FleetingVapor

I was recently contacted on fanfiction.net by a fan who read "Broken Glass" and wanted me to enter a writing contest on another website. I just wanted to share what I found.

Subject:

Want to join a Fanfiction contest? I just read Broken Glass

Message:

Hi Fleeting Vapor,

Maybe this is something you want to check out? Inkitt has a Fanfiction writing contest going on. It is for full length novels only, but previously published works are also accepted.

Here are the details: inkitt [dot] com [slash] fandom2.
You can also check out the writing guidelines there.

If you do not have a full novel ready just yet, there are other contests running for original short stories as well, all for different genres! It'd be an awesome way to get some recognition for your work! inkitt [dot] com [slash] contests

I hope I didnt disturb you and you find it valuable!

I mentioned the message to a friend, who also uses ff.net, and she had received a very similar message. She thought it was suspicious since the person who invited her to Inkitt was a new user with nothing on his (or her) profile. I then investigated the person who sent the link to me. The account had been created on November 22, 2015, which is conveniently the exact same day that the contest started, and he contacted me two days after that. There are no stories, favorites, avatar, ect. on his account as of today, and, other than the title of my story and my username in the message, there are no details or indication that he has actually read my work. ("Broken Glass" is my most popular story, which adds to my suspicions.) I replied to his message on November 29th, but have not received received a reply as of December 2nd. I believe the account is fake and is being used to lure writers from other sites to Inkitt. I found that many, many writers from ff.net as well as other sites had been contacted in a similar manner. You can read some of their accounts here: www.fanfiction.net/topic/2872/…

This is the end of my personal experience with this issue. I chose not to participate in the contest because I think that the way people are being contacted is deceptive and unethical. However, I did read about several problems people had after posting their stories to Inkitt. There were many complaints about receiving an unreasonable amount of spam from the website. One person said that marking the email as spam, unsubscribing, deleting their story, and deactivating their account did nothing to stop the spam. There were also complaints that it was difficult to delete accounts. Apparently the users have to email Inkitt support to deactivate their accounts, and these emails were either ignored or their accounts took a long time to deactivate. There were comments that the prizes for the contests were never received, but I am uncertain whether that was speculation or the experience of contest winners.

If anyone has encountered this, I'm curious.

-Vapor

1) It should be summer.
2) If I were a color, it would be orange, but orange is not my favorite color.
3) I read books based on the cover.  (And the content.)
4) I'm really in the mood for art right now.
5) When I see a peacock, I think of Frankenstein.
6) Cookies are meant to be chewy, not crunchy.
7) I like Jeremiah 29: 12 & 13 better than Jeremiah 29:11.
8) I like pink cake with pink frosting.  Don't judge.
9) I try to see the best in you.
10) My answer to any "why" question is "for spite!"

This has been removed.  The chapters are no longer available for free on Naver, and we have decided to take the translation down in order to respect this change.

Thank you for understanding.

This has been removed.  The chapters are no longer available for free on Naver, and we have decided to take the translation down in order to respect this change.

Thank you for understanding.

This has been removed.  The chapters are no longer available for free on Naver, and we have decided to take the translation down in order to respect this change.

Thank you for understanding.