Question

In your opinion what about this site is worth fixing or adding and what is worth tossing? I have a million ideas that could make the site more appealing or even lead people to something bigger than the site itself. But they are onlynideas and I know I'm not the only the one. So share? Ideas anyone? Opinions?

Throw your ideas out here! :)

I think the biggest thing we have to brainstorm on are ideas that we as members can do, without making any technical changes to the site (or code). I feel like most of our brainstorming threads turn into another Janis to-do list :( Man, that guy sucks. lol

Honestly a lot of people around here can code and can do it so well. I wonder what itd be like if janis let someone else take over, it doesnt feel like the people with power care anymore.

But I think it would be cool if this site were partnered with self publishing or something. Maybe then it would seem more worth while and accomplishment like. I mean itd be hard but fun.

I'm not an active member but I keep tabs by reading the weekly newsletters and hearing from my daughter. I am kept apprised even though I am not here every day.

I love the site for purposes of a clear free avenue tonhave a voice, to find yourself, and discovering and improving talents as wellnas getting useful real honest feedback regarding your works.

The first thing I would suggest is the layout could be more profound or attractive to the eye. I know there are creative people who could make it pop, but the site itself needs to be more attractive because the first impression is usuallywhT people stick with. It may be vain however in a two dimensional world the first impression usually involves sight.

My second suggestion is partner some way with companies such as publishing houses and self publishing companies. Have them advertise on the site maybe editors publishers. Something like that to connect us to the next level if they chose to.

Next I would suggest a restructuring of the hierarchy. Just because you write 1000 poems does not make you apoet. Pewrhaps there can be a level of novice intermediate and advanced hierarchy so everyone can kinda find their own tier. I don't know much about those kind of systems but there has to be something so everyone can feel as though they are participating and being heard.

I think the fourth thing is daily or weekly inspiration or instruction on how to write a specific poem. To engage people in trying new things. Very brief and make it a weekly chakkenge that anyone can participate in. Much like some clubs going. Or it could be a personal challenge to inspire people in their own will.

An example would be: heres what a haiku is... heres how to write one... here is an example. Challenge, write a haiku. Not as a contest but as a learning experience.

I think that its too cumbersome to go through the genres to publish poems because sometimes it is a little difficult to chose and lable your own work. maybe the categories could be a little simplified or streamlined. This may be personal but people may have the same probl3m.

You asked for opinions so I thought I would offer mine.

These are great ideas.
Keep them coming.

Even members who arent active should help on this one, what would It take to mAke you active?

Not sure if this helps or not but:

I run a weekly title toss/prompt toss in my club. Just to toss ideas out for inspiration and to test our creativeness. If people want I can bring it to the main boards maybe weekly? It could be a simple grab a title and post a poem challenge. OR... Maybe I could do it as an open competition where I post the prompts on say a Monday, give everyone until Thursday to write and message me their poem, and I could post them for voting Friday, announcing the winners on sunday? Or something around this idea? The poems would be anonymous and anyone could vote by just messaging me a number of the poem they like best... Then everyone could be involved?

Not sure if this would help or not but it is an idea to toy with if anyone else is interested?

xx

Saffie, that's a neat idea and I've read poetry on here where it's been prompted from your title toss!

I really am in favor of a daily prompt challenge, where there are winners or voting, because that usually takes up a few days and can get delayed. Like Lovenut mentioned, it could be that inspiration outside of clubs... I know a lot of people have writing prompts within their clubs but if we made it more public then everyone could join in to at least get ideas flowing. We could share poems or quotes we make up right there on the thread so all can view them. Also, we could switch people to post weekly as whoever has an idea/picture/quote/form they want to challenge could share and there would be order.

Agreed Madison that hopefully inactive people can post their thoughts on here and what would benefit and help encourage them.

IMO, I don't think the "look" of PnQ needs changing, plus most of that would require coding right? I like PnQ for the simplicity. I've been a member on and off in the past with allpoetry.com, and it seemed too commercial, too impersonal and sort of flashy due to pictures you can upload and having different colors/backgrounds of the poem. This site focuses on the quality of the work. Sure, I'd say I'm a traditionalist but I personally am not in favor of font changing (therefore everything is kept uniform and anyone can read it easily) or colors... I do know the idea of italics/bold has been mentioned before which I think is a useful, humble asset to think about for the future (like centering poems was added a few months ago).

I know I used to love and host some contests in the websites/contest forum but I think right now some people have good ideas, but it drags on and on. If we could just due publicly, in the member's message forum, a daily prompt (or like Saffie said having a title toss, I miss those ones and there can always be something to spark up a thought) where even if we don't have a complete poem, we can at least post something. It doesn't have to be polished just ideas. And eventually over time maybe participation will build, but just starting on something small like that, daily and reliable, will help readers keep interest.

Personally too, I don't think changing categories for poems would have much of an effect. I am content with them and if there isn't a specific subcategory my poem fits under, then I am happy it can at least go under "other" of sad or life or such. Usually I do post in miscellanous and I have no problem with that. I don't think there may always be one set subject or meaning for a poem. If everyone could add and contribute subcategories I think it would overcrowd and take importance off of what matters: the poem.

I believe the design of the site has been discussed before. Some members were for changing it while others were against it. I'm a graphic designer and while the site may not be aesthetically pleasing for most, the important thing is the functionality. The overall layout of the site is not the best but it does its job, everything is easy to find.

Love Nut, I understand what you are saying. The traditional aesthetics of this site may not be as appealing as some of the more contemporary websites that are now popping up all over the internet. First impression does count but I recently designed for a website and the colour scheme was black, cyan and magenta. This is what the client wanted. Was it appealing and memorable, yes. Did I think it functioned to the best of its ability, no. The eye focused more on the design rather than the content and with a site like PNQ it's the content that counts. Maybe simple banner with some nice typography would be enough to draw in more members.

Again though, these are things we can't do without Janis. It's true others could code it but Janis hasn't showed any signs of wanting to hand over the tools we would need to do a lot of the things members suggest.

The idea of having weekly prompts is great and fun. The only thing that worries me is the lack of participation. A lot of people prefer to stick to their clubs and not venture out. Some members believe that the clubs are what causes inactivity on the whole site and I hope that those throwing out prompts and things don't get discouraged if we don't have a lot of participation due to these reasons. I think this is a great place to start though, it's something we can do without Janis.

Keep this rolling, I really enjoy hearing all of your thoughts.

I gotta say, I think the layout of PnQ is an eyesore. Can't stand the washed out colors, bland fonts, lack of pizzazz. It would be nice to change things up.

Keep the ideas coming- we love reading them.

Just thought I'd post here rather than open a new thread. Has the Children's Poetry section been axed? I don't have it listed as a choice anymore?

Personally i absolutaly love the site just the way it is my only problem is the amount of members there are i think we as members should reach out and try to bring more people to the site cause seriously when was the last time you saw over 20 members online at once? in my 2-3 years of being on the site ive only seen it go above 30 once. we should really help out the mods and the site by bringing people to the site

I never knew there was a separate childrens poems section

Under "Fun, humor" there is a section "for kids"

I'm pretty sure there was. I posted a few children's poems in my old account and it definately said 'Children's Poem' rather than 'for kids'.

EDIT

I've just had a look at a poem by Andrea about Frogs. If you look at it on her account it's listed as 'Funny" and yet, when you go into the sub-category it's listed 'for kids'. Why is that?

It's just like when you have it listed under "love", they make you pick a sub-cat... like "lost love" "lasting love" "first love" "I love you".

Some don't have sub cats, some do.

I think that's what you mean?

Yeah...I get that but on your account it would be listed as a love poem right? So, anyone who was into reading love poems would read it anyway. Now, if I posted a children's poem it would show up on my account as a funny poem whether it's funny or not...is that right?

Yep! So if you want to read childrens poems, you could go under the fun/humor section and then click the part (left hand corner) for children specifically... I think.

YES. I just checked:

Fun & Humor

Funny poems
relationships
for kids
about society
about life
tongue twisters
other poems
Funny quotes

So by clicking on the "for kids", thats how people could search for kid specific poems.

Who's going to go to all that trouble...I doubt I would haha!!! Bring back the Children's Poems Section please...!!!

Good luck on that, lol.

Do we still have our Janis honey-do list up here somewhere?

I think the mods are using the list as toilet paper...that's what I heard anyway :)

It means all the same, Janis clearly doesn't look at it, lol

Oh well....I'm glad the mods have made use of it!!!

We have a Janis Wish List rockin' in the mod room. Well it isn't really rockin'... it's pretty lonely without Janis... but it's there.

LOL

I saw he logged in in July (last I checked his profile a few weeks ago). It's really too bad he can't swing in and at least see how unhappy people are with his lack of... leadership?

Yes, I PMd him while he was logged in & got no response. A few minutes later he logged out.

I used most of the list to make paper snowflakes for my apartment. Then I mashed up the rest and used it in a gerbil cage! But don't worry, I have it committed to memory.

I think we really need to change the messaging system to instant messaging, it takes far too much time sending PM to another user and thus when receiving PM from others users its at time confusing who has sent a message (if reviving from more than 1 user)

Thought I'd post here again rather than open a new thread...What happened to this week's winner's thread? Don't remember it ever being this late.

Chelsey informed mods that she will be posting the results this week, she will just be posting them a little later than usual.

Thanks Mel...just missed it yesterday :)

No problem Hellon, hopefully they'll be up shortly!