11-28-2015, 06:11 AM
Greetings newcomers 
To all of you who've jumped straight in with considered comments in the critical forums, thank you! This is what our site is for -- sharing knowledge in the spirit of mutual improvement. There are plenty of posts around the site (most at the top of the critical forums) that will help you if you're not sure what your critique should look like; alternatively, reading a few of those by other members will assist also.
If you've arrived and really just want to jump straight in and share your most heartfelt words with us, you might need to reconsider whether this is really the site you want to join. We love to read your poems, but we will also be telling you what we really think about them and it may not match up to what you were told by your parents, your favourite teacher, or the guy who told you he'd publish everything you've ever written provided you bought 100 copies of the book. If this will break your heart and destroy any desire you have to ever talk to another human being, you should probably consider not sticking around for that devastating event.
When a moderator has kindly sent you a message pointing out that we don't really need to know if you like a poem, or if it gives you "real feels man, right in the gut", but we do need evidence that you've actually read the poem and are responding in a critical manner rather than just posting to get your three critiques on the board so you can drop your awesome feels right back on us... don't then use nasty language in reply to said moderator, because it's really best not to irritate the person with the power to ban you in an instant. Our moderators put up with a huge amount of crap, but adding yours might just topple the pile onto you.
And above all, if someone has taken the time to give you critical feedback -- even, and perhaps especially, if you disagree with it -- take it on board and see if there's anything you can use when you go to edit your poem. Don't get all pompous on us and tell us how many times you've been published or how many people on other sites have loved you, because we all know that there's a huge deficiency in poetry reading and appreciation skills out there. No matter how many credits you have to your name, you're only as good as the last thing you write and if it's crap, having people around you who will tell you it's crap and thus protect you from being crap in public is a gift that you should appreciate with every breath in your body.
So, to summarise: hello, welcome, don't give mods shit and don't make us ban you.
To all of you who've jumped straight in with considered comments in the critical forums, thank you! This is what our site is for -- sharing knowledge in the spirit of mutual improvement. There are plenty of posts around the site (most at the top of the critical forums) that will help you if you're not sure what your critique should look like; alternatively, reading a few of those by other members will assist also.
If you've arrived and really just want to jump straight in and share your most heartfelt words with us, you might need to reconsider whether this is really the site you want to join. We love to read your poems, but we will also be telling you what we really think about them and it may not match up to what you were told by your parents, your favourite teacher, or the guy who told you he'd publish everything you've ever written provided you bought 100 copies of the book. If this will break your heart and destroy any desire you have to ever talk to another human being, you should probably consider not sticking around for that devastating event.
When a moderator has kindly sent you a message pointing out that we don't really need to know if you like a poem, or if it gives you "real feels man, right in the gut", but we do need evidence that you've actually read the poem and are responding in a critical manner rather than just posting to get your three critiques on the board so you can drop your awesome feels right back on us... don't then use nasty language in reply to said moderator, because it's really best not to irritate the person with the power to ban you in an instant. Our moderators put up with a huge amount of crap, but adding yours might just topple the pile onto you.
And above all, if someone has taken the time to give you critical feedback -- even, and perhaps especially, if you disagree with it -- take it on board and see if there's anything you can use when you go to edit your poem. Don't get all pompous on us and tell us how many times you've been published or how many people on other sites have loved you, because we all know that there's a huge deficiency in poetry reading and appreciation skills out there. No matter how many credits you have to your name, you're only as good as the last thing you write and if it's crap, having people around you who will tell you it's crap and thus protect you from being crap in public is a gift that you should appreciate with every breath in your body.
So, to summarise: hello, welcome, don't give mods shit and don't make us ban you.