Crisis? What crisis?

[Oskar]

PG is becoming more and more like Fort Zinderneuf every day. So many dead soldiers propped up against the walls!

We're a free association of individuals and are at liberty to come and go as we please. I know that. No-one is required to be monogamous with their poetry, of course, but having recently taken to snooping around other poetry sites, I have been greatly saddened by what I've seen. We seem to be haemorrhaging key members of our community to other comparable sites.

Why should that be, I wonder?

I write just for fun. I suppose that I must have literary pretensions, but they have never extended to posting anywhere other than here. I do understand that many, if not most, are driven by the desire to have their writing recognised by a wider auduence. Publication is an essential part of that equation. Well good luck to you and I wish you well. I am, however, greatly concerned that PG will no longer become the first port of call for posting poetry.

I know that my own contribution to PG is somewhat less than exemplary, but I am very fond of the place and am concerned that events are taking a turn for the worse.

Comments please.

[ray miller]

Yes, it does feel as if PG is dying, being allowed to run adrift. Why do so many people leave? When Pauline left a month or so ago, David pointed out, as he's done on similar occasions, that we (PG) are the good guys in comparison to most other sites. And I see what he means:I find it simple to use, the folk are mostly friendly,there aren't an overwhelming number of rules and my writing has improved no end, mostly a result of participating here. It appears to compare well to other sites in many respects.But not in numbers.Why so few people, particularly now?
We've 1200 odd members and maybe about 20 contributing on a regular basis. Maybe Oskar and others could tell me if this is how it is on other poetry sites; I've not visited that many.I've been on a few football sites, though, and one thing that's apparent is that the input from the Moderators on PG, with one or two exceptions, is pretty negligible. I know people have lives to lead etc. and I ain't meaning to be personal but persistence absence does nothing to alter the prevailing dynamic.
Like Oskar, I'm very fond of PG and should hate to see it fade to nothing - but that's what appears to be happening. So what is it that others feel we are lacking in? I'd be very interested to know.

[David]

Hi guys. Speaking purely for me, I haven't haemorrhaged (that's a bastard thing to spell) anywhere. I haven't posted anything, on any site, for a week or so now, but this is purely due to real life intervening, in that ornery way it has.

I have been popping on here from time to time, to see what's happening, and I've noticed that "not much" is the answer, and it's saddened my heart, but I can't do anything about it at the moment.

I hope to start gearing up again by the weekend or thereabouts so, if it helps, I will be back. This is home to me. It is the best place on the web, or that's what I think, anyway. (Poetry Circle is, I admit, full of very nice people and good poets, but it's just not home.)

So long as we can hang on to our key members, our stalwarts, we'll be fine. Oskar, Ray, you're both stalwarts.

So keep the home fires burning.

Cheers

David

[Ros]

I too am not doing the h word. If I write new stuff, PG will be the first to know. I'm just a bit distracted by lots of other stuff at the moment and not writing much poetry. I have been keeping my eye on a couple of other places just to see what's going on, and to get some different views, but this place is always home.

As to the 1200 members, the vast majority of members of any site like this are people who sign up and never post, or post a couple of times and are never seen again. Without wading through the admin I don't know how many real regulars we have, but it's probably under 50, and I think that's normal.

We get a lot of response when we do a comp - perhaps we need more regular features to inspire people? But my guess is that it's mostly real life getting in the way.

Ros

[nar]

FWIW, I pop by here quite often to have a peek around, even though I'm not writing at the moment.

When I do find time to write, read and crit again, PGW will be the first and only place I come.

- Neil.

[Marc]

Hi,
as a semi turncoat who has posted on Poetrycircle as well as here I would say I've looked around the web and believe these are the best two forums/sites out there. PG is my fav (you lovely people) but as I haven't written much of anything recently (and new stuff comes here first) I've simply posted up some of my old poems (that have already been read here) to reach a wider adience and garner some more thoughts/crits/praise (hopefully!).

I prefer the layout and functionality (aagh management speak) of this board as well as loving the quality of writing and folk hereto attached!

I do wonder whether we could have a featured poem/editors pick kinda thing - give us something to aim for (er, we have one but it's been fallow since last October...). I'm not volunteering of course and I guess therein lies the problem - real life gets in the way of these things and I fully sympathise with mods/editors for their hard work on poorly appreciated duties - thanks to y'all.

Marc

[Travis]

The title of this thread is an apt one - what crisis? Historically, we have always had periods of intense activity (by PG standards) followed by times when tumbleweeds rolling down the street become appropriate visual descriptions of the place.

This is not to say that such a cycle can't be broken or that we have no room for improvement (and by "we" I mean the active membership collectively), but rather that there's no need for extreme concern. And by "extreme concern" I mean a higher degree of consternation than what has already been shown. After all, this thread itself is just a natural part of our cyclic trough.

Oh yes, and Raymond Miller smells like boiled cabbage.

[pseud]

I have failed in this area, admittedly. I only left because my computer failed me, and when I got a new one I was heading back to school. I still have no business being here because I should be spending all of my time reading; still, here I am (er, again.)

It is a bit odd to see this phenomenon Oskar. I don't know what causes it, nor how to fix it, beyond active and relentless participation. And, as it's been said by many a member before me, critiquing other poems is the best way to learn how to critique and improve your own poems, so even if you find that you're talking to yourself in some threads, you're still doing yourself a favor.

[Oskar]

Caleb

It's good to see North American exotica, such as yourself and Keith, making a welcome return to PG. You give the place a different dimension and it's always entertaining to read Brian adjusting his patter to fit in with you lot.

PG can be great fun, but there are times when it's just not possible to be here or, there is the personal need to go elsewhere/ do other things.

I hope you intend to stick around, at least for a while.

All the best.

[brianedwards]

It's good to see North American exotica, such as yourself and Keith, making a welcome return to PG. You give the place a different dimension and it's always entertaining to read Brian adjusting his patter to fit in with you lot displaying exemplary levels of diplomacy and self-control in a spirit of trans-atlantic friendship.

Much better.

B.

~

[Oskar]

Brian

I stand corrected. Always a pleasure...

[Bombadil]

Fook diplomacy!

Well, speaking as a member of the North American exotica who has bled out the butt and burned out, I'm glad to be back. But I would qualify that PG isn't dying. Slipping into curmudgeon mode now: I remember when the board was largely comprised of kris, Arco, and I. That was dodgy, let me tell you. But then we picked up pseud and thatgirl and barrie and k-j and the harvest was plentiful. David came on, along with a good five other daves. Another good season. We had a pack of douchebags at one point, oddly contemporeaneous with my spin as a moderator (apparently the fuck diplomacy thing doesn't always suit). It comes and goes, but it always seems to rebound. Oftentimes the poetry of life is such that it cannot be written, only endured.

It is good to be back. However mutable, Poets' Graves is somehow also constant.

Cheers,

Keith

p.s.: Brian, I wish you'd been around to see my first "Cheers." It took a good year of anglophilic abuse to get me there....

[pseud]

I'm not sure cameron and nicky actually intended this place to be anything more than what it presently is: a place for a handful of poets to share thoughts and compare notes, sharpening each other's craft.