The Libelous Defamation of Author Robert Bausch by Absolute Write and The Subsequent Attempts to Resolve

The screenshots at the conclusion of this post are taken directly from the "Haters Gonna Hate" blog post by Victoria Strauss wherein she attempts to argue in an unconvincing and utterly ridiculous way that all critics of Absolute Write online are one single troll--and this despite the fact that her own thread is filled with people complaining about AW who are obviously not the same person much less this hypothetical dream troll of Victoria's.

The conclusion of the "Haters Gonna Hate" comment thread features Michael Neff of Algonkian Writer Conferences asking (or pleading) with Victoria Strauss to intervene on his behalf regarding a libelous post by Teresa Nielsen Hayden (posing as an entity called "Hapisofi"). If you read the screenshot posts, as follows below, it all becomes fairly clear.

Teresa Nielsen-Hayden of AW

Here is a person sticking their neck out for someone else in an effort to finally delete a ridiculous and vicious smear by Teresa Nielsen Hayden directed at a well known and respected author who teaches at a college in Virginia and who works with Algonkian workshops. And btw, we've read the original post by Teresa, and let us tell you, it is TRIPLE NASTY.

Our good old bullying Hapisofi went to Hell Town on this one. She must have worn an indignant face, similar to the one on the left, when she wrote that post. It's the face of a self-righteous crusader out to expose and destroy the likes of Robert Bausch and all other famous literary authors who have nothing better to do than lie about winning contests that appear to upset Teresa. Troll times ten!!!!!

Upon reflection, and even given her bullying rep, it makes you wonder what kind of human being acts like this. What kind of person goes out of their way to make up vicious fantasies about others, and what grudge did she have against Bausch, or against Neff for that matter (since she royally trashes him also), or against any one of God knows how many people she has trashed in the past ten years under various guises on chat forums, especially Boing Boing and Absolute Write?

Note how Victoria sidesteps the request to assist with removal of the libelous claim. She says she's all about standing up for writers. Hmmm. But when it comes to Absolute Write, it appears that any outrage is allowable in her book. She leaves Neff hanging. He pleads. She turns a deaf ear. She is a hypocrite, plain and simple. To take on AW would mean risk getting banned and losing her primary source of promoting her tepid fantasy fiction.

If you examine the facts behind this, you will see how this proves beyond any doubt what we've all been saying for years now: Absolute Write is run by bullies, for bullies and by bullies. It is a home to a staggering collection of sociopaths, borderlines, and narcissists of various mental labels, plus a sad group of pitiable ignoramuses who revolve about them as if they're important.

Long Overdue Thanks to Victoria Strauss for Her Now Infamous "Haters Gonna Hate" Post

Below and Above We See Victoria Battle Her "Troll"

(sent 9/26/15 to Victoria Strauss)

Dear Victoria,

We can't thank you enough for your Hater's Gonna Hate post that depicted Absolute Write as the faultless victim of immoral haters. It genuinely served to inflame the so-called haters into more hate because you dared not admit even a single instance of wrong on the part of your friends at Absolute Write. Neither would you fault the owners, Melodi Sherman and Lisa Spangenberg, for obvious acts of encouraging and participating in the unfair defamation of writers, presses, and other organizations. Could it all have something to do with the fact that AW is the number one source for promoting your fantasy novels? You must have at least several hundred posts on there with your signature block hawking your books, no? Perhaps even thousands of posts (6,667 as of this date), each one a free banner advert for your latest book with a link to more. It's no wonder you routinely jump into the most popular threads where a bloody good drubbing is taking place.

But these facts only serve to underscore our gratitude for the post. We've received more support and readership as a result of your post ranking high on google when "Absolute Write" is searched . Writers who didn't know there was even an issue now routinely add "reviews" and "bewares" and "complaints" to their search string for purposes of learning more. Apparently, many are not willing to suspend disbelief that literally dozens of boards, blogs and websites complaining bitterly about the mods and owner trolls of AW are all the work of a single lying person. They will not take you at your word that you possess the absolute right information on the matter of AW's record of nonstop cyberbullying and acts of libel, a record you claim does not even exist.

According to many, this absolute right defense argument of yours only serves to make you appear like a hypocrite. Are you even aware? You've convinced other writer organizations and websites that you are legitimately telling the truth about Absolute Write when you deny the ongoing abuses. But that is going to change, and is changing even now. Our hope is that you will continue to defend the horrible people on this board who have germinated into their own peculiar club of villains. You are like the bribed mayor of a city who looks good to the public but who deals behind the scenes with criminals and charlatans. 

By the way, when are you going to call Absolute Write on Writer Beware for advertising banners leading to scam contests? Have you not been reading the news?  http://writeabsolutereviews.blogspot.com/2015/08/absolute-write-beware-advertising.html ____ And this isn't the only one. AW has run scam rotating ads off and on for eight years at least. We never saw you note that on Writer Beware. Why not? Your support of their bullying and scam advertising just becomes more telling by the year.

Thank you again, Victoria. Please feel free to spread this email and post it on your board.

Best Wishes,

The Victims of Absolute Write Who Are Fighting Back

Important Informational Posts

- http://writeabsolutereviews.blogspot.com/2015/08/absolute-write-web-traffic-plummets.html
- http://writeabsolutereviews.blogspot.com/2015/08/absolute-write-down-and-out.html
- http://writeabsolutereviews.blogspot.com/2015/06/insightful-reviews-of-ipredators-on.html

Absolute Write Down and Out?

Not yet. But by any measure, the worth of Absolute Write is lessening. Matter of fact, it has plummeted. Traffic is at an all time low and the long drop shows no sign of slowing down. We've noted the reasons for this. We've examined the iPredator phenomenon and read testimony of the victims. We've reviewed the banners of questionable advertisers and other forms of trash advertising. We've called out major bullies and proved beyond any doubt that bad writer advice is rampant on the AW forums. We've demonstrated that the horse farm owners of Absolute Write have no qualifications for running a hands-on website for writers.

Though we think the value grossly overestimated, a website estimates Absolute Write to be worth a purchase value of just over $95,000 (make sure and click the update link). According to a poster on Michael M's blog, the site was previously worth over a million buckaroos (!!!!) at some point in 2013 or 2014. We think this number was also grossly overestimated, however, the clear fact remains: Absolute Write is going down, steadily dropping in value and in traffic, and therefore, in the ability to bully and misinform writers, particularly naive writers.

And the owners have no one to thank but themselves for this circumstance.

As soon as the AW forum website was sold to Melodi "Macallister" Sherman and Lisa Spangenberg, the future was set in Stone. Cyberbully bloodbaths and acts of ongoing misinformation reached epidemic levels. Never before had the writer community online seen such a virulent form of moderator and mob abuse. The victim count mounted. All manner of writers, presses, and agents and organizations fell under the AW ax policy of shoot first and ask no questions. The banning of long time members skyrocketed for the minor offense of daring to disagree with the new owners or their favorites. Websites, forums and blogs critical of Absolute Write began to appear on the web. The owners, and apologists like Victoria Strauss of Writer Beware fame, not only denied any form of abuse whatsoever, but actually invented the absurd story that all of the "haters" were just one person.

There is so much evidence of all the above on this blog, and so much more around the web, that only a demented fool or AW advertiser can deny the reality. All of us pray for the day when Absolute Write is once again sold, hopefully to someone good and fair, like the original owner Jenna Glatzner.

One more time... We miss you Jenna.

Down, over and out.

Victoria Strauss Censoring Critics on Her Blog, of Course

Type "absolute write complaints" in Google and see the article, "Haters Gonna Hate" by Victoria Strauss to get the other side of this ongoing debate regarding the validity and cyberbully nature of Absolute Write. The writers associated with this blog would like to thank Victoria Strauss for battling the troll so bravely and also for advertising our blog and the many other websites calling out the owners and mods at AW for their behavior.

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Strauss at BEA Talking About Self-Publishing Her Books

Update. We've heard from three W.A.R. supporters that Victoria Strauss, the most vocal marketing supporter of Absolute Write, is now censoring new posts critical of Absolute Write. The thread backfired on her and now she's holding the line just like Janet Reid in her own blog post. A few still got through before Tariq Aziz closed the gate. 

In our opinion, one of the best comments towards the end of the thread:

Overall, I found their [Absolute Write] moderators to be on a wildly excessive power trip. In my case (without getting into the details), all I actually did was ask them to be a little understanding about a different member's errors in doing a post, and was basically told that I had to "beg their forgiveness" (that's more or less their exact language) or be publicly sanctioned by them in front of all my fellow indie writers on the board. 

The entire experience reminded me of one of those caricatures of English boarding schools that one sees in the media from time to time.Obviously, it is a privately-owned board and they have the right to run it as they please, but the way in which they handled (polite and objective) complaints about anything and everything -- even when these complaints were delivered in confidence to them (e.g. were not posted publicly), was needlessly harsh and belittling. I would NEVER treat anyone, either in-person or indirectly as occurs on a board, in the manner that they treated me. They either don't understand, or don't care, about the difference between maintaining an orderly and polite discussion forum, and in publicly humiliating people "just because they can".

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).No adult, or writer, deserves to be talked down to, in this way. AW needs to be taken down a notch, and it needs new management for its discussion forums.

Examining the Truth of Absolute Write's Claim To Being a Valuable Writer Resource

Publishing Experts James D. Macdonald and Debra Doyle

Does it all center around the meaning of the word "valuable"? Below is the advertising claim of Absolute Write as related by AW's foremost champion and spokesperson, Victoria Strauss--who utilizes AW as her main source of advertising for her fantasy series. This passage is taken from her "Haters Gonna Hate" post (recommend reading the comment thread to the end) on her blog:

The truth: AW is a valuable resource, one of the largest and most active writers' forums on the Internet. (As of this writing, it boasts nearly 60,000 members, over 8 million posts, and anywhere from 1,000 to 3,000 users active at any given time--scroll down to the bottom of AW to see these statistics.) At AW, you can discuss every aspect of craft and genre, learn about the ins and outs of publishing and self-publishing, share your work-in-progress, get your query letter critiqued, connect with beta readers and writing buddies, commiserate about rejection and rejoice about success, and participate in discussions about culture, music, art, politics, and just about anything else you want to talk about. AW members include writers at every stage of their careers--from just thinking about publishing to multi-published--along with a wide variety of publishing industry experts and professionals: literary agents, publishers, editors, illustrators, designers, and more.

Our response to the above as follows.

This is a country of over 300 million people. Millions write. Absolute Write has been collecting a member list for well over a decade, and in all that time, the list has grown. It makes sense that after millions of pageviews a list of 60,000 by 2015 is not unreasonable. As a matter of fact, we would have predicted a list three times as big if the original owner, Jenna, were still running things. But she isn't, and it's all speculation, though we believe that the failure to build a much larger list has been the result of unprecedented hostility towards large numbers of writers (as noted on this blog). Regardless, we did view the users at the bottom of the page and found the count to be less than 150. We haven't tracked it day to day, but less than 150 on a weekday afternoon is far less than 3000.

But what difference does this make? AW can still be a valuable writer resource whether it has 3000 at any one time or 30. Right?

Business Pro on AW

The spokesperson Victoria says, "you can ... get your query letter critiqued," among other things. Sure, you can, we've seen the proof: dozens of unpublished and self-published whoevers giving query letter advice that varies drastically in quality from one thread to the next, from one whoever to the next. And whoever are these scores of sage professional advisers anyway? Look closely. If you can actually translate one of them into a real name, you'll immediately realize that you've never heard of this person. But of course. What real publishing house editor or literary agent is just going to be hanging around disguised in AW chat forums on a daily basis just waiting to give beginner advice to beginners? Don't they have better things to do, like their job?

Moving on to the "ins and outs of publishing and self-publishing." We find this amusing since AW and its owners have been excessively nasty towards proponents of self-publishing, so there is a huge contradiction here. For example, taken from the comments on the page regarding the banning of Robin Sullivan:

As a member of Absolute Write since January 2009, I have been extremely dismayed with the increasingly hostile attitude to anyone who displays a positive attitude towards self-publishing. As you know, I have been in many of the same threads as you, and I have witnessed first-hand the same small group of people attack you over and over again. Throughout it all, you have kept your cool, and answered them with facts. I don't know how you did it, but you did. I think your ban was 100% baseless.

The golden rule of Absolute Write is supposed to be "respect your fellow writer". I have been seeing precious little respect towards any writer who expresses an interest in self-publishing.

Absolute W Owner Who Isn't a
Writer But a Horse Farm Operator

As with the query letter, just whoever with a pail full of neophyte advice is hanging around just waiting to tell you the "ins and outs" anyway? Back to query letter mode. Here come the whoevers with loads of "advice" for you. If you're fool enough to take it, you've got a problem. Everyone is an expert on Absolute Write. Let a million thoughts contend! And as we've noted elsewhere on this blog, you can't trust the owners, they're not fiction writers. Rarely do you see a moderator with any sense intervening in these amateurish blather fests that go on constantly at AW. So where is the value? 

We agree with Victoria that like any writer forum or chat board thing, Absolute Write Water Cooler is a place where you can dialogue with peers, share stuff, talk about your trip to Tasmania, and so forth. But does this make AW a stand out "valuable" writer resource? 

Stacia Kane Ready for Action

Finally, we come to the claim that "publishing industry experts and professionals" are members of AW. Well, you can't refute that since we have no measure or basis to judge what Victoria means by experts, and no list of names. Whoever they are, they are rarely if ever present. The fantasy author Stacia Kane is an exception. Like Victoria, AW is the primary vehicle for marketing her books. You'll see her popping up on every popular conflict thread where a good bash fest is going on. But just casually step into the novel forum section of the Water Cooler and you will see the name of only one person there who is in any way related to the publishing business: James D. Macdonald. He hangs out because he and his wife, Doyle, make money from consults and classes they advertise on AW. We've discussed good old Congenial Sage Macdonald here on W.A.R. Are these the so-called experts and professionals Victoria is referring to?

Our ears and eyes are open, AW. Come over and comment on this thread. Feel free to set the record straight. You won't be bullied, and neither will we.

Absolute Write Hoax Continues: No Quals, Tabloid Trash, One Troll Theory, Bash Marla, Going Mad Dog, Max Ashkenazi Acts Like Garth from Wayne's World

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Vision and taste mean far more than experience in the mechanics of publishing (which can be learned by anyone), but the hacks of Absolute Write won't acknowledge that. They set an arbitrary standard their victims can't meet, then the blood bath begins with editors and their staff smeared on Internet where everyone can see it.
                                - Anon Victim of AW

Absolute Write moderators and defenders have insisted for years that Absolute Write is a great place to get advice if you are a writer, but a bit of casual investigation on Google shows that the owners, Lisa Spangenberg (aka "Medievalist") and Melodi Sherman (aka "Macallister Stone"), have no qualifications whatsoever to operate an advice board for fiction writers and poets, much less actually give them advice. This goes a long way to explain the poor moderation and lack of adequate moderation in crucial areas of the forums where amateur writers thrive with a multitude of opinions that desperately need someone to sift through and clarify. But this doesn't happen. 

Below are screenshots that demonstrate the "qualifications" of Absolute Write's owners, Lisa and Melodi. Lisa has demonstrated some skill with tech manuals and Melodi has demonstrated skill with nothing at all. She once "edited" a defunct writer magazine but we're not sure of her actual role given her background as a horse farm operator. Neither one of these people has ever worked in the literary or commercial side of publishing, and neither one has ever published a creative work in any genre; and yet, they continue, to this day, to give silly and counterproductive advice to new writers. 

When asked directly what qualifies her, Melodi "Mac" Sherman states, "I own the site. It's not a public utility." And she is telling the absolute truth. Her only qualification is that she owns the site.

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Below we have a screenshot of one sample of the rotating tabloid "flash trash" that circulates around on every Absolute Write Water Cooler forum page. There are literally thousands of these being flashed at new and naive young writers. We can't help but ask if the more mature writers actually wish to be associated with a website that makes a living selling trash advertisements. This lack of culture and sense demonstrates clearly that the owners of this website are simply in it for the money. It reminds you of the way an unscrupulous health care clinic poorly treats patients because it isn't about care, it's about dollars.

Trashy advertising on AW - Money made from clicking. What kind of people promote this tabloid flap?

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ONE TROLL CONSPIRACY

As everyone now knows, Victoria Strauss posted a "Haters Gonna Hate, etc" post on her blog in an attempt to make AW look spotless and blame all negative activity on one single person (while never revealing the troll's identity). She fails to reference specific smears and unwarranted attacks by Absolute Write mods and owners noted here on W.A.R. and in other forums, and if you patiently read the comment thread, she dodges questions put to her that demonstrate she is clearly making misleading statements and lies of omission about Absolute Write (which is no wonder since the forum serves as the primary marketing vehicle for her self-published work) but she does make sweeping statements like this with reference to W.A.R. posts:

They're replete with sockpuppet comments (the blogs' owner likes to talk to herself) and larded with misinformation, including mistaken guesses about the identities of AW moderators (I know this because I know some of the people involved) and libellous unsourced allegations about AW members and defenders (again, I know some of the people involved). More unpleasant pastimes include attempting to doxx AW's owner, her parents, and AW admins, and to interfere with their livelihoods

The above comment, like many others by Victoria, are laced with misleading and false statements. Since she pushes the stupid conclusion that everyone online who gripes about AW is the same person, therefore, all the scores of comments at W.A.R. are the same person: LIE #1. The misleading statement that follows states that we made a mistake about the ID of AW mods, when in fact that isn't the case. The ID of only one mod, Old Hack, might still be in question, but nowhere online will she tell us who Old Hack really is. So what is her name? They still withhold while claiming we are mistaken. They cannot or will not prove we are mistaken. As far as the dox of AW's owner, that was accomplished prior to our posts by another blog unrelated to us (Absolute Wrong--and a big thank you to them). And for LIE #2, nowhere on W.A.R. do we note anything about owner Melodi Sherman's parents. As far as "AW admins" go, there is only Lisa Spangenberg. Everyone knows her, so she never needed to have her disguise ripped away. And no one wishes to interfere with livelihood, but it was discovered by another blog that Lisa and Melodi operate a horse farm in WA state. No one cares what they do, but any fallout consequential to their horse business results directly from their own behavior on AW, noted here on W.A.R. and on dozens of other websites. It is their responsibility. Also, keep in mind that AW mods have never stopped to consider the ruination of the livelihood of others as evidenced by their smears of legitimate presses, writers, agents, and organizations not on their favored list (see examples here at W.A.R.).

Aside from all above, aside from the victim hoax "conspiracy of one troll" maintained by Victoria, aside from our rebuttal to her comments, ask yourself this question and consider the logical answer:

WHY IS ABSOLUTE WRITE THE ONLY WRITER BOARD ONLINE WITH SO MANY OTHER WEBSITES, FORUMS, BLOGS, AND INDIVIDUAL WRITERS SPEAKING UP AGAINST ITS MODERATORS, OWNERS, POSTS AND POLICIES?

And if you will bother to read our Sad Truth of Hate post, you might also ask the question, WHY DID THE NEGATIVITY TOWARDS ABSOLUTE WRITE ONLY BEGIN AFTER JENNA SOLD THE SITE TO MELODI SHERMAN AND LISA SPANGENBERG? 

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WE CAN RUIN YOU

A Scary Note to Marla re Google Soon to Trash Her

If you click on the above you will see a bigger graphic you can read. This is a slice of a thread wherein AW regulars were dissecting and ripping at Marla Miller. The bigger point here is Theo1 making a revealing statement about the power of AW to ruin someone's reputation.

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GOING MAD DOG ON THE TRAINEE

This is from a blog post from a former agent who wishes to remain anonymous due to the retaliation record of Absolute Write. This agency was driven out of business by the bullies on Absolute Write. Please read this entire post if you are still neutral on the subject:

He made the mistake of going on AW and announcing himself.

We took on another full-time agent who was also an attorney. This was a business decision. New York based literary agencies do this all the time and, of course, no one on Absolute Write’s Bewares, Recommendations, and Background Checks challenges their decision or their right to do so. If they say anything it might be a note of congratulations to the new agent. However, because we were small, not located in NYC and because they are bullies, their Head Bully believed it her duty to question our decision and thus check our ability to make a business decision. She, this head bully, asked what our new agents qualifications were to be a literary agent. Unbelievable.

In an ordinary world, who would think of doing such a thing? But this was, and still is, a bully’s paradise.

Our new agent, being a smart and gracious lady, answered the challenge by stating she Princeton graduate, finished law school, was an author, had taken courses in intellectual properties law, had handled contracts and had been a practicing trial lawyer. In typical bully fashion, all comments ceased. This usually happens when someone more powerful enters the fray. Could it be they feared reprisal if they said more? There was no doubt. It was that close.

This, however, was not the case when we took on an agent trainee. He made the bad mistake of going on AW and announcing himself. And let’s just say he was pounced upon, challenged by every howling watch dog on their Beware et al pages specially dedicated to us. When they challenged him, he tried to stand up to them—tried to explain that he just a trainee, which again was none of their business. The poor guy actually thought he was dealing with reasonable people instead of packs of slobbering, howling idiots.

From this first encounter, he was continually harassed. Before its end, it had even boiled over onto our blog. Finally, he’d had enough and resigned his agent training because he felt he had brought us harm.

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MAX ASHKENAZI ACTS LIKE GARTH

We recently received the provocative letter below from one of the AW cronies attempting, like others, to goad us into a pointless email exchange. He calls himself the name above (almost like ask-a-nazi). This one seeks to somehow validate the smear forums of Mac and Lisa while invalidating the concerns and complaints with a combination of false statements and bad logic. 

Our comments are in red:

Dear AW victims,

I was reading through your blog and had some questions about your allegations about AW (bad writing--sounds like Lisa Spangenberg). You have said that AW these days is essentially for mediocre writers (no, never said that-where is the link?), unless I am mistaken (yep!), but it seems like there are still some successful writers who post there (seems? why passive voice? and he forgot Stacia Kane) , i.e. Vincent Morrone (who?), Jamie Mason - known as Perks on AW, Cathy Clamp and others (okay, so the alleged presence of these people invalidate our claims or ...?). In addition, have heard that it is mainly for frustrated writers (heard from who? a case of projection?) but it seems that many regulars are in fact from other successful backgrounds and are not really wannabe writers (so they're whatever and they're authors? huh?). One of the AW regulars, for example, is a Yale Law School grad who it seems spent years as a successful attorney in NY before getting into writing [her posting name is CassandraW I believe] (tell her to leave) and there are others who were/are owner of martial arts studios, former police and other successful professions (so if cops and karate dudes are there then... ummm?). And so it seems like AW still does attract people who are successful and on top of their game in some ways (but it's never too late to learn even if filming porn is your speciality) and so it seems like it is wrong to say that it is (OMG, this writing is painfully bad!) only for failed writers who do not have a life outside AW (that is wrong, whoever said it).  Am I missing something? (yes, all kinds of things).

And it does seem like now there is diversity of opinion (seem? passive again).  On the AW water cooler there are posters like William Haskins, CassandraW, highttimer, rugcat, robeiae and others who do not simply echo what the Mods say all the time and in fact often fundamentally disagree with them (their banning is coming). And so it seems inaccurate to say that AW only allows for those who agree.  AM I missing something here? (yes, reality, and the ability to write well)

Thanks for any response you may have.

Thanks, Garth, but you have your answer. Btw, how old are you? And a note to the Absolute Write Roundtable. You have to send better knights than this to slay the Truth Draconis. 

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Courtesy of Absolute Banning

Here are a few examples of AW regulars, who had posted at least 500 times, who were then banned by the owner or her admin, Lisa Spangenberg. This solidly contradicts owner Melodi Sherman's claim that writers banned from AW are "trolls and sockpuppets."

The size of the forum is unimportant. We're dealing here with the estimated percentage rate of banning at AW (35%), as compared to most other forums (2%).

The fastest way to get banned is to disagree with the mainstream.


MEMBER                                POSTS                       THREAD
                            
Scarlet Peaches                       48,359                        Airlines forbid men from sitting to....
Wayne K                                   21,681                        Contract Termination
Yorkist                                         1,974                       Kelly's Soft Asylum & Home for Way...
Sarah Dalton                                  927                       Publishing Diary: First Year Sales
RJLeahy                                         568                       Airlines forbid men from sitting to....
Blarg                                            2,497                       Americans Don't Kill Children...
RobJ                                            2,682                       Something I Can't Understand
Axler                                            1,052                       Cryptozoica illustrated novel ebook
Billythrilly7th                               11,813                      Should We Celebrate Columbus Day
Amsterdam Assassin                   1,734                      Teaching Derail From BWQ
Glutton                                         1,521                       Interesting Article I Found
Paul                                              4,508                      A Place For Off Topic...
Freelancer                                       997                      Derail From Book Promo...
Sarpedon                                      2,702                      Famed Astrophysicist...
Wayne K                                     21,681                      Terry Jones Death Threats
Spookywriter                                 9,726                      William's House of Hate...
Ruv Draba                                     5,114                      The Never Ending Religion...

The Consequence and Sad Truth of Hate (Where is Jenna When You Need Her?)

Dream of Better Lives, The Kind That Never Hate...

[TO THOSE PEOPLE WHO SUPPORT ABSOLUTE WRITE: in this post and others, we are not talking about the non-predatory aspects of a group board like AW, we are discussing an end to the predatory aspects. It is like we're talking about Philly or Oakland in the context of ending rampant corruption and crime. We know there are good places to eat and Streisand will concert tour, but we want the mayor and city council arrested. And because there are those who have expressed puzzlement, here is a page that lists all the reasons why we maintain this blog. Thank you.]

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Table of Contents 

1. From Text and Comments--Sane or Otherwise
2. An AW Supporter Named "Dor" Makes The Right Call
3. The "Guest" Slaps You On The Billboard
4. The Pecking Hate or The AW Bully Egg? 
5. One Troll Fact or Theory?
6. Writer Beware Debate on Facebook
7. iPredators on Internet - Donning the Mask (plus Viable Paradise Update)

 Excerpts from text and comments - sane or otherwise 

It's been pointed out many times. Google ranks AW highly so if you are a victim of their abuse, you will be seen quite easily by friends, employers, relatives, creditors, and everyone else. And whether you became the victim yesterday or six years ago, each time someone searches for you, there you are being roasted alive, chided, mocked and humiliated all over again.

This is kinda what it's like to suddenly discover you have been tied to a truck and pulled through mud and glass by the Absolute Write bully mob. You can't stop them. You can't use reason or proof. They just keep on gathering and pointing at you and yelling like mean school yard children picking on the new kid or the sick kid.

If you spend some time looking over Absolute Write, you'll find a pattern of public smears targeted at organizations and independent presses and self-publishing outfits that are not on Absolute Write's favored list.

Everyone, pro-AW or anti-AW, remember that there were NO HATE SITES when Jenna owned Absolute Write. 

Thank God for the good Doctor Christopher putting himself out there to tell the truth about my dear Lisa and Macallister! Victoria is right. You are just haters, haters and smear campaigners. You are a troll rightfully banned from using your 30 identities on Absolute Write. Lisa has proved who you are with forensic analysis. 

All those who criticize Absolute Write in any manner on Internet are "trolls." All those who publish the real name of AW's owner and her horse farm business address are "stalkers." All those on AW who resist or argue the smear of anyone or anything are "socks." The infantile strategy of AW is to just slap a label of deflection and all is resolved.

Absolute Write, in the hands of Lisa Spangenberg and her associates, is in effect a judge-jury-prosecutor platform... 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.

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An AW Supporter Named "Dor" Makes The Right Call

An AW supporter named "Dor" on the Writer Beware blog ("Haters Gonna Hate"), towards the end of the exchange between supporters of Absolute Write and critics, dismissed critics of AW as people harboring a grudge. Point at hand, the whole theme of Victoria's post is about haters hating, as if they hate for no reason? Or it's just the guilty in the Dante's Inferno of the Internet, hating and hating without every recognizing their guilt. Of course, this tact by Victoria and her associates is yet another way of avoiding the substantive commentary concerning cyberbullying and press smearing on AW forums and refocusing instead on attacking the messengers who bring the news, and who must live with it every day; however, the sad truth is, this anonymous Dor of Absolute Write is more correct than not.

Let's look at this "circumstance of hate and grudge" through the eyes of victims of AW, people we know, and who have posted at WAR and elsewhere. On one of our posts regarding cyberbullying, a person commented:

"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.

This is kinda what it's like to suddenly discover you have been tied to a truck and pulled through mud and glass by the Absolute Write bully mob. You can't stop them. You can't use reason or proof. They just keep on gathering and pointing at you and yelling like mean school yard children picking on the new kid or the sick kid."

(btw, Marla Miller had her reputation threatened by the AW-to-Google billboard connection--just one example, the number of these can't be counted)

Now, if you have the time, read over this post ("Is Criticism Possible Without Resorting to Bullying?") and imagine you are Mary Duke, the woman pursued and brought to earth by a snarky, hostile pack of members and mods engaged in loutish behavior as regards her press. And one more thing. Here is a post by our friend Lesley Cameron during her debate with the elite of Absolute Write on Writer Beware:

"Now that I reflect upon it, the websites critical of you two, and the AW in general, are in some sense, hate sites. I've never in my life seen or heard so much utter loathing for any other two people, or any other website. In retrospect, no one hated Jenna. She worked hard to out the bad fellows, but no one hated her. She was respected. She was reasonable and a nice person who didn't like to bully. Whereas you are hated. Hated. Is it because you are hostile bullies with a sense of ridiculous entitlement? Or because you are just doing your jobs and the haters are really just one ex-member who you justifiably gave the boot to?"

The "Guest" Slaps You On The Billboard

There you are, on that billboard on the highway, and you are helpless. btw, here is a slice of the billboard as follows. From time to time on the Beware section of AW, you will see one of these. What is it? A mysterious guest appearance with no link to a profile and no post count. These "guest" appearances, mostly on press smear threads, are always very negative toward the subject at hand. We know that such posts can only be made by the

owner-operators of the Absolute Write forum. In other words, this person is pretending to

Appears for a trashing then poof!

be a valid critic of the press when in fact this is not the case. See in the example above, the "guest" reviles Curiosity Quills and claims the editor stalked her online. Now, isn't that a recurring theme of accusation? Of course, the allegation is nonsense. The "guest" appears later in response to positive posters in a last ditch attempt to contradict them with more allegations and sour grape rhetoric (that sounds suspiciously like Lisa Spangenberg). Also, not a single one of the mods or owners or regulars takes the "guest" to task for her stalking allegations against a named editor at CQ (there she is, on the billboard). No one asks for evidence or challenges her or asks her to tone down the rhetoric. Why is that? Anyone can see that negativity is God on Absolute Write, especially in the Beware forum, but it appears odd all the same. It's as if the regulars have learned just when its smart to keep quiet.

Jenna Glatzer - Professional Writer and Good Person

Yes, if only Jenna Glatzer could return... (btw, good article on Jenna's transition out of AW, by Ted Gross--who foresaw problems) but back to the subject at hand. If you are Mary Duke, or the CQ editor, or Marla Miller, or that poor pariah who posted about the billboard, or any one of scores and scores of people decapitated in public by Absolute Write in the past--human nature being what it is-- would you be more, or less likely, to loathe Absolute Write? Let's be truthful. Most of us are not Mother Teresa. We would most likely loathe Absolute Write, or at least, the people who we feel unfairly attacked our lives and reputations for all the world to see on a daily basis (like the supporters of this blog). And make no mistake. It's been pointed out many times. Google ranks AW highly so if you are a victim of their abuse, you will be seen quite easily by friends, employers, relatives, creditors, and everyone else. And whether you became the victim yesterday or six years ago, each time someone searches for you, there you are being roasted alive, chided, mocked and humiliated all over again.

Kinda like living in hell, isn't it? 

And if you haven't already, please see the reasons why we maintain this blog.

The Pecking Hate or The AW Bully Egg?

It was pointed out by Lesley on Writer Beware (above), that Absolute Write was able to function effectively under the supervision of Jenna (who has wisely disassociated herself from Absolute Write in her bio) and expose the bad guys without sheltering teams of bullies and abusive moderators.

Everyone, pro-AW or anti-AW, remember that there were NO HATE SITES when Jenna owned Absolute Write.

If Jenna were still in charge, you wouldn't be reading this.

So what came first, the pecking hate or the AW bully egg? Victoria Strauss, Melodi Sherman, Lisa Spangenberg, and others who support the current regime, allege the hate starts with the critics of AW. They are just trolls out to smear. It's that simple for them. But the hate starts with AW. The smoke starts with the fires on those forums. If you harbor bitterness for others and set a standard of hostility and snark, you cannot expect your examples of hatred to be returned with love.

You will create enemies with grudges. It's a matter of human chemistry.

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The One Troll Fact or Theory? Can Someone Get the Story Straight?

Actually, the elite of Absolute Write state it as if it were a fact. This is limelighted on Victoria's Writer Beware post. A score or more of critical websites... all one single troll. Victoria even depicts herself bravely battling said troll with screenshots. "Note the ire of the troll" she says. Well, um, what troll? Someone disagrees with Victoria and they become THE UBIQUITOUS TROLL WHO DOES IT ALL. AW is pushing this explanation all over the Internet. If you believe this laughable nonsense, we encourage you to open the neural pores and say Huh? It's all so disturbingly Salem witch trial. Point your finger and yell TROLL!

Nevertheless, an authentic battle between good and evil is being waged at Writer Beware. This might sound a little extreme, we know, but if you link above and patiently read the script from top to bottom beginning with Victoria's accusations against WAR and all other websites critical of Absolute Write, you will soon see the battle joined and the sides polarized to irreconcilable differences. AW is Victoria's principal means of long-term marketing for her books. The more threads she posts comments in (especially the conflict threads), the more chance potential readers might click to buy her books that are advertised prominently in her signature block. Anything that threatens that process, or the credibility of AW in general, threatens her career and especially her standing as a crusader for writers--a profile she has carefully crafted over many years.

So what is left but to deny and counter-accuse? All those who criticize Absolute Write in any manner on Internet are "trolls." All those who publish the real name of AW's owner and her horse farm business address are "stalkers." All those on AW who resist or argue the smear of anyone or anything are "socks." The infantile strategy is to just slap a label of deflection and all is resolved. Apparently, they also believe they can get WAR and other blogs dismissed, or perhaps deleted if they tell the ridiculous stalking lie enough times.

Victoria unmasked me.
I need a new plan! Heh, heh.

If you are a reasonable person with a nose for BS, and you carefully read the responses of Victoria, Melodi Sherman (the owner of AW), and Lisa Spangenberg (the admin of AW) to questions put to them by posters, especially our new associate and friend, Lesley Cameron, you will soon see who is evading the truth and who is carrying it forward with a flag. Nearly every question asked is avoided in one way or another except for a very few. Even a working definition of cyberbullying is dodged. What does this tell you?  btw, Victoria and Melodi recognize the right of Melodi to have remained anonymous behind the disguise of Macallister Stone (for fear of retaliation), but they find fault with the right of critics of Absolute Write to remain anonymous. Given AW's track record of life wrecking, how can anyone question this right?

And this is for Lesley: Viva La Resistance! We love you.

Together we will work to end the cyberbullying of people on AW, not to mention the obsessive smearing of new presses. We will expose the bullies for who they are and call them out on their lies and hostility.

 The Writer Beware Debate on Facebook 

And now this:

 

Sample above of a longer exchange between author Lin Robinson and Victoria Strauss on the Facebook page for Writer Beware. Victoria has taken the fight online to Facebook also. It's funny, but here we have her using troll in the plural, as if she forgot her own one troll theory. But Lin doesn't pull punches on the negatives regarding AW. He does admit it can be handy for protecting writers from predators, and we agree; however, the Dirt Factory gets out of control on the Beware forum, as we've demonstrated on this blog with examples. A word of warning: the opinions and slapdash conclusions of anonymous vapors and kitties cannot be accepted as facts. Double check everything you read there.

However, not sure what Victoria is raving about. We know of no one getting worked up over Melodi being Macallister Stone. There are no conspiracy theories. The owner IS Melodi Sherman (confirmed by her old WA business license). This is a phony issue. That Titanic sailed months before this post in late August. On top of it, she has the incredible gall to insinuate that charges of bullying are less than valid (all a part of the AW propaganda concerning "one troll theory"). She is such a posturing Tariq to the max! This is why we made this comparison, precisely! If she were politically smart, she would at least admit that instances of this or that might be viewed as bullying, but no, she won't give a millimeter. We're all just smearing to smear, and it's all a lie and Victoria is the angel of truth. OMG! Does this woman needs therapy to recover from her Tariq Aziz Complex?

And now this:

What you see above is a continuation of the Facebook WB thread we highlighted above with Lin and Victoria Strauss. The portion above highlights some worthwhile themes. 

Theme: Victoria's post (WB) states "they decry bullying and harassment" etc. Let's examine this. When she was asked by Lesley on the Writer Beware post to define

I am the super troll!

cyberbullying, she dodged. Apparently, she wished the definition to remain as open ended as possible in order to allow her to make false claims like the one above. Quite suddenly, an act of criticizing her or any of her business associates, in particular Melodi Sherman or Lisa Spangenberg, is now defined as bullying. All those who criticize AW are now not only trolls, but bullying trolls. Using her logic, it all follows. We maintain it's all just one of several lies they are generating to counter critics, but if you wish, you can pretend it's just twisted logic and they actually believe what they are saying. As for the "harassment" charge, we can only speculate that this refers to outing the business address of Melodi Sherman's horse boarding venture (the unlicensed one in WA state on Ebey Island). Other than that, it's anyone's guess since she remains vague when making such charges and never includes links, even when asked to--again, see the WB post above. Each time she was asked to provide a link to substantiate a charge, she dodged. See for yourself.

Theme: Next, you have the big Melodi "Mac Stone" Sherman herself stepping in to let us know just how hard her job is. Certainly, the hearts of her scores of victims are breaking right now. It is hard, we're sure, not only for the reasons she states, but because she inserts herself onto a board for fiction writers and poets with no background whatsoever to do the job. It's like a someone who can't boil an egg buying a famous restaurant and interfering with the menu and recipes, followed by hiring short order cooks to be gourmet chefs. As a consequence, the food is awful, but any customer or food critic who tells the truth is decried as a bullying troll.

Regardless, a community is even harder to handle when you allow rampant cyberbullying and foster a culture of negativity and hostility (both pointed out by Paula and Lin on the Facebook thread--as well as on this blog and a score of other websites).

To Melodi Sherman: simply stating your business challenges will not relieve you of responsibility for what you are doing, and what you have done. You have set the tone with your Mac Stone badass slap downs. The phony sock puppet charges. The overall hatred you show for real writers and presses has become a dark pollution that has infected the AW forums. The difference in culture between you and Jenna is literally black vs. white. Stop the whining about how hard it is to run a writer community. No one wants to hear it. Just leave. Sell AW to someone like Jenna who was not only a real writer but a just and lovely person. 

Theme: a supporter steps in to buoy the gang. Is there a conflict of interest here? Gini Koch actively markets her book on AW via her signature block and avatar whenever she posts, like many of the members do. She says she "probably" owes her writing career, etc. Why passive though with "probably"? Because she is groping for something positive to say? She owes her success to many things including lots of prior publications. And everyone is happy she found a critique partner. Then she shows true form by classifying critics of AW as those "who can't handle the truth." And btw, this is also a theme. Who can't handle the truth of what? The truth that the Mac Stone gladiatorial games are really exercises in fair forum dynamics? The truth that were all one troll? That we're all sock puppets, or one sock?

Not to associate Koch with these people because we have no direct knowledge of her engaging in any bully fests, but we've seen that popular conflict threads are rapidly populated by a club of AW member writers who heavily push their biographies and e-books in their signature blocks. They form a piranha pool on behalf of a mod or administrator like Lisa who are engaged in annihilating someone or something. They can't lose because by doing so they get to demonstrate their ability to butt polish, promote themselves and their stock cover books, plus get the chance to show the public just how ethical and outraged they can be. They stumble over themselves for a chance to wound and bite the victim du jour. Rarely if ever does one of them counterpoint an allegation or hasty conclusion, no matter how idiotic or vicious.

Epilogue

We stopped by the Facebook thread for Writer Beware (btw, the poster for Writer Beware is Victoria Strauss operating under a pseudo) to see if she had responded to Paula Jovanovic, and we found this:

Same old pattern with AW owners, mods, and Victoria. Sidestep the issue and taint the messenger. You see this on Fox News all the time. You see it with White House spokespeople. You see it with the apologists of corrupt regimes. You see it all the time. And btw, if Paula were supportive of Victoria and denied the presence of hostility and bullying on AW, Victoria would never have questioned her creation of a new FB account in order to comment.

Isn't human nature a wonderful instrument?

iPredators on Internet - Donning The Mask

iPredator definition as follows. Decide for yourself if this applies to the bullies at AW:

"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.

And here is a categorization of adult cyberbullies from the Adult Bullying website:

There are several different types of adult bullies (or iPredators), and it helps to know how they operate: 

1. Narcissistic Adult Bully: This type of adult bully is self-centered and does not share empathy with others. Additionally, there is little anxiety about consequences. He or she seems to feel good about him or herself, but in reality has a brittle narcissism that requires putting others down.
    
2. Impulsive Adult Bully: Adult bullies in this category are more spontaneous and plan their bullying out less. Even if consequences are likely, this adult bully has a hard time restraining his or her behavior. In some cases, this type of bullying may be unintentional, resulting in periods of stress, or when the bully is actually upset or concerned about something unconnected with the victim.
    
3. Physical Bully: While adult bullying rarely turns to physical confrontation, there are, nonetheless, bullies that use physicality. In some cases, the adult bully may not actually physically harm the victim, but may use the threat of harm, or physical domination through looming. Additionally, a physical bully may damage or steal a victim's property, rather than physically confronting the victim.
    
4. Verbal Adult Bully: Words can be quite damaging. Adult bullies who use this type of tactic may start rumors about the victim, or use sarcastic or demeaning language to dominate or humiliate another person. This subtle type of bullying also has the advantage - to the bully - of being difficult to document. However, the emotional and psychological impacts of verbal bullying can be felt quite keenly and can result in reduced job performance and even depression.
    
5. Secondary Adult Bully: This is someone who does not initiate the bullying, but joins in so that he or she does not actually become a victim down the road. Secondary bullies may feel bad about what they are doing, but are more concerned about protecting themselves.

In our case here at W.A.R., Teresa Nielsen Hayden, for example, fulfilled the conditions of adult bully type 1, 3, and 4, while she was surrounded and buoyed by bully type 5.

And speaking of Teresa, here she is, third from left, happily leading her ridiculously expensive workshop at Viable Paradise this past October (2014) with her husband Patrick on right. It looks like fun. It is, especially for those who attend and who don't bemoan the loss of so much money. What could be more instructive than fiction writer instruction from people like Teresa and Patrick who are not fiction writers; and it's said if you meet Teresa in person, pay her money at her workshop she runs with Uncle Jim, that she can be nice. No surprise. If only her Hapisofi personality at Absolute Write could be so happy and carefree. It really looks like Hapisofi, Patrick, Uncle Jim, Mac and Hack, and whoever else, can be just as lovely and congenial as any ordinary American human being. 

So why do they become iPredators as defined above when they don their anonymous identities and fairy persona on Absolute Write? Why does the dark side manifest itself there? Why do they say nasty things about people, make false statements, and behave as if entitled to do so? Who knows what darkness lurks in the souls of Absolute Write members and moderators once they've donned the mask? 

Does even The Shadow know?

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.
                                                                                    - The Missing Alexa Reviews

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From the Missing Sitejabber Review Page - Sitejabber Will Not Respond to Questions

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