Absolute Write
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Complaints & Reviews
jjwalt · Apr 28, 2020
Is supposed to be a writers' help forum
I spent a few years on AW prior to MacAllister Stone purchasing it. It was awesome. But Mac uses dictatorial...
JR Grim · Mar 30, 2020
abuse of power from admin(s) and mods
I'm walking away from AW forever after my most recent "encounter" with the AW Admin. I posted a paying job...
Tsierus · Mar 04, 2019
website
I, too, was a long standing, active user of Absolute Write. And I can attest that the moderators on the site...
AimeeO · Apr 21, 2018
writer's forum
On Apr 21 2018 I made a post to this forum and immediately was attacked with a tirade of accusations plus the F word. Those reacting to my post didn't take time to ask for clarification but made (false) assumptions and lashed out based on those assumptions. I conclude Absolute Write is an uncivilized place to get ripped apart but not a place to find community.
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This has been the experience of well over a thousand writers, all of them harassed, bullied, smeared, and banned for running afoul of the bad tempers and immature jerks who run amok on the forum. If you're not super docile and trying to write vampire erotica, there isn't any point to enduring the stupidities and risking abuse.
everything related to them
This writer's messageboard is where seemingly anyone who expresses an opinion different than many of the moderators is a troll.
It's like the same as trump does with "fake news." if he doesn't like it, it's "fake news."
On absolute write, if someone doesn't like something you say, you're trolling.
It's quite remarkable. Some moderator old hack wasn't happy that I disagreed with her about a writing issue. Couldn't let it go, because god forbid someone other than her gets the last word (Which were extraordinarily polite) and then goads someone into being slightly less than polite... "banned for life." no recourse. No anything. So, i've let this go on long enough.
Different opinions does not a troll make. And when your moderators are nastier than the posters than the respect your writer thing is out the window pretty quick.
Anyway, i've retained a lawyer and will be filing a lawsuit shortly. Might do a class action if other people who have been wronged or defamed by their business practices want in. For now, i'm just doing it on my own. Sometimes you need to stand up to bullies. This is one of those times.
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You should check out Romance Divas bullying site.
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encourages writers to slander companies and break their nda
Absolute Write openly encourages authors to break their Non Disclosure Agreement and to slander any company, even though both actions are illegal. I own a transmedia company. I had fired a worker who had signed a NDA, which includes a nonslander clause. The former employee then created a thread slandering our company and a former author helped her to create even more slander. Both women broke their NDA's. When I confronted the site, Absolute Write will not punish anyone who breaks law on their website. Absolute Write cannot be trusted and is nothing but a drama site.
online forum scam
I joined this forum to gain writing information and gain a community. What I found was a vindictive writing community and a heavy handed admin who bans people at the drop of a hat for whatever reason she deems fit that day. I believe she has a permanent case of pms. Avoid this forum at all costs. The aw admin is actually the sock for stone maccalister, the first pm you get when you join the forum. This person has been sued numerous times and there are even entire blogs and websites devoted to the forum. She will steal your ideas and so will the other writers. Avoid at all costs.
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Agreed. Moderators who inflame tensions and often start them instead of actually "moderating." Bans for no rhyme or reason. I'm getting a lawyer, because I believe laws were broken and I've had enough of the bullying, hatred and heavy handed tactics.
got a lot of bad advice
I was lured in by their marketing people who are also members of the Absolute Write forums. One of them was Victoria Strauss who is a formerly published author, now a self-published author. At first, I received what I believed was fairly good advice from a couple of anonymous people in the short fiction forum, but in the novel forum I was uncertain of the quality of advice there. I'd been warned by other people about Absolute Write and I'd read the many critiques online. The novel writing advice turned out to be lousy. I copied five things people were saying there and was able to show all of them to be erroneous. There were no mods around or professionals hanging out to help, like Strauss has claimed. It was just a free for all.
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This site is not what it used to be. Mods are nasty, while at the same time ultra-sensitive themselves. "Advice" is divided into 70% meaningless fluff, 20% somewhat useful and 10% trolling. Not worth the aggro, for the most part.
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MacAllister 'The Tyrant' Stone is rude, stubborn, and has a history of complaints about nonpayments to people she worked with. She also encourages horrible groupthink on her site, and is about as good at being an admin as the legendary 'Computer Fogie' of Sherdog infamy.
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So, Lipeck, did you get banned for spamming, flaming, or trolling?
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More than 10% trolling
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You can get banned from this site now just for disagreeing with a mod, on just about anything, regardless of how you express it. And sometimes for irrationally silly reasons, like the use of an innocuous word the Admin doesn't like, for some reason. And God forbid you should point out some inanity expressed by one of the mods themselves. The site has become incredibly cliquish, and is largely a playground for allegedly aspiring heroic fantasy writers who think Tolkien invented the genre, and probably know of Tolkien only through Peter Jackson's movies. Once a good place, not any more.
got banned for saying i'm a hostage... which I am.
I was banned today on this website, a site that's premise is a writing community to help writers. Their main rule is RYFW (respect your fellow writer), which the moderators fail to do almost consistently, including in many of their forum "stickies" (posts designed to give you info and "the rules!").
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? I don't want my name there...and they did NOT warn me ahead of time. Though that probably wouldn't matter, they violate their own petty rules all the time.
RYFW?? They don't respect anyone...except maybe those dumb enough to go there and perhaps divulge something that THEY can use??? I'm very suspicious of their motivations and intentions. They certainly don't help their members with their moderators' stalking, threats and nasty attitudes and comments. I'm glad they banned me...but how do I get my info away from them? Account deleted?
I include this, taken right from the site, written by the owner...concepts totally violated all over the site.
*** "We've always, first and foremost, used "respect your fellow writer" as our guiding principle. It's a really good one, in general. I absolutely believe in it. And we're not going to be making a bunch of rules and regulations to quote, because that's a whole can of worms with its own set of special problems.
It's really not complicated. Seriously. It means don't act like a jerk. You don't name-call, or bait, or sneer, or taunt, or generally be unpleasant to the people around you; at least, not if you want to stay here very long.
You'll notice, please, I'm also not demanding that anyone agree with my worldview. You don't have to. And you can absolutely debate and discuss and tell me you think I'm wrong, and why you think so -- PMs are usually more appropriate for that, but if it's a discussion that you honestly believe would benefit the community, I'm willing to have that discussion on the boards in public, too.
I'm not inclined to try and prevent people from thinking and believing whatever they're inclined to think and believe -- whether they're fanatic adherents to the use of the serial comma, or won't use any capital letters or commas at all. It would be a fool's errand, for one thing, and this would be a rather stagnant and boring community, for another.
Since I'm one of those people who would be quietly going away, if I kept my mouth shut about the stuff that really bothers me, or seems exclusive rather than inclusive, I have a vested interest in not letting that happen, here. "
All of this isn't worth the screen it's printed on...good thoughts, violated at every turn. They need to send a copy of this to every moderator, EVERY DAY!
Stay away from them, their cliques, and their treatment of the "peons." If anyone reading this has any advice for how to get my account totally deleted, please advise.
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Agree this is a site where the mods are cyber bullies
abusive owner
I myself pop in from time to time on Absolute Write and although I have learned some useful information there...
the owner of the site is a wannabe writer with no professional writing credits
The owner of the site is a wannabe writer with no professional writing credits. She uses the site to make money off the google ads and to promote her ultra-leftist political viewpoint.
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Even if you are left wing she will attack you so I don't know about that. But all she has published is a couple of books about ipads and she is crazy
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If you mean Lisa Spannenberg she self publishes a couple of books about ipads. And as for that "Old Hack" she claims to be "Jane Smith" she claims every book she wrote sold more than 10, 000 copies but she can't tell you the names of any of them because they were all ghost written.
the mods are throwing people off all the time
I have read all the other reviews. I just joined a month ago. Are all vbulletin forums so heavily moderated? I'm used to the media outlet forums. So maybe that's why I'm so shocked with all the moderation and control. The site seems very controlled. So many mods. Mods seem to jump in the moment anyone disagrees with any passion. Several times I've been confused as to what the problem was. Especially the PC&E forums. The Mods are throwing people off all the time. I see most of the negative reviews are from a while back. Where are people at now with this site? Am i just not used to the lay of the land for these type of vbulletin forums?
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Unprofessional site, full with snobbish unprofessionals, giving false advices to aspiring writers.
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For more information visit: http://thewriteagenda.wordpress.com your complaint is appreciated.
PROPAGANDA ALERT: American Book Publishing “Investigation” Research Released: No Proof of Victoria Strauss’ Claims
http://thewriteagenda.wordpress.com/2011/05/31/american-book-publishing-investigation-research-released-no-proof-of-victoria-strauss-claims/ -
No a site doesn't need to be like that. There are other writing communities where the mods are friendly not insane and abusive.
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It's ironic because it's a case of "absolute power" corrupts absolutely. That Lisa Spannegberg woman and Old Hack get their rocks off bullying a wide variety of people every day because they feel so superior to have a big board.
The sad thing is they would like you to believe people disgusted with them are scamming publishers but unfortunately they attack many many writers of all kinds. The "respect your fellow writer" is the biggest joke ever as it does not reply to the mods at all. There are some human mods there but Meidivalist otherwise known as crazy Spannegeberg and Old Hack are nothing more than cyber bullies. -
That was meant to be does not apply.
stay away from these guys
I was a member of AW for a while, and I find myself going back every few months to check up on some of the...
this has to be the worst writing community i've ever encountered
Yikes. I never even ended up posting. 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.
all writers should definitely stay away from this site
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?
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Completely true.
site is overrun with ugly behaviors from those in charge
I'm not a huge fan of the forums--though the "ask an agent" site is pretty handy!--but I love that they have a forum you can use to find beta reading partners. I met some really wonderful beta readers there who I trade critique with. They are some of the sweetest people I've met in the writing industry. Honest, informative, helpful--but STILL nice... that's a hard combo to pull off. I recommended the site to a friend of mine, and he met a great critique partner there also, who I then met through him.
Site, however, is overrun with ugly behaviors from those in charge.
Otherwise stay clear of the forums. The moderators are on a power trip and to be honest I see nothing that would warrant any right to be. They delete threads and people every other second that don't agree with them while they bash writers and publishers and pretty much anyone they damn well please. The site is a great idea with some good people, but it's run by a bunch of [censored]es.
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Yes this is all true. I would suggest going to find crit partners somewhere else because the nasty mods don't deserve the attention and there are other places.
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Absolute truth
got banned for making the mistake of posting an ad for a writing buddy without being &part of the community&
Got banned for making the mistake of posting an ad for a writing buddy without being "part of the community." Wrote back privately with the suggestion that it would help to have clearer guidelines, and that it would be better to refer people look for betas/writing buddies to matchmaker sites (the Writer's Digest site and experience project dot com look promising) rather than get all bent out of shape because we don't particularly want to be part of the "community." (Trust me: Absoute Write is only for people who can devote at least ten hours a week to message boarding as a hobby.) Got a couple of strange responses back, including verbal abuse. Still not sure exactly what she's mad, but I can now say with pride that I'm one of the "Banned from Absolute Write" alumni.
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Along with Hugh Howie. and they will pretend he's not banned because they allow him to see the board, but he is banned from posting there! Verbal abuse in PM is common of the mods there.
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Got banned today. I couldn't be happier! Admin is just begging for trouble.
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That's def harsh treatment when most sites politely review their policies with you and explain.