Guess I'm going to have to explain more about my previous comments on the William Sanders rejection letter. I totally agree with Tobias Buckell that the "context" argument from Sanders' supporters makes no sense. I've never used the term "those people" in my entire life. When I've heard the term used by others, it's never been in a good sense (such as "Those people are great!).
The more I think about this issue, the more I realize that if one receives a rejection with similar crap in it the best thing to do is post it online and expose said crap to the light of day. But the truth is that very few rejections will have content which calls for doing this. Just as it is unprofessional to call an editor every week and ask about your story's status, or to submit a handwritten manuscript, or to spam every editor under the sun with submissions, so too is it unprofessional to post a rejection letter online. Yes, the Sanders' letter seems to one of those "exceptions to the rules." But new writers shouldn't look at this situation and think, "Oh, I should post every rejection letter I receive online because that will bring me some attention." Odds are the attention you'd get would not be the good type of attention.
UPDATE: I don't know how I missed this, but on Buckell's website a woman named Nora, who has been published twice in Helix, posted a comment in which she says Sanders told her that because she criticized him in an online forum, he will no longer publish her stories in Helix. Unbelievable. While I stand by my view on (generally) not posting rejection letters, in Sanders' case this exposure was a good thing because it is allowing his festering sore of racism to be exposed to the world.
