I have been a member of FanStory since 2012, and honestly, it's the quality of reviews that is one of my biggest complaints.

a) anyone can review, knowledgeable or not, yet unless it is to teach, one must be extremely careful how one responds to a review -- it can easily be interpreted as 'defending our work' -- 'defending' is not allowed.

How is anyone supposed to know/learn? If your writing skills are not perfect, but you do know the reviewer is wrong, how you answer can be costly for you = banned.  Yet we pay for membership. That hardly seems to meet the standards for fair business practices/ethics, does it? 

 

But I have dealt with the public long enough to know why the rule was established.

b) I am all for making cyber friends with other Fanstorians -- I have many, even ones who left FanStory long ago -- but being 'friends' should not affect contest wins, ratings, etcetera. How is that helping anyone improve his or her writing skills? Even so-called 'blind' entries are seldom completely anonymous. This isn't a dating site, it isn't a 'social site' (or wasn't when I joined). It was, and is, advertised as a writing site, yet the only true anonymity is that of the judging committee (for site contests and other alleged 'benefits', like who will receive a "Quality Seal" and so on).

 

I do understand -- it makes the job a lot easier when there are no challenges to decisions, right?

But worse, the wildly varying forms of cheating continue. I have to ask, does this tampering with my account ever stop? (I know others have complained that they're having issues too.) What do I mean? Why, simply bump the date on one or two of my postings to the next day and maybe I won't notice right away and my ranking will drop. So, too, will my ability to post two essays a day, as the system will be triggered to say 'You have posted two already today" – when I have only posted one that day... 

 

This is the kind of thing that caused me to stop bothering with participation as a member years ago, and only use the site as it benefits me elsewhere. Denial, denial, and denial, pretty much anytime I contacted management, even with proof, taught me not to waste my time, at least over most problems on the FanStory site.

The irony now is that I used to make fun of the ranking race. I truly did not care, even when I won in 2019 first place for "short works".

But this year I thought, heck, I have the time, why not – I have a lot to say, and maybe there has finally been a change of heart. Nope. Once again I have proof, as I did the first time I tried to say someone had cheated -- changed the rating she assigned work of mine in a contest she had also entered. (She lowered it twice – a contest I won regardless.) (Her review was horrible -- besides being inaccurate, it bordered being insulting while the rest of the reviews were glowing.)

 

She was hired to teach a class within two weeks of my report.

Here's my proof this time (that the dates I posted my essays here have been changed) -- I post my work elsewhere first now religiously, before copying it to post onto FanStory. So, I know beyond a shadow of a doubt when I wrote them and when posted them here. And I am certainly able to read a clock – midnight is midnight on my laptop, my wall, and the site's system. LOL!

So, question -- am I going to try, yet again, to be treated with dignity and respect as a paying member? Please. Nope. What I am going to do is this: whoever feels the need to continue to cheat me, to tamper with my account (which Tom insists is not possible), you have my sympathy and my prayers. I forgive you. It was never as important to me as it is to you.