Today we want to share this message we received just recently from a new blog reader.  It illustrates well the perspective of someone being introduced to the bullies’ behavior for the first time, coming in from a neutral viewpoint.  This new blog reader makes some very insightful remarks about the bullies.  We thought our regular readers would appreciate them:

How I got to this website is an interesting story. I was on GR looking
for upcoming reads when I stumbled upon “A Winner’s Curse” by Marie
Rutkoski. The first review was Steph S. with a gushing review. I
clicked her profile to see that she was actually a co-founder of a
blog. I go to her blog to see if she had more information pertaining
to the novel, but instead I came across the “How to Trick Bloggers
Into Reading Your Book.” Needless to say, the drama was rather
shocking and so I went to the accused party’s, Judyann McCole, website
to hear her side of the story. It actually sounded legit. I then found
[redacted], which eventually lead me to here.

I do have a GR account, but I’ve always been a lurker. I read the reviews
before I buy the books. However, I’ve always noticed two things: if
the popular bullies reviewed a story with 5 stars then they were at
the top of the list. If the popular bullies reviewed a story with 1 or
2 stars, they were at the top of the list. Not only that, but the
negative reviews weren’t constructive reviews. They attacked the
author’s work and the author’s personal character. And yet, these
“reviews” had likes and comments supporting them. It’s a rather
disgusting sight.

I am an [redacted] aspiring author with a little ways to go to reach
a big dream. However, to see these people ATTACK and try to DESTROY
the careers and futures of new authors or indie authors is absolutely
heartbreaking. In addition, the fact that GR lets this happen and
people accept this as a way of life is disturbing on so many levels.
I fear that if my book gets published, will they attack me too?

I also have an AW account, but I stick to the [redacted] forum and the
[redacted] forum. And there is never any drama in those particular forums. I
used to explore the rest of the website, but I saw the drama and the
cliques and decided to stay where I knew I wouldn’t have to deal with
that. However, having reading AW’s role, it makes me very discouraged
to keep going to the website.

All in all, I wanted to say that I am glad that I came across this
site and the valuable information with it. I’ve literally spent the
whole day going through all of the posts in absolute shock about how
all of these sites and bullying are interconnected. I believe in the
motto of innocent before proven guilty, however, this website takes no
prisoners and lays everything with LEGIT EVIDENCE, as opposed to
altered and tapered lies.

We’d like to thank our new reader for allowing us to share this message.