Writing Forums

This site needs to be banned! For all the toxic obstacles it has installed on its users by 6 male misogynist $#*!s! Moderators. Who pick to pieces your statements. What a bunch of bastards doing this control certificate coerced violences. Police should investigate them.

Regards billionaire JJ.

Was posting to this site and found the community very cliquely. There was one poster (maybe an Admin) or certainly one that had been on the site since the Stone Age, commented on every SINGLE post negatively. Rest of them were too high and mighty. There are better sites out there. I closed my account.

This is a small core of self-published writers whose books aren't doing too well on Amazon and need an ego boost. Around half of their new members appear briefly to make a sock puppet-y remark, and in their vanity they think their writing skills let them hide it. The other half doesn't stick around long. It's the blind leading the blind.

The main admin, though, makes the rules up as he goes along and it's always in the old members' favour. It isn't a busy site, and he eventually turns up on every thread to stop the old members from having their feelings hurt, or from looking unhelpful/bullying/whatever. He openly piles in with them to hijack new members' threads or bully people. The site's rules apply to you not to them.

I've been using this website for just over a month but I won't anymore. It seems like a very critical place, and not in the constructive criticism way. I personally have only posted a few messages in forums and haven't been picked on, but reading around, you are likely to get shot down if you do anything they consider wrong.

I've read teenage writers posting for the first time and getting the Simon Cowell treatment from other users, including mods. And this isn't for their writing, but for questions they ask in forums. I know newbies are annoying when they make errors, but I think human beings should still treat each other with respect.

Because I decided I wouldn't be using the site anymore, I went to delete my account, only to find that you can't. I also can't delete the three posts I've posted in forums. I would not recommend this site, I wish I had never joined.

The first thing you need to know is that they don't really want you there. It takes a while to discover it but it is very cliquish. The old members really only want to talk to each other so one wonders why they even have a public forum. I suspect the moderators have multiple identities so they can stir up trouble anonymously in threads. Then when you report wrong doing you get blamed and the perpretators go free. But there shouldn't be this sort of hostile environment in the first place. I just wanted a place to meet fellow writers. It's full of novice writers that really don't know what they are talking about so the advice is really suspect. So if you are looking for a relaxed atmosphere to make friends this place is not for you.

The forum mods are pretty much on a power trip and come off as a clique-y, little boys club, with a us-vs-them mentality to members... and as such - unwelcoming. Big Soft Moose especially. He claims he's enlightened and fair, but has literally been on banhammer rampages that culled 20+ people at a time (The forum users at the time even called it "The Great Purge") He has also, in the past, openly told off everyone in "The Lounge" boards for even using it because it was getting more usage than the workshop boards. Apparently, forum members must spend certain amounts of their time on boards he deems they should be using the most. (Screenshot Included!) That's the type of personality you'd be dealing with here.
Then, he waxes lyrical in threads about how amazingly level-headed and fair he is, and seems to think the people he bans (me not being one of them, I'm still in good standing) are all to blame and he's the world's most perfect Administrator. It's really quite funny to watch his ego roam around, lacking in self-awareness, thinking that everyone he bans hates him and the current members don't.
Honestly, if you want a chilled, relaxed forum to talk about or aid in your writing, there are far better places with less drama llama mods hanging over your head.
This place is becoming increasingly irrelevant.

I'm a writer. I know, that's so hard to visualize. I go to two writing groups every week. I discuss my writing and other people's writing and we help each other improve.

Therefore I believed that joining forums that have mainly writers would be a great idea. I've written a review of another writer forum before and just like that one WritingForums.org is not a terrible place if you're looking for advice or help on writing. It is a terrible place if you're looking for personalities or acceptance for you different point of view.

Reminds me of this: Amis's Advice - Go ahead and be different--if you think you can stand the beating you'll get.

I can stand the beating. The problem is that other people cannot stand the beating, even if they're in the majority. This is why I rated the website low. Writers should have thick skin. They should be able to take beatings for what they believe, especially when the beatings are words. It's like someone who is in marital arts whining about being touched. If you can't formulate words to defend your ideas, then what kind of writer are you... really?

WritingForums.org is only good for writing advice. It is not good if you think any differently than them. The mods cannot handle it. The owner does not stand for it. They also will blame you for other people's reactions. Apparently writers are not in charge of their own emotions.

Pathetic.

It's a community of authors in all genres. Ok, a word to the wise, if you're after someone to rave about your work, then you're in for a rude shock; most members are willing to share their experience and thoughts about other people's work but they don't pull their punches. The idea is to get you thinking critically about writing.

My first submission was met with a particularly brutally honest and comprehensive review. After leaving it for a couple of days so I could calm down, I went back and re-read the critique. It was actually brilliantly insightful and helped me grow rapidly as an author.

Reading other people's works also helps to hone in on the things that work and, often, those things that don't.

I see a few negative reviews here complaining that people were rude. If I put up a work for critique, I would rather get back an honest review than someone trying to mollycoddle me and tell me that my work is the best thing ever, when clearly it's not.

If you're willing to take part in reviews and the competitions and aren't afraid of getting brutally honest critiques, then this is the forum for you! You'll quickly grow as an author in both skills and experience.

Ah this forum is okay. If you want to learn nothing. I have been on for a long while but by the first month really haven't paid it any attention...

As another commenter said, a number of the people are RUDE. They seem to have no patience for newbies or inexperienced people which such forums are designed for, to help individuals that are less experienced. If not it should be a closed forum...

Another aspect is many of them really don't know what they are talking about. Or they bully you into conforming into their ideas of what is right and what is wrong. Essentially someone with a large amount of posts will comment negatively on your post and due to the bandwagon aspect they will all say the same thing. Not an individual thought among them. Shame is regarding these ringleaders / bullies obviously their mothers never taught them it is the QUALITY not the QUANTITY of one's responses that count... I mean it is quite amusing as a poet who has submitted and won at various poetry competitions, not just merely self-published as 95% of the people are on these forums, to be told by people who do okay [if one likes what is mostly disjointed ramblings] poetry that my poetry is "wrong"...

Don't get me started on the writing. I joined because I've been lagging on my writing for years, thinking maybe joining a forum would be a kick in the behind to start again. Well the writing. Some is good. Most of it though is the bandwagon aspect again. Those with large post count get reviewed, oftentimes favorably, while newbies & less seen members are either widely ignored or get more negative reviews...

Really when you get down to it, the forum is just talentless people trying to boost their confidence into believe they have talent.