WritersCafe.org

I've never used the website because I disagree with the Terms of Service:

Content Submitted or Made Available For Inclusion on The Service

Aresta Enterprise does not claim ownership of Content you submit or make available for inclusion on the Service. However, with respect to Content you submit or make available for via the Service, you grant Aresta Enterprise a perpetual, irrevocable, world-wide, royalty free and non-exclusive license to use, distribute, reproduce, modify and publicly display such Content on the Service.

You will be responsible for, and indemnify and hold harmless Aresta Enterprise, against any claim arising from any content that you submit or make available for inclusion on the Service.

So, basically, you still technically own the copyright, but you allow them the irrevocable right to use your work forever. It sounds scary to me. Unless someone buys the rights, I'm not giving them the right to use my work forever.

Aside from being a very poorly run site full of flakey webmasters and moderators, this is a bad site to belong to for any aspiring writer. At one time, it may have been trying to be something great for new writers' exposure - like SoundCloud or Bandcamp for musicians. But it is clear now from the abundance of scam literary journal requests that this is nothing more than a slightly more sophisticated version of poetry.com. It's a shame how so many websites aimed to help new writers devolve into this pathetic scam for paid compilations. If you're new to the scam, it goes like this...

I want to publish you in a new, beautifully bound, literary journal. All you have to do is buy the book!

See what I did there? For all new writers looking for resources online, I wish I could be of more help. Writerscafe.org might help you feel better about yourself for a little while, and perhaps you'll make a friend or two, but ultimately if you want to take this seriously, this site will cause more harm to your reputation than good.

Lololololo...as a cafe clown is known to say! Poor $#*!y Jenkins, pervert Emeritus! Rides to the rescue of his wayward 'poet' folk! You know that saying about how the truth hurts? Well, Poor $#*!y Jenkins has been outed for the closet pervert he really is! The simple fact is thus: Any female that joins this writing site bearing an avatar of any youthful semblance, is immediately accosted by this Richard Jenkins, who promptly plumps his $#*! on their writing pages and sneakily, in their private mailboxes. And why? To offer them his 'services' as a teacher of poetry, of course! *wink, wink*! Which, by the way, he'll happily come running to teach you if you are stupid enough to fall for his fake persona and 'charms'! And this from a total $#*! that thinks he is a Laureate of poetry simply because he writes, airheaded, pointless, boring, dull, soulless form poetry in...wait for it, wait for it...forms to WHICH HE MAKES UP ALL THE RULES! Now isn't that genius! Let's make up the rules of a brand new poetry form and show how good we are to all the babes! You see? Any idiot can look like a Poet Laureate when they are making up forms and the rules for such forms! And this is $#*!y Jenkins in a nutshell. An overweight, aged, online Casanova trying to seduce young women with poetry forms of his own creation...but only to teach them, of course! Lololololo. If you join this website, immediately block this $#*! of a man before he squats all over your personal page and tries to lure you into his clutches. So many, many, many, many young females have left this writing site, primarily because of the perverted, unwanted, puke inducing attention of this man. But of course, he'll deny. Don't even Catholic priests charged with sexual crimes do the same? He has been the subject of online investigation for the past three years in which the results are in the process of being collated, upon which they will be submitted to Federal Police for deeper investigation and criminal charges. We now live in a world, real and online, where women deserve to be protected and free of sexual predation. So the truth shall set us free. Richard Jenkins, Ladies and Gentlemen. Avoid him at all costs.

There has been much discussion here about judging the "quality" of writing on this site. Surely any reaction to poetic licence is purely subjective. But as I am unable to either write, or interpret obscure phrases, I write for my own pleasure, also hopefully for my readers and not catharsis, which does seem to be prevalent on most writing sites.
How does one judge the merits of those emotions, without knowing the individual and the reality of those miseries?. Perhaps this explains the paucity of reviews.
Contributing to this site, at least has introduced me to different styles, which, in turn has widened my perspective.
If you need a more formal critical approach, there are more academic courses run by colleges etc., which can be quite brutal, but not always meeting the less formal standard.of the enthusiastic amateur.

" Horses for courses" is the watchword here.
L

Just scrolled through a great number of the comments posted here. My guess is that the vast majority come from those who are either abysmally poor writers who have had their egos bruised, or simply have no real interest in the written word.

I write for my own pleasure only, but enjoying sharing my work with like minded scribblers who and are not part for the disease that seems to infect the whole of the internet, (the cloak of anonymity,) which allows the unpleasant and twisted mind free reign.

Perhaps no Robert Frost, or Emily $#*!inson will ever be discovered on Writers Cafe, but so what, as far as I am concerned it's a perfectly good showcase for us doubtless always to be amateurs; and as far as I am concerned, its detractors can simply crawl back under the rock they came from.

Beccy. Writerscafe.

I've been with WritersCafe since May 2015 and it has been a mostly positive experience. I should say until recently. There are some very thin-skinned people out there. There is a lot of teen-aged angst poetry and way too many mass shooting stories. I really hate zombies.

If you are active and read and review other members you will have a better time there. If you just write and think the world will praise your genius, well, you may be disappointed. I review more than I get reviewed, but that seems to be the norm there. Overall, I'm satisfied with the site.

The Good: The site is great for getting a feel for young talent and for posting your poetry. I'm not putting my books there but if you need a place to store your work and get feedback from other aspiring writers and poetry lovers, it's great!

The Bad: It's extremely bad! The site itself is constantly freezing up or taking forever to load its pages... Although it's one of the better designed sites, it takes great patience to be a regular!

What a wonderful site, I have written many stories and poems. I get very excellent feedback and they encourage me to get my stuff published. It is a great site for those who love to write stories, poems, and share their ideas. Not only that a good way to find a list of local publishers to try and get books published. You should really join this site. It is a lot safer then deviantArt, they take harassment, bullying, and stuff very seriously.

writerscafe.org is a perfect and encouraging venue for growth as a writer. It affords clients copyright of their writing as "published" and has every manifestation of writing genre available to writers who are keen to learn and progress in their art... There are many sage and professional resident writers who freely offer advice and reviews of work is invariably constructive. I would recommend writerscafe.org to any prospective writer or readers who enjoy a wide range of quality, written work.

I have used this site for about five to six years now and have read many poems from a variety of poets and exchanged many reviews. I have had a wonderful experience in general and enjoyed some very worthy poetry. I have found most people, like myself, wish everyone well and are courteous and helpful and supportive. Many I think of as internet friends.

Unfortunately the site allows a small number of people to send abusive reviews and when reported do nothing about it. Currently there is a guy who has multiple identities who has caused at least two good people off the site. He has also sent me abusive emails to my personal writing webpage and despite the evidence the Moderators do nothing. A similar incident took place in 2013 (could be the same person) and when I fought back through civil poetry I was given a warning. It took months before the perpetrator had his account closed down. His level of abuse is remarkable but then he denies sending them despite evidence in the email strings and the remarkable similarity to the language used in emails he can be identified in. This seems to me to break the law and yet he is allowed by the owners (who never acknowledge or reply to complaints) to carry on regardless.

Drifted in and out of WC years ago from 2007 forward, now at WC and also a Maryland based creative writing page full time (WC primary, Maryland based page secondary) as a refugee from a Bossier City LA based site formerly based in the Midwest and Subseuqently Texas. Am here due to a family tragedy in the summer 2013 that I am keeping as much under wraps as I can, (It is on my profile at WC, referenced) Have had very little trouble here. Possibly because I have not been sought after to do very much. I am after all a busy individual, as much, and more so off line than on. Thank you.