The PoetBay forum should be avoided

[CalebPerry]

If you are thinking of joining PoetBay, you should reconsider. For those who don't know, PoetBay is an unusual forum that uses non-standard software. You post a poem, and people can leave comments on it, but the comments are in smaller type, and the posts are not stacked vertically as they are on a typical forum. People rarely leave real critiques, but only short messages in these comments. PoetBay is really a place where you can put your poems on display.

But this is not the reason you should avoid it. Isabelle, the owner of the forum, is a jealous and petty person. She runs the forum as her personal fiefdom, and she has been known to cancel members’ accounts for no apparent reason. That happened to me. I had a quarrel with someone in private messages, which we then took to regular emails. Our quarrel was completely private; but then, the next day, we both had our accounts cancelled. It made no sense since we were both following the rules very carefully. We suspect that Isabelle had read our private messages, although she denies it.

Just a caution ...