Sunday, April 4, 2010

Demise of Writers.Net

I have been a member of a forum, Writers.Net, http://www.writers.net/ for over a year. A little over a week ago, it disappeared.

Writers.net was formatted differently from all the other look-alike forums. I preferred the format and it was easy to use. Other than minor annoyances; there was no way to delete a post, spell-check it, or correct it after posting, I enjoyed that forum. There were writers and posters from all over the world. I miss talking and arguing with those people, a lot. What I learned about writing and the advice I received from many was invaluable.

It was originally created by NetConcepts. But then NetConcepts was sold to Covario. Once that happened, forum moderation - always a hit-or-miss probability - disappeared completely.

Now the forum itself has disappeared. Not that it was unlikely to happen, but Covario could have done the right thing and announced on the forum itself that they were taking it down. But no, they just took it away. Sounds like many other large, cares-only-about-the-big-bucks corporations, doesn't it?

9 comments:

  1. Hi Lea...I've been googling "Writers Net, Covario" for the past week and found you! Good to touch base with yet another baffled, what-looks-to-be "former" WNer. I was a member of that forum for over 4 years, fer god's sake!

    I sent an email to that Spencer person at his Covario address, but I suppose he's way too involved with his new honcho position to even answer my question: "Has Writers Net shut down for good?"

    Boy, do I ever agree with your last comment. I could do a hell-of-a-lot of cussin' about now, but I'd better not. For a fleeting moment I hoped they had been working their tails off trying to bring WN back to life, more wondrous and improved than ever before (i.e. an editing button, maybe). But as time goes by, I'm beginning to think the lot of them are nothing but a bunch of greedy SOBs. I said it, and I'm glad. :-)

    True, everything must end at some point, but....sheeeeeyet!

    Good to "see" you again, Lea.

    *_*

    ReplyDelete
  2. Writers.net is back up as of right this moment.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Good to see you too, Kitty. I saw that Writers.Net came back up, but now it's down again. I also e-mailed that Spencer guy, but never received a reply. Jerk!

    Have you tried the Facebook group? It's nice to keep in touch with some of the others, but it's not the same.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hey Lea, now that the joint is down again, I think it's time for you to take some serious action with that Mr. S. guy. YOU know what to do!

    (Yeah, that too. :-)

    *_*

    ReplyDelete
  5. Lea, dunno if you're reading this, but am sure you know the joint's been hacked for the umpteenth time. :-(

    However, it seems Stephan and I are ol' buddies now (har-har), as he did answer my latest plea for help. He says he's sorry there's nothing he can do, says he's still in negotiations with the Big C about buying the site, and hopes to have things resolved in a week or so. For what that's worth. Heard from him yesterday, I think it was.

    Yeah but once he maybe takes over, will HE be able to stop the sonsabitches from any further attacks? Sheesh, huh?

    *_*

    ReplyDelete
  6. I was a member there for years and when I tried to go there recently, it was showing as a malicious site.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Hiya Brady, I remember you.

    I was forever getting that malicious message (must say the cranberry color was pretty), but I see I now need to fill in some blanks in order to be granted a pass. Or condemned to wherever. It won't accept my user name or password though.

    "A username and password are being requested by http://www.writers.net. The site says: "WritersNet"

    What the....?

    *_*

    ReplyDelete
  8. Good lord, it's back (no password or other nonsense, I think that may have been a ruse to get your password).

    Of course, none of the posters are back...last messages are from June. I think it's done regardless of its active status.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Yeah, it's been "back" for weeks now, but for reading purposes only. The reason nobody has been posting is because we can't! A teeny-tiny red comment at the bottom of every thread claims some heavy-duty maintenance is going on. Yeah, huh? Anyway:

    "NOTE: The forum is in read-only mode while the site is undergoing maintenance. Posting is currently not allowed."

    *_*

    ReplyDelete