Well, I've done it now. I've gone and quit the ole workshop.
And it feels right - it feels good.
Workshopping can be a very valuable tool in the right hands and at one time I learned much at Eratosphere - but that time is gone and those days are past and the current state of affairs leaves much to be desired in that particular place.
I hope for those remaining that the problems there are resolved quickly. I'm just not sticking around to the bitter end even though the end is probably not very far off.
Sometimes the center really cannot hold.
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Do those chuckleheads at Erato know what they're losing? Why do I bet they don't?
Well, I presume so. The Lariat Emeritus said, and I quote, "Ave atque vale, Lo. I shall not miss you."
Unbelievable.
My experience has been that, after a certain time, all boards, w/o exception, resolve themselves into a state where posters only welcome people like themselves, and the principal requirement, the sine qua non, is, Don't rock the boat; don't tell us we are not who we think we are. That's not all bad; a sense of community can be an end in itself, I suppose; but it is not conducive to accurate judgments and good poems.
It's a place where I go to read occasionally, but I've not been tempted to post there. I'm not denying its value, but it's not for me.
I joined Eratosphere for a month or so and all it did was make me hate the poetry I was writing even as it sucked up hours and hours of precious time posting comments to poems I really didn't care for. In the end, I felt as if I'd gone through some kind of Freshman hazing at a British Public School circa 1895.
I have just been given a life ban from this site for objecting to belittling critique on a poem I know was pretty good. They seem to preen themselves with a star general ranking system and expect everyone to stay smartly in line. Its a bit like joining the poetry army. Luckily I have been writing for some time and had enough confidence in my work to be critical back. This is unusual for me as I am normally a very laid back person. I don't think eratosphere have an appreciation of good metaphor and they seem to be bogged down in poetic regulation of there own making. I feel sorry for the position they put themselves in which is to a degree counter to the whole essence of poetry. Pseudo-intellectuals are in my experience the most difficult of people to argue with. I attend classes at the London poetry school who have very accomplished teachers and I have made a lot of very good friends there who are always happy to read and critique what I write so eratosphere's life time ban is very welcome now I know what it is like. I very much sympathize with what others here have said. Don't let it put you off poetry it is a fantastic medium for art and expression. Poetry by its nature is very subjective and means different things to different people. Tim
Ten years later, now 2018, the place has shrunken to a tiny handful of well-behaved poetasters. The good old days when there were loads of them and they would brawl and be their natural hateful selves are over. Politesse has set in, not a dissenting voice remains, and you could find more stimulation in a graveyard.
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