just how many writing sites........

[WIREMAN]

....does it take to satisfy your hunger?........since litkicks went on vacation, in more ways than one, I've wired-ly run the gammut......S8...AC....DARC....LitKicks...PIB....IWG....
Haiku Hut.....Spirits......BMD.......T&M.....Chaikhana...Scroll......Zoetrope...Literary Escape...there's more

[Rat Bag]

Not many.

Just this one and a quick sneak-a-peak into AC every now and then.

Went to DARC once but never got wrapped up in it.

Checked out Tortured Jester's place that he invited us all to via PM but the colour scheme did my head in.

I'm content here. Doesn't seem to be as openly communicative as AC (somewhat ironically) but a cool and inspiring enough bunch of people and I need to learn how to hold my tongue anyway.

[abcrystcats]

Just AC and this one. I visited DARC a few times but couldn't get into it.

I occasionally go to ezboard's The Round Table and one or two others, for conversation. They aren't poetry sites, but there are some interesting debates occasionally.

I never visit Litkicks anymore, except to get a laugh at how few people visit Litkicks anymore.

Conversation is the hub. If you don't have it going on, the participation dies down on all fronts.

I'll try some of your suggestions, Mark, but what are PIB and IWG and BMD?

[Doreen Peri]

I've always frequented several sites during any given era of my internet "life". But I can't keep up with more than 3 or 4 on a regular basis. Some of the sites I've spent time on aren't about writing at all.

Currently, I come here (of course), I go to AC, I stop by judih's thistle group, and I stop in over at darc on occasion. I also occasionally stop by a site called libertyunites and another one called the druge forum, but my sole purpose in going to those two places is to follow LR around and try to find out who he's flirting with. LOL! I'm totally not into either of those sites.

As far as writing sites, I'd really like to have some links to some because I haven't been writing much lately and (I know this might sound strange), I feel sorta peculiar writing right here at S8 (except during the word jams). I donno why. Maybe it's because I created the site and I donno.... I just feel uncomfortable with it.

I miss the wide open feeling of the old litkicks where I felt very comfortable exposing myself in public... heh... I mean, exposing my heart and soul and spirit with words. Why was I more comfortable writing over there? I have no clue. Maybe it will change for me and I'll open up more over here.

[Doreen Peri]

Oh... and recently, I've been playing Scrabble at games.com. I've racked up 10 games now! Man those people play FAST! That's writing. Sorta. It's words. Does that count?

[WIREMAN]

.....I'm glad to have a bit of discussion about sites with you all, I'm a lil burnt from open studio weekend but have to respond now.....
this site , S8 that is, gives the most response back when you make a post fo any site at this time, it's cool over at DARC too, I've been jammin over there steady with some good folk, AC is a pleasure, and I am a D*O*S junky for sure.....Cat the PIB is poetryinbaltimore.com which is a site dedicated to uniting the poets of Baltimore and if anyone's looking for input this sure is the place, the key members love to give advice and creative suggestion
in a totally educated and honest way, I perform at many of their functions with my Raga Blues cohorts....BMD.....is Black Market Dreamers and the IWG is the insane writers guild out of seattle and I mainly post my poetry there on my own web page, not much give and take though. With regards to all of our old favorite Litkicks,
I still put some poems on the site once in a while and comment on some of the ones I like even tho there is an immense lack of spontaneity in the process, which to me is shocking, after what Action Poetry and that site had offered previously to a dedicated group of poets who sure were taking things to a different level. As we know all things change. All in all i'd say i'm still stimulated with the poetry writing world on the internet and will be continually searching for new venues.

[Doreen Peri]

Here's a site you'd be very interested in, oWiredOne!

http://artdc.org/forum/

I just discovered it the other day. Exchanged a couple emails with the webmaster, Jesse Cohen. Local DC artists pages.... hoping to hook up with some local poets and artists.

[Lightning Rod]

Internet bulletin boards are an interesting study in human relationships. and simulated societies. I have visited or participated in several dozen of them as part of my research into this subject.

Because bulletin boards are virtual meeting places, they begin to resemble real meeting places like pubs or town squares or lodges or churches. Or soap operas.

Behind the thin veil of a screen name, people feel an unusual willingness to reveal their true thoughts and feelings. Friendships and alliances develop and also rivalries and resentments. Some people you like and some people you don't. Just like in real life.

Small simulated communities are ubiquitous on the web. They are everywhere because of the convenience of the software. You can find people with any common interest imaginable. From blackjack to scrabble to trading stocks to hypochondria to nutrition to every flavor of sex and every fetish imaginable to anorexia to tech help and advice to politics to religion to music and poetry and art to lonely hearts clubs. People are out there talking 24/7.

Some of these communities are small and intimate; some get quite large with thousands of participants. You can post a question about a problem you are having with a piece of code modification in an open source software application and within five minutes, some geek in India or South Africa will have answered it for you.

When I was in high school, I used to look out across the cafeteria at lunch time and see this: the jocks sat at one table and the 'it' girls sat at another table and the nerds sat at another table and the greasers at another and so on. The loners even had a table. What drew them together was a common interest or sense of identity.

That's also the way things work in virtual internet communities. Birds of a feather flock together. And in each flock there is a pecking order. That's the way life works.

As in real life communities, when a place becomes more crowded it becomes more laden with rules and regulations. Politics becomes more important than prowess.

I have participated in internet communities which have been very helpful and expanding. There are also those that are simply a waste of my time. Some of them are just chat rooms or meet markets or little Peyton Places where small personal dramas prevail and people engage in posturing and grand exits and majestic returns.

I have been banished from communities on the internet, primarily for my twisted sense of humor and my excesses of candor. Recently on a board that I frequent someone put me on 'ignore'. I had to laugh. It reminded me of the way the 'it' girls used to treat the nerds in high school. Nose in the air.

The internet is just like life.

[Doreen Peri]

I have visited or participated in several dozen of them as part of my research into this subject.

LOL!!!!

heh.... you crack me up.

[Lightning Rod]

that's why you love me
'cuz I'm so full of bullshit

[WIREMAN]

ya got that O so right LRod,
I feel the best times have come from the real live affairs
we've all had, I'll never forget that night I arrived at Gallery Neptune and saw your grizzled self out in front with the
Litkicks gang, I don't need pictures, it's that clear in my mind,
so is that crazy hot day at Sowebo Fest.....yes the live times are the best and this cyber space adventure is for me a writing adventure with bumps along the way that becomes fodder for the writers continual passion play.....and by the way I forgot to mention judih's thistle and marigolds jam site where there sure is some quality.........and doreen thanks for the link............

[WIREMAN]

i'm laffing my ass off now the way this thread reads....i better quit right now!!!!!!!!!!!

[Doreen Peri]

hehe.... why leave? what's so darn funny?

Hey, Mark... I agree... it's the in person stuff that really makes the internet come to life but also the internet makes the in person stuff come to life.

It's been absolutely fabulous meeting so many people in person who I originally met on the net. YOU were one of them, remember? And now we are, when we can arrange it, in-person friends.

I wish we could find a way to do a regular show at a regular spot. A regular on-going open mic. The only thing I can think of is a house party. I actually thought about having a large studio room built on the back of my house where the deck is and use the space as an art studio and performance spot for poets ..... have regular open mic parties... 2x a month or something. I love this idea.

I can't think of any other way to make the in person stuff happen regularly but I'm trying.

[WIREMAN]

well we finally have the space here in sowebo, the old tell tale hearth bar and restaurant which is right around the corner from us,
a few buildings away from where we performed in May, it was the big topic at last night's sowebo artists party and i have a whole lotta time invested in the project already, there will be some cool poetry and music shows there for sure.........and art......

[abcrystcats]

Lightning Rod -- I completely agree with everything you said.

Now, tell me WHY there is so much denial of this phenomenon on the internet itself! These are COMMUNITIES, made up of real people. So why is it taboo to acknowledge that, the way you would in any village on the Asian steppes or any small town in the state of Iowa? I'm perplexed. I ask people for their feedback and I get the internet equivalent of blank stares and horrified expressions. I'm told, "It's up to YOU. " As if these were robots I was asking and not people. As if this was a video game and not human interaction. Please explain. It was acceptable for Sally Fields to ask this question at the Oscars, faced by television cameras and a personal audience of thousands. Yet, on the internet, it seems foreign and obscure and even shameful.

Doreen -- I think meeting people in person that you've met first on the internet is darn weird.

It makes me wonder how much important information I've been screening out. We've been trained to rate people on visual and auditory impressions, primarily. Now we have to learn a new way to evaluate them, because of the internet.

I've now had both experiences, and a few in between. A person I thought was way boring on the internet suddenly became fascinating because of my personal triggers. Another person I thought was absolutely mesmerizing on the internet faded to obscurity in person. And I've had a few experiences in between too. WHAT? What is it that MAKES a person?? I'd really like to know! The more I learn about people the weirder they appear to be. I have to admit that even a person who I knew well *in person* for a few years looks totally different to me in the internet context. So, how do you know that you know that you KNOW a person?

You know, both you and LRod sound so different to me over the phone than you do in my head. If I met you in person, D, I would have blown you off. Please excuse me for saying that, but I have certain triggers, prejudices and other things. They would have gotten in the way, and they would have prevented me from appreciating your fine mind, your gymnastic imagination, and your sensitivity and curiosity about the world. I would have missed it all.
I would have heard LRod's voice and thought "Southern" with a bunch of negative associations attached. I would never have known that he's an accomplished writer and a profound thinker. Obviously, my superficial realities are fucked up. But how do you KNOW what's real? The internet is just another window. How many windows are there? How many can we create?

It's just mindboggling. Now I'm wondering ... how well do I really KNOW my ex-husband? My parents? And so on. But I suppose I do know them pretty well. When I interact with them over the internet, there are no surprises. No major ones, anyways.

It still leaves me wondering how many human beings we quickly dismiss because of visual and auditory prejudices, and how many more we entertain needlessly because can't get right into their minds the way we ought to do.