removing the newly registered forum:

[ellajam]

I think keep it.

Like the rest of the forum, the newly registered forum isn't for the chuckleheads who don't stick, but rather for the ones of us that do. It's a fond memory, for one, and I appreciated looking around myself in that forum to see who was joining at the same time as me.

Let me make the strongest argument I can . . .

The Newly Registered Forum shouldn't be cut because it provides an immediate sense of invitation and ownership to new registrants who might otherwise feel unwanted.

Not the best argument, but it's what I got . . .

I have to say that I feel the same way about the members who joined around the same time I did. (Brandon, where are you, I'm still waiting for the great wheelchair poem. )

There was no Newly Registered, we posted our first critiques and then poems in Novice. It was a fine way to learn the site. Unfortunately what happens now is fine, interesting critiques are deleted because the poster in Newly Registered dropped their poem with no intention of ever coming back, or of taking a step towards improving their own work through careful reading of other people's work.

The site is many things to many people but I think we can't lose sight of that core, to me it's precious.