Since
StJoan asked me to send her some relevant details about these spam-scams ( so we hopefully get a Hot Topic put out about it) and vanity publishing rorts, I thought I'd share with you the info I'm sending:
Important Issues Surrounding Competition Spam-- Content of messages often involve high and enthusiastic praise: “I LOVE YOU!” or “I think you are a genius” or “I simply adore your photography/art/poetry”, followed by “And I think you could win this competition - $10,000! ”, with a link to a company.
-- These messages go out to all parts of the dA community. The same company has various branches that spam to photographers, artists and writers.
-- These people are NOT members of the dA community, but people paid to log in and either spam people by note or on their front pages. Often they are paid to activate a spam-bot, which can spam up to 500 people a minute, and hide all the negative comments about their spamming.
-- These competitions are highly suspect, and ALL of the companies spamming by message or note on dA are listed with genuine publications and writer’s resource groups as being unfair to writers and artists, poor value for what you pay to be published with them, or plain rip-offs.
-- The companies spamming dA do not even read literature or look at any art. It has been documented and proven that they’ll accept and publish a shopping list, if you pay them to do so. They do not care about anyone’s art, they just want to make money.
-- These publications ONLY sell to other people who’ve paid to be published. No matter what lies they spin in their ads, it’s also documented that distribution of books goes only to other people who are paying contributor’s fees. You have to PAY for a bio to be included in a book, and PAY for your poem or picture to be on its own page, and PAY for your contributor’s copy.
-- EVERYONE who submits automatically becomes a “finalist” in these competitions, no matter what you submit, no matter what the quality is. It is a way to keep you hooked while they throw offers to part with your money at you.
-- Not only that, but once they get your e-mail, they continue to spam you forever with offers to give them more money for “extras” -- asking you to pay for awards, attend ceremonies, have your work put on tea-towels and other products. The “award ceremonies” are really shoddy and cost a lot to attend, and all of that money is kept by the company. You pay your own fare and accomodation, or are provided with very bad and cheap accomodation while they sell you your “medal” or " plaque”.
--
Being published with these companies can actually damage your career. They are so well-known as publishers of ridiculously bad work that listing them as a credit in your bio is guaranteed to make any genuine editor or publisher laugh.-- These are just some of the reasons that it’s important to do as much as possible to inform dA members as to the nature of these companies.
-- It is also important that the distinction between the spammers and genuine dA-member’s comps is made. People should check out the page-- the spammers have no art up, are very often brand new members ( though now they are using older accounts), and other indications that they are not genuine members. This is another reason why it’s important to leave comments visible, or at the least a special “spammer” banned message, so people know how to identify them.
Some relevant articles on vanity publishers and their competitions, and links relevant in particular to several companies that regularly mass-spam dA members:
:VANITY PUBLISHING:
ezinearticles.com/?Publishing-… press-publisher-profiles.suite…
FOR WRITERS:
This site is just great, and should be cited as a resource for writers:
www.writing-world.com/rights/c…This also:
www.eliteskills.com/writing_sc…
CONTESTS TO AVOID: www.winningwriters.com/contest…Other writer’s info:
The 20/20 report on poetry.com:
windpub.com/literary.scams/abc…windpub.com/literary.scams/ilp… www.sfwa.org/writing/anti-scam…
YOU MUST READ THIS AND LOL : www.winningwriters.com/contest…www.thediamondangle.com/~taylo…
PHOTOGRAPHY: This is a great link:
www.todays-woman.net/poetry-sc…Some happy customers of Picture.com (a.k.a.The International Library of Photography, sister company to Poetry.com):
www.acecam.com/photography/110…www.cbc.ca/consumers/market/fi… www.photoethnography.com/blog/… www.betterphoto.com/forms/QnAd…READ THESE LINKS.
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Back to the regular program:
Poetry.com are at it again, this time having reverted back to spamming user-pages with cheery notes stating how WONDERFUL one's poetry is, and how YOU could win a big prize, etc.
I camped out on one of thier pages yesterday,
jessicamadison, an employee of the company who used a bot to spam -- get this---
11,000 members in under an hour. This asshole was hiding derogatory comments on the spam/scam, and even made a direct attack on my character ( nothing new, but from these assholes, the lulz just get better ).
Ok, dA admin have implemented a lot of stuff to help in reporting spam. But I have suggested this several times, with no feedback at all as to why it isn't possible:
ADMIN, LEAVE THE USER-COMMENTS VISIBLE ON THE PAGE, OR POST A "BANNED FOR SPAMMING" WARNING THERE. For fuck's sake, something to let those 11000 people spammed ( and that's just one of their possibly thousands of 'sleeper" accounts, there's been a lot already banned) KNOW that this company is a rip-off.Or some of 'em are just gonna click the link, you know? There's a lot of very young people on this site, and it pisses me off to see them getting sucked into these crap money-making scams, mainly for the damage it does to their confidence as writers when they realise it was all lies, and the money it's gonna cost them, too.
I think dA has a responsibility not just to ensure these younger members aren't spammed, but to inform them in as many ways as possible that they are at risk of being rorted. Leaving a warning, or the comments from angry users, which often contain great info on Poetry.com's dishonesty, will mean that when those 11k kids click on the page, they'll see what it's really about.
As usual, this will probably be ignored. My capacity for giving a crap about the Literature Community in general is at critical levels, but this is one area where I'm not going to allow my HORRIBLE JADED ELITIST NEGATIVE BITTER DRAMA-SOAKED SELF to put up and shut up.
Why? Because I am an adult, who cares about kids, that's why.
Admin-preferred persons are welcome to take this issue up, make it a huge deal, make the suggestion and get sucked off for "thinking of it", and I won't make a peep, promise.
I don't care, just SOMEBODY do something.
PS: I SPY judges will recieve thier lists of all valid entries in a few hours.
Thanks all, who entered. And good luck.
