Forward Poetry Reviews 2

Awful company. Vanity publisher don't trust them!

This article is written as an amateur poet who has been on many sites; my conclusion is there is a reason publishers do not take writers who post on such, seriously.

After many weeks of probing Forward Poetry with my partner, due to the obvious multiple accounts by one in different guises, this is the conclusion I have reached.

Forward poetry make no attempt to protect the vulnerable. They make no attempt to prevent multiple accounts by persons who have questionable agendas. They allow bullying on-site, yet if one should complain, they send the victim a warning that their account will be disabled should the behaviour be repeated. Meanwhile they allow the perpetrator to continue their attack. I was even attacked by a political extremist who accused my play on words, ‘lemon kurds’ of being racist terminology and her husband had even recommended she reported it to the police. Ridiculous, hey. My partner and I were labelled as ‘trolls,’ ‘racists,’ etc, and Forward Poetry allowed and continues to allow this person to remain on site. However, other accounts were and are, deleted for innocuous comment. Including one poor lady who had her account impersonated. When she complained, they deleted her account and let the other stay.

Forward Press make a few murmurs to give the impression they are a responsible site. For example, one must tick a warning box if the contents contain explicit material, in case ‘under 12’s’ should be reading. That’s right, under 12’s! However they have no qualms in allowing the C word in all its glory to be displayed in a title.
As a mother and one who takes their craft seriously, I would strongly advise one keeps themselves safe, by not involving themselves with this site.

My firsthand experience was Forward Poetry Admin disabling their personal messaging system. However, this did not stop two members sending me questionable messages and me replying. Initially I thought it was a fluke, and one was from a seemingly genuine poet. I will not go into too much detail, because I am embarrassed I fell for such a ruse, and I am still not entirely sure why I was targeted or to what end. I will simply say I exchanged my personal email address with someone I did not know, who extracted personal information from me and in turn discovered she/he had many guises on the Forward Poetry site. In short, I foolishly ignored my own advice!

Furthermore there is one by the name of Arturon, who claimed to be a reputable psychologist, oncologist, etc and wrote in a way which made this claim extremely questionable. He said too he wrote: Poetry Stuff … more fings wot I rote, etc. This is online in the name of John Cahill. He had an email address: drjcahill/consultant. There is no Dr Cahill who is a psychologist or oncologist. When I challenged him/her, his bio magically disappeared, but no worries I have kept a copy. In addition there is someone called Moog/Peter From who fluctuates between being literate and illiterate. Indeed, there is a Peter Dome/Moog who publishes poetry and has his own failed poetry site. He tends to target anyone he sees as vulnerable, as do others including Moog.

To protect myself from undesirables, I used Forward Poetry’s blocking facility. I was immediately attacked from the many writers I blocked. Furthermore, I could see I was being manipulated and the positive comments on my poems were unlikely to be genuine. My supposed supporters were commenting favourably on my posts, and at the same time commenting in a supportive manner on the daily constant streams of hostile ‘poems’ aimed at me (and my partner). Another reason for blocking was due to the barrage of vitriolic, hate inducing posts and comments and the barmy political ones which I found offensive. In addition I blocked the ones I believed to have multiple accounts, manipulating the system so they appeared as a top writer, when they were clearly nothing of the sort. Bizarrely, this seemed to be the majority.

Forward Poetry has a Poem of the Month ‘competition.’ The 5 finalists appear to be the ‘poems’ that have the most ‘likes.’ Rarely does one who has genuine talent appear. I can only imagine this is because the least talented are the ones who are most likely to buy their anthology. Only the winner receives a prize of £25 and a free copy. I do not know if the ‘winner’ is someone that works in admin; I can only suspect.

Conclusive Conjecture:

Another person who helped me in my investigations (a minority genuine writer who contacted me) realised an NHS connection. Many referenced their links to mental health, nursing, care system, etc (since deleted from their bios). This could explain how so many have multiple accounts and the clique amassed. Of course, there will always be fan based groups gathering on these sites, but none quite so sinister as on Forward Poetry (or on the same scale). It appears there are about a dozen (if that) writers who use multiple accounts to post as different writers. The commenting on others and their poetry is inconsistent which suggests they take turns in operating the same accounts.
I could go on and on, but it is a books-worth, one I will be self-publishing in rhyme with all my additional findings. Of course, some names will be changed. For now, please stay safe.

nb Forward Press owner, Ian Walton has been exposed as a fraudster throughout Europe and is a well recognised Vanity Publisher/crook!