A brief note on why I quit Avon FanLit
Oct 13th, 2006 by Lynne
From reading my previous FanLit posts and their comment trails, you can figure out that something about it has had me seriously perturbed for the last two weeks. On September 28th, I received specific, conclusive evidence that two individuals cheated in Round Two. One of them cheated in Round One, as well. I've worked in Information Technology for a couple of decades and busted my share of hackers along the way, and the evidence I provided to the contest administrators would have been more than sufficient to confirm allegations of hacking or fraudulent account activity at any company where I have worked.
But FanLit didn't disqualify the cheaters, despite their rules stating that those who have multiple accounts will be removed from the event. I'm pretty sure I know why they made that decision, but I believe it was a mistake. I hoped their warnings to the individuals in question would be sufficient to rein in some of the behavior, but that hasn't been the case.
One of the pieces of evidence I provided to FanLit was proof of an email discussion, of which I was a part, where these people talked about their multiple accounts and how they thought it was fine to stack the deck. Earlier this week, I confronted the two individuals and told them I thought their only honorable course of action was to remove themselves from the contest, quietly and immediately. They refused. They don't see anything wrong with what they did, although they do have quite a problem with suffering any consequences.
I could no longer be a part of an event where so many good, honest people were writing their hearts out but getting robbed of a fair contest. As I said in the comment trail in another post, I wrote the administrators earlier this evening to ask that my account be deleted. They sent back a very nice email in an attempt to address my concerns. I thanked them and repeated that I wanted my account removed immediately.
I met some really neat people through FanLit and had a lot of fun. I don't regret getting involved with it. But I couldn't sit by and watch people be treated that way anymore.
Thank you.
It’s unfortunate Lynne that it had to come to this, but it’s just not fair. I wonder if this is another character flaw of the cheaters. Do they really
think that taking the easy way out will make them better writers than the others since they “ranked” higher? Um, no. Welcome to real world ladies, learn to write like the
rest of us, and you won’t have to cheat, and guess what–people will actually vote for you.
-Karen
I only want to know one thing. Who are they?
Alice
Hi, Sara! Thanks for stopping by. :-)
Hi, Karen! The psychology behind this cheating is fascinating. Depressing, too. I’m comfortable with my decision to leave.
An excellent question, Alice, and one that I have no plans — at the moment, anyway — to answer publicly. As it stands now, they’re going to out themselves more thoroughly and expeditiously than if I had done it myself. They’ve been very indiscreet.
Hmm, that’s news. Are these people also the 0 bandits? I have no idea who you’re talking about; I must not be paying enough attention. It’s sort of difficult thinking anyone on the forum did that. The least FanLit could have done was close their multiple accounts, I hope…
Hi, Cat. I have no way of knowing how they vote with their shill accounts, but it’s reasonable to guess that they use them to zero-bomb people. It only makes sense, at least to me.
I agree that it’s difficult to imagine that folks who are friendly on the forums would do this. It really bothered me to see them making nice with all the people they’d cheated, and that’s one of the reasons I decided to leave.
Lynne,
I just wanted to say that I’m very sorry to see you go. Your VR parody still stands out in my mind as one of the most clever pieces I’ve had the good fortune to read! It’s disgusting that people feel the need to cheat their way through the contest, but they’ll never win if their writing is bad enough that they have to cheat. I respect your decision (and that you are intelligent enough to figure this whole thing out) but your parodies and your presence in the forum will be sorely missed!
Best,
Sara
Hi, Sara! :-) Thanks for stopping by. I’m glad you enjoyed my parody.
How did your entries do this week? Didn’t you also have a parody? If I recall, it was a wickedly funny one about Damien’s “problem” and Patience’s plan to become a widow.
I’m hoping that for everyone’s sake FanLit will sew up these operational and technical security holes, because it IS a fun contest. It’s only a few jerks who ruin it for all the nice people.
Here are a couple more tidbits of information on the chronology. When I first contacted the FanLit admins about the cheating, I only gave them account names and IP addresses. I didn’t let on that I had email confessions. When they responded a few hours later, they said they’d concluded no cheating had occurred. Despite their pronouncements of sophisticated mechanisms for tracking down fraudulent activity, they weren’t even able to spot the cheating when I put it right in front of them and told them where to look.
It was only when I sent them further documentation, including the email confessions, that they were able to conclude that wrongdoing had occurred. Whee.
Oy, Lynne!
I had such high hopes for Fanlit. Really. And I did it for fun. Even when the category went against my personal fort?, I thought, “Huh, here’s a chance to try something new and meet some other writers and =maybe= have a shot at winning something. But this whole *waves hands* thing just angers me and not because I ever expected to win it. I really feel sorry for the talented writers who deserve an honest shot to win. What annoys me even more is the whole, “Whee! Let’s all have fun!” mantra that Avon reiterated over and over while you were connecting the dots and presenting them with the evidence.
Wow.
Another great opportunity to uphold “fair play” missed.
Pass the Kool-Aid.
moon
Sara,
As for “they’ll never win if their writing is bad enough to cheat”–at some point in my career, I was a teacher. And when I was a teacher, I caught the best student in my class cheating. The BEST student. He didn’t need to cheat; he was smart enough on his own. But he just wanted to “make sure.”
Unfortunately, intelligence and ethics don’t go hand in hand….
Wow, CM. A sad story. I wish people could see what harm they do to themselves in behaving unethically.
Hiya, Moon. :-) What I hope for most is that FanLit and Avon will address these security concerns so that honest participants have a fun place to play. I loved FanLit, and I know a lot of other people did, too. There’s still hope that they’ll fix it.
Lynne, I haven’t been following the FanLit as it’s not a subgenre I write (although I read Regencies). It sucks that they have evidence that people are cheating but they aren’t asking them to leave.
Hiya, Edie. :-) It’s a sad thing, truly. I hope they can learn from this for future contests, because it’s a neat concept. I even got my husband interested enough in FanLit that he wrote an entry for Round Four.
I love Regencies, too, and this was the first time I’d let anyone else read my attempts at a Regency voice. I’m a science fiction and fantasy gal, for the most part. Maybe when they get all these issues straightened out they’ll have a contest in the genres we write.
Lynne,
it sounds to me like the administrators at fanlit didn’t want to know
about the problem, because they didn’t want to acknowledge it. If they
had to publically admit that their was cheating involved, it would
sour the rep of the whole competition. Much easier to just ignore it.
Unfortunate.
(grin) I’m thinking we should start blitzing the administrators with
protests about the cheating…..maybe with enough negative publicity
they’d actually acknowledge and FIX the problem.
It was such a good idea. It’s a shame it came to this.
Lynne,
I am adding my regrets that you are leaving. I am going to miss your parodies as well as your critiques on my chapters. I am
curious as all get out about the evidence you have, and who it is, but I know that I am so computer illiterate that I probably
wouldn’t understand it anyway. I just wonder if I should continue trying to write this story with its ever increasing requirements
and limitations if I have no chance at getting a fair shot. Anyway…I am going to miss you and Sara on the forums, and miss reading
your stories. Good luck with everything!
Hi, Theresa! I agree. I think they wanted to keep a lid on things instead of acknowledging the problem. But there’s just no burying a problem like this. It’s obvious to anyone participating that weird stuff’s going on. Their approach to security thus far has mostly been the mysterious “woo woo” approach, when in fact they’d have been better off with more transparency in the process and flat out heavier duty security.
Hi, Christina! :-) Thanks for stopping by. I will miss reading your entries, and I’m glad you liked my parodies. If you wanna send me anything by email, I’d love to read it.
One of the things I liked most about the contest was that I never knew what to expect when I clicked “View Chapter.” Not only did I really enjoy all the crazy, brilliant parodies, but I also was genuinely impressed with so many authors’ attempts to make an often frustrating premise into a story and characters I could actually like. I can’t tell you how many times I found myself thinking, “Yeah, I would SO buy this book!”
I would dearly love to use a particular name in the parody I’m now working on.
Alice
For me, it’s a bigger issue now than the two people who cheated. By not enforcing their own rules, FanLit is damaging the integrity of the contest, and they’re failing to protect honest participants from the misconduct of others. I expected higher standards of behavior from them.