Suggestions regarding MM, your feedback here please Options

[Cleo_Serapis]

Hello everyone!  :wave:

We've made many changes to our site since our opening in August 2003.

I'd like to hear your thoughts regarding our site (both the forum board and the home pages).

Here are some preliminary ideas I came up with to start:
[*] What do you like about MM?
[*] What do you think could/should be improved?
[*] Is our staff helpful?
[*] Can you contact us easily?
[*] Would you like to see anything different?
[*] Would you like to change your role here?

These are just questions to start you thinking. Honest feedback is most appreciated!

Thanks in advance!
~Cleo  :pharoah2

[jgdittier]

Dear Cleo,
Forgive my sloth in navigating around your well designed web-site.

I suppose the aspect that I like most here is the world-wide membership. That offers the chance to understand the status of poetry around the world.

As to improvement, I assume you want efforts doable by you.
The one that stands out in my mind is knitting this diverse family closer together, especially in that we're from all-over and our individual interests in poetry style vary greatly.
I find that I enjoy reading others' poetry and comments when I feel I know them more as friends than as just names. Knowing their thoughts about poetry help me greatly in commenting on their work in a way likely to be helpful to them. (I believe there are only two reasons to comment/critique a work and they are to prove the work was read and to offer comments that the writer will likely find helpful.
Knowing the writer's style I believe is critical to commenting/critiquing
so as to encourage rather than discourage him. We're all aware that this hobby has a tremendous drop out rate and should speculate on why.
My suggestion then, is find a place for each of us, if willing, to write of ourselves personally and to define where we are on the learning curve and our writing style. That would greatly help me comment to others and would hopefully eliminate my having to respond to suggestions that are inimical to my writing style.

As to staff and ability to contact, all is fine. Lori, you run a tight ship, no Titanic here.

As to what might be done differently, I again return to critiquing/commenting. I don't see them as separate in intent. For those who want other's thoughts on how to mechanically improve their poetry, I call it critique. However, those who have adopted a style removed from the mainstream benefit less from critique but still would like to know their postings are being read, and not only by peepers who read and run. Posting in Plato's produces little satisfaction.
In my opinion, I've not yet after 4 years of searching found a site where critiquing is adequately separated from nit-picking. My view is to look for the most admirable features and emphasize them. I know that when someone finds something positive to say about something I wrote (and it's detailed enough for me to know he read it carefully) I'm more likely to pick up a pencil than when my style is pointed out as lacking modernism.

I hope this helps,
Cheers    jgd    Ron