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HelloPoetry has a rating of 3.1 stars from 21 reviews, indicating that most customers are generally satisfied with their purchases. HelloPoetry ranks 9th among Literature sites.
It is an amazing place to share your poetry. All these comments about "Home Guard" are lies. Sometimes there are issues, but they are usually resolved within a week. It could be better, but everything can. Most of the people on there are kind, and Eliot York is doing a fine job of maintaining the website. I love it and it is easy to use. Definitely recommend. But also, I kind of wish it included an option to italicize within the website. But it's still awesome anyway.
I've spent some time reading the things that are called poems on this website, but I have yet to read anything that in any way resembles a poem in either substance or form. It's likely that most of the "poets" who post on Hello Poetry are high school students. This site is not to be recommended to people who take poetry seriously. For instance, one of the pieces on their "Front Page" is as follows: "i beg of you (in my heart of hearts) To please stop Asking me to A c c e p t the cookies."
My name is Ben Noah Suri & I've been on HP since the end of 2009. I left HP in 2015 completely disgusted with the sickness which affected it after 2012 but rejoined in 2017 primarily due to a few good poets who are found there.
Only those who have been on Hello Poetry since its inception or at least over the past decade will understand what we mean when we say, "Hello poetry is not as it once was"
In the beginning Hello poetry was a paradise for likeminded genuine poets but then came the riff-raff in the guise of poets. Just as the Hippie Movement was destroyed by fake Hippies so too Hello Poetry has been destroyed by Fake Poets who throw some money to the Promoter and are therefore allowed to do as they please without any checks and balances. Their intent is not to write poetry but to play politics, indulge in illicit relationships, threaten and bully others, form coteries and expect their groups to reign over others and remain loyal to them, sling mud on all those who speak the Truth or oppose them, etc
This may sound rather pessimistic and discouraging to the newbies who join Hello Poetry but that's the Truth and we just can't sweep the Truth under the carpet.
My presence on Hello Poetry in spite of all the negative things happening there and the dysfunctional technology which hinders me speaks volumes of my love for poetry...
Speaking of Technology I must say that it takes me more time to post a poem here than to write one. Notifications don't work and you are greeted with "502 Bad Gateway" whenever you try to post a poem. The messaging feature on Hello Poetry does not have a delete option and anything shared as a Private Message will remain permanently for the Admins to read. Since I have nothing to hide I have not been overly worried about this but I warn romantically inclined poets to beware of using this feature.
I also suspect that only those who donate money are allowed to reach out to a wider audience and guys like me find my posts are throttled and choked off. I'm quite sure that some software is being used to do this. The message is quite clear, "Toe the Line or remain Unread".
Messages sent to the Administrator cum promoter Elliot York are never responded to, by him. I'm sure the money he has collected as donations from fellow poets would be sufficient to create 5 or 6 such sites with better features.
The Admins here expect us to support this site but we poets are mostly broke and live a hand to mouth existence. Expecting poets to fund the site is rather futile on the part of the promoter. If he really wanted to make money from this site he should have created a site for billionaires not for poets...
Ben Noah Suri
Tip for consumers:
Join only if you are willing to face and overcome all the trials and hardships you will encounter there.
Products used:
I only used the free service for poets to share their work
The guidelines are simple. Be courteous and respectful. Harassment or abuse not tolerated. No spamming or posting of overly obscene or hateful content.
The problem is that Eliot York or designee will not help if you are harassed or abused. You will never get a response to a complaint. Because of that a group of members who call themselves the Home Guard, have developed their own rules not stated in the guidelines. If you then get caught breaking their undocumented rules, the Home Guard will come after you with extreme harassment and abuse in the form of hateful poetry directed toward you and grapevine gossip hate via private inbox messages designed to defame your profile name. User beware, never use your real name on your Hello Poetry profile. Even worse, several members use Hello Poetry as a dating site and if you break someones heart they could very well come after you with the power of the Home Guard clique should they be well connected.
Hello Poetry can be a fun something to do for years if your keep your relationships with others on the runway and stay away from getting involved via private inbox. There are several members with real problems on this site which can and does result in cruel behavior.
Good luck, not even I know all the undocumented rules of the Home Guard and I have been a well respected member for years watching a variety of good poets be defamed and run off the site for I don't now what. If the Home Guard wants you off they will make up stuff to do it.
It's a user-friendly site with some nice features like collections, trending and re-posting. But it goes through phases of "trouble" between members and is currently invitation-only if anyone wishes to join. A number of writers have been hacked and a small group of prima-donnas block anyone they see as a threat or talent greater than theirs. All a bit bizarre. But if you like drama, it's the place to be, along with Allpoetry and writerscafe. Oddly enough, most of those who cause drama are also on those sites.
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