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A Workshop Environment
This is a thought exercise and my personal opinion, not a proposal and will never happen. If you must panic, please understand I will mock you for it.
Some time back we had an unlimited posting to the Stream at Neopoet.com. You could join one day and dominate the Stream with hundreds of poems. Over time the issue was reviewed and a single poem in 24 hour limit was put in place. You could still post unlimited poems to the forums, but to the Stream only a single poem eah day was allowed.
It should come as no big surprise that I was a huge proponent of the limit and remain an avid fan and if you care to know why, feel free to read my previous blog entries as I will not cloud the issue here.
As Neopoet.com has grown I've begun to think even one (1) poem a day is too much. If this is a workshop environment and we have hundreds of poems posted in a single day, where is the workshop component? There's a display component but the workshop component get's lost in the shuffle and the vast majority of comments are of unbridled and unsupported praise.
The may do wonders for people egos but is it making them better writers? That is, after all, the stated goal of a workshop, to make you more proficient, not more prolific.
This brought to my mind an idea that would force people to offer critique. It goes something like this:
When you join Neopoet.com you get 5 posting credits. Each credit allows you to post one (1) poem to the Stream. Forum, Short Story, and blog posting would be unaffected.
You can only gain posting credits by offering solid critique. If it is praise it must explain why you are praising it, what was good, what worked, etc. If it is criticism, you must explain the basis of the criticism. Each critique you offer has the potential to turn into a posting credit but that decision is made by one of the many pre-defined three (3) person teams consisting of Advocates and any decision must be unanimous. Non-unanimous decisions are referred to the AEC for review and decision.
What does this do? Quite simply it forces us to read a wider variety of poets and forces us to consider real praise and forces us to learn to give critique and forces us to build a stronger community. Consequently it also reduces the number of poems being posted to the site and that, in my less than humble opinion, is a great thing.
Some people will decide this blog entry is a personal attack against them. These people are idiots.
Some time back we had an unlimited posting to the Stream at Neopoet.com. You could join one day and dominate the Stream with hundreds of poems. Over time the issue was reviewed and a single poem in 24 hour limit was put in place. You could still post unlimited poems to the forums, but to the Stream only a single poem eah day was allowed.
It should come as no big surprise that I was a huge proponent of the limit and remain an avid fan and if you care to know why, feel free to read my previous blog entries as I will not cloud the issue here.
As Neopoet.com has grown I've begun to think even one (1) poem a day is too much. If this is a workshop environment and we have hundreds of poems posted in a single day, where is the workshop component? There's a display component but the workshop component get's lost in the shuffle and the vast majority of comments are of unbridled and unsupported praise.
The may do wonders for people egos but is it making them better writers? That is, after all, the stated goal of a workshop, to make you more proficient, not more prolific.
This brought to my mind an idea that would force people to offer critique. It goes something like this:
When you join Neopoet.com you get 5 posting credits. Each credit allows you to post one (1) poem to the Stream. Forum, Short Story, and blog posting would be unaffected.
You can only gain posting credits by offering solid critique. If it is praise it must explain why you are praising it, what was good, what worked, etc. If it is criticism, you must explain the basis of the criticism. Each critique you offer has the potential to turn into a posting credit but that decision is made by one of the many pre-defined three (3) person teams consisting of Advocates and any decision must be unanimous. Non-unanimous decisions are referred to the AEC for review and decision.
What does this do? Quite simply it forces us to read a wider variety of poets and forces us to consider real praise and forces us to learn to give critique and forces us to build a stronger community. Consequently it also reduces the number of poems being posted to the site and that, in my less than humble opinion, is a great thing.
Some people will decide this blog entry is a personal attack against them. These people are idiots.