake. Apparently, this is because we don't have an "existence that isn't associated with this book blog. No one reports going to lunch with her, she didn't show her pet at a local cat show, she hasn't participated in a Walk For Life, she isn't listed in a graduating class."

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. Absolute joy, that people find so many useful ways to spend their time. But one thing, was missing. Where is HapiSofi's contact information? From as far back as 2012, three characters appear in every thread together. HapiSofi, James McDonald and AliceShortCake. Then there are names like Old Hack, VeinGlory and Torgo. Again, no contact information, no social media links for most of these profiles.


     - Quality Reads UK


FROM THE MISSING SITEJABBER REVIEWS:

Absolute Write... So they made a set of forums for self pub. I rolled across them a couple of months ago, and was pretty horrified by what I saw: a large number of folks claiming to be industry experts deliberately spreading misinformation about what self publishing was, how best to go about it, and whether one could actually do it successfully (outside a few “outliers”). So I stepped in and started pointing out the flaws in the logic.

     - Kevin O. Mclaughlin


What frightens me as a rational person is that there are those who cannot understand why WAR and other sites are taking the time and effort to resist the kingdom of Absolute Write. What are they refusing to see? It is obvious that this is a combination protest and consciousness raising effort on the part of groups and people critical of the ongoing abuse, smears and cyberbullying. It is also a movement to curtail their behavior by any legal means necessary, as WAR says, and I agree with this. 

     - Lesley Cameron - The Consequence and Sad Truth of Hate (comments)


Beware. Absolute Write, in the hands of Lisa Spangenberg and her associates, is in effect a judge-jury-prosecutor platform, and one utilized on an almost daily basis to publicly humiliate, bash, defame and even scold people they have never met and do not know, as well as businesses they have never interacted with in any form whatsoever. All it takes is for one question to be asked, or one axe grinder to make an appearance, and the predators smell blood. A swarm of anonymous fairies and fops with ridiculous icons appear and begin fomenting themselves into leaps of logic, unfounded assumptions, and distortions of reality. All this would be amusing if it were not for the fact that their extensive dialogues and diatribes become public record and are ranked high in Google.

And will the average reader always understand what kind of sociopaths he or she is witnessing. Not necessarily. They appear to speak from authority quite often, give the appearance of sincerity, and there is a background history of real scams revealed by Absolute Write. Users there like Victoria Strauss, who give the appearance of legitimacy, will rush in to show support. But as we all know, the best way to maintain the momentum at Absolute Write is to mix a few grains of truth into one continuous and hydra-headed avalanche of lie. In reality, the core site is a lie on more than one level. 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 (huge 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.

Regardless, the bullies at Absolute Write, herded there by Lisa Spangenberg (as we all now know) and goaded on by her at all times with great vigor, basically function as a Salem witch trial. Accusations are often baseless, but delivered and discussed with excessive zeal. Victims are displayed for purposes of torture, and anyone who disagrees is accused of being a witch also.

One has to ask: what gives such cowardly arm-chair nerds the right to act as prosecutors, judge and jury? Nothing gives them the right. These are a bunch of losers looking for payback. I've seen it before. I've fired abnormals like this at my job because they were caught retaliating against other workers using phony online identities.

I know the type, and I sincerely hope someone is able to bring legal action against Lisa Spangenberg and her hateful crew.

     - PublisherW - The Missing Sitejabber Reviews


FROM DARK MARKETS "THE CULT OF ABSOLUTE WRITE":


"ABSOLUTE power corrupts absolutely." is the phrase that really sums it up which is funny and ironic. The head admin Spangenberg that has the sock puppet Stone is on a huge power trip over having that big board that looks great, that people want to join, but it's so insidious because it looks harmless and super fun but any of the mods that are nuts like that OldHack and Spangenberg will just randomly attack people and people can't even defend themselves their either banned or have some humiliating subnic, 

And I'm not talking about the small publishers and scam publishers that they bash, I'm talking about just writers trying to talk about any issue if a mod agrees with ANYTHING on ANY topic then they can insult, belittle and degrade that member to their hearts content and the member will be banned if they say one word in their defense or even if they say anything perceived as "snarky" back and they just play these nasty little mind games that they think are so clever, but anyone can see through them, it's just that people can't do anything much about them because it is a private business, but yes, the crazy power trip is ruining a magnificent concept and something that could be so good.

She really doesn't have to act so crazy and nasty to keep control of her board and it's really hypocritical to let certain mods spew misinformation and throw around insults like that Old Hack.


     - Shay Richards : The Looking Glass of Caroll Bryant (comments)


Now, if there is any environment more toxic than GR, it’s the Absolute Write Water Cooler. It’s a snake pit. And not just any snake pit. We’re talking Indiana Jones, Raiders of the Lost Ark kind of snake pit. Why is it so bad? Its not just because of its members. Its moderators play a big part in it, too. Keep reading and we’ll show you what we mean.

Now before we continue, we want to show you some Alexa reviews we found  here. All of the five star reviews are legacy reviews, because once upon a time, when AW was fresh and new, it was a good place to be, but slowly over time, it became corrupt.

     - STGRB : The Banning of Robin Sullivan

21 comments:

  1. It should be added you can't even access the area where you can review Absolute Write anymore on site jabber. I tried clicking for my own review, and it redirect me to a list of various writers sites. Not because Absolute Writers water cooler doesn't exist mind you. Why would someone not be able to access the reviews section?

    That begs all sorts of questions in itself.

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    1. If you click on our link to the top right of the page, you can see the original SiteJabber reviews. Even the threads open up to show the original comments as well as Macallister Stone and Lisa assuming various bogus identities. We were fortunate that the web archive saved the reviews because they were extensive and also represented the attempt by Absolute Write shills to come in and disrupt the flow of the comments telling the truth about what a horrid place they had found it to be.

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    2. This is a classic avoidance tactic. You attack the messenger rather than argue or deny the message.

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    3. What is more telling is that they won't admit to a single instance of false accusation or bullying, or even anything that might be mistaken as such. They might be acting on advice from an attorney to avoid any possible instance of guilt admission. And if they did they would of necessity be forced to remove offensive posts, but this would be cutting their lifeline to google. Look at the business stats for Absolute Write and you will find the great bulk of their traffic coming off of google as a result of their huge array of Beware and Background Check posts concerning a myriad of people, organizations and presses. Being offensive, vigorously questioning writer-related businesses and commenting on the verge of libel is what drives the machine.

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    4. Keep in mind AW that to go back and admit wrong would be to betray their monkey people who sprang up to support their rampaging over the course of hundreds of posts. I recently saw a good old Absolute Write bashing of a writer business brought to attention by Absolute Blight (thanks!). I went back and read through the thread which is incredibly long and involves the members and owners of Absolute Write slicing and dicing a writer event they hate called the NYC Pitch Conference. I then read further and found up to three separate threads pretty much devoted to further dicing not only this event but anything involved with a group called Algonkian. The interesting thing about it all was that well over a dozen writers, several of whom were commercially published and actual members of AW, were defending this organization tooth and nail with actual results and praise that sounded reasonable and detailed, not boilerplate, but despite all of this, or because of it, the owner witches and their assorted gang which included Hapisofi Hayden, Stacia Kane, and other regulars as well as various supportive members out to earn a few points, decided to gang up and pile it on and do everything possible to insult and contradict anyone who didn't share the official AW line. The hysterically obvious thing about it all (click on the link above and read what Babswriter says about AW member Francis Bruno) is that Bruno became an AW sockpuppet who lied repeatedly about this conference in New York, the pitch thing, and when Babswriter called him on his lies with ample proof, Macallister Stone jumped in to reprimand her. Talk about hypocrisy! Babswriter was then accused of being on a vendetta and of being a sockpuppet, of course. This is how the infants there deal with the absolute truth of a contradiction staring them right in the face.

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    5. I just read the threads you're talking about. I checked on what BabsWriter said about Bruno and she was spot on. Bruno lied again and again. He contradicted himself so many times I lost count. The mods cheered him on. No one in the face of the owners gave a bit of weight to what BabsWriter was saying and she was well spoken. She also corroborated what loads of writers were saying about the conference in New York and on top of it all, she got a publishing contract like several others did, but that didn't matter to Macallister or her team of frauds. They would not even admit for a second that she might have a point or that Bruno was obviously contradicting himself.

      The whole rump smoocher thing was funny. I like this Babs, whoever she is.

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    6. I counted in those three threads over two dozen supporters of that writer organization they hate. They hate a helluva lot of people. They also smeared the director of that conference and the mother organization. Neff is his name. He has a lot of supporters also, but the tribe won't cut any slack once they've dug in. They started smearing Neff and the others many years ago. They just won't stop. It's just like with everyone else.

      Classic Absolute Write.

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    7. Thank you for contacting us at Algonkian regarding this matter. Babs wrote us the letter below requesting assistance and we provided it. She was bullied by them for daring to stick to her opinion and call out an obvious liar.

      To Whom it May Concern,

      To make it short, I've been a member of Absolute Write for a relatively brief time. During that time I have come across a member there named Francis Bruno who is saying quite a few negative things about the New York Pitch Conference.

      I have attended the conference and Susan Breen was my workshop leader. I actually met my editor there and my novel is scheduled for publication in late 2014.

      I've had exchanges with this Bruno person. He is insisting that he and other writers at the conference were "forbidden" from interacting with editors, and that the event organizers were markedly abusive towards attendees. This was not my experience at all, nor can I locate anyone who has had such an experience. Susan knows this is nonsense and she has been with the conference for seven years. Also, his assertions just don't add up. How could an entire conference full of people been sold on meeting editors only to be told it was forbidden? There would have been chaos and rioting. Certainly, fallout from a stunt like that would have been all over the web years ago.

      I feel certain this Francis Bruno is lying about the editor issue as well as the abuse issue, and I believe he is lying for the purpose of winning favor with some other member or members on Absolute Write. He has even contradicted himself on several occasions. On the same forum, years ago, he talked about meeting editors at the conference in question. Now, of course, he says he was forbidden, and his explanation for this particular glaring inconsistency, among others, is a ridiculous and hazy one involving having been molded into a form of zombie or sock puppet under the control of Algonkian organizers. I'm completely on the level.

      Now I am writing in the hopes of locating any writers who were in Francis Bruno's group at the New York Pitch Conference. I hate liars the size of Bruno and I desire to effectively show him up to be the liar he really is. His statements are public record and I encourage Algonkian to investigate his speech on this public board for possible legal action.

      Thank you.

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    8. Long as you're lying to support the local diatribe, it's all good.

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    9. Charlene, thank you for posting. We saw the post in question on Absolute Blight some time ago but didn't think react here since, unfortunately, it is only one of many scores of smears and trashings of others on Absolute Write. In other words, it did not stick out, but it does illustrate what we've been saying all along.

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    10. Absolute Write fancies itself a competitor of Algonkian. So what else do you expect from a bunch of trolls? They even run ads for competitor writer conferences. Algonkian is the enemy to them and we all can see how much they love having enemies.

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    11. I've dealt with these people in the past. Everything said here about Absolute Write is true, and then some. It was a lot of vicious and uninformed swiping at the pitch conference that started it and they branched out from there. It wasn't until I witnessed their antics over the course of years that I finally realized the true extent of their pathology. It all starts with Macallister Stone. She behaves without the slightest bit of compassion or ability to recognize her ignorance. She jumps right in like in the middle of a fight and starts slashing when mediation and common sense are called for. She just doesn't care. Same with Lisa Spangenberg. They just don't care about the damage they instigate.

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    12. Here is why: GOOGLE TRAFFIC TO AW.
      Attorney Woman said it. They have no incentive to calm down or remove the bully posts because their traffic, and their advertising revenue, depend on it. They must have received many thousands of traffic clicks from pitch event alone.

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    13. I just created this profile to respond. I don't normally do much social media. I want to thank Charlene for posting the letter. I'll be back with more.

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    14. Thank you for showing me how to make this link here.

      I went to Absolute Write seeking community and received in return a determined assault of absurrd accusation and juvenile contradiction for truthfully speaking my mind about a conference I attended in New York which was wonderful and life changing for me. An Absolute Write member named Francis Bruno kept returning in an effort to make me look as if I were a cross between a fool and a hireling of some sort for daring to contradict the infallible opinions of the Absolute Write social club led by Macallister Stone who in fact is the worst hypocrite imaginable. The woman appears to delight in being a bully shepherd. She knew full well that the Bruno person was a huge liar, but when I pointed out his lies, one by one, I was chastised by her. Ridiculous. How long can you roll in the pig slop before it gets on you? At the end I was dubbed a "sockpuppet with a vendetta" for refusing to bow to the tireless Bruno man.

      I tried to offer editorial guidance in the fiction forums there, but trying to be heard over the perpetual howl and drone issuing from dozens and dozens of amateur writers hurling "advice" at each other is completely impossible. Futile. Like a bunch of chipmunks chattering about constructing an airplane. Just won't work!

      All in all, it was a terrible experience. I came to see it that on the whole the Absolute Write forums are an arena of juveniles acting out their fantasies and retaliatory urges on a continuing basis while honestly trying to give each other writer advice, and all the while watched over by people who are just mean spirited and unethical.

      This is just my opinion based on my own awful experience there. Others do seem to have had a different experience, but when I see a member post on Internet they never would have been published without Absolute Write, I investigate further and see that they self-published.

      This is all I have to say on this ugly matter. I now want take a shower with lots of soap and forever put Absolute Write behind me.

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    15. If you are a naive impressionable writer and you avoid any possible difference of opinion with the mods and their socks, you might actually say good things about AW Water Cooler.

      I know I did, but I grew up.

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    16. One of my favorite comments by Babs on Absolute Write. I just had to post:

      "I am not going to engage in this any further. I am sorry I was led into this argument. I never meant for this to happen. I came here looking for community, I expressed my views. I know from watching these threads what is going to happen now.

      I'm leaving for another place. I hate this kind of bickering nonsense, and with people who claim the truth while totally contradicting themselves. And I'm not interested in allowing my stated experience to further become a springboard for bashing and insulting anyone or for unsupported innuendo of any kind. What difference does it make if some entity on the Internet claims to have had a rough experience with whoever? That's unfortunate, sad, and so forth. All the world weeps. But that has nothing to do with my experience or my group's experience at the NYC event. Neff isn't a virus that infects complex events that involve multiple personalities and workshops and such, emerging like some kind of evil God and sending people weeping into the hallways. This is so ridiculous! I DIDN'T EVEN INTERACT WITH HIM!!! HELLO!!! IS ANYONE LISTENING??? How many alleged victims can we haul from the muck of the AW bottoms?"

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    17. It clearly shows the potential and reality of abuse in the Writer Beware forums of Absolute Write.

      The replies and logic of the defenders of the writer events in question present a clear picture of the facts, but the assaults do not stop.

      The clicks will continue to earn the owners a living.

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    18. I never thought of myself as an evil god. I have sent myself weeping into the hallways from time to time, but that's about it.

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  2. http://www.darkmarkets.com/2010/02/the-cult-absolute-write-water-cooler_19.html

    Here is the new link, as the link above seemed to be broken on the last post.

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  3. Put my own review of Absolute Write on the complaints section.

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