Write Absolute Reviews of Bully Boards

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The First Years After Jenna Sold Absolute Write to Melodi "Mac" Sherman and Partner Spangenberg

2006

In a sadly prophetic post about Jenna Glatzer's founding, building, and eventual sale of Absolute Write, author Ted Gross states:

We miss you, Jenna!

If the new owner(s) and moderators choose to use it for their own personal ends, something that Jenna never did, AW will fall by the wayside. If they choose to allow a differing of opinions then AW may flourish. They will need balance and wisdom. They will require certain innate qualities which no one can know they have until it is put to the test. They will have to learn the elements of respect and fear and know how to understand each. That only the future will tell, and thus no amount of discussion will do any good...

A poignant observation on how Absolute Write became the central forum of the writing industry. For a bit of background, Ted Gross was an active, supportive member for years. His glowing recommendation from 2005 can still be seen.

2007

A bare few months pass with the "new guard" in charge. The same Ted Gross, who spoke so highly of Absolute Write community, becomes one of the first targets of mob mentality. When a member of Absolute Write used a swastika in his signature line and the moderators did nothing about it, Ted, who is of Jewish descent, took offense. The questions he asks may sound familiar to some readers:

[W]here the hell are the police mods who seem to be all over when heaven forbid, someone says something not to their liking? Where the hell are the "open-minded" people who run this board? Could it be that if you say something not kind about Absolute Write you will get banned but showing a swastika is considered "freedom of speech"?

Lisa (yes, that Lisa, a la Spangenberg) feels it her duty to lecture Ted on what he is and isn't allowed to be offended about, and how the swastika had meaning for centuries before the Nazi's began using it. I would love to see someone post "gay people suck," and then lecture Mac and Lisa on how the word "gay" had meaning for centuries before homosexuals starting using it, and then tell them they aren't allowed to be offended because it means "happy people suck." I'm too big of a coward, but someone should do this. I'd watch. With popcorn.

So anyway, the AW moderators continue to bash Ted, his feelings, and his beliefs for months and defend the use of a symbol one of their members found offensive. One commenter even blames Jews for allowing a few decades of hate to obliterate the wonderful meaning of the swastika.

Yeah, we're not kidding. It's there in the last link.

2008

Money troubles abound at Absolute Write, starting this year and spilling into next. Part of the financial woes could stem from Barbara Bauer's regular tantrums (she got the web host shut down in 2006, sued in 2007, and filed amendments in 2008).

Class instructors turn to Writers Weekly as a neutral third to arbitrate disputes over not receiving payments for services rendered. Not all writers know about the possibility of arbitration, though (ironically, the reason communities like Absolute Write exist), and at least one writer is forced to take a loss.

Look at Them

In a blow for the writing community at large, having Barbara Bauer (a proven fraud) attack Absolute Write shored up the AW community and made it appear more legitimate. We suspect that if no lawsuits were filed, Absolute Write would have faded into obscurity. However, their heroic battle against the evil Bauer agency resuscitated and introduced the forums to a new generation of writers.

Some of those financial woes might also link to MacAllister's (aka Melodi Sherman--her real name) new business ventures. It's hard not to speculate where some of the money might have gone when at the same time Absolute Write was financially struggling, MacAllister "Melodi Sherman" Stone was aggressive expanding her own personally branded site, macallisterstone.com, and online magazine, Coyote Wild.

http://jmmcdermott.blogspot.com/2008/02/macallister-stone-head-editor-of-coyote.html

Written in Stone - stone engraving business http://www.macallisterstone.com/wis/index.html

(Not) Written in Stone (now defunct and deleted) - forum touted as "sister site" and actively pedaled to new members: http://absolutewrite.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-111521.html

Per Internet Wayback - Registration turned off between 10/17/2008 and 11/20/2008, members dropped from 217 to 115; before 2008, was a simple Blogger blog, between 6/2/2014 and 7/14/2014 went live with new content - Content now resides at /wis subfolder

Absolute Write Amazon Store http://web.archive.org/web/20081207132549/http://www.absolutewrite.com/shop.htm + Absolute Write newsletter called Absolute Markets

2009

Beginning in January, the servers behind Absolute Write experienced intermittent outages throughout the year. The core group, who couldn't survive an hour without bashing someone, migrated among a Starchat channel, a temporary forum hosted by Roger Carlson, and MacAllister Stone's own website (presumably because allowing someone else to own the site host for the forum was unbearable for her).

The forum at Absolute Write flourished without the participation of the owner and her band of cronies. Lisa and Mel popped in only rarely to ban people or attempt to discourage beginners; Old Hack worked on her self-publishing review site, redesigned her personal "God's answer to writers" website, and started a brief (pun intended) flash fiction blog; and Hapi "Teresa Nielsen Hayden" Sofi lent her particular brand of vitriol to the forum.

The rest is still unfolding history, ugly history. Thank you, Macallister Melodi Sherman-Stone.

Is That Legal? Here We Go Again! The Endless March of iPredators on Absolute Write Forums - Their Pathology and How to Spot Them

GOT BANNED FOR SAYING "I'M A HOSTAGE"

I should have heeded my instincts when I first went to participate, and kept running into snide, nasty remarks in amongst all kinds of rules. The site is far from conducive to learning how to write, as you soon find you must tiptoe around and make sure you grovel for the "mods", who all run the site with threats and intimidation. I'm not sure what their deal is, but they all have a serious case of self-appointed tin-plated godliness, full of themselves and delusions of grandeur.

All this came about because of my complaint that the members are being held hostage, without being warned when they register, that you CANNOT delete your account and dissociate yourself from THEM. That was my sin...but it is the TRUTH. It's the only website I've ever been to where I cannot free myself, my name, any info they have, from their clutches. Is that legal?

- Complaints Board

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

A Study In Public Shaming - Remind Anyone of The Absolute Write Bully Mob?

Where Faceless Commenters Wield The
Power to Destroy Lives and Careers

Faceless commenters with the power to ruin people? Sound familiar? This is a great book with lots of anecdotes and case histories of the mob mentality run amok on social media. Course, unlike the vast majority of mob victims on Absolute Write who did nothing other than disagree with a cyberbully bashing or dare to start an independent press the owners didn't like, Jon Ronson talks about people who might have "had it coming."

Nevertheless, we recommend this book for all those who have been smeared unfairly by Absolute Write, for all those who google their name or book or business and see Absolute Write at the top of the page.

____________

An Amazon Best Book of April 2015: Author Jon Ronson knows a thing or two about public shaming. When a trio of "academics" hijacked his persona for an infomorph—basically an automated Twitter feed that spewed inane comments about food in his name—he took the fight to the internet, where the virtual, virulent hordes soon compelled the spambot authors to cease and desist. The experience hatched a thought: Once upon a time, if you wanted to participate in a good, old-fashioned public humiliation, you actually had to show up. But as with most everything else, the internet has made condemnation an exercise in crowdsourcing, with today’s angry mobs trading stockades and scarlet for social media and its inherent anonymity.

So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed is Ronson's tour through a not-necessarily-brave new world where faceless commenters wield the power to destroy lives and careers, where the punishments often outweigh the crimes, and where there is no self-control and (ironically) no consequences. On one hand, part of what makes this book (again, ironically) so fun to read is a certain schadenfreude; it’s fun to read about others' misfortunes, especially if we think they "had it coming."

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.

Insightful Reviews of iPredators on Absolute Write

What is An iPredator?

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.

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...

______________________________________________

- PublisherW - The Missing Sitejabber Reviews

FROM DARK MARKETS "THE CULT OF ABSOLUTE WRITE":

- STGRB : The Banning of Robin Sullivan

The Bad Reviews - A Pattern of Abuse and Bad Advice to Writers

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.

[TO THOSE PEOPLE WHO SUPPORT ABSOLUTE WRITE: in this post and others, we are not talking about the beneficial aspects of a writer board like AW, we are discussing an end to the non-beneficial 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 Barbara Streisand will concert tour, but we want the mayor to surrender to the FBI. 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.]

To anyone reading this blog. If you are neutral or undecided on the issue of Absolute Write bullying, then go to Google. Type in "absolute write reviews" and see for yourself. Scores and scores of bad reviews.

Absolute Write has more stinging bad reviews than any writer, author, workshop, or agent website on the Internet. In point of fact, it has far more bad reviews from more sources than all of the aforementioned put together.

Whether it's a bad restaurant, crooked car dealership, or rip-off vanity press, you see bad reviews collect in significant numbers over time, and on multiple websites. The pattern is always the same.

This same pattern reveals Absolute Write for what it really is.

Make your own decision.

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.]

Table of Contents

From Text and Comments--Sane or Otherwise
An AW Supporter Named "Dor" Makes The Right Call
The "Guest" Slaps You On The Billboard
The Pecking Hate or The AW Bully Egg?
One Troll Fact or Theory?
Writer Beware Debate on Facebook
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.

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.

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:

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.
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.
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.
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.
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

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

Trashy Advertisements Run on Absolute Write Forums Wherein Writers and Presses are Smeared

Private messages sent to the owner and other disagreements with the owner may be publicly posted and everyone invited to trash them. They play favorites ridiculously, and also get way too overinvolved, shutting down threads etc. for nothing. All this mess, while constantly telling everyone else that the number one rule is "Respect Your Fellow Writer!"

- Sitejabber Reviews

The Absolute Write Water Cooler is active enough, but has more than their fair share of condescending know-it-alls. If you’ve ever been there for any length of time, it’s like being back in high school. I didn’t like high school the first time around.

- Ripley King

That Absolute Write thread is bewildering. What in God's name is wrong with these people? And where do they find the time for all that arguing?

- Lexireveliian Blog

I realize being banned from AW is the norm, but for the following message. Wow! That crowd has gone totally nuts.

- Where Writers Meet

Look at this quite simply. You have a freewheeling chat board packed with anonymous and amateur posters, as well as poorly credentialed moderators and holier-than-thou owners. Now, add to that a hostile cultural tone feeding on ignorance and prepared to compete with itself, and what do you have?

Answer: the Absolute Write Water Cooler.

- Jane Friedman

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.

- Poster on W.A.R. Blog

The owner and her sock puppets and assorted gang not only shred people all day for amusement and publicity (as someone pointed out, the mediocre writers get publicity for their poorly written books each time they post) and monetary gain (substantial revenue from advertisements), the site itself purports to offer good advice to writers when in fact it does no such thing. Advice is amateurish and quite often just plain wrong.

- Publisher W.

How people like Melodi can sleep at night is beyond me. As far as I am concerned, she is nothing but a criminal. But you know, that's just my educated opinion.

- Carroll Bryant

All writers should definitely stay away from this site. There are several moderators on this site who will start a fight with you and then kick you out for responding back. In addition, the advice that one receives on the forums is pedestrian and the kind of advice that any beginning writer would give...are you kidding me with this?

- Complaints and Review Board

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.

- UK Quality Reads BC

I’ve lost count of the number of “gang bangs” I’ve witnessed and it keeps getting worse. So many good writers have been banned or alienated there’s hardly anyone left worth reading, bad and misleading advice abounds and trolls seem to use it as a gathering place to discuss their next campaign. The site owner believes herself accountable to no one, so the mods range around the site like a gang of outlaws in Dodge City picking fights with anyone they don’t like the look of. I must admit it is a fascinating study in groupthink but hardly a congenial atmosphere for serious discussion.

- Lexireveliian Blog

IMPORTANT : "ADVICE" CIRCULATING ABSOLUTE WRITE COOLER FORUMS IS PROVIDED BY RANK AMATEURS, ANONYMOUS CREATURES, AND PUBLICATION BOTTOM-LISTERS, AS WELL AS VARIOUS FRAUDULENT IDENTITIES PRETENDING TO BE AN EDITOR FROM A MAJOR PUBLISHING HOUSE. THE AW FORUM OWNERS, MELODI SHERMAN AND LISA SPANGENBERG, HAVE NEVER WRITTEN FICTION, NOR HAVE THEY EVER EDITED FICTION IN ANY PROFESSIONAL OR ORGANIZATIONAL CAPACITY. DO YOUR RESEARCH CAREFULLY AND DO NOT TAKE AT FACE VALUE ANYTHING YOU "LEARN" ON AW CONCERNING THE MARKET OR ANY ASPECT OF FICTION WRITING.

The mission of W.A.R. is to expose the incompetents and bullies of Absolute Write for who they really are and to provide a verifiable record for anyone to examine; and to gather information and colleagues necessary to engage in legal proceedings against the owner and her cronies engaged in acts of libel against writers and legitimate businesses.

In the days before "Macallister Stone" (aka Melodi Sherman) took over, Absolute Write was useful and more fair. However, that time has passed. They have become a lynch mob who daily engage in smear tactics of the worst kind against people who just don't deserve it.

The time has come to fight back and make it as difficult as possible for the bullies to win. Let's take the fight to them.

- WAR Admin