Talking about poetry boards makes me wonder what really would make a good one, if started today from scratch. For example, I prefer PFFA’s software to any other. I prefer Gaz’s former single forum for all poetry setup. I like a mix of newcomers and oldtimers, form and free. As few rules as possible. Many styles welcome. Discussion encouraged. Arguments allowed.
The closest thing to this currently is the Gaz. But there have been a lot of poets who have fled the Gaz over the years because of various political power plays and general goofiness. Other forums, though, simply don’t get the traffic, other than PFFA and Erato–and both of those forums have been damaged, perhaps irrevocably, by high-profile abuses of power.
In a previous comment, I mentioned to Howard that perhaps the status of the online poetry forum has reached its maturity. Perhaps it was a boom time and now things can settle into a slower period. Or perhaps it was a fad, and now things will simply die.
If all of the best and brightest from every board got together, I bet that something amazing could come of it. It might be nuclear war rather than a great poetry board, but it would still be amazing.
I think most think of the gaz as the best board, but when i tried it a couple years ago, I felt all the joy had been sucked out of poetry.
otherwise i do the poem-a-day forum on Inside the Writers Studio occasionally (like now) and also visit Desert Moon. Both of those have their faults and failings, but if you know why you’re going there and what for, it’s good.
I signed up at some point for PFFA but found i was too dull to negotiate all the rooms and topics there. too complicated.
There definitely is a point where you think it’s all for naught, and go back to your own study to write by yourself. I often found that once I floated a poem on a board, even if it was criticized and all the weak bits pointed out, and I revised and re-posted, most readers still preferred the original version.
I also like the sound thing, but unfortunately don’t have that feature myself on my computer, so I’m feeling very old-fashioned and out of it.
Hey, Sarah.
Oh, yeah. I hear you on the joy-sucking thing. I honestly don’t think I’ve ever recovered from the crash I suffered a number of years ago. I ended up unable to write, unable to care, for a couple of years. I’m in a mini-crash right now, but it’s not nearly as dire. And I like talking about theoretical solutions to what I think are some of the problems in poetry today.
Thanks for your input.