Is Absolute Write a Valuable Writer Resource or a Pretender With An Advertising Agenda?

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.

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 "truth" as follows. btw, something to consider: how does an amateur writer know whether they are receiving good advice or not? If a phony doctor puts on a lab coat and tells a naive patient to take a valueless vitamin supplement, the patient will do what he or she is told.

CONTINUED HERE

Relevant Links

Farewell to Our Friend at Absolute Wrong and Thank You For Helping Us Expose The Mac Stone Regime

Our fellow in the struggle to expose harmful advice and cyberbullying at Absolute Write Water Cooler, Fell of Absolute Wrong (a private investigator and all around nice guy who has vowed to continue to help us in our fight), has decided to retire his blog for personal reasons; however, he has generously donated his best Absolute Wrong pages to us that portray an organization not only engaged in acts of repugnant bullying but also operating illegally as a business entity, as follows:

The Real Owner of Absolute Write - Mac and Melodi Are The Same

In New York and in Washington State, it's illegal to register a business under an assumed name unless you also register your assumed name as "doing business as" (DBA). You can review the regulations at the New York's Division of Corporations and Washington's Business Licensing Services pages.

This is important because, at the time of this writing, MacAllister Stone, owner of Absolute Write, lives in Washington State and has Absolute Write registered in New York (UPDATE 1/15/2014: Scratch that; it's no longer registered and is operating illegally). However, MacAllister Stone is not a real person. Her real name, Melodi Susanne Sherman, is not registered as a DBA of MacAllister Stone in either state (UPDATE12/31/2013: It was at one time, however). That makes Absolute Write, the business entity, illegal.

___

Absolute Write Owners on Shaky Legal Ground

Melodi Sherman aka MacAllister Stone appears to be on shaky legal ground concerning her use of an unregistered DBA for business purposes. Silly me, I assumed Absolute Write was properly registered. You know what they say about making assumptions?

Apparently, when Melodi purchased Absolute Write, the registration moved from New York to Washington. Absolute Write didn't come up in previous database queries because all three names were registered under the same umbrella: MacAllister Stone. If you follow the link to the Department of Revenue and check the UBI, you'll find the business license for MacAllister Stone that expired in 2009.

___

Silencing the Lambs - From The Lost "Absolute Wrong"

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.

____

Moving Forward; or, Is There Life After Mean People?

If you're reading this blog, it's likely you fall into one of three categories:

You're a member of the AW in-crowd. You aren't likely to be an average AW member, because average AW members aren't considered good enough to know about the Sekrits (TM).
You're an active, engaged, and curious member of the broader online writing community. By now, this blog has been mentioned on several other sites dedicated to fighting "mean people" behavior.
You've been recently mistreated on AW and found your way here through referral or a search engine.

I want to address this post to all three groups, because they all have one thing in common: they've been victims of mean people at some point in their lives.

Victoria Strauss Censoring Critics on Her Blog, of Course

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

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

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.

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?

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?

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.

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.

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.

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...

Teresa Nielsen Hayden Fired From Tor Books

W.A.R Announcement:

Yes, this is the Teresa we know.

Teresa Nielsen Hayden, aka the repugnant and infamous cyberbully "Hapisofi" on Absolute Write, has been officially fired from the Tor staff. We received the following note from someone connected to the publisher (who must remain anonymous to prevent retaliation by Nielsen's husband Patrick who is still a big shot at Tor Books and who has supported his wife regardless of her vitriolic and unprovoked assaults on writers, presses, and organizations using her anonymous ID on Absolute Write):

Teresa Nielsen Hayden is now officially off the Tor staff page. She has been removed permanently. A source close to the staff reports that the sheer amount of negative information about her on the web was the reason. However, she continues to update her Wikipedia page listing herself as an "Executive Editor" at Tor books, and a reference footnote to the Tor website (that proves she is off the staff completely).

Another lie from this person. She lies about herself and about others as if she'll never be caught.

Check it out. Here is the Tor page: http://www.tor.com/page/about-us

And here is a Google link to articles about her bullying behavior online: https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=teresa+nielsen+hayden+bully
________________________

Hopefully, Wikipedia editors will pick up on her termination and call her on it. Her Wikipedia talk page is already packed with argument and controversy--typical of anything involving her. We would nonetheless like to thank whoever it was at Tor Books who finally did whatever it took to permanently remove Hayden from the staff. Relevant links below concerning TNH and her path of misery:

To the left is a photo of Michael James "Orangemike" Lowry, the Wikipedia editor who is the primary defender of Teresa Nielsen Hayden's Wikipedia profile as it appears right now. If you review the comments in the thread below and on the Wikipedia Talk page regarding this subject, you will see him not only refusing to admit the existence of unreliable, self-published sources, but actually bullying another editor (Kennedy T) for attempting to apply to Teresa Nielsen Hayden's page the kind of realistic guidelines Wikipedia demands. The ironic thing is that in Michael "Orangemike" Lowry's bio, he notes that he takes a hard line on bad sourcing, but it appears that his rules don't apply to his friends. He terms this post, and thread below, as a "hate fest" but he cannot refute the actual evidence of her troll behavior and bullying of an indefinite number of victims on a variety of Internet forums.

TERESA NIELSEN HAYDEN GOOGLE LINKS

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Before The Social Justice Warriors, There Were The Netroots ...

https://godsandradicals.org › 2018/03/19 › before-the-social-justice-warrio...

Mar 19, 2018 - Teresa Nielsen Hayden had written a lovely post on Mary Sue fanfiction ... ideas used by the bullies to justify their mistreatment of hotcoffeems.

Boing Boing Finds 21st Century Trotsky? | MetaFilter

https://www.metafilter.com › ...

Jun 30, 2008 - Anyway, they hired comment fascist Teresa Nielsen Hayden to run ... sorry...usually i hate that kind of bullying, too, but this is different. a site that ...

The Affinities

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https://books.google.com › books

Robert Charles Wilson, ‎Teresa Nielsen Hayden - 2015 - ‎Fiction

Robert Charles Wilson Teresa Nielsen Hayden ... him no more or less profoundly than the bullying he had occasionally suffered at the hands of my father. Geddy ...

Teresa Nielsen Hayden and Patrick Nielsen Hayden

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<--Previous Up Next--> Teresa Nielsen Hayden and Patrick Nielsen Hayden.

Missing: ~~bully~~ ‎| Must include: bully

I stand with Irene Gallo, and I stand with Tor | Laura J. Mixon

laurajmixon.com › 2015/06 › i-stand-with-irene-gallo-and-i-stand-with-tor

Jun 21, 2015 - Bullies and abusers rely on the larger community's desire for ... I stand with Irene Gallo, with Patrick and Teresa Nielsen Hayden, and I also ...

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Winterfox - Fanlore

https://fanlore.org › wiki › Winterfox

In online fandom circles, she is generally considered to be a bully. ... "has seen wide support from Laura J. Mixon and Teresa Nielsen Hayden, among others.

Teresa Nielsen Hayden Demonstrates How Not To ... - Brian

https://brian.carnell.com › articles › teresa-nielsen-hayden-demonstrates-how...

As Teresa Nielsen Hayden once noted on her web site, moderation isn't rocket science. In fact, I'd recommend a nice rule of thumb — watch what ever Hayden ...

Dear Readers: Publishers Think of You as Customers I SWEAR

whatever.scalzi.com › 2011/12/27 › dear-readers-publishers-think-of-you-...

Dec 27, 2011 - I could be wrong. My experience says I'm not. Update, 5:16pm: Teresa Nielsen Hayden has additional thoughts on the topic in the comments.

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

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