Musings
an Online Journal of Sorts

By Alyce Wilson

Ever since Wild Violet started in October 2001, I've been in the habit of posting messages on USENET newsgroups when new issues come out, posting them specifically to groups which might appreciate the material in that issue.

Over the years, I've had quite a few people clicking onto the site because of these notices, according to tracking statistics. The only time I ever encountered a negative response was on a group called misc.writing, where it seems they treat everyone that way. So I simply never posted to them again.

This time, I met with some extremely vicious backlash from two people, accusing me of being a spammer. One of them was so rude that his words can't be repeated in polite company. Naturally, that went straight to the trash.

The other person was a bit more civil but still clearly angry. He was upset that I had posted to a group where I hadn't posted previously. He was also apparently miffed, having presumably viewed the submission guidelines at the site, that Wild Violet offers no payment other than a bio on the contributors page.

Furthermore, he threatened to add Wild Violet to a list of publications to avoid when he "gives talks."

Now, a little investigation turned up the fact that he's apparently a science fiction writer with a very basic site who has several books out, which appear to be self-published. I'm not sure where he would be giving talks, since that wasn't stated on his site.

Nonetheless, I don't need anybody sullying the good reputation of Wild Violet, so I wrote a polite reply. I explained that I only post to groups which I feel would be interested in the material contained in a particular issue and that this occurs very rarely.

I also explained that as a not-for-profit enterprise, Wild Violet has no ability to offer payment to contributors. Many small literary magazines have a similar dilemma, and many simply offer payment in the form of copies of the issue. Since we are online only, we offer a bio on our contributors' page, on which they can include links to other projects or to their portfolio site.

In addition, I pointed out that we have annual poetry and fiction contests, both of which have top prizes of $100.

I suggested that it would be unfair to include our name on a list of problem publications just because of one newsgroup posting, and I encouraged him to discuss the matter with me further.

Given these two responses, I'm beginning to believe it's a bad idea to post on USENET when the next issue comes out. The small amount of traffic it generates is probably not worth it when you consider that anybody who was truly interested in those topics could eventually find us through a search engine.

I've encountered many"flamers" in my day, but not typically because of something I personally wrote. It's a strange situation to have that sort of bile aimed at you.

While I never intended my messages to be spam, I concede the point. I can understand that someone posting out of nowhere to a group where they've never posted before could be viewed as an interloper. It probably didn't help there was somebody who'd been cross-posting a religious message to pretty much every single newsgroup I visited.

From now on, I'll just send out a message to our mailing list that the new issue is out and let the rest of the Internet world find us on their own.

Copyright 2005 by Alyce Wilson

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