What forum do you use?

[Leanne]

The posts in serious don't get so many crits because that's really not the reason why people post there. If I am critiquing a poem in the serious forum, I'll almost never comment immediately -- I'll read, re-read, let it sit for a couple of days, read again and then start a critique, because even if it appears that I'm only writing a few words, those words have to be well-chosen and a good solid serious critique generally takes upwards of half an hour to write. Anyone who posts in serious without first understanding and appreciating how much effort they're asking for, or expecting mad volumes of comment, should really consider not wasting people's time. Additionally, if you post in serious you need to be fairly confident that you can stand up to criticism, that you are secure enough in your writing to know which changes to make and which to set aside, and that you're prepared to actually workshop, which means that you don't think your poem is a precious and wonderful thing that dropped wholly formed and shining in the holy poetry garden of glory. Workshopping can be brutal but if you take it in the spirit it's intended, you always learn and it can be incredibly good fun. Exhaustingly good fun.

I rarely post in serious these days not because I don't value the feedback immensely, but because I'm mostly pretty comfortable that my poems aren't going to need massive overhauls so I'd rather throw them in miscellaneous where people can critique seriously if they want, but they know they're not obliged to. Personally I don't see the point of mild critique at all.