Cowriter Beware: Posting Guidelines
We feel that collaborative writers, our members and otherwise, should be aware of people that could pose as a problem to others in a writing community. If you are posting a beware you absolutely must read this post to the very end. Posts made solely to bash other writers will not be tolerated in any way and doing so will result in banning from the community. It is important to realize that bewares should only be posted based on a serious concern of the integrity of another writer that you have had a past experience with, not grudges or personal dislike.
If you have been posted under a beware, you are welcome to post a comment in the beware's entry with your side of the story but, please, keep it civil.
Bewares are for...
- Cowriters who have stolen your work.
- Cowriters who have legitimately stalked, harassed, or threatened you.
- Cowriters who delete public posts of your collaborative work without discussing it with you beforehand and who also do not respond to your attempts at contact.
- Cowriters who absolutely refuse to work as a partnership (ie. my way or the highway) and have ignored attempts to resolve the issue privately.
Bewares are NOT for...- Partnerships that didn't work for personal reasons.
- Partnerships that didn't work out due to creative differences.
- Cowriters you "just didn't like," or cowriters who "seemed weird," etc.
- False accusations, shit talk, or defamation.
- Issues that have not been attempted to be handled privately.
When posting a beware...- Do not post your cowriter's real life information in ANY way. Only public online accounts such as Livejournal are permitted. If the project was for fanfiction you may give a list of fandoms the cowriter would be likely to be found in.
- Try to distance yourself as much as possible from your post and look at what happened as a third party. We understand how it feels to be burned, and we don't expect you to be a robot, but using every name in the book to describe the cowriter in question while explaining what happened will not be tolerated.
- If you are unsure about your beware's contents, please feel free to comment and ask before you post it!
- If you want your post submitted anonymously, you may leave it in an anon comment on this page and we will post it for you. If you want any formatting in your post, be sure it's already done and put it in a textbox. Posting anonymously, however, is discouraged as it takes away a certain level of credibility.
- Please tag your beware with the cowriter: beware tag and any other appropriate tags. Our tagging guide is here and our tags page is here.
- If your part of a collaborative work has been stolen and posted as your cowriter's work you are strongly encouraged to cross-post to Stop Plagiarism.
- When in doubt, screencap. Solid proof is your best friend if your claims are disputed.
- Lengthy posts and images should go behind a cut.
- If the cowriter in question has posted an ad here, please link it so we can look into taking it down based on your beware and the cowriter's side of the story.
- Cases of extreme unequal effort should be attempted to be handled privately. However, if it cannot be dealt with, or if it is a case of them essentially just wanting you to write their story for them, comment with the details and we'll tell you if it's okay to post.
If you think we've missed anything feel free to comment!
- Partnerships that didn't work for personal reasons.