Respect Your Fellow Writer - clarification?

Captcha said:

Is this rule really "respect your fellow AW members?"

I had sort of assumed that it meant all writers, everywhere, and I liked it that way - it seemed like an acknowledgement that expressing one's creativity creates vulnerability, and we should give have a little extra care when referring to people who have made themselves vulnerable in that way.

But I'm seeing posts, including posts by mods and supermods, that are making fun of other writers, albeit not AW members (as far as I know). So I'm wondering whether I've been misinterpreting the rule.

Clarification?

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I've never liked the idea of applying "RYFW" such that saying "So-and-so is a crappy writer" should be verboten. I understand that we are all writers or aspiring writers and we want to be generally supportive of fellow writers, but there is nothing sacred about the profession, and writers deserve to be criticized for doing a crappy job as much as anyone else.

If you're talking about saying "So-and-so (Big Name Author) is a turd," I can see objecting to that, though again, I don't know why it should be okay to say a politician or a scientist or an actor is a turd but not a writer.

I agree with Amadan. While I don't necessarily like it, people do have the right to comment on what they feel about a writer in a professional aspect.

Captcha said:

Is this rule really "respect your fellow AW members?"

Click to expand...

Captcha said:

But I'm seeing posts, including posts by mods and supermods, that are making fun of other writers, albeit not AW members (as far as I know). So I'm wondering whether I've been misinterpreting the rule.

Clarification?

Click to expand...

If you have a question about a post, the thing to do is report the post.

FAQ: How and When To Report A Post.

In the meantime, I'm going to lock this until MacAllister can respond without a lot of second-guessing from the rest of us.