Change! It never comes easy, but is always inevitable. Poetry Soup has been doing things pretty much the same way for a long time. For many, this is a source of comfort. Nevertheless, change not only represents forward momentum, it can also bring many benefits.
Here are some recommendations for Poetry Soup administrators and members to consider:
1. Eliminate all peer sponsored contests.
Peer sponsored contests are problematic for a number of reasons. No need to go into details, since anyone who reads blogs can quickly spot the issues. Instead, I suggest monthly challenges that are open to all poets. Each month admins can suggest a theme and/or form for the monthly challenge. Anyone who wishes to take on the challenge can do so. There is no judging. Rather, five random poems from the challenge can be featured as POTD's during the month.
What are the benefits of this recomendation? Competition among members will all but cease. Everyone who enters will have a shot at being featured, rather than the current situation where virtually the same poets are being featured as winners in most contests. Other poetry sites have monthly (some less often, some more) challenges for their members. Time for us to catch up.
2. Develop a way for AI generated poems to be posted seperately and transparently. Anyone who wishes can enter an AI poem without fear of being "outed" or ostracized. AI is here to stay. Rather than fight it, we can accomodate those who wish to take advantage of this new medium and promote honesty in posting at the same time.
Benefits? No more angst in blogs on the subject, no more us vs. them. This change will demonstrate a willingness on the part of the poetry community to accept change rather than fear it.
3. Many poets enjoy posting short stories. I am one of them. I propose eliminating (or archiving) short stories that are currently posted seperately (and virtually buried) and instead expanding the character limits so short stories can be posted along with poems. In addition, it would be nice to have a weekly or monthly short story featured in some way, similar to POTD or POTW.
Benefits? We have some great storytellers on Soup, but character limits force them to post in the short story section, which almost nobody looks at. Storytelling and poetry are intricately linked aspects of lit, thus stories deserve to be acknowledged and featured.
4. To create space for stories, I propose eliminating "poem dumping," reducing the number of poems that can be posted by any one member to one per day. That's still seven poems per week, thirty per month. In addition, reducing the number of poems posted to just one per day will allow for each one's post to potentialy get more attention, since they will not be forced down the queue so quickly. Everyone deserves an equal chance to be seen.
Benefits? See above.
Over the years admins have made some positive and really cool changes, such as adding the audio feature, youtube, etal. While some may have initially resisted these enhancements, they are now generally accepted, even appreciated by most.
Comments are open for this blog and ANYONE'S opinion is welcome. However, personal attacks will be deleted. Please keep your comments on topic and civil. So that everyone who wants to can have a voice on these matters, I have temporarily unblocked the small handful of poets who were blocked. Fair enough? More recommendations in the future...
Tommy