The whole shitstorm can be best found through metafandom (http://community.livejournal.com/metafandom/), but in short:
An all-male board of directors with no real ties to actual fandom sent form letters under fake (female) names, created fake accounts and otherwise tried to pretend to be part of the community, in order to attract writers for the site. Their PDF for a closely related business venture uses some remarkably condescending and offensive language (http://m2tv.typepad.com/m2tv/files/FanLib_info.pdf). The admitted business model of the site by all appearances is to profit off fanfiction (illegal) by, among other things, warping the layout so readers have to wade through as many ads as possible. The apparent real business to steal fanfic writer's work and use it as free writing for TV shows. Their TOS means they own the work posted and can redistribute it as they see fit, and if there's any lawsuit, it is entirely your fault. They seem oriented toward the mainstream media owners, to the point of basing their content guidelines around American TV and upping the rating of stories with unsettling themes (like gay men kissing) to adult, where it's hidden behind a filter.
Also, they're sexist asses who have treated the writers like trash and lied repeatedly, as well as tried to delete information when people called them on it and insinuated other people were falsifying information when it was impossible. For example, their initial signup asked for personal information. When called on it, they changed the interface and called the people complaining about it delusional. Later, they accused livejournal users of editing their replies - in the comments section.
And that's the short version.
The reason you're not getting good reviews is that virtually all writers wind up hearing about this mess and backing out - about half the LotR section has been taken down in the last few days. Although there are still a handful of decent writers there who are impressively optimistic and/or in severe denial, almost everyone left is a very new author who has no existing connections to the fancommunity, and so they haven't been warned off.
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Date: 2007-05-30 01:22 am (UTC)An all-male board of directors with no real ties to actual fandom sent form letters under fake (female) names, created fake accounts and otherwise tried to pretend to be part of the community, in order to attract writers for the site. Their PDF for a closely related business venture uses some remarkably condescending and offensive language (http://m2tv.typepad.com/m2tv/files/FanLib_info.pdf). The admitted business model of the site by all appearances is to profit off fanfiction (illegal) by, among other things, warping the layout so readers have to wade through as many ads as possible. The apparent real business to steal fanfic writer's work and use it as free writing for TV shows. Their TOS means they own the work posted and can redistribute it as they see fit, and if there's any lawsuit, it is entirely your fault. They seem oriented toward the mainstream media owners, to the point of basing their content guidelines around American TV and upping the rating of stories with unsettling themes (like gay men kissing) to adult, where it's hidden behind a filter.
Also, they're sexist asses who have treated the writers like trash and lied repeatedly, as well as tried to delete information when people called them on it and insinuated other people were falsifying information when it was impossible. For example, their initial signup asked for personal information. When called on it, they changed the interface and called the people complaining about it delusional. Later, they accused livejournal users of editing their replies - in the comments section.
And that's the short version.
The reason you're not getting good reviews is that virtually all writers wind up hearing about this mess and backing out - about half the LotR section has been taken down in the last few days. Although there are still a handful of decent writers there who are impressively optimistic and/or in severe denial, almost everyone left is a very new author who has no existing connections to the fancommunity, and so they haven't been warned off.