Review of Online Writers' Groups

Scribophile - I've had a great experience with this online critique group so far. Basically, once you've signed up for the site, you critique other people's work to get a certain number of 'points.' Once you've gained enough points, you can post your own work. The community is great, and the critiquers offer useful, insightful advice. The website is easy to navigate, and you can easily keep track of critiques you've given and received, which is not true for all sites. Scribophile has a "story queue" feature that makes it easy to pick which story you want to read next. Virtually all stories posted receive critiques. Also has contests.

Writer's Cafe: In my experience so far, more of a community than a critique website. You can put your story up on the website for review, but the reviewing structure isn't as organized as that of Scribophile. When you read a story, you have the option to "share" it with your friends through email, Facebook, MySpace, etc. This is good if you just want to get your story out, not so good if you don't. Sheer volume of stories with little organizational structure makes it difficult to pick something to read. The people here are very friendly. Also has contests.

The Write Idea: This site is set up primarily as a forum for writers, where you can meet people and solicit advice in addition to posting your story for critique. There is a tight community here, and the number of stories isn't overwhelming. A good portion of stories posted actually receive critiques. Again, less structure than Scribophile. Also has contests.

CritiqueGroups.com: I've found the structure of this site a little confusing so far. There is a "Community Critique" section in which any member can post a story for the whole community to critique. Fewer critiques per story than Scribophile or The Write Idea. You can also join private critique groups, but again the structure is difficult to understand. Also, critiques and stories must be downloaded as Microsoft Word documents. Focus is on critiquing novels within genres.

Aylad's Writer's Group: This is a Yahoo group focused on critiquing writing over email. It has a pretty bare-bones structure compared to the other groups. Also seems to have succumbed to some flame wars. The associated website hasn't been updated for a long time, but the chat group still exists.

The following are sites I haven't used yet, but which I will review when I get a chance.

Writing.com

Critters Writers Workshop (for Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror)

Critique Circle Online Writing Workshop

Nothing Binding

BlogBookTours: This group is focused on helping authors promote their books by going on a 'virtual book tour' across the blogosphere. A great community, and a good way to meet people for aspiring authors.

Critters: This is a critique group focused on critiquing science fiction, fantasy, and horror. It's a highly active group, with a high chance of recieving critiques for a story. However, note that there is a lot of commitment involved - you need to critique 75% of the time, that is, three out of every four weeks, in order to stay in the group.

In my search for writers' groups and critique groups, I came across several that either weren't being used any more or weren't accepting new users. Here is what I found.

Short Story Group: The group forum for this site is closed. However, you can still go here to get some good information about critiquing and writing.

Coffeehouse Select Critique Community: Currently closed. Note that you must submit an edited writing sample to be considered for this group.