Plus ca change?
I see that the notorious scam site poetry.com has gone bust and apparently been taken over by Lulu. Great news... or is it?
The new site seems to me to be pretty much a rebranding of the old. For example:
'When you win we’ll send you a certificate for you to print and hang on your wall to remind everyone of your accomplishment - along with a cash prize.'
Notice the 'when' – not 'if'.
I understand that Lulu is about self-publishing, so they can legitimately claim that they're providing the facilities for people to share their poetry, not providing editorial judgments. But that claim is undermined by the talk of prizes and winning. Even if they aren't intending to mislead people, it seems pretty daft to take over a scam site domain name, then put in place a similar business model without adequately distinguishing it.
The new site seems to me to be pretty much a rebranding of the old. For example:
'When you win we’ll send you a certificate for you to print and hang on your wall to remind everyone of your accomplishment - along with a cash prize.'
Notice the 'when' – not 'if'.
I understand that Lulu is about self-publishing, so they can legitimately claim that they're providing the facilities for people to share their poetry, not providing editorial judgments. But that claim is undermined by the talk of prizes and winning. Even if they aren't intending to mislead people, it seems pretty daft to take over a scam site domain name, then put in place a similar business model without adequately distinguishing it.
posted by Tony Williams at 9:34 AM
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