I'm just gonna rant for a second, don't mind me

Can we not do better?

Have we become the problem?

It’s crazy to ask that question considering that many people on this site are full of encouragement and genuine desire to help each other get better.

This site is not what it once was. The community has shrunk and it’s now unsupervised (or sure feels like it). Spam accounts frequently take over the new writing page, harassers run rampant, and the groups and contests are practically non existent. And still, there are those of us who stick around. Still there are those who don’t give up on this site and try to keep up at least a semblance of the community it once was. 

But we have a bigger problem. There is one particular reviewer who under the guise of being “helpful” and “educational” and “an expert”, regularly rips apart new or less popular writers.

This person regularly states opinions (and they are opinions although he calls them facts) such as “no one woke up this morning and cared about what you felt” and “this is not the correct way to write poetry/fiction”. I’m open to anyone’s opinions on my work, but I’m also not brand new and have enough other people review my stuff that it doesn’t matter to me. But imagine, you’re a new writer (either to this site or overall) and you put up something that you’re proud of, and it gets one review that tells you “you suck”. And that’s it. 

Because what he’s doing is intentional. There’s a reason he’s not reviewing the “popular writing” with his expert opinions. 

This site might not be what it was, but it is guaranteed to never even get close to that again if new people have to run a gauntlet to even get in.

Reviews

[Ookpik]

So it goes Green, it's a strange website with a long list of flaws.

I agree with John below, and read your response. The 'review for a review' phenomena is primarily why I have reviews disabled - I've seen that those who review constantly, especially with praise, have a tendency to be reviewed in turn and usually learn fairly quickly that it's a fast way to make the home page.

My problem with that, is that this attention can sometimes go to their heads and they can get testy with those that threaten their sense of status.

I think Jay was once one of these types, though I may be wrong there.

I've seen also, that there are those who've learned that they can create as many accounts as they want - they can inflate their primary account with reviews they write themselves and, again, get featured on the front page faster.

When I asked myself why they'd go to these lengths, or why they'd spend so much time ambushing new or seemingly unequipped authors, I concluded that it had to do with status, or at least the perception of it.

Anyways, the block button is always there, and my advice is to not let this site occupy your head rent free. Focus on the positives that it brings you, and hopefully they ought to become more pronounced.

Best of luck,

-Ook

[Green]

Yeah, I know you're probably right. Honestly he doesn't usually bother me that much. People only have the power over you that you give them and it's not worth it to give it to people who chose to act like that. But I also inherited what my mom calls "an enlarged sense of justice" from my dad and sometimes, that really gets me going.
I feel like there is a bit of responsibility on some of us (myself included) contributing to this phenomena. Yes, what he's doing is wrong but he sticks out for more than just the fact that he's a jerk. He's also one of the only people who provides anything other than an echo chamber of "yas queen, this is amazing". I think the positivity is great, but is there really never anything we could point out to help someone improve. Like I said, I struggle with this too so I'm not over here trying to point fingers. It's hard to criticize something personal especially when it might just not be your thing, but I've been personally trying to do better recently. At the very least, I hope my reviews provide a little more commentary than just mindless praise with the expectation of more in return.

[Ookpik]

You've got it, there's only the power you give to your antagonizers and in that we have some armor. Nothing wrong with a sense of justice either, it makes me smile to hear and I think there's some good that comes from conversations like these.

I agree too, positivity is excellent but when it becomes a social tool I find myself heading for the hills. I'm hardly perfect myself, but I agree that constructive comments and comprehensive commentary carry more meaning than group enabling or constant validation.

It reminds me a bit of the suburbs when I see it - cliquey and exclusive - but the other side of it is the wild west: quick wits, quick draws and everybody seems to be carrying.

Anyways, a weird place, but I've seen writers improve here and I'm certain it has enough good qualities to be worth putting up with the bad ones.

[Davidgeo]

Ookpik is wise.

[Thomas W Case]

I feel bad seeing a review that rips someone's writing apart. It's not constructive and is cruel, whatever happened to Constructive criticism? The world is so fucked up, kindness is nice or the adage, if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. I'm grateful I found this site.

[Green]

Me to. I have enjoyed my time on here even though it tends to be sporadic over the last several years. I intentionally avoided naming said person because I don't think they deserve that much credit, and hopefully you continue not having to know who they are.

[Thomas W Case]

I hope so. We, as artists, are a sensitive lot. There isn't time for cruelty. I'm a professional writer and I find something nice to say about everything I review. Treat others as I would want to be treated. I've run into a******s on other sites, I usually laugh, because they seem so selfish and idiotic. Maybe bored. I usually end up blocking them.

[Relic]

Yeah, he's a great source of knowledge and he's helped me in the past including recently. But I have noticed he's been ambushing unsuspecting writers lately. I don't know his motives, but if people don't like him they can always block him, I suppose.

[Relic]

Forgot to mention I feel the same about the spam accounts and the lack of any owner or mod on site. The site certainly has changed over the years, and not for the better in some cases.

[Green]

I'm sure he can be a great source of knowledge and if that happens to be helpful to a person then I think it's great that they should connect. The idea that the only right way to write is whatever way he decides isn't generally helpful, and at the very least there are nicer ways to say things than how he chooses. His behavior is not a recent change either. As John the Baptist noted below, he's been up to this for years. On a site that has essentially been left to run itself with no moderation, I think we should just do a little better than "well I guess you can just block him". I don't personally like to use blocking as a first choice. Nothing ever gets resolved by blocking people you disagree with and it removes all discussion and any possibility of improvement in relations. I'm also more concerned about those "unsuspecting writers" than the majority of us. They are primarily new and unreviewed and he very much is ambushing them and being hateful. Sure they can just block him like anyone else, but it's much more likely that they'll just leave the site and the cafe will continue to stagnate.

[Green]

Personally, I know that he recently decided to drop by my little area of the cafe. I did not appreciate his review but he had a right to his opinion so I was just going to let it stand. It became an issue when other people decided to speak up about it, and he then turned around and started attacking them in the comments. I can handle whatever he wants to say to me, but using my platform as an opportunity to just be mean and not even under the guise of "helping someone's writing" is inexcusable.

[Relic]

Totally understandable. In my experience, talking things out never worked on sites like this. People seem to have their own opinions about the way they do things and remain in thier tracks unmoved. That's why I mentioned the blocking. Besides, there's no one here to moderate like some other sites. The owner collects the money and leaves us on our own unless someone contacts him that he knows, apparently.

[Green]

Ha, well that's good to know. I thought we'd just been abandoned entirely. I have actually blocked him at this point (although it's still not my preference) because it was the only way I could get him to stop going after my friends. I am genuinely glad that he can be of some help to you if you don't mind him. I just wish he could be that way more often. To hear him talk, he's been everything including God at one point or another and he could certainly be a mentor for especially the younger ones of us around here.

[Relic]

I recall giving a young girl a message about a typo. The next thing I knew there was a group she formed against me, haha The people in the group started to abandon ship when what she was saying wasn't adding up. That's why I'll never try to help anyone young again. Some are really defensive to a fault. Nope, not for me. lol

[John the Baptist]

I know who you are talking about. He's been around for years, has apparently appointed himself editor in chief of w/c. The poor soul tries to boost his wretched ego by tearing down the work of others under the guise of help. I would advise those who have been victimized to ignore him and let him go his way. He probably needs to do this.

[Green]

Yeah unfortunately I have known him to be around for a while but maybe I was just less active than I am now but I see him a lot more than I used to. I definitely agree that the majority of people should just ignore him. Part of my frustration is that I don’t have a good answer. I don’t think everyone blocking him (even if that could even be arranged) would work because that would only further isolate new people for him to target. I know commenting doesn’t work because he just attacks them instead. I’ve just seen a lot of “a review for a review” lately and I think it’s largely part of the problem. New people come to the site and they don’t know about this rule because it technically isn’t a rule. They never get any reviews from the people who review constantly and are positive because they haven’t reviewed their work yet. And then this jerk comes along and tells them that should basically quit now because they’re the worst he’s ever seen. He never says anything nice about a work. He never says he likes something. It’s always negative and it just feels like we’re letting it happen to a certain extent.

[Thomas W Case]

I haven't come across him yet.