Final Warning for Poetry Forum

From here on in, any responses to poems that do not contain some kind of constructive criticism or real discussion of the work will be infracted and deleted. It has never been acceptable to simply say "I love it...hope to see more of your work", yet 99.9% percent of replies in the poetry forum say little more than that. The whole point of posting poems here and getting feedback is to help you improve as a writer, but low quality posts aren't going to serve that goal. So if you think the poem was perfect and have no more to say, send the author a PM rather than cluttering up the board with obsequious praise. If you guys want to continue to have a section to post your works, you need to put more thought and effort into your posts. I'll be happy to help you if you're unsure of what qualifies as a good response in this forum, just ask.

Also, remember that per the AO rules you are limited to starting 4 threads per day. It is not a rule (yet), but I kindly ask that you limit your poem posts to 2 per day. AO is primarily an anime forum, and anime threads are getting pushed aside by an overabundance of poetry.

I thank you all in advance for your cooperation on this, and hope that we can keep this forum alive by being more responsible posters.

It already looks like today, that some of the more "rabid" posters of poetry don't bother with reading sticky threads! That or they are completely disregarding gren's request to limit threads started in the poetry section to two a day. I maybe speaking blasphemy to this sites poets, but you do know that you can put more than one poem in a thread right? Why not put a poem or three into one thread especially the shorter poems, it'll help cut down on the flood in the poetry section. Also it may help with junk posting, some of the replies the poems get barely constitute as a sentence. So with a couple poems in a thread, dare I say there could almost be a paragraph churned out in a reply to peoples works. *gasp*

Another thing like gren mentioned, some of the so called critiques or I love it can't wait to see more replies. When reading some of these post especially the spammer critiquer's (you know who you are with all your credits), its seems like the replies where copy and pasted from thread to thread. All those post look and read exactly the same, next time your on AO and looking at the index for the forum. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and check out the recent post box. It happens at least twice if not more a day, that box is filled with post by one person in the poetry section. And more often than not, those post read and feel exactly the same.

Also I would like to make a suggestion, that the OP of the poem limit there replies to their own works to two a day in each of their threads. I'm guilty of this in the few poems I have posted, but with the deluge of threads that come into this section each day. Combined with people continuously posting in their own threads to keep them fluffed, to say thank you or reply back if they are lucky enough to get some constructive criticism. I've seen several poems that only receive two-three replies, maybe its because the work isn't that great. But I think its because of the fluff and flood, those poems fall to the bottom of the first page and on to the second before anyone gets a chance to take a good look at them.

Now come on folks, remember the old saying quality over quantity. This part of the sight gets used quite a bit by several members, so it would be a damn shame if it got shut down because the quality was too low. If you can write poetry but can't come up with something better than great/wonderful/I love it, then that is truly sad.

I've also noticed that a lot of the newer poems are attacks on people. They have gotten quite personal, not in a good way, either. I'm sorry, but 14 lines about how horrible a person is is NOT a poem . . . it's rap music. Could we improve the quality of the poems as well as the responses to the posts?

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Originally Posted by divine_punishment

I've also noticed that a lot of the newer poems are attacks on people. They have gotten quite personal, not in a good way, either. I'm sorry, but 14 lines about how horrible a person is is NOT a poem . . . it's rap music. Could we improve the quality of the poems as well as the responses to the posts?

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Its up to gren to decide about this, but personally. As long as the poems aren't personal attacks on people that use this forum, the cursing is kept to a low level (the word(s) and amount used) or not used at all, and personal information for whom the poem is about isn't revealed. Then if you have a strong emotion about someone or something, and feel writing down your thoughts or feelings about said thing will help you out, go for it. If a user feels like sharing their thoughts and emotions with the rest of the board through creative writing, then more power to them, as long as its done in a tasteful manner.

Emotion is what makes good poetry: hate, fear, anger, happiness, love, any emotions. Denying someone to speak their mind through a poem, because it offends your delicate sensibilities is ridiculous. If that begins to happen on a large scale, I don't know how the internet will accommodate an old school book burning. :laugh:

You shouldn't have used the word "quality", what you want users to improve is substance/meaning/emotion behind their work. Putting someone in a box creatively, so the only thing produced is to your standards is the best way to kill creativity.

Just as a side note, the "true quality" of work in the poem section could improve. Was my computer the last model to come with a spell checker? More thought and word play could be put into some of the works in the section, a thesaurus isn't a dinosaur it will not eat your hand people. :2thumbs:

Hmmm what about giving small reward to good poem critics... give them a title or something...credits...reps? :) that would help and motivate more people to... umm... comment more nicely instead of just ... "I love it" and all...

I think the good reps should already be in place when it is seen. But I am unsure to certain.

i like this idea of te comments being better i love lkeaving long comments infact i have a fewpeoplethat love hoe mycomments are right on the money whats so hard about
commenting about something you understand and love reading?

http://forums.catholic.com/images/sm...i_clapping.gif

THANK THE LORD JESUS FOR THIS THREAD!!!

I am honestly sick and tired of reporting posts that equal to crap! It got to a point where I refused to go into the poetry forum because of all the crappy feedback members were giving the authors, just to increase their own post count. I mean COME ON PEOPLE.

"That poem was just so amazingly written, well done! http://forums.catholic.com/images/sm...xtra_happy.gif"

:lurk:

"Great job, keep up the good work!"

:lurk: :lurk:

"WOW, I've never seen anything written like that before! I hope to see more of your stuff in the forums! :2thumbs:"

:lurk: :lurk: :lurk:


Honestly, if you have nothing to say or are speechless because the poem was just SO great and there isn't any possible criticism available to give, yet you still want to let the writer know how great it was.. follow Gren's advice and PM THE BOY! Don't crowd valuable postage space with your useless nonsense crap! That's just rude. It's disrespectful to the person who wrote the poem, and disrespectful to the poetry section of AO!

DON'T. DO IIITT!!!!

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Could we improve the quality of the poems as well as the responses to the posts?

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I would personally like to see the quality of some of these poems improve through the roof, but that isn't my boat to jump on. I have noticed as well that many of the poems here are attacking various members, and that just completely pisses me off. The people who write those poems only do it to embarrass whoever it is they're pissed off at, and honestly, that is ridiculous. Mecha, I agree almost 100% with your way of thinking on this, except I believe Divine_Punishment did infact mean to say "quality". Users cannot improve on their "substance/meaning/emotion". There is no way to "improve" on what you feel. You, sir. Are the one putting people in a box creatively. You believe they should have this certain way of feeling, or a certain way of thinking. Nonono, putting someone in a box creatively is the number one catalyst in killing their creativity.

I believe members here are confused. I think they feel as though the poetry forum in AO is an equivalent to their diary.. WHICH THAT IS DEFINATELY NOT THE CASE. :angry:

So, I say. If you're going to bash someone in the head here at AO, do it discretely. Don't do something as foolish as state,

"This poem is to someone here at AO. They're horrible and I feel they should be eating dirt with the ants."

Or state their username in the poem like the idiot that you are.
That just degrades you as a person, and makes others look down at you. If that's what you want, then by all means.. go ahead. Make a fool of yourself. Otherwise, cut the middle school crap and write some damn good poetry about how pissed off you are at this mother.

And about the quality.
People, I'd advise you to listen to Mechazawa.

The Thesaurus and Dictionary are your friends! :)
Please, look towards them when getting your complicated emotions down on paper.
I assure you, the poem will come out 200% better than what it would have had you not searched for better words, or checked if that was the proper way to spell it.