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Whilst I enjoy posting on Expertscolumn there are several issues about the format of the webpages it delivers to viewers that make the correct formatting of poetry impossible. This article, an open letter to Expertscolumn, is a copy of a message I have sent to the Expertscolumn admin using the 'contact us' link. I'm posting it as an article as well to see whether other people on here agree with me.
So without further ado, here is the open letter:
= = = = = = = = =
From: Bruce Officer
To: Expertscolumn admin
Date: 30 May 2012
Sir / Madam,
Your website makes a point of allowing the posting of poetry, that being one of the category choices in the drop-down list when you submit a new piece, but there are two problems with the site that make it difficult to post poetry successfully.
The first problem is the minimum word count of 200 words. Many good poems are under this limit. There are good reasons for factual articles having a minimum word count - I can't imagine being able to say anything worthwhile on any factual topic in under 200 words - but poetry is different. The essence of good poetry is brevity - painting a picture with a few well-chosen words. The current minumum word count on the Expertscolumn website means one either has to pad the poem itself or add an often superfluous "author's note" to the bottom to reach the 200 word threshold. Could you please consider reducing or even abolishing the minimum word count for pieces submitted to the poetry category?
The second problem is the narrow column width available for text, especially at the top. For poetry, it is essential not to break lines of the poem across several lines of the screen, at least not more than a few times. The screen width available for the text is too narrow at the top of the page to allow that, with the black and green column on the right taking one third of the screen width then the adverts embedded into the text column narrowing it further. Would it be possible to only have embedded adverts down just one side of the text, so that lines of poetry don't have to be broken all the time?
I hope you will give these two suggestions serious thought.
Regards,
Bruce Officer
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Comments
Very nice points Bruce..Surely, EC will take these into consideration..
I can go for the "reducing the minimum word count", but I don't think abolishing the minimum count is possible. Just my own opinion..
Hope this will be resolved soon :)
So did I, but no sign of it. Hey ho!
I agree there shouldn't be a minimum word count for poetry I have also had this same problem while submitting some of my simpler recipes and had to add filler which I hate to do.
I agree....:)
Point well made. I hope the admin guys pay some notice to it! In the meanwhile, writing a blurp is the only thing that comes to mind. When I posted haiku's on Expertscolumn I bunched them altogether with titles and wrote a brief intro to haiku to reach the min words limit. cheers
Hadn't thought of those issues.. I'm about to post my first piece of poetry here so thanks for the warning!
Did you ever receive a reply? I understand quite well that ExpertsColumn wants pieces that Google would index now that Google is indexing articles over 200-300 words. On the other hand, I think ExpertsColumn would prefer a single short poem to a collection of twenty haiku.
No, no reply. I might chase it up. But anyway writing this allowed me to get it off my chest and make a few crummy cents in doing so!
Good observation. Perhaps grouping poetry into themes would also be a good way to meet the 200 word minimum. :)
Hope the admin will find a solution for this problem.
Hm yes. I think about that a lot. 200 is very much for one poem, but.... It is possible :) If you have inspiration, huge inspiration :)
Like others, when I post a poem. I tell something about what inspired that poem to stretch the post beyond 200 words.
Hi Bruce, regarding the minimum word count we all seem to have come up with much the same idea. I wrote a poem about Athens, which was very short so I preceeded it with a short article about the ancient city. I did the same thing with a poem about Dawn and this managed to reach the minimum with some helpful prose. I think it's not a bad idea to write something about the poem, or even explain it first, since many people find poetry obscure. As to the look of it, well I have given up on that one. If the lines are short they are set up against the margin and usually make it intact.
The best site for poetry is Triond because you can add pictures too. Unfortunately it is a very low paying site, but at least it is satisfying to produce it there. They have some nice encouraging people writing on Triond too.
I look forward to hearing their response.
Hope you get a positive reply, Bruce. Another way to overcome the word count is to write a little blurb about the poem as an introduction, then write a little conclusion at the end. This seems to work for poets on Wikinut. Good luck.
Actually you can use a paragraph to explain the circumstance leading you to write a poetry, and add a paragraph About Me.
In this way, you can have a short poetry, yet the total word count exceeds minimum requirement.
Good idea that, having an 'about me' paragraph. It still leaves the problem of the text column being too narrow at the top of the page. The poem itself should really come first but it gets squashed out of shape if you do.
I hope your request will be favourably considered as I also write poetry mostly less than 200 words, which is why, like rubyhawk, I added another similar poem. Also I agree with you that the original structure of poetry is not to be tampered with.
I agree with your suggestions. When I submit poetry, which is very seldom. I submit several on the same page. But I do like your suggestions better.