Poemranker [Replying] Thu Nov 21 15:28:02 PST 2024

Replying to:

anonymous

11-Sep-06/7:25 AM

Maybe you just expect to be informed and entertained without effort on your part. Like the site's staffed by robots.

I should interject here, I'm not trying to bring up old junk now. I've appreciated your presence on the site lately. Amends? Great. Now, robots:

A problem with poemranker and sites like it is that people seem to think they're populated by critiquing robots, which is why they tend to post a bunch of poems and expect a bunch of critiques without having to offer anything worthwhile of their own. At best, they post poems and offer critiques for awhile, thinking this will earn them critiques, and then get bored and leave because, frankly, it's not much fun to read other people's mediocre poetry.

The trick to fixing this is community. I'll read the mediocre poetry of the people on this thread because I have a kind of relationship with you folks not really related to poetry. The relationship comes from chatting with you about things only vaguely connected to poetry until I get the feeling that you're normal people with lives and personalities sitting in front of computers somewhere, rather like I am. I read your poetry because I like you (more than I like much of the poetry, to tell the truth.)

The most successful writing sites I've seen have strong communities. They have good crowds talking and relating to each other personally and only occasionally commenting on poetry. But the poetry-commenting happens BECAUSE all the relationships and community are there, see? Okay, great. I'll stop repeating myself now.

Long story short -- stop worrying about how to make more stringent rules enforcing participation and critiquing and blah blah blah. Talk, invest, be sociable, have a presence, communicate, and you can save the site. Amen.

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