Scribophile

I've enjoyed my time at Scribophile, but was surprised to find out two things as a non-paying member:

1. You cannot italicize anything in your submitted stories. I use italics a lot, so I was disappointed to find this out. Granted, they do say that "premium members" will enjoy certain format enhancements that will make your writing shine. Too bad I didn't read the fine print.

2. I somehow missed that at a certain point, you must pay up to continue membership. Nothing is free in this world after all. Trouble is, I'd already critiqued enough stories to earn 5 credits, enough to submit my next story. Ok, after reading more fine print, they do let you delete past stories and critiques to keep submitting stories for free. I guess you just have to be really on it. They have subtle ways of urging you to become a "premium member." Perhaps marketing is marketing, and I just need to deal with it!

I joined Scrib years ago when it was starting out. There was a great community of writers there, nearly all of them gone now. I came back last year, because a friend encouraged me to return to writing. It is almost exactly as it was then, a great writing community. Here's the problem, my friends. The owner. Alex Cabal. He runs the place through terror tactics. Say anything on the forum or in a group or in a private group that he doesn't like and you will get your message deleted, you will get a strike, and you will be stalked, and you will be banned. It doesn't matter if you paid for the premium membership, you will be permanently banned and your writing deleted and your access to your writing community will be gone. The people who remain are silenced through fear of being banned. So prepare yourself: if you want to join a site where anything you say can be held against you, where the owner can ban you even if you paid in full, if you can't appeal any decision, if you can't speak out on behalf of any friends who were unjustly banned, if you want to get your heart broken by losing all your work in the blink of an eye, if you can't respectfully protest anything, then you have been warned. Oh, and Alex favorite words for people who dare to speak out: Jerks. $#*!s. He proudly comes onto the forums (another intimidation tactic) and brags about the jerks and $#*!s he's banned from the site. He lies and makes up reasons when he bans people. He is a bully who has created a reign of terror on the site. The forums are dull and dead because everyone fears him. Look for another community of writers, this one will break your writing spirit, and your heart.

I went to scribophile to learn and grow as a writer. While the site is fairly well structured and encourages writers to support one another, their critique system could use improvement. As could the overall attitude from members and moderators alike.

Commenting on other's work in regards of grammar, etc. can earn you flags. Not to mention they discourage lengthy critiques. They also don't like you posting chapters or pieces over 3,000 words. Which can be quite a pain as a number of writers end up having to divide their work into even smaller parts just to comply with the rules.

Also, unless you're a paying member... which its $9 dollars a month just to message freely and not have a limitation on the amount of work you post, it can slow you down to a snail's pace. Not to mention actually present your work in a decent format. If you're not a paying member, it is even harder to earn karma points. Even if you do a lot of reading and critiquing the limitations they set makes all those stacked up karma points seem wasted. Not to mention, it slows a number of writers down that might have deadlines or be looking for some serious feedback on their work.

Though I'll say this much... I ended up being a paying member so that way I could fully utilize everything, it still felt overpriced as there were times I would take out a lengthy time to read and critique another's works to get flagged and would end up get half-assed critiques that were pointless to even acknowledge imo. But as I did not want to cause trouble, I let it slide. Not to mention I didn't want to have to deal with the moderators which came off as rather pushy, snooty, and condescending.

I've been using Scribophile for a while and unlike other writing sites this one is focused on getting feedback on your writing. If you want to just post your writing for the world to read, like in a blog, then this is the wrong place... it's for getting reviews and critiques. And they're really good quality. It's a little hard to earn karma points but for me writing critiques has been a good way to train myself to look at my own writing differently. Great site!

I signed up for Scribophile recently and have critiqued others works and posted two of my own works. The community really helped me improve my work, and I appreciate it. However, earning enough karma points to post them, and esp. Premium is really a problem.

It takes forever to earn karma points (you have to critique over 125 words to get 1 or 0.50 points). And Premium can make things unfair. What esp. bothers me is that non-paying writers have to delete past works just to post more.

So to conclude, if you are willing to pay and very professional, then this site is for you. But if you are a college student like me, you might find some issues.

I've tried them all and Scribophile is without a doubt the best writing site I've encountered.

I've been with them as a member for many years and don't see myself as ever leaving. The site itself is easily navigable with its large and colorful prompts, all laid out in a logical and eye-appealing format.

I've met hundreds of dedicated and talented writers, editors, publishers, and agents there, many of them published, and just about all more than willing to help you along in your writing endeavors.

The monthly membership fee is more than reasonable and is even discounted for those comfortable with a longer term membership.

As for submitting your writing for review and analysis and reviewing the works of others, the process is a straightforward and simple one via the "Karma" point system. I've grown to like it and can always see my efforts on my profile page.

Highly recommended for both novice and experienced novel, short story, and flash fiction writers. There are also categories for those who prefer nonfiction and poetry.

In short, I've learned more on Scribophile than I ever did in any college writing class.

I've tried both Critique Circle Pro and Scribophile Pro.
Heres a few comments about the service for anyone interested in signing up.

1)Scribophile is free
2)Pro is worth it if you don't mind the critiquing.

Critiques:
You can post a piece of crap writing and they will tell you everything thats wrong with it. I got more feedback from Scribophile than from taking a $400.00 writing course from a community college. I'll say this much, the Professor was not engaged and the students sugarcoated the feedback. If I'am paying for a writing course and putting my work out there I want people to rip my content to shreds. They are all very nice on Scribophile minus a troll or two. Some of the reviews are harsh but I prefer harsh over sugarcoating.

Critique Circle Vs. Scribophile
If I picked between Scribophile and Critique Circle I would pick Scribophile. I've seen some professional editors give feedback on the site. This site won't promise you published work, it enhances the work and tells a writer where they need to improve. It's up to the writer after that point.

Karma:

I like the Karma point system. It makes me think twice before posting something impulsively. I also improved my own writing style be critiquing other peoples work. It's like a writing course without the Prof and it's cheaper. The people who have been complaining need to take a writing course with a mediocre Prof.

I see some areas where it could improve, it's a good service that makes even the Pro Members work hard. The critiques can range from poor to excellent, harsh to constructive. Go to the site with a thick skin. You won't be getting feedback from friends tip toeing around major plot holes. If you don't want to spend as much time critiquing this site might not be for you.

Joining Scribophile (Scrib) was one of the best decisions I ever made as a writer.
Other reviews here note the membership cost--$65 a year is very reasonable, especially since you can store as many works as you want with that price.
The karma system makes perfect sense, as with most writing groups one would need to read and critique 3-5 other people's works as part of the exchange to get their own critiqued. I personally found that karma didn't really matter, as I am a novel writer, so I would seek out other novels and critique them. Usually by the time I had read and critiqued 2-3 novels, I had plenty of karma to post my own work.
The beta spotlight makes things even easier, since if you create or join a group you can exchange without using karma towards the posting fee. You DO have to pay for premium for this advantage, but again, it's rather affordable, and there are a lot of philanthropic members who gift premium to people who are hard up.
The community as a whole is pretty great--the main forums can get a little intense, but on a site with writers I think that's to be expected. Groups are a great way to socialize with like minded people and avoid the general area if that's more your speed.
Also, there are policies in place to handle people who give poor critiques and don't follow the "pay it forward" mindset of the site. Some other reviews here criticize it, but in my experience, the moderators and owner do their best to be fair. It may seem a little harsh, but usually if you try to follow the rules you shouldn't have any problems.
The site is a lot to take in at first, and I think it could be improved with some site ambassadors who reach out to newcomers and help them learn the ropes of the site, maybe assist with or review their first couple of critiques.
Other than that, it's fantastic, and I highly recommend it.

I have been a member of Scribophile for several years. I received both great critiques and poor critiques (usually a new member). Still, I have made several friends on this site. I use both Scribophile to get a critique and then present the same information to my in-person critique group. It works out great.

Since I moved to a smaller town, I do not have an in person critique group, this is a great site. Critiquing others works is not drudgery and it helps me improve my own writing. Other writers, particularly some newbies enjoy my insights. Others have given me great insights into my own work.

The site can use some more prefessionality in it's critiquers. Checking spelling and grammar is good, but in rewrites, that is often thrown out. Sentence structures and information is changed. Reading previous chapters is helpful to understand what you are criticquing. I appreciate those that take the time to check my histoical references or adjectives.

Posting critiques is easy. Answering a few questions then copy and paste. I like Scribophile and hope critiquers take their suggestions more seriously since they are given karma points whitch are easy to accumulate. Karma points are a great way to get works read. I've had no problem acumulating points nor using them.

Hope to see more professional writers on here.