Hi folks,
This thread, even though it is years old, was brought to my attention a few days ago. I thought I'd post a response anyway since I'm the site manager at the Freelance Writing Organization. Not only that, but back in the day we assisted Jenna Glatzer in pushing her now famous books to a #1 spot on Amazon sales ranking.
Anyway, it's interesting how, when something is taken out of context or even completely misconstrued, how a thread like this can start and then snowball from there. Examples are:
Julie Anne
Looks like a great site until you read that one little line at the bottom that says "to read our free content, you must configure your email account to receive our advertising mailings" That just says to me "we're gonna clog your email with :Spam:
Our privacy policy reads as follows so I'm not sure how you got the idea that we spam our members:
----------------------
We're as concerned about privacy as you are and to that end we've made life simple here:
As long as you maintain a valid email address that allows our email to reach you and doesn't bounce back at us, then we'll be happy to continue providing you with free access to the writing resources we have here for as long as we can afford to operate.
So -- easily enough -- just make sure your anti-spam filters allow our email to be delivered to you and all will be well between us.
Our outbound email address name is : Freelance Writing Organization - Int'l and the mail comes from the site address:
[email protected]
Welcome and enjoy the system.
We hope you have a great day!
Rowdy Rhodes
Site Manager
By the way:
Membership information is kept confidential.
Want to read what the "lawyers" suggest we say?
Membership Agreement
In order to access our writing resources you agree to provide an email address that is in proper working order and able to receive email from: "Freelance Writing Organization - Int'l"
[email protected]. Furthermore you will maintain this email address so that it is in service, valid, current and not full. We agree to provide various writing resources and information to you free of charge in exchange for being able to email you at our discretion. We send anywhere from 1 to 6 emails/month. Either party may cancel this agreement at any time without cause for damage.
Privacy Policy
Your rights:
You have the right to; sign up, not sign up, or cancel your subscription if you have already signed up, at anytime.
We hereby grant you your right to privacy in that we do not rent, sell or in any manner knowingly distribute your email address and/or personal information to any third parties, for any reason whatsoever, unless a subpoena is issued requesting your personal information.
All personal information is kept confidential, is optional and used for demographic purposes only. Although we ask for your geographical location, we do not ask for your street address. Personal information, over and above your name and email is used only for demographic analysis and never revealed.
Our rights:
We reserve the right to email you, at our discretion, information that we feel may be of interest to you, including, but not limited to, our monthly publication(s) and, from time to time, carefully screened offers from qualified, relevant businesses and organizations. The number of the emails sent will vary, however the average is approximately four/month
We further reserve the right to cancel your membership at any point in time, without notice or liability, if we feel that there is a sufficient justifiable reason.
By submitting your subscriber information to our system you are agreeing to, and bound by, the above Membership Agreement and Privacy Policy.
If you do not agree, please do not sign up.
Sincerely,
"Our Suit Wearing Law Guys" {smile}
May 21st, 2001
----------------------
There are a number of places including Norton's Site Check, PageRank and a few others that will confirm we do not send a multitude of email to our users. You can also simply check our email archives to see how many are sent each month by going to
http://www.fwointl.com/wordpress/
wurdwise
I regret posting that site now. I checked it out last night, and it is nothing it presents itself to be, believe me. Then, today, coincidentally? I got an email from Xlibris, the horror of horrors of self publshing. Sorry, guys, I think I found a dud. I am unscribing too.
I'm not sure where the Xlibris email came from. Could have been one of our advertisers however I don't really recall. Anything is possible, but I don't believe it was from us. I could look it up, then again we do generate some of our revenues from ads as since we don't charge anything to our members to access the thousands of free writing resources we have online for writers. Even if it did come from us, as mentioned above in our Privacy Policy/TOS we do send out at times ads on writing products and/or services.
Nikki Carlyle
This tells me all I need to know about this site. I feel he remarks such as, "a liar" and "self-serving" to be out of line.
The sentence has been taken out of the context of what Nikki originally stated to me which was:
"I was informed that by signing up for your site, a lot of spam will enter our mailboxes." See above privacy policy.
I still stand by the response. Anyone spreading the word that we spam is either misinformed, self-serving or a liar. It has to be one or the other since we never spam. My sentence might be a little rough around the edges but I have never professed to be politically correct.
Anyway, I just thought that since you were slamming away at my site without being properly informed I should clear things up a little and invite you all to stop by, join us, and find out for yourself so you can make informed comments.
If you'd like to contact me about this you can go to our Help Desk at
http://www.fwointl.com/contact/ttx.cgi and if you want to sign up, give us a try at
http://www.fwointl.com/FWOSignup.html
Take care,
Rowdy Rhodes
Site Manager
Freelance Writing Organization - Int'l.
- Est. 1999. 12,000+ members to date
- A Writer's Digest Top 101 Site
- #1 Writing Resource Site - The Writer
http://www.fwointl.com/
Publishers of:
Inkwell Newswatch (
IN) -- Writer's Ezine
http://www.fwointl.com/in.html and
Writers Site News! A Weekly Emailed Newsletter