The Missing SiteJabber Reviews of Absolute Write : Ultimate Drama

Look at Them

Look, everyone, it's The Write Agenda again, using yet another fake name! (Is it not amazing how all these profiles--Michael C. Melissa S., Sarah L, David H., Publisher W--have suddenly shown up here, just as this topic has become heated [thank you, Tom D]? Commenting on just this one discussion thread? Do they have ESP or something? Or...could it be? They're all the same troll!
           - Lisa "sorcha r." Spangenberg
Let us pray ... oh God, relieve us of this Lilith of the writer forums. Let her hundreds of victims be whole. Let the many posts that have ruined their lives and careers now be free of unfair defamation, free of nerd vitriol, and most of all, free of Macallister stones. Let kindness settle over the boards of Absolute Write like a cool evening breeze over Santa Monica. Please God, grant us this small favor, and banish this relentless Lilith Spangenberg to the depths of Hell to be chewed in the jaws of Satan along with Brutus, Judas, and Tom O'Malley who sold the Dodgers to Los Angeles.

- Sarah L. 
Genuine critics, like the earlier posters here, are one thing--trolls like you, who are here only to further their own Agenda or another.

- Lisa "sorcha r." Spangenberg

 
New Reviewer
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63
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9/8/13
Please see posts and links here regarding actual Absolute Write abuse, and read what dozens of posters are saying before coming to conclusions. Note also that the owner of AW posing as Sorcha R. can be found posting all over the threads. The real users are saying the same critical things about abuse on AW, while the owner attempts to smear the message and messengers in any way she can. Please take note of this pattern. It is very very obvious.

Also, be careful if you post. The owner of Absolute Write is hanging out here engaging in acts of defamation and obfuscation. As many are saying, do not use your real photograph or identity because to do so risks retaliation by this person and her moderators.

IMO, this thread demonstrates once and for all that Lisa Spangenberg is the real owner of Absolute Write. Among other proofs, one of the posters discovered that the domain contact mail for the website is registered in her name.

Read and decide for yourself. The AW side claims the critics are all frauds. The critics claim AW and its owners and mods are overly abusive. Research will demonstrate who is lying and who is telling the truth.

Thanks to Sitejabber for allowing this discussion, and for not shutting it down as a few posters friendly to AW have pushed for.

Thank you.

Melissa

New Reviewer
1
0
2
9/7/13
I came to investigate the site, looked around for some time before coming to SiteJabber. I was just about to join, despite negative comments - then I saw the drama that unfold here on this website! I certainly don't want to be part of a site whose administration goes back and forth on third-paty sites as if they were in a high school cafeteria. Shame, AW admin + moderation, shame! All companies/groups ought to treat their members kindly and after what I saw, this isn't the case at AW. I certainly wouldn't take any profession writing advice from people who can't behave properly online - something my 10 year old knows how to do!

New Reviewer
5
43
30
9/5/13
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.
_____

Note to anyone reading this: the owner of Absolute Write is here under the pseudo "sorcha r." Please do not use a real photo associated with your account if you post. She will use a method to discover who you are and your private life and job will be in jeopardy. You and your business will be smeared on Absolute Write with 48 hours of discovery. This is no joke. Please review the threads proving her true identity.
_____

New Reviewer
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48
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9/3/13
If I had not read that Stephen King book on writing I would have kept believing the bad advice on Absolute Write by anonymous mods and people who claimed to be writers, but who turned out to be terrible writers. And as someone else here pointed out, even when you are receiving praise it turns out to be dumb, like a bunch of juveniles whooping for each other. And like many others here I quit after witnessing the moderators go French Revolution. You felt like they were going to do their best to make certain writers who disagreed with them never got published. I'm not saying I know for certain that the writers were blackballed in any way, but rumors were flying and the blood was flowing. Who said it was a blood bath? But the worst thing is that this type of Absolute Write environment attracts crazy people. I've seen it many times.

New Reviewer
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8/31/13
I deleted my original review because I fear the backlash toward both me and the site jabber website will be harsh but the one star review stands no matter. I used the site, I was a member of AW for many years and I met some nice people but overall I had a bad experience with name calling by moderators and only wish to remain anonymous now.

Please do not contact me if you only wish to harass or troll me. Thanks.

New Reviewer
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13
8/31/13
ETA: links to my review.

I didn't have as bad an experience as some, but I saw some horrible things being said to fellow members and if you spoke up then you were told to go to time out, like we're children! I am not a child and don't need someone on the net to put me in time out. Want evidence of how the owner treats people:

http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/showpost.php?p=1832557&postcount=323
http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/showpost.php?p=1832673&postcount=325
http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/showpost.php?p=1832695&postcount=326
http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/showpost.php?p=1832704&postcount=327
http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/showpost.php?p=1832809&postcount=332
http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/showpost.php?p=1832820&postcount=333

Enough said.

New Reviewer
1
0
2
8/31/13
Hello, new to this thread, but found something that I feel is pertinent to the overall discussion whether this site is moderated by people who engage in bullying or not.

I was a regular member of boing! boing!, where one of AW's mods Teresa Nielsen Hayden also moderated around 2007-2008, much to the chagrin of bb's members, for her style was very similar to AW's "agree with me or get banned" style. A blogger named Brian Carnell happened to call her out on instances of hypocritical "disemvoweling" (a practice Teresa did to render people's posts meaningless). I thought Carnell's post was critical, but fair. Half way down in the comments section, however, Lisa Spangenberg did not and wrote:

You know, until you’re moderating a community with thousands of active posters, your opinion doesn’t mean $#*!, Brian.

You’re an armchair driver, with absolutely no clue about what is going on behind the Window that you don’t see–but feel fine about sitting on your ass and pontificating about.

You can read Carnell's entire blog post and her comments here.

http://brian.carnell.com/articles/2008/teresa-nielsen-hayden-demonstrates-how-not-to-moderate-an-internet-forum/

Will try to hyperlink it here.
[URL=http://brian.carnell.com/articles/2008/teresa-nielsen-hayden-demonstrates-how-not-to-moderate-an-internet-forum/]
Teresa Nielsen Hayden Demonstrates How *Not* To Moderate an Internet Forum[/URL

My point being, Lisa didn't like that her good friend was getting some valid criticism and instead of responding with logical, cool-headed debate (as we would expect a moderator to do) she went off on an ad hominem attack (name-calling). Brian Carnell, to his credit, didn't shy away from a response.

If Lisa is in fact, MacAllister Stone (and so far I've seen no proof she isn't with a real photo, driver's license, electric bill--as requested in this forum) then take into account that this is the kind of attack a moderator of a major writing website is willing make public. It is a shameful way to represent one's writing community and if I were a young writer looking for advice, I'd think twice before joining a community where this kind of discourse is not only unapologetically the norm, but it sets the tone for other moderators as well.

New Reviewer
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8/29/13
I haven't used its services personally but can provide the following opinions.

As someone with graphic design and web marketing experience, I can tell you that the site is a visual mess and little more than a collection of ads, frankly.

It also doesn't seem to have an FTC-mandated privacy policy telling viewers how it will handle any information it collects from them. That might not be such a big deal if it weren't for the issues its owners/moderators seem to have respecting people's privacy and acting professionally, generally, according to comments on Sitejabbers.

Thus I would give this blog/site/whatever a wide berth.

New Reviewer
1
22
5
8/29/13
Like so many others posting here, I saw this angry struggle on google, and came to investigate. The owner is on this forum under various guises, going from topic to topic making wild accusations just like she does on Absolute Write. She has no choice and she must be desperate because she won't stop. I'm glad a lot of her posts have been deleted by Sitejabber staff.

I am shocked to learn Macallister Stone is really Lisa 'Spangenberg, but when I look back on their angry posts, they do sound like the same person many times, and Macallister Lisa seems to have become more and more angry over the years. Is power corrupting absolutely? It seems that way. She acts like she has no soul at all. If anyone doesn't believe it I recommend a trip to Absolute Write to learn the truth, or even Good Reads. Here is an article on bullying at Good Reads. This sounds exactly like Absolute Write, and Lisa Spangenberg is known as a big bully on Good Reads according to STGRB:

http://www.salon.com/2013/08/21/debut_author_allegedly_got_rape_threats_on_goodreads/

You will see the owner's attempt to obfuscate this issue below.

New Reviewer
2
3
5
8/28/13
I've lurked on and off for 2 years, and have learned a lot from the experienced folks at AW. The only people I've personally seen banned are spammers, bigots, and people behaving badly.

Meanwhile, I've received valuable info on query letters, what to look for in a publisher, contract clarification, and how to polish my own prose. I'd recommend it to anyone who is serious about publishing as a business.

New Reviewer
4
12
8
8/26/13
While I found the area about writer's experiences querying agents helpful, the rest of the site is pure trash. I suspect it is now being run by a clique that thinks they are still back in junior high from the snide comments and vicious attacks on anyone that does not conform to their particular "group-think".

I have seen several people banned from the site for no apparent reason other than voicing a dissenting opinion and have watch in disgust at continued attacks on a poster who has been banned and can no longer defend his/herself.

I would limit myself to the bewares area, avoid commenting at all on any subject and take a hot shower immediately after every visit. (Might even want to scrub down the computer and monitor too just to be safe.)
Apprentice Reviewer
15
22
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8/23/13
This website reminds me of the old days when phone systems were on party lines and there would be 5 houses on the same line. If you picked up the phone while someone else was using it they would ask you to get off the phone until they were done. Most people would apologize and try later, but there were those who would dileberately hang on the phone and listen to a private conversation and make noises with the phone just to piss them off. Basically, if it's none of your business, stay out of it and shut up.
I see no real problem with the site. I don't especially like it but it gives people with nothing else to do with their lives, something to do.

New Reviewer
6
3
23
8/19/13
I've been a member of this site for about five years and it got consistently worse. I've been attacked, called names, and told to keep my opinions to myself as they were unwanted-and that was just from the moderators. Moderator friends would come on with insults, often attacking and calling names and insulting all the while it was okay and within the rules because attacking a fellow writer doesn't apply to you if you are not in their inner circle of friends. I was never banned or threatened with a banning, but the more I go there now and reread old threads the more I see "Banned" below some old members who were there long before me.

New Reviewer
1
1
4
8/15/13
The harsh criticisms of Absolute Write on this site are justified, and then some. As a former member of the AW inner circle, I was present at several behind the scenes discussions with Lisa Spangenberg (alias Mac Stone), Victoria Strauss, James D. Macdonald, Teresa Nielsen-Hayden, and others. The mix was different from time to time depending on who was around and what writer or editor was being torn to pieces on the board. If a member of their club didn't like someone, they would all join in and emotionally beat the person with as much energy and as many phony accusations as they could until the person either left or had their account canceled. There was a definite feeling of alliance and self-righteousness to it. At times a sane voice was heard, but as the horrible fighting got worse and worse, the mob would take over. I hated it, and I left. I received a threatening letter on my way out, but I won't say from whom. They know who I am and like other people who know them, I am afraid of losing my job or having my name tarnished by their flying sock monkeys. The funny thing is that half of the big name mods there are not even writers. They pretend to be and actually give advice to newbies. The newbies are so new they don't know whether the advice is any good or not, but they take it. If anyone questions the advice in any way, they are beat down. If they resist, a mob effect takes place. This happens all the time. It's sickening to watch. I hate it. I could not be a part of it any longer. I once helped them rip a couple of eBook publishers to pieces and I had fun doing it, but I knew I was working out my own negative issues on these people. It wasn't about them, it was about me. I am so sorry I did it. They did not deserve to start their day with pages of half truths, exaggerations, and total lies told about them, their friends and businesses. No one deserves that. And those who say Lisa Spangenberg keeps it hot to encourage traffic from google is completely correct. That is exactly what she does. She profits from it every day. She pats herself on the back all the time. It's all about her 24/7.

New Reviewer
1
0
2
8/8/13
This site has been useful to me in developing as a professional writer

New Reviewer
1
0
2
8/6/13
I originally went to Absolute Write because they had a thread on Samhain Publishing. I'd just sent a manuscript into them and wanted to hear the experiences of fellow writers. In that, the site was helpful. But, foolish me, I ventured out of that particular thread and actually started perusing the "water cooler." Here's what I found, without exception: the place is made up of amateur writers, wannabees, and people who are "seriously thinking" of writing "someday." The so-called "professionals" are essentially ebook writers, and apparently, almost anyone can be published as an ewriter, nowadays. Or at least that's the impression I've been getting. They'll feature the cheesy covers of their books at the tail end of every message, and I gotta tell you, I'd never read that crap if I saw it on a bookshelf (which I apparently won't, since it's all digital). The moderators are rude to the extreme. Someone named "Haggy" (I think that's her name) moderated the "writing horror" page. The subject of The Horror Writer's Association came up--a poster wanted to know if anyone had any experience with it. Well, I have. I was a three-year "active member," which means in their top tier as someone who's actually sold my writing and made money from it. After I posted my experiences, another "writer" took issue with something I said. Suddenly, I was banned for "disrespecting another writer." I was clueless as to what that meant. Then, this Haggy individual had the nerve to post that I needed to read the "stickies" about how to respect my fellow writers. Fellow writers? Cripes! There was no one on the frickin' horror board who could even qualify for membership in the Horror Writers Association, and that includes Haggy! Go figure. I didn't bother to go back. If you're a writer--a real, published author--you have no need for sites like Absolutewrite.com. They're strictly for amateurs.

New Reviewer
1
0
2
7/8/13
Macallister Stone is a vulgar abusive bully, now people say Mac is Lisa, which wouldn't surprise me, so is she. The jokes she tells about male victims of rape turned me off AW after being a member for 2+ years

The one star is for the information that is available. I would have given more, but I am a male rape survivor and don't think AW deserves the one I was forced to use to create this review

New Reviewer
1
0
4
6/23/13
This site is a joke. You're supposed to keep your mouth shut if you disagree with someone or if someone disrespects you. Back in March 2013 I was banned one Saturday night at around 1:00 AM and got a temporary, one-week ban for "being rude to another writer" who was extremely rude to me making the comment, "Your use of (this word) is amusing." This writer was baiting me, trying to get me into a fight, and when I replied that she was disrespectful, she deliberately got people riled with her rude responses and I had no interest in what I had to say, I got banned for a week, when I have seen members like "quicklime", yes, that's his user name, "quicklime" be extremely disrespectful to other writers and even cursing them out, all Ms. Stone does is get into the thread and say, "quicklime, knock it off," like he's 5 years old and takes no further action. I've even seen him making fun of people that have gotten banned. What does Mc. Allister do? Egg him on and cheer for him.

This was the most horrible experience ever, I've had 5 or 6 people in there being extremely disrespectful to me and I'm supposed to put my hands behind my back, take all the crap and do nothing about it. Another thing that irks me is Ms. Stone talks to you like you're her buddy, like she's known you for years, no formality, like she's coming up to you, pulling your arm, taking you to a place where you're both alone, and calling you out like you're her 5-year-old child. I hope all the bad reviews on here make people reconsider their decision to join this hateful site.

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