The Missing Alexa Reviews of Absolute Write

Sometime during 2013, Alexa removed all of the Absolute Write reviews. Fortunately, a concerned former victim of Absolute Write mods captured the page ahead of time and saved it after a sudden and mysterious vanishing of reviews from Sitejabber.
Don't expect the moderators to do anything to curb bullying of forum members. If anything, they encourage it, since they are often part of the cliques themselves. I guess it just shows that the distance of the Internet will even bring out the worst in people who might be considered fairly cultured in real life. 
I can't praise Absolute Write enough--it's informative, inspiring, and it's made this business of writing far less mysterious and intimidating to me. If there is one resource I recommend to all of the writers I meet, it's AW. Now, if you don't mind, I've got a book to write...
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I would not recommend this site to a friend
khemikhals (Casual Visitor)

Dislikes
  • Poor customer support

 Comments:  Been hanging around for more than a year. At first seemed like a relatively cool, civil and friendly forum but that impression faded as I noticed how members are treated. The staff, particularly the two admins, ban at a whim, usually while insulting the member. The reasons are usually the member's opinions remotely bothering the admins, or going against the established opinions of the clique. A few of the more baseless bans: a member of fifteen-thousand posts, friends across the board, calls a mod on their bullying tactics once and is permanently banned. A more casual member of fifteen-hundred posts says she generally finds published fantasy of a lesser quality than other genres. A mod and few veteran members smell blood and jump the member, who to my knowledge had never been anything but a civil, positive presence, for this fairly benign opinion which probably had a good explanation (such as: fantasy publishers aren't discerning enough in what they pick up, but of course before the member could speak was strawmanned as someone who thinks fantasy writers are stupid), and when she did speak up and called them on the overreaction, was banned, while being called ignorant by the admin. Such events are commonplace. Makes you wonder if you should get too attached to anyone in case one day, one of their opinions doesn't sit well with the staff and they're pilloried. A gross double standard exists in how members are treated. Longtime members and staff are allowed to mistreat newer members but any who stand up for themselves are banned. I strongly discourage anyone from visiting this community as it's unfriendly, abusive, doesn't allow freedom of expression and of course is a major distraction from writing.

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  • I would not recommend this site to a friend
jacquelinegum (Power Visitor)
The best use of this site is Research.

 Likes
  • Easy to navigate
Dislikes
  • Poor customer support
Comments: It's all good unless they don't like your opinion. Here are some of the quotes from moderators that were directed at me "Oh, you unthinking liar." and then, "you monster of self-regard." and the ending of "Very much your bad. Get better." The thread dealt with marketing options for published authors. Oh, and I was cursed with less than polite language too. Very unprofessional. To top it off, they won't delete profiles either. I have to agree with J_jammer. The moderators/owners are the worst offenders. The only acceptable opinions are theirs. They do not encourage an open forum. Instead, they act like cheerleaders for the haters. Appalling experience.

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I would not recommend this site to a friend
Facebook User (Casual Visitor)
The best use of this site is Research.

 Likes
  • Easy to navigate
  • Good content
  • Site is fast and responsive
Dislikes
  • Poor customer support
Comments:The site is an excellent site... as long as the moderators (particularly the site owner) likes you. They have forum TOS and posting standards. The owner believes she has no obligation to abide by them. I am banned. The owner's exact words: " I don't like you. I find you unpleasant in the extreme. That's all the reason I need." The information there is excellent. It's because of the users that post there. Not so much how it's (mis)managed.

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  • I would not recommend this site to a friend
adam7 says:

Comments:Nasty, unprofessional, abusive, bullying, childish. Site has gone downhill in recent years and writing is no longer the focus. Serious writers are run off by all this stupid insanity, and the level continues to sink. Terrible site. Avoid.

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  • I would not recommend this site to a friend
j_jammer (Power Visitor)

Likes
  • Active community
Dislikes
  • Poor customer support
Comments: I agree with one of the reviews talking about the Water Cooler. I posted on this site for a few months. I was banned due to not conforming to the way the cliques wanted me to. I don’t conform and I certainly do not agree with how packs think. I think for myself, thank you very much. Writers are pretentious when they’re not published. For some reason it takes going through publishing to gain some form of humility. Or maybe not even then. I do not suggest any writer to go to this forum to gain anything of use. If these writers cannot accept a different view, then really what value do they have in a world that’s full of them? I suggest joining a writing group, not a website that can’t give you more than fake pats on the back. The owners of Absolute Write are not talked about well around the web. They should be on their own terrible list to not associate with.

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  • I would not recommend this site to a friend
theoriginaljenna (First Time Visitor)

Comments: I checked it out all I read was negative posting in the Writers Beware section very unprofessional and bullying going on.

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  • I would not recommend this site to a friend
psnbob says:

Dislikes
  • Other
Comments: I went to this site to see what kind of warnings they had as new writer. My RED FLAGS went straight up after noticing that many of the posters are all either a group of authors and small press publishers grouping together to promote sites only that they like and backlash at other small presses, agents or authors. I don't trust them! I don't like them! I didn't find the site useful at all. In fact they encourage negative feedback of small presses and such. Too bad they themselves don't get any back lashing because ban you immediately.

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  • I recommend this site to a friend
Facebook User says: 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 heir 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. This is confounded by the huge reverence for literary agents throughout the site--often to absurd levels. Whatever you do, don't say anything about agents that could be interpreted as anything other than admiration, if you don't want the mob to go after your blood. Don't expect the moderators to do anything to curb bullying of forum members. If anything, they encourage it, since they are often part of the cliques themselves. I guess it just shows that the distance of the Internet will even bring out the worst in people who might be considered fairly cultured in real life. If anything, I blame the moderators for letting their forums slide down this slope. My advice would be to simply read some of the forums of your interest and keep an eye out on the "Bewares" section.

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  • I recommend this site to a friend
Comments: When I decided to get serious about writing, I did a lot of research on the Internet. I wanted to know how books got published, and how, someday, my own work might make it into print. There are a lot of great sites out there for writers, but Absolute Write is the one I keep returning to again and again--particularly the forums. I've followed the "Learn Writing with Uncle Jim" and "Ask the Agent" threads for months, and while it's a lot of reading, I consider it time well spent. I'm always learning something new. I even started lurking in the screenwriting and nonfiction forums, and have begun to think about writing other things, not just novels. Among the useful information are warnings about scams perpetrated against unsuspecting writers. A previous reviewer has taken exception to some of the forum regulars' ongoing battle against PublishAmerica, a vanity press that markets itself to aspiring authors as a "traditional" publisher. PA is currently one of the largest scam outfits taking advantage of new writers, and the impetus behind that thread is the desire to put an end to their deceptive--and often abusive--practices, as well as to keep any more authors from falling into their clutches. Yes, the truth is often ugly and hurtful, but within that thread is an education in how books are marketed and sold, how real editors (not recent college grads with spell-check) work, the proper role of the author in promoting his or her book, what new authors can expect as far as advances and royalties, copyright law, and much more. Of course, you don't need to delve into the PA madness to learn about these things. While many published authors and people who work in the publishing industry participate in the forums, they are very newbie-friendly. I can't praise Absolute Write enough--it's informative, inspiring, and it's made this business of writing far less mysterious and intimidating to me. If there is one resource I recommend to all of the writers I meet, it's AW. Now, if you don't mind, I've got a book to write...

2 comments:

  1. AnonymousMarch 9, 2014 at 3:29 PM

    "Respect your fellow writers." This is the basic tenet proposed by AW. All one needs to do in order to detect the hypocrisy that permeates this site is read the comments of the "regulars" toward anyone who has the nerve to disagree with them. Someone once said that "class" was undefinable, but one knows it when one sees it. So, too, does one know the lack thereof. Stay away!!

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  2. AnonymousDecember 26, 2014 at 12:01 PM

    You only have to disagree with a personal attack made against you, to incite a lynch mob like mentality over there. Also notice that this usually happens to new members. Otherwise the members kiss up to you like your hot cinnamon toast if you've been there for more than a year.

    The advice over there is not anything special: I could honestly find the same thing in a how to write book. Or even just spending your time writing. Most of the comments are copy and paste from what moderators suggest.

    There are other writing boards to choose from. This is the odd one out that stands out negatively.

    ReplyDelete

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