Once upon a time there was a nodeshell called "Node your poetry". It just sat there, embodying a certain attitude: that E2 is a good place to "publish" your own poetry.

I disagree with this. Writing good fiction is difficult. This is why you're not a best-selling author. Writing decent poetry is probably even harder, because the meaning has to be condensed into a much smaller space, and has to follow a stricter set of rules. This is why you're not a published poet.

Writing a piece of factual prose, or even a chunk of opinion (like these paragraphs you're reading) is much easier. Pretty much anyone can do it, and given the idea(l)s behind E2, I think everyone should be encouraged to do so!

But: the vast majority of user-written poetry I've come across on E2 is self-indulgent drivel. (A lot of the professional poetry on E2 is still under copyright, and shouldn't be here either, but that's a different matter.)

So, I made a little writeup to go with the nodeshell. Under the title "node your poetry" it simply read:

Actually, no. Please don't.
This is a freelance nodeshell rescue with a subliminal message buried deep inside. Can you find it?

After about ten minutes, it had risen to a reputation of three (so some folks must have felt in tune with it), but three hours later, the whole node was gone. Poof!

I messaged a friendly Editor, asking what had happened to it, and the Editor told me that it was because the content was too short, and sub-par. Also, merely sticking nodeshell rescue at the bottom of a writeup is not enough to justify its existence. Fair enough. On reflection, I see that it was too short. It may have been pithy, but it didn't adequately explain anything. It was a single, unexplained exclamation mark in the nodegel. Low quality stuff. I agree that the node, as it stood, should have been deleted. Thank you to the Editor that did it.

So this writeup is now here in an attempt to explain my opinion in more depth:

  • Please think twice before noding a poem of your own
  • Please don't be offended when I downvote it. I'm willing to read lots of facts, opinions, and even dreams (when they're in the dream log), but I apply much higher standards to fiction and poetry.

I'm writing this as part of the day log, because even though this is a longer (and slightly more reasoned) opinion, it would pollute the nodegel just as much as the original one, if I were to create it as a "Please don't node your poetry" node. It's a thought for the day, so treat it as such, and dispose of it appropriately when you're done with it.

(At least here in the day log, no-one will look at it after tomorrow :-)