"The place has become a hostile nightmare to open discussion."
The comment below was originally made on another page post, but we are reproducing it here because we believe it demonstrates quite clearly that the ownership culture at Absolute Write (namely Lisa Spangenberg and Mac "Stone" Sherman plus various crackpot moderators) has not changed or learned a thing from the dozens of websites and forums critical of their actions and vitriol. It's as if they believe their own absurd lie that it's all just the work of one troll.
And here we go (the poster chose to remain anonymous):
"After nine years and 30,000+ posts at AW, I got banned a month ago for using the word "nutcase" in reference to the father of Orlando mass murderer Omar Mateen. His father had produced on a local TV commentary show in which he claimed, among other things, to be the President of Afghanistan, and ranted in a semi-coherent way on a variety of things. This had been reported by reputable news sources, and I simply made the comment and linked one article, either from ABC or NBC news.
"AW Admin" called me on the carpet for using the word "nutcase" because if violated the AW rule about "respecting your fellow writer" When I questioned this interpretation, I was informed by "Admin", with a dictionary definition, that the word meant "crazy or eccentric person" and that it could apply to 80% of the AW commenters. I then pointed out, publicly, in another thread, that the word "n*tc*se" had apparently been banned at AW. That comment was instantly taken down, and I was banned for 30 days, with no reason given.
The 30 days expired today, and just for fun (I have no intention of returning to the hellhole that site has become) I tried to log in. At which point I was informed, again with no reason given, that the ban is permanent.
I have friends there, other long-term posters, who have wondered privately to me what the hell is going on with the site. It simply appears that Stalinism is what is going on. I'll pass along this quote, from "AW Admin", in a threatening response to one of those friends:
“if I had any desire to shut down discussion, I could do it in ways which would not be perceptible to the users. There are in fact multiple methods of accomplishing this.”
Both a non-idle threat and a boast. It is happening all the time there these days. The place has become a hostile nightmare to open discussion. The absurdity of the "reasoning" behind "Admin"'s comment to me is obvious and requires no further comment.
I was close to leaving the place, anyway, so I'm dismayed only for the people still trying to populate it. I cannot recommend strongly enough that people stay away from it."