WritersCafe.org

WritersCafe.org has major privacy and security flaws, not to mention numerous other broken and outdated elements.

Once I created an account, I received an activation link, which when tapped logged me straight into someone else's account! I was able to see their full name, email address, all their personal details! Maybe this was a mess that could have understandably occurred in 1999, but this is absolutely shameful to see in 2023.

I would not trust my data with this website AT ALL. All I did was make an account like normal to post my poetry, tapped the activation link received via email, and it took me right into the other person's account who doesn't even realize their account was breached and personal data compromised. I logged out of his account, then logged into mine under my email and password and immediately closed it.

I messaged the admin/moderators to advise them of the incredibly easily achieved privacy and security breaches, and offered to provide screenshots and the original activation link to assist with fixing this major flaw, but have received no response. Extremely poor and utterly careless. User data should be an absolute priority.

Additionally, the website itself is a broken mess so I'm not surprised this happened, e.g. showing links for 'Sign Up' literally above 'Logout' when I'm not logged in, which of course makes zero sense as one cannot exist with the other.
The registration page is also badly formatted, meaning on a smartphone screen the text is jumbled together in a vertical string of letters, requiring you to turn your phone landscape to simply make it somewhat readable, and even then some letters are still jumbled vertically. The site is just an archaic mess that doesn't seem to have been updated for a decade or two.

Honestly, avoid this website at all costs and use other more modern and secure poetry websites. Your personal details could be viewed by ANYONE and could lead to your identity being stolen, fraud, spam, etc which can cause a lifetime of life-changing and immensely stressful problems. Not worth it. Just avoid.

I returned to the site after a break to gain relief from the most troublesome troll David Demmers, aka KT Little. He still roams the site at will. The site is flunky and crashes often as you try to post reviews or reply to them. Recently the moderators who have not acted for years against serious issues (and I mean serious such as cloning my pages and sending out vile content, allowing one character called to post vile photographs etc). Suddenly I find my account closed by the moderators with no explanation and having done nothing wrong. The site seems to simply harvest revenue from advertising.

I started a book project on the site. When I typed in my first chapter I clicked on "Save." The screen flickered as if responding, but the editing view remained the same. When I navigated to "manage writing" and looked at my project again there were no chapters at all. Thinking I had missed something, I repeated the whole process very carefully. Same result. However, I had just entered a chapter on a similar site and it went perfectly. At that point I decided to get off Writers Cafe.

I deleted my work (i.e., title and cover page). That part did work. But then I found the link to close my account. I clicked on it and was given another page with a box to leave a message and another button to go ahead and close the account. I did both. But it did not log me out or give me any indication that my account was deleted. I logged out, and then tried to log in. My account was still active. I repeated that process a second time, with the same result. I then used a site link to send a curt message demanding that they delete my account. But even though they have my email, I've heard nothing back.

Website have so many bad sides. Technical state of website need really up date. Too often get frozen and you have to log again. But main problem is too many bullies and even your report them they accounts are still open. They use it profanity words and try to put you down. They can also blame you from plagiarism and they don't give proof of it. And again your report them nothing happen. I can say after this experience I am done with any websites. It's seems at this days it's full of miserable people who can just make them self happy when they hurt someone and make you leave. True is moderators don't care but other writers don't care neither. Even they are your friends. Quiet sad. I just hope this bullies will don't get worst cause it's quiet intense and nobody cares.

The format is good but the politics is discouraging. The site is dominated by mostly retired, obscure people with little writing ability who indulge in a lot of behind the scenes mailing and form cliques and circles. This leads to a lot of mutual backslapping among them to the exclusion of those who do not indulge in such networking and social hobnobbing. As a result, talented and sincere writers often get embittered and leave. The site has lost a lot of traffic and membership due to these reasons.

Lololololo...as a cafe clown is known to say! Poor $#*!y Jenkins, pervert Emeritus! Rides to the rescue of his wayward 'poet' folk! You know that saying about how the truth hurts? Well, Poor $#*!y Jenkins has been outed for the closet pervert he really is! The simple fact is thus: Any female that joins this writing site bearing an avatar of any youthful semblance, is immediately accosted by this Richard Jenkins, who promptly plumps his $#*! on their writing pages and sneakily, in their private mailboxes. And why? To offer them his 'services' as a teacher of poetry, of course! *wink, wink*! Which, by the way, he'll happily come running to teach you if you are stupid enough to fall for his fake persona and 'charms'! And this from a total $#*! that thinks he is a Laureate of poetry simply because he writes, airheaded, pointless, boring, dull, soulless form poetry in...wait for it, wait for it...forms to WHICH HE MAKES UP ALL THE RULES! Now isn't that genius! Let's make up the rules of a brand new poetry form and show how good we are to all the babes! You see? Any idiot can look like a Poet Laureate when they are making up forms and the rules for such forms! And this is $#*!y Jenkins in a nutshell. An overweight, aged, online Casanova trying to seduce young women with poetry forms of his own creation...but only to teach them, of course! Lololololo. If you join this website, immediately block this $#*! of a man before he squats all over your personal page and tries to lure you into his clutches. So many, many, many, many young females have left this writing site, primarily because of the perverted, unwanted, puke inducing attention of this man. But of course, he'll deny. Don't even Catholic priests charged with sexual crimes do the same? He has been the subject of online investigation for the past three years in which the results are in the process of being collated, upon which they will be submitted to Federal Police for deeper investigation and criminal charges. We now live in a world, real and online, where women deserve to be protected and free of sexual predation. So the truth shall set us free. Richard Jenkins, Ladies and Gentlemen. Avoid him at all costs.

Don't put too much trust into people whom you grow close to on the internet- they could hack into your profile and never return it to you. I didn't create another account because I felt that I was too "well-known" in the "WritersCafe" community. I don't want to come back because on WRITERSCAFE- it might as well be a WAR. Writers are not friendly with each other, trust me. You'll only get hurt.

I joined Writer'sCafe about a week ago and dumped about 20 stories and several books into their system. The other day I was browsing through my work and found they had blotted out the word 'bastard' from one of my titles. The fact that some yahoo in the backroom didn't like that word was the first red flag. The fact they didn't have the courtesy to contact me was the second red flag. I was stunned that they would do something like that. I didn't wait for the third red flag, I erased all my work, took my profile down and got the hell out of there.

Cant get a hold of the web admin to help close my account. I have a picture that keeps showing up on Google that I dont want to appear in the searches

Subpar writers who don't understand the craft enough to give helpful critiques. A lot of ego stroking that leads to more lousy and sloppy work from others. There are some legit writers on this site, but for some reason... they choose not to give their wisdom.

Thanks to tklittle (david demmers) area code 303''''' the sooner he and wc are dealt with mercilessly and permanently the better. Steve

I've never used the website because I disagree with the Terms of Service:

Content Submitted or Made Available For Inclusion on The Service

Aresta Enterprise does not claim ownership of Content you submit or make available for inclusion on the Service. However, with respect to Content you submit or make available for via the Service, you grant Aresta Enterprise a perpetual, irrevocable, world-wide, royalty free and non-exclusive license to use, distribute, reproduce, modify and publicly display such Content on the Service.

You will be responsible for, and indemnify and hold harmless Aresta Enterprise, against any claim arising from any content that you submit or make available for inclusion on the Service.

So, basically, you still technically own the copyright, but you allow them the irrevocable right to use your work forever. It sounds scary to me. Unless someone buys the rights, I'm not giving them the right to use my work forever.

Aside from being a very poorly run site full of flakey webmasters and moderators, this is a bad site to belong to for any aspiring writer. At one time, it may have been trying to be something great for new writers' exposure - like SoundCloud or Bandcamp for musicians. But it is clear now from the abundance of scam literary journal requests that this is nothing more than a slightly more sophisticated version of poetry.com. It's a shame how so many websites aimed to help new writers devolve into this pathetic scam for paid compilations. If you're new to the scam, it goes like this...

I want to publish you in a new, beautifully bound, literary journal. All you have to do is buy the book!

See what I did there? For all new writers looking for resources online, I wish I could be of more help. Writerscafe.org might help you feel better about yourself for a little while, and perhaps you'll make a friend or two, but ultimately if you want to take this seriously, this site will cause more harm to your reputation than good.

I have found writerscafe.org to be a very difficult site to access, because a lot of the time it is offline. Also, there seem to be very few members, and most of the work submitted by writers remains with no reviews or comments, even when they have been published on the site for a number of years. If you are a writer and would like to receive reviews for your work, then this site is not for you.