I started out reading your post and was so hopeful! I'm a mom! I'm a writer!
But, truth be told, I won't pay $60 to join a group. I'd be one of the 80% to unsub.
I'd love to join that Yahoo group though!
Martha, I'm just so flattered that my name is in your blog! And I'm so glad you are over on the new, ever-so-fab, ever-so-free, splinter group.
Looking forward to lots of your input!
I'm happy too. And Kassie, the list is open to all, so feel free to sign on over at the link I posted:
http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/...ewritingmother/
Take care!
I just joined the group you mentioned about. I have blogged about the whole momwriter (tm) thing and have also commented on Joshilyn's site.
http://www.xanga.com/sassigirll26
This is the link to my blog. Anyone that would like to read my take please feel free to stop by.
Martha, thanks for writing about this, too. I linked to this from my blog as well.
*sigh* what a mess!
I'll just put my unqualified two-penneth here as I did at Joshilyn's:
Yahoo is a FREE email service. How do they get away making money from it. I dont think they would be too happy to hear about it, non?
You expressed exactly how I feel...totally.
I suppose I see this somewhat different cause I have a different attachment to people - but the underlying sentiment I feel - shock, pain, and upset, loss and, probably only in my case, worry about the future of where I interact with people that I'm like.
I keep hoping she'll come up with another solution, but its pointless, the damage is already done.
Thewritingmother however is cool.
Over the year I've been blogging on Xanga, I've seen many a reference to MWs. All good but my kids are in college, a third one is almost there, so I figured I was probably too old for the focus of the group. Then, maybe yesterday, Ellen made some reference about it, like she was done, and I wondered why. Now I know. I still probably don't belong but I see what great writers are headed somewhere new, so I'm interested. My blog is "Ydurp." That's backwards for Prudy.
I was really surprised that this happened, but I wasn't. It seems like it has been a very inevitible thing. I am just glad there is an alternative for me. 
it has been a surreal past few days, to say the least. i left mw before i could get kicked off.
I fully expect to get kicked off in the next day or so. I flogged this blog entry on Mom-Mart day, and I s'pose that'll be the end of things.
Ah well. The core group is still together. It's the people, not the brand name. Love, Martha
And by the way, Prudy, anyone, ANYONE, who is a Mom and a Writer is welcome to join the new group. There are a lot of great, serious (but not too serious... else they'd never take me, HEH) people there.
I really doubt anyone is going to be kicked off MW's for something they say in their own blog. Nikki's not like that at all. She really is an awesome woman and someone I consider very dear.
I understand the situation has left many reeling. I know she has mentioned the charity side of MW's in length, but there is so much more than that to it all. Nikki has always had a vision of creating more than just a listserv. Momwriters[tm] is an organization, and she wants to move it to another level than can be accomplished right now. She's already mentioned some of it-- a writing newsletter that's a paying market, extensive web content for members, publicity opps such as interviews and book reviews and such for authors, as well as the many sections like critique groups and all that waiver back and forth in existence now. We've talked of turning FITS-- Fun In the Sun into a full-fledged writing conference-- and that alone is going to take a good deal of up-front money to do.
Nikki is not a wealthy person. Yet, she has given so much to this group for so many years. I know that if she could get MW's to the next level on her own dime, she would. She can't.
Barb,
I love you dearly, but sometimes you are SO naive. Both Shirley Jump and me, Dejah, have been kicked off MWs already. Shirley for protecting her intellectual property and me for what I said not on my own blog, but on Heather's list. Heather, who has really said nothing has been thrown off MWs simply for starting a list that lots of MW refugees flocked to, a place where they could speak freely and not have every post (except the ones supportive of the new policy) deleted.
I'm sorry, Barb, but you're wrong. You're wrong about the vindictive things that a person can do when she is crossed by people who are finally free to speak what they have been thinking all along--things that she simply doesn't want to hear.
dej
Dej,
Did you get an e-mail notifying you that your membership was revoked or could you just not get onto the list?
Is it possible that there has been a computer glitch?
I'm asking because a couple of years back, I couldn't get into the list and when I checked, it said I wasn't a member. I asked one of the mods and found out there had been server problems. My membership was still in place.
Could that be it?
Barb and Sonya,
I respectfully disagree about the being kicked off for posting in a blog or saying anything. I was told, by Nikki herself, that my membership was revoked because I said something about the listserve. Not on the list, mind you, but in my own personal blog, and on another list. Freedom of speech and all that...need not apply to one particular list.
Sonya, my membership was revoked while I was online, deleting my posts in the archives. I suddenly got the message that my membership had been revoked, and then confirmed it with Nikki.
Now, I am not a contentious person by nature. I disagreed with the charging fees policy because I FIRMLY disagree with charging anyone for advice I CHOSE to give for free. I deleted my posts (well, tried to) because I didn't think it was fair to charge for my words, which I have CHOSEN to give for free. They are my words, my advice, my handouts, and they are my property to do with as I wish.
I wish to give it out freely, not to charge for it. The changes to Momwriters (tm) might all be for good in the long run; I'm not here to debate the need for fees or not.
I simply feel strongly about helping other writers FOR FREE. It's a personal belief and commitment of mine and yet I was immediately punished for doing so. I was also called a "taker" and not a "giver" because I didn't head up a group or know how to crochet That statement has since been smoothed over, but it was stunning to me and very hurtful when it was said initially.
Perhaps others do view me as a list taker, but I can honestly say that I have NEVER asked for anything of the MWs group except a prayer once for my mother and then the Saturday ads, which are within the boundaries of the list. Never have I TAKEN anything.
I like many, many of the women on that list as people very, very much (Barb and Sonya, that includes you two). I feel like a number of these women are my friends. I hate leaving them. I hate discord of all kinds and am more upset about this, about the implications made on my character and my choices, than anyone knows.
Okay, comment is way too long I'm done now.
Shirley
No Sonya... I was also kicked off. Momwriters no longer appears on on my list of groups that I belong to. I know you are trying to think the best of people and think positively, but no, we were kicked off. I can be signed in to Yahoo, go to Momwriters and it says "would you like to join this group?"
Sonya,
No disrespect meant, but isn't that a bit to coincidental? you know. the ones making their opinions known just happen to have a computer glitch happen to them while others that are being more reserved have had absolutely no server problems whatsoever? Not, not happening.
I looked on my MyGroups list. Momwriters is no longer listed. I have been removed, Sonya. I was warned that if I spoke my mind, I would be... and I was.
dej
Well, I wrote two separate blogs, then ended up deleting BOTH of them. I think Martha and Joss did a great job covering the situation and I am just too damn snarky.
Sonya and Barb, you are defending the indefensible. I'm sure that Nikki is a good person, but Momwriters has been going downhill for the past four years. The warped censorship just got stranger and stranger. I would read posts detailing someone's painful periods or inability to keep a job that didn't entail uttering the words "do you want fries with that?" but posts about actual WRITING and promotion were always deleted or moderated.
The purpose of MWs, despite what the intro page on Yahoo said, became a huge mystery. For that reason, implosion was bound to happen.
I get now that Nikki is trying to make this into her business, and that's okay. But one doesn't do well in business when one pisses off the very people who would be one's clients.
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