Firstly, I hope this is the right forum for this, if not, then please move it to the correct one. Thank you.
Last summer, when I had finished the first half of my novel, I asked for some beta-readers from another website, where I am very well known. All I wanted were people's opinions if it was a good story or not. I stupidly sent it out to anyone who asked to read it... I was proud of myself and wanted some feedback.
A few months later, a gang of members were deleted from this site, because some of them caused a lot of trouble on there. Some of the people were acquaintances of mine, so is the site owner and I was stuck between a rock and a hard place. I've been a member of said site for seven years and wanted to stay there, so I took the side of the site manager, as he is a personal friend of mine.
Some of the people who were deleted, are some of the people who asked to read my story; later on I got told that they were discussing my work on a private google group. I asked the owner of this group if she had a copy of my work, as she was also the ringleader of the people who were deleted, she said no, so I left it at that.
However, sometimes, some of these people come back to this site as trolls and cause trouble for people if they can. This weekend just gone, was my turn, except I wasn't online to see it and someone got the troll deleted.
But whilst they were on there, they supposedly put a tract of my work on the forum there. I don't know if it was my work, if they had rearranged it and added stuff etc. If it had been left there, I could have seen it and would have known if it was my own work or not. If the postings had of stayed and it was my own work, I could have asked the owner of the site to get me their IP address for legal reasons, but where they were deleted, I obviously can't.
What can I do if they are passing my work around on the internet and maybe even rearranging it, please?
I will never trust anyone with my work again.
Thank you for any advice offered ... Elodie
Last summer, when I had finished the first half of my novel, I asked for some beta-readers from another website, where I am very well known. All I wanted were people's opinions if it was a good story or not. I stupidly sent it out to anyone who asked to read it... I was proud of myself and wanted some feedback.
A few months later, a gang of members were deleted from this site, because some of them caused a lot of trouble on there. Some of the people were acquaintances of mine, so is the site owner and I was stuck between a rock and a hard place. I've been a member of said site for seven years and wanted to stay there, so I took the side of the site manager, as he is a personal friend of mine.
Some of the people who were deleted, are some of the people who asked to read my story; later on I got told that they were discussing my work on a private google group. I asked the owner of this group if she had a copy of my work, as she was also the ringleader of the people who were deleted, she said no, so I left it at that.
However, sometimes, some of these people come back to this site as trolls and cause trouble for people if they can. This weekend just gone, was my turn, except I wasn't online to see it and someone got the troll deleted.
But whilst they were on there, they supposedly put a tract of my work on the forum there. I don't know if it was my work, if they had rearranged it and added stuff etc. If it had been left there, I could have seen it and would have known if it was my own work or not. If the postings had of stayed and it was my own work, I could have asked the owner of the site to get me their IP address for legal reasons, but where they were deleted, I obviously can't.
What can I do if they are passing my work around on the internet and maybe even rearranging it, please?
I will never trust anyone with my work again.
Thank you for any advice offered ... Elodie
