Why is submitting poetry so different from stories?

[JUDO]

I have just submitted my second poem to Lit and I'm getting bugged.

Why are the only categories 'erotic' and 'non-erotic?'

Why isn't a description allowed?

Why can't we submit a text file or a word file or an .rtf (rich text format) file, like we can in the story submissions?

I, for one, would like to be able to include a brief description for the poem, besides just E or Non-E. If we really need to keep that around, then how about something like this in the description field?

I Want A Girl - Non-Erotic: lesbian romance

Poetry covers different areas of interest just like the stories do. Certainly they have a narrower audience (largely because there are not enough poets in the world who communicate with the "man in the street"), but that's no reason to lump them all together. Is it?

What do you guys think?

- Judo

 

[NobodysSquirrel]

I agree!

JUDO,
I agree with you 100%. I have submitted a few poems my self and i found it very difficult to classify my poems as either "E" or "Non-E". Also it is a wonderfull suggestion to allow breif desriptions. That might actually bring in more readers to the poerty side of lit. Unfortunately poerty dosnt get the kind of exposure that short stories recieve. I have yet to submit a story so i am unfamiliar with the "word file" option that you made a reference to. Over all i think its a great idea and i hope that in the future that will be an option for all of the poetry authors out there like my self.


love
Squirrel

 

[KillerMuffin]

The reason you don't set poetry in as a .rtf file is that it has to be formatted HTML anyway. Nothing you do to format the poem, like put extra spaces in front of lines to make them stand out, will transfer over anyway, so there is no point in saving it .rtf and submitting that way. I would suggest you drop by www.htmlgoodies.com to learn some interesting ways to "shape" your poem if that's what your .rtf aim is.

As for the other, people actually read the poems without being asked? I had no idea.

 

[cymbidia]

I have a tough time with the Non-Erotic vs Erotic division in the Poetry section, too. None of mine are actually, classically Erotic but all (but one) contain some images and/or language that preclude them from any claim to a place within the hallowed halls of the Non-Erotic.

So, i've stuck them in the Erotic section, no doubt disappointing people who come there looking for something that my poor little guys are not.

I'd like to see a poetry division specifically for BDSM-themed poems, quite frankly. There's *certainly* enough of them to warrant thier own category.

 

[JUDO]

Categories

KM -

Well, think about it. How many poor scores and poor feedback would our stories receive if we only had Erotic and Non-erotic story categories?

The readers who want to read Incest or Loving Wives or Lesbian would have a lot of stuff to plow through to find one. Therefore, the disgruntled reader would likely not only rate the stuff heinously, but likely leave the site, never to return-too frustrating.

I think the Poetry section suffers because of this. I believe that more readers would entertain reading the poetry if it catered more to what they want to read. But with the way it is currently set up, how can they? There are no descriptions, no reviews, no categories...just E and Non-E.

- Judo

 

[Laurel]

Why are the only categories 'erotic' and 'non-erotic?'

This is problematic, as the poetry does not neatly fit into the same categories as the stories. And those who read poetry are not doing so for the same reasons as those who read stories. For example, I've never heard anyone say, "Boy, I'm a big fan of those anal poems," or "I would really love an incest poem right now." People enjoy poetry not so much based on the specific subject, but on how it's presented.

So the question becomes - how to categorize them? By meter? By type? To be honest, my knowledge of poetry is not my strongest feature. I know a sonnet from a haiku (one's three lines, the other has a bunch more lol), but I don't know dada from free verse. And frankly, I'm not sure all that submit poetry do either...nor do, I venture, most readers.

That said, I am open to any ideas on categorizing poems to make them easier to find,

Why isn't a description allowed?

When we added the poetry category, we asked some poets about a description field and they all told us that it was unnecessary. I'm definitely open to hearing what you and others have to say on it, and if it's something that you all think would be helpful, I could look into getting that implemented.

Why can't we submit a text file or a word file or an .rtf (rich text format) file, like we can in the story submissions?

Actually, we requested that feature from our programmer months ago. Why it still has not been added is beyond me. (Probably got buried in the mound of script improvements we shovel his way every day, lol.) I will check on that for you and hopefully have that implemented as soon as possible.

In the meantime, if you have a poem you are dying to have published that requires special spacing, you can 1) email the poem to me as an .rtf or .doc, then 2) "submit" a poem through your profile, then in the text area of the poem write "poem submitted via email".

 

[JUDO]

Yes! and Unclear

L-

Yes! Add descriptions!
Yes, I would love to be able to submit a text description for each of the poems submitted. Aside from having defined categories (which can be problematic) I think that brief descriptions would be really helpful for the readers.

In this way, they would get a clue as to what they are about to read and have a less likely negative reaction (What the hell? I wasn't in the mood for humor!).

Unclear: Erotic vs. Non-erotic
And, it would be additional information without getting rid of the two categories. Although, I must admit, I don't have a great working definition of what constitutes Erotic and Non-erotic.

When I think of erotic, I think of literature with novelistic tendancies, like the works of A.M. Rolequaire or Anais Nin containing descriptions of an act of sex. And non-erotic would be that which is not involved with acts of sex at all.

Unclear: Clarification Needed
I know that I have probably read this somewhere on the site (likely in the FAQ section), but what is the format that is really used in the final postings? Html?

If so, can I submit all my stuff in .html format?

And, I know...no funny stuff that only runs with Windows or only on linux, right?

- Judo

 

[Weird Harold]

Re: Yes! and Unclear

Unclear: Clarification Needed
I know that I have probably read this somewhere on the site (likely in the FAQ section), but what is the format that is really used in the final postings? Html?

If so, can I submit all my stuff in .html format?

And, I know...no funny stuff that only runs with Windows or only on linux, right?

- Judo

The body of a poem or story is "table data" within a preformatted HTML page. (Click View/Source in IE5 or save a page and open it as a text file.)

On the story side, you can include HTML tags but not "submit in html" because what you submit has to work within the confines of a standardized format to maintain the "look and feel" of Literotica.

Since there seems to be less processing of the text on the poetry side, I'd guess that you could include HTML tags there as well.

 

[JUDO]

Cool!

WH -

Thanks.

Your encyclopedic grasp of trivial knowledge never ceases to amaze.


- Judo