Sunday, March 7, 2010

Authonomy Reeks of Idiocy

All that nice-nice I wrote in "Autho-crack Farewell" forget it. 

I take it all back.

I am thoroughly disgusted with the antics of the trolls and the proliferation of fake identities (aka sock puppets).

The Harper Collins staff may surf the forums and laugh about the situation - but I'm tempted to go to another site's forum and spilled the beans.

I wonder how many hits I would get on - say - Facebook? Ahhh - there's a good place to start. I could route them here to get the hit count.

6 comments:

GeekBritannia said...

Totally agree. It has become a non-productive and aggressive place.

K. A. Jordan said...

Yes, it has. The snark grows, and the site is a disgrace.

Shannon said...

Ms Kitty, I totally understand how you are feeling and why you have left and I am coming to my own conclusions to do the same theing. My productivity is at zero, and I am spending too much time reading and reviewing for no visible payoff. My book hovers in the four hundreds as spammers and cheaters pass me by. I won't cheat, and you can't keep up without cheating.

I get maybe one critical comment in 20 backings. And the quality of those comments... well can you really take an opinion seriously from someone whose education, credentials, and writing experience you know nothing about? Should you really give serious thought to advice given from people who admittedly would not buy your style/genre of book in a book store?

I am not someone who believes or holds with any kind of censorship. I think HC regulating too much would destroy the site. That being said, there is an incredible amount of ego driven crap that is distracting, and getting worse everyday. The number of people misbehaving, is growing. I tend to stick to myself and ignore most of it, but the site is not bringing out the best in me.

I think all things considered you have made the right decision. I think I will be making a similar decision shortly. A part of me is clinging to the positive aspects, and the possibility of discovery and success. But I think I need to pull the plug too.

K. A. Jordan said...

Shannon - I understand - my word count was nothing, and my frustration was off the scale. I wasn't a target, I did feel sorry for those who were.

My books stalled around 1000.

What I've found is that I get better, and much more useful feedback from other writers on the blogs. I've had two beta readers give me better feedback in the last month than I've had in a year on Authonomy.

The comment I got the most from Authonomy started out: "I hate romance..." Sometimes they were nice, and sometimes they were nasty about the fact that I write romance.

I developed a real attitude, which made returning reads even more frustrating. One genre is not 'inherently superior' to another. Just because I'm not trying to write the 'Great American Novel' doesn't mean that I can't write a good story.

I don't think that tracking IP addresses is censorship. I don't think that having a forum monitor is censorship.

Forward Motion didn't have any of the issues Authonomy has - but they ARE geared to protect and nourish the beginning writer - and the under-age writer.

What genre do you write?

Sangay Glass said...

Yeah, I'm done. But it is fun to watch. I'd never recommend as a site to get published. It's a race.

I have no real regrets. I got some useful comments. I learned the difference between fiction and non-fiction editing. And it never hurts to learn to self-edit.

K. A. Jordan said...

Yesterday my account was deleted.

This morning I wrote 1.5k, a record for the last two months. Also I sat down and wrote another 500 words.

I did go back to peak. And they were at war, again, still, yet?

Frak 'em.

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