Why do Literotica poems get relatively few reads and public comments?

[My Erotic Tale]

Re: Re: about the top lists....

You are quoting statistics without putting them into context. How many votes/reads do those seven non-erotic stories have? It only takes ten for them to show up on the top lists. How can you compare a story with a high score but only ten votes to one with a high score but over hundred and fifty votes? You can’t.

I would also suggest the people posting stories in the non-erotic category at lit would be writers more serious about their craft than the average smut story writer here so therefore, the scores of those stories would tend to be higher on average but with fewer votes.

Incest is by far the most popular category at lit because the number of reads a story receives in that category is astounding. Novels and novellas are once again a niche category that requires readers with patience and who want to read longer works. This is the reason why the scores in that category are higher in general. If you stick with a story for twenty pages are you going to give it less than a 5 or a 4?

Also, you are equating high scores with popularity which would be fine if maybe half the readers who look at a story voted, but we all know that the actual number of readers who vote is a very low percentage of the number of reads on each story. High scores mean nothing more than a recommendation from the relatively few people who take the time to vote. They have no meaning in terms of site demographics, except to prove the fact that most readers don’t vote.

Back to poetry

Since when does the length of a piece of writing have anything do to with how long it takes a reader to understand it? Length of time it takes to read anything is a ridiculous standard with which to compare mediums unless you are discussing dictionaries or phone books. Reading isn’t about how long it takes your brain to say the word in your mind. High school students learn pretty quickly when they have to choose between writing an essay on a poem or on a piece of prose that choosing the poem will probably not result in less reading/thinking time when you add in repeated readings and the length of time it takes to try to understand the poem on some level.


Why would anyone want to read the poems that are as subtle as a train wreck? You answer your own question with that comment.

The tabloids are right there for me to pick up every time I go to the supermarket. I am sure they are easy to read and quickly finished. Based on your theory, I should have my cart full of them, but instead I have never even picked one up because to me that would be a waste of time.

"No" sack prefers to use the term ...
"Lesser Poet!"

"choo choo"

 

[*Catbabe*]

Re: Re: Re: about the top lists....

"No" sack prefers to use the term ...
"Lesser Poet!"

"choo choo"

I don't answer my kids if they make "noises" at me instead of using words so I guess this ends my part of this lovely discourse.

 

[My Erotic Tale]

Re: Re: Re: Re: about the top lists....

I don't answer my kids if they make "noises" at me instead of using words so I guess this ends my part of this lovely discourse.

"ouch, I been cat nipped"
hehehey!

 

[sack]

Don't stop catbabe!

You raised such good points! I agree that only a tiny percentage of those that can vote, do. But that's true across the board, making comparisons of the limited voting sample still possible. Since the total ranking is an average, it doesn't mean that a story with 100 votes is "better" than one with the same ranking, but only 25 votes. It just means that more people voted, and when more people vote, there can be greater low votes, too! People tend to forget that fact! As to your statement:

I would also suggest the people posting stories in the non-erotic category at lit would be writers more serious about their craft than the average smut story writer here so therefore, the scores of those stories would tend to be higher on average but with fewer votes.


Not borne out by my only non-erotic story, which received 90 votes, the second highest of all my stories. (the highest, at 107 votes, was indeed an incest story). Just about any category has entries with large numbers of votes. Incest gets the most votes, but the people that vote on incest stories are tough graders in my opinion, so if you think putting your story in the incest category guarantees a high rating, think again!

As to "lesser poets", this is all semantics. If you like "inexperienced", "novices" or what have you better, feel free to use the term that matches your comfort level. MET is just busting chops! (but hey, that's his profession )





Sack

 

[sunsetbrew]

stories are like prose..tooooo....loooong....being bi polar I loooose interest in the looong writes.....

 

[My Erotic Tale]

'chop chop' ... that's funny~
bows

I only wish to instill the minds set in the difference
of considering a lesser, is the root lesser than
the flower? The fundamental levels of knowledge
as in education would be a professor
teacher student, not a higher medium and lesser.
Is the student lesser than the teacher?
one grows into another, one needs the other
if you look at it from a mind that values
societies levels and not individual equality.
I respect those with 'higher' intellect and
have compassion for those 'lesser' in knowledge.
I just don't choose to use this method of thought.
the trash was once an eliquent setting
the root is essential for the flower to bloom
the sun shines brighter on a cloudy day
saw dust beomes a sack not discarded
only when it is filled, carries and used
it then served it purpose and discarded
was it 'lesser' when not used or
'greater' in production when full?...lol
or even 'higher' in an after life for ol bags
the student becomes the teacher
a child becomes a parent
a parent a grand parent
where there is life there is stillness
where there is stillness there will be life
never a lesser
perhaps a road less traveled <grin>

as for stories vs poems
I have stories with thousands of reads
and poems with a norm of ten to twenty reads
or glances ...'laughin'
if you want to disect the reason for this it would start
with the fact it's an EROTIC STORY forum.
poetry is offered as well as photo, SRP and well the
whole darn list of forums Lit offers that is a better
forum for eroticly moving stories and poems both.
I don't mean to harp, I've said this before ...
I can name a small list of poets that retract from
the poem forum due to feeling unwelcome and
beat with comments of construction for their
creation needed work. Call it the dance of
insecurity and I will agree this is not the
fault of critics wanting to workshop their
work but certainly something to keep
in mind when disecting someones work
when you've known someone as you did
with mistletoe it's not so bad cause you
already know the mentality in online
personality and fondle the pretense
of word play and suggestion. I only
wish to encourage those who do comment
alot on poems to be as inspirational as
possible to nuture a new poets creativity
not test the thickness of their emotional skin.
but hey, there will head hunters and
literary political ramblers and self induced egos
that float in the soup of literary creators
here at Lit along with many other personalities.
the hawk soars to rapture a prey
the lion lives chasing antelope
the fish that fill a net
and of course the scavenger and buzzards
have their part. are they 'lesser?'

 

[jthserra]

Somewhere in this world

I think a lesser philosopher is smiling proudly.


more or less jim : )

 

[PatCarrington]

Re: Somewhere in this world

I think a lesser philosopher is smiling proudly.


more or less jim : )

ROFL

this post hurt me. i broke a gasket or something.

 

[Angeline]

Well I just told someone

'chop chop' ... that's funny~
bows

I only wish to instill the minds set in the difference
of considering a lesser, is the root lesser than
the flower? ...

have their part. are they 'lesser?'

that I was not going to post in this thread, but Art I have to applaud your comment, which I find smart and very insightful. If I look at poems I wrote a few years ago compared to what I produce now, I see I have learned and improved a great deal. I have no right to judge anyone who has been writing for less time than me, and therefore may not has learned stuff that I, by dint of having put more time into it, have.

I've always been thicker-skinned than most, imo, about critical feedback on my stuff, but I also understand that a) some people simply don't want this kind of feedback; that's not their purpose for writing, and b) most people are very sensitive about their own writing and will take the most well-meaning constructive criticism as personal invective. These days I generally don't critique anyone's poem unless they specifically ask me to do so. Even then, unless I know them, I am very circumspect about what I say and how I say it. I personally feel bad for anyone who stopped posting here if there was anything I said that they took the wrong way. That is *never* my intent.

And my opinions about grammar and spelling are simply my opinions. The standards I set are for me and my writing. I do believe that a well-edited poem has a better chance of being published elsewhere, but I also understand that is my goal, not necessarily anyone else's.

And Sack, if you think that people come to this site and read stories (or poems, assuming they even find the poems here)--at least initially--for any reason other than wanting to read erotica, you ain't living in the real world. No disrespect intended, but do you honestly believe people come to Literotica because they're looking for some transcendental literary experience?

 

[champagne1982]

Originally posted by My Erotic Tale
<snip>I only
wish to encourage those who do comment
alot on poems to be as inspirational as
possible to nuture a new poets creativity
not test the thickness of their emotional skin.</snip>

And you do so quite well, too, Art. Thankyou.

Originally posted by sunsetbrew
stories are like prose..tooooo....loooong....being bi polar I loooose interest in the looong writes.....

A brilliant commentary on semantics...


<pout>I want a transcendental literary experience, Ang! </pout>
Santa didn't leave me one in my stocking though. I'll have to be a gooder girl this year to get one in 2005, I guess...

edited to correct a spelling error

 

[Angeline]

And you do so quite well, too, Art. Thankyou.


A brilliant commentary on semantics...


<pout>I want a transcendental literary experience, Ang! </pout>
Santa didn't leave me one in my stocking though. I'll have to be a gooder girl this year to get one in 2005, I guess...

edited to correct a spelling error

Let me know if you find one--I want one, too.

 

[Whisky7up]

.........a story is much much easier to read than a poem, a poem might actually challenge the reader to think, a story (specially one focused on porn/erotica) follows a standard that is more easily understood and followed by the uneducated , quick response focused sort of reader - I want a hard on and I want it now! type.

What unbelievable arrogance!!!
The UNEDUCATED?????

I very rarely if ever read the stories.......There are 3 or 4 people here, whom I know, who write ( or wrote) some great stuff.
They have since become poets.

But for me...to say what is said on 14 pages in a story in 5 verses in a poem requires much more effort and talent.
This what we aspire to.

You make it sound as if a poet has achieved a higher level. What utter snobbery!!
Many people could probably summarise a 14 page story into a page with fewer words than your 5 verses. That doesn't mean they have more talent does it? It doesn't necessarily make it better either....and would NOT meet Lit's minimum word requirement that story writers aim to achieve with no loss of quality along the way.
If it's all about minimum word use, then maybe we should buy the supermarket tabloid referred to elsewhere on this thread.

"No" sack prefers to use the term ...
"Lesser Poet!"

I'm not sure that's what Sack did say....but it's not as bad as suggesting that story authors are lesser writers.

 

[champagne1982]

... dammit. I had something witty to say in reply to Whisky7Up's reply. It was too confrontational so I'll leave it unsaid.


It was funny though.

 

[Angeline]

What unbelievable arrogance!!!
The UNEDUCATED?????






You make it sound as if a poet has achieved a higher level. What utter snobbery!!
Many people could probably summarise a 14 page story into a page with fewer words than your 5 verses. That doesn't mean they have more talent does it? It doesn't necessarily make it better either....and would NOT meet Lit's minimum word requirement that story writers aim to achieve with no loss of quality along the way.
If it's all about minimum word use, then maybe we should buy the supermarket tabloid referred to elsewhere on this thread.




I'm not sure that's what Sack did say....but it's not as bad as suggesting that story authors are lesser writers.

I think you're misinterpreting higher level. I don't think Tath means "better writer," but rather that many poets aspire to produce more concentrated writing than prose writers do. I think that's a necessity of poetry--you try to work with fewer words, to strain down what you'd say in prose in sentences because the intent, unlike prose, is not primarily to "explain" to a reader, but to make a reader feel. That may be a purpose of prose, and of course it depends on the writer, but it's usually not the main one.

And in general, erotica--here or anywhere--is not of the level of Anais Nin or Margeret Dumas. Some story writers here--like some poets here--are talented and it shows in their writing. Some are not. There are degrees of everything.

 

[sack]

oops!

I inadvertently started a new thread with this post.....I'm transferring it back to this thread, where I intended it!


in response to Angeline....
Sack, if you think that people come to this site and read stories (or poems, assuming they even find the poems here)--at least initially--for any reason other than wanting to read erotica, you ain't living in the real world. No disrespect intended, but do you honestly believe people come to Literotica because they're looking for some transcendental literary experience?



Well, Tathagata, in an earlier part of this thread, said he only came to Lit. from another poetry site to read the poetry here, so apparently the erotic side of Lit. doesn't appeal to him. And Brightlyiburn, a writer of "soft porn" romances where sex gets the back burner, (no pun intended) does extremely well at Lit. She has a steady following of women who eat up her well written soap operas. So much so, that most of her offerings are near the top of the Romance category. Transcendental literary experience? Who said that? I just remarked at one point in response to someone else that non-erotic stories on this site are more popular than one would think....and non-erotic poems quite outnumber erotic ones. Pretty amazing for an "erotic story site".

As to Tale mentioning he knows some people that are afraid to post poems here for being ridiculed....public comments are optional, as is voting. I would simply tell them to not allow public comments and/or votes for their new poems and that would solve the dilemma. In the meantime, if I see someone has allowed public comments, I assume that means they understand PC's don't always have to be of the "cheerleader" type. You can delete PC's that you feel are unreasonable.....I always do, especially if I sense they are retalitory, so this shouldn't be a big deal. I am concerned that no one seems to give a damn about most poems, or are becoming neurotic about "hurting someone's feelings", that they aren't leaving PC's at all. And so the end result is many short comments of the "attaboy" type. This is NOT the case in the story section by a long shot, and one could argue that the PC's have become nothing more than a gripe session over there. But at least people are leaving them....that indicates interest, at some level, in a particular offering.

Which could actually be a new thread...are poets all around too sensitive? (LOL!!)

As a part time music teacher, my comments absolutely need to be tempered by the desire to encourage a student yet correct potential bad habits at the same time. A nicey nicey "everything is wonderful" approach could be the kiss of death for someone who is seriously considering a performance career. And the dabbler that just wants to make pretty sounds on the piano doesn't even need a teacher in the first place.

Let's not degrade the poetry section...it's not a group of insecure adolescents that are quaking in their boots waiting for their first real criticism. Many here are older, very experienced, and at the publishable level. No reason ideas can't be batted around as to how certain poems could be improved, or how the whole site section could be improved (which is what I'm doing). There really has to be a happy medium...which is what I've tried to say several times. Tale has gotten obsessed with the "lesser" term, but just because someone offers a comment that is not 100% rosy and wonderful, I do not see how that implies the other poet is "lesser." It just means they may have a clarification question with that particular poem, which is perfectly OK. I use "lesser" to imply those who lack the necessary training, or experience, or inner know-how, to put a poem together as well as someone else with more knowledge/teaching. If you prefer neophyte, new, beginner, so be it. There is nothing intrinsically wrong with being a beginner...everyone has to go through that awkward stage at some point. But again, there needs to be a balance between encouraging the neophyte yet at the same time helping him/her in their journey toward being more experienced. Does that make more sense, MET?

Sack

 

[Trolly]

From Under the Bridge

Wow....

Lots and lots of verbiage waded through here, but not really any new cognizantation as a result. Or is it just too much wine, tonight?

So, just what in the heck IS poetry? Do any of you really know? [I don't know what art is, but I know what I like....] [Oh, that would look nice over the fireplace....] [Wouldn't those colors accentuate our window treatments, honey?"]

Here's a challenge for all you "poets:" DEFINE poetry. Ya'll get together and come up with a commonly accepted definition. Post it here in this thread. Educate me. And all the other trolls out here. Make us understand what you are writing and help us realize it is not just for your own self-pleasure (although that, when acknowledged as such, is fine) but is presented for a wide audience and not just the elite few.

Are you up to it? Or are you too busy self-stroking?

 

[The_Fool]

Re: From Under the Bridge

Wow....

Lots and lots of verbiage waded through here, but not really any new cognizantation as a result. Or is it just too much wine, tonight?

So, just what in the heck IS poetry? Do any of you really know? [I don't know what art is, but I know what I like....] [Oh, that would look nice over the fireplace....] [Wouldn't those colors accentuate our window treatments, honey?"]

Here's a challenge for all you "poets:" DEFINE poetry. Ya'll get together and come up with a commonly accepted definition. Post it here in this thread. Educate me. And all the other trolls out here. Make us understand what you are writing and help us realize it is not just for your own self-pleasure (although that, when acknowledged as such, is fine) but is presented for a wide audience and not just the elite few.

Are you up to it? Or are you too busy self-stroking?

No. I am not interested in defining poety.

Yes. I am too busy self-stroking.

 

[sandspike]

This is a porn site!

Why do a lot of you make things harder than they really are?
The best poems are short the best beers have longnecks, and
poetry is a stepchild at literotica. That means as poets we
are a little out of the norm, but who here didn't know that.

 

[twelveoone]

Re: Re: Re: about the top lists....

Shakespeares bloom every century or two
the rarest of flower, it's literary lure of beauty in
life death and existence.
existence forms first as a seed sprout deeply in
the unknown trailing and trial and error reaches.
till one day it sprout. Fates play on these delicate

days, sun burned or clipped stepped on or smothered
by another for existence.
say said root, brown and deep in darkness
dirt grime muck and earth grows stronger
the release propels a sprout to rise. Nutured
or not the reach into existence flows
the days of growing out number the lime lighted
bloom of the flower. for the flowers beauty adored
with no thought to it's root and existence in whole
but only that which flowered in the grow.

okay this inspired a poem <grin>

Art, glad to see I inspired something, must have been that "form of no form" crack. (from Bruce Lee, regarding development of JKD)
People might think...I'm still trying to live down that "sensitivity" thing.

 

[twelveoone]

Re: From Under the Bridge

Wow....

Lots and lots of verbiage waded through here, but not really any new cognizantation as a result. Or is it just too much wine, tonight?

So, just what in the heck IS poetry? Do any of you really know? [I don't know what art is, but I know what I like....] [Oh, that would look nice over the fireplace....] [Wouldn't those colors accentuate our window treatments, honey?"]

Here's a challenge for all you "poets:" DEFINE poetry. Ya'll get together and come up with a commonly accepted definition. Post it here in this thread. Educate me. And all the other trolls out here. Make us understand what you are writing and help us realize it is not just for your own self-pleasure (although that, when acknowledged as such, is fine) but is presented for a wide audience and not just the elite few.

Are you up to it? Or are you too busy self-stroking?

you could always start here
http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=Poetry
any agruement has a tendency to wind up here
reductio ad absurdum

 

[Angeline]

Re: From Under the Bridge

Wow....

Lots and lots of verbiage waded through here, but not really any new cognizantation as a result. Or is it just too much wine, tonight?

So, just what in the heck IS poetry? Do any of you really know? [I don't know what art is, but I know what I like....] [Oh, that would look nice over the fireplace....] [Wouldn't those colors accentuate our window treatments, honey?"]

Here's a challenge for all you "poets:" DEFINE poetry. Ya'll get together and come up with a commonly accepted definition. Post it here in this thread. Educate me. And all the other trolls out here. Make us understand what you are writing and help us realize it is not just for your own self-pleasure (although that, when acknowledged as such, is fine) but is presented for a wide audience and not just the elite few.

Are you up to it? Or are you too busy self-stroking?

If this is too much verbiage for you, why'd you waste your time reading through it all? Hmmmm?

And poetry is part of literature, which is considered one of the arts. You must have missed the part of my verbiage where I explained that.

 

[My Erotic Tale]

Re: Re: Re: Re: about the top lists....

Art, glad to see I inspired something, must have been that "form of no form" crack. (from Bruce Lee, regarding development of JKD)
People might think...I'm still trying to live down that "sensitivity" thing.

yes the form of no form
exceptance adapt and adjust
like water...

thanks angeline
twelveOone
tath
and yes even sack~

for this topic was controversial from the
beginning since every one has stated they
know stories get more reads votes and
comments than poems but we are her to
help and support sacks confussion again!
He may be a bit high strung and deals
with his inner turmoil. no malice sack but
your words and online personality show
that you would prefer to stir an emotion
and unsettle the settled than except
tranquility. make a wave, blow the wind
change the mountain. I only wish to help
sack for he has a flower in him somewhere
he comments and reads poetry and stories
and takes the time to comment. be it rather
he is a whore or not I don't know. but for
what ever reason he does contribute to
Lits feedback. a valuble tool here at lit.
we except sack for his grammer and critic
comments as they except my 'novice' and
uneducated literartue and poems, the
melting pot that simmers here at Lit.
the poetry forum is need of more so running
off a person is not exceptable even if its
new poets with grammer problems. try to
encourage the new poets and pick on the older
or more frequent poets like myself..<grin>
give the newbies a chance to get a foot
hold before you bombard them with problematic
comments. well it's a free world and snakes
will be snakes and bunnies will frolic, tigers
growl and sacks lay. sun shines and poets write.

I knew there had to be a simple explanation to
a thread that asked why poems get so few
reads in comparrison to stories, ninja nookie
claims that there was a need to socialize by the
thread starter she's pretty smart in this area.
so I will ablige and try as I may to help sack
with his continuous confussion on matters in
the poetry forum.

I was also told that many play the master
slave thing and that they as a whole put
great importance on being higher and lesser
with that being said I don't think I see this eye
to eye with sack but except his way of thinking
just curious if this is the case it would explain
a lot. not my forte but hey some don't like to fish
either and I don't understand that. <grin>

 

[Ninja Nookie]

no

no Art

that's not exactly what I said but okay! sack as anyone here deals with their inner turmoil the best they can and it spills out in their words. You can read a person from their posts and I see a troubled soul in many who post, as well as the intellect and the simple man as your self. Not saying your lesser Art~

sack, didn't really need an answer to rather poems get more reads or not, or more or less comments than the story section as he felt the need to interact. Tis simple!

He accomplished his goal, and stirs the tranquil pool to get a rise from another. It's in his nature and he's not the only one. I've seen Tail raise an eye brow or two. It's just simple math. the sack needs others to volley with. You have fallen into his web.

I choose to join the ignore group for my life has enough turmoil with out adding to it.

Bows to you Art
but damn it get it right if your going to use my words
or I'll meet you in the ring ... lmao

 

[sack]

high strung?

That's the funniest thing I've ever read about myself, MET. In person, I'm actually very calm and soft-spoken. I'm sure my parents and friends WISH I was more high strung.

Your notion that I am full of all this confusion is also rather silly. The poetry forum was not exactly tranquil before I arrived, and if asking intelligent questions=confusion/ stirring the waters for you, so be it. Yes, I would like more give and take about poems, rather than the poetry forum turning into another of Lit's many mutual admiration societies. I've been very complimentary to young poets here, more so than many people who don't give a damn one way or another. So perhaps I am more of a "mover and shaker" then being high strung, which is a personality thing and really has nothing to do with the way I post.

I do not buy that people like Ninja could somehow just "know" by reading someone's posts all about their potential inner turmoil etc. My posts are always direct....have never used the "anonymous" feature for PCs as some cowards do. If someone wants to ignore me, what exactly are you ignoring? Something you don't want to hear, the message that you or your writing may not be 100% perfect? Aw, too bad. Socrates always encouraged people to ask questions and seek the truth. Yes, I could be 100% positive about every poem on this forum from now on, but people would quickly figure that out, and think something like "Oh, Sack likes every poem, so I REALLY don't know if my new one is any good or not." You see the problem with that, MET? People do not naturally like everything.....you don't like every movie you've seen, you don't like every food you've tried, you don't like every book you've read. I'm not attacking any of the young poets here, if they perceive a question or critique of one line or stanza of their poem as an "attack", looks like they have a lot of inner turmoil or confusion.....LOL!! I steadfastly repeat there can be a successful marriage of positive comments with genuine questions/observations about a poem. Lauren Hynde, Wicked Eve, and Angeline frequently comment this way, as I do. If you just want to encourage new poets and are comfortable in that role, fine, but that doesn't give you free rein to criticize others' commenting techniques as inferior to your own "enlightened" method. As a matter of fact all of your posts about me reek of superiority, that is very typical of those that teach marital arts I notice. Yes, you are in harmony with nature, the stars, the planets, and have a direct line with The Maker himself! I'm writing it all down so you can see how silly it looks in print. If you want to be the self-appointed "helper" of those with all this inner confusion and problems like me, carry on.... I think it's extremely presumptuous myself.


The extremely problem ridden and confused "lesser" Sack

 

[Ninja Nookie]

Re: high strung?

That's the funniest thing I've ever read about myself, MET. In person, I'm actually very calm and soft-spoken. I'm sure my parents and friends WISH I was more high strung.

Your notion that I am full of all this confusion is also rather silly. The poetry forum was not exactly tranquil before I arrived, and if asking intelligent questions=confusion/ stirring the waters for you, so be it. Yes, I would like more give and take about poems, rather than the poetry forum turning into another of Lit's many mutual admiration societies. I've been very complimentary to young poets here, more so than many people who don't give a damn one way or another. So perhaps I am more of a "mover and shaker" then being high strung, which is a personality thing and really has nothing to do with the way I post.

I do not buy that people like Ninja could somehow just "know" by reading someone's posts all about their potential inner turmoil etc. My posts are always direct....have never used the "anonymous" feature for PCs as some cowards do. If someone wants to ignore me, what exactly are you ignoring? Something you don't want to hear, the message that you or your writing may not be 100% perfect? Aw, too bad. Socrates always encouraged people to ask questions and seek the truth. Yes, I could be 100% positive about every poem on this forum from now on, but people would quickly figure that out, and think something like "Oh, Sack likes every poem, so I REALLY don't know if my new one is any good or not." You see the problem with that, MET? People do not naturally like everything.....you don't like every movie you've seen, you don't like every food you've tried, you don't like every book you've read. I'm not attacking any of the young poets here, if they perceive a question or critique of one line or stanza of their poem as an "attack", looks like they have a lot of inner turmoil or confusion.....LOL!! I steadfastly repeat there can be a successful marriage of positive comments with genuine questions/observations about a poem. Lauren Hynde, Wicked Eve, and Angeline frequently comment this way, as I do. If you just want to encourage new poets and are comfortable in that role, fine, but that doesn't give you free rein to criticize others' commenting techniques as inferior to your own "enlightened" method. As a matter of fact all of your posts about me reek of superiority, that is very typical of those that teach marital arts I notice. Yes, you are in harmony with nature, the stars, the planets, and have a direct line with The Maker himself! I'm writing it all down so you can see how silly it looks in print. If you want to be the self-appointed "helper" of those with all this inner confusion and problems like me, carry on.... I think it's extremely presumptuous myself.


The extremely problem ridden and confused "lesser" Sack

SEE ... what I mean?