Oh, children. Back when poetfreak was not a name we cherished,
But the actual THING itself,
When this was not a prototype of all we’d loved,
And that dear playground none could leave,
It was free for all players,
We would comment as we liked,
Yet nary chatbox beckoned users,
Nor did folk post and wait for readers,
We ALL played and traded comments; it was not a soulless game.
There was no moniter below saying who was present
We just were, and many too, at that.
Now we’ve the ghost of bygone days tricked out to suit most appetites.
But what we truly loved is…Dead.
And we all know.
I’d finish with Ciao, but I’m not leaving, I just never have an appetite to hang out here.
Haha, don’t mind me: I’ve been living in a colourless world since early 2016 when my best friend gave up the ghost.
Share:
This website seems pretty chill to me. I’m not always on here, but I’ve received nothing but love even though the content I share is pretty far out. There’s a lot of talented artists in here – including yourself, and I think it’s fun reading what everyone has to share. I may not always comment but I do read what everyone shares and enjoy a lot of it!
Indeed it is. Which is why we cherished the original. I’ve never been one to embrace change, especially if I didn’t ask for alterations, and looking down the main page, some of whose posts were downright stale, I couldn’t help wishing for the former’s liveliness. That lies with us, though. Thus I’m hanging out here and commenting down the main page, glad I met you!
I share your exact sentiment. Just a couple years ago I got into writing music/poetry, and found this awesome website called PoetryWall. The community was tight and we all had interesting minds. It was sometime around January when the website just shut down. I agree that whatever chnage happened here – it probably wasn’t for the better. But at least there seems to be a strong community amongst some of the members here. Glad I met you too, you’re very friendly!
*shrugs*
I enjoy the interaction I receive.
I’ve made some lifelong friend’s.
I’ve shared.
I’ve learned.
I’m no worse off, than when I started.
All in all – I appreciate this site, those running it, & everyone that’s shown love for my word’s.
Thank you!
That’s good. I regret I cannot follow suit, as this site appears presently to become less and less user friendly as time progresses. Oh well. At least we can have fun here by halves. Thank you for your comment.
Most of what I write here is dashed off, with little editing. It’s a sort of a therapy. I sense a certain desperation here, a deep need to share with others of like mind. I keep hearing about “the old poetfreak” and can’t help thinking who cares? These collection of words will fade away like smoke, but the love and support that’s given, and hopefully constructive criticism as well is just good by itself. It will not shake the foundations of literature. As my old fart mentor likes to say: “Even the Sphinx couldn’t keep here nose”.
Huh?! Yes, to be certain “…the world passeth away and the lusts thereof, but he that doeth the will of God–” yet it’d be more appealing iffen tweren’t less and less user friend all the dang time. But, whatever. I’d actually been hanging out here that night this was posted…until the dang site quit working. Then I moved on, and haven’t been here since. But again, whateffer. Thank you for your comment and perspective.
I don’t know about the old site being that I only discovered Poetfreak this past year, but I’m happy that some have read my stuff and posted comments. I’ve read some great poems and have tried to reciprocate. Sorry if I’m not to up on following but I will try my best to respond to any comments and try to comment on other’s work. There seems to be a lot of good people on this site and I’m glad that I’ve made some form of communication with them.
That’s lovely. And thank you for enlightening me with your explanation since I mistakenly recognized your username from the former. Glad to know you’re loving it here. Hope you continue to enjoy it, and the souls you fellowship with here. Thank you for your comment.
Thank you for replying. Hope I can continue to post & at least get read. Before I came here, I just kept this stuff to myself, like I say on my profile I hope it’s something constructive. By the way there is one new feature that yes, I do find annoying, it’s the chat room icon that stays on the screen.
Exactly, the stupid chat icon virtually prohibits seeing notifications and doing aught else besides responding to the invitation to chat…sometimes with oneself. It’s a painfully annoying feature I endure with frustration.
I was a devout user of the old poetfreak from 2013 until i deleted my account in poetfreaks last days I mean up for hours into the night talking with my small group of friends and had accumulated over 2000 poems over two accounts by the time poetfreak went down. And yes i appreciate this site it got me back into poetry but it’s not the same The group of people that i had once had are gone, the constant new poems are gone and then need to struggle to keep a poem up and to get me to write more is gone. It’s really just like a disturbing shell of what we once had flaws and all But i don’t feel like i can leave until i finish what i started regardless of all of these unessassary changes I miss the charmingly simplistic old site regardless of all of it’s other issues
Yes, the former site whose ghost doesn’t even haunt these sparkling new corridors anymore was marvelous, to say the least, and what prompted my ridiculous assessment of “my home online,” which fittingly dissolved after my real home did. All the conversations via private messaging, all the friends and lovers, intrigues and what kept us going crazily for hours and hours daily, like freaky idiots–is gone. The name has been revived, but it mocks what we cherished. I don’t know why I stay, but I guess for the sake of the former. Thank you for your comment, which expressed it beautifully.
I think it’s because i don’t want to let the old die though the people that run it now i must day i question their motivation for some of the stuff they do.
Simply put, it hasn’t been created with the original intent. Aka Johannes Fosseus/Tom Coder or whatever his usernames were, was a geek who loved words and poetry, and we endorsed his vision, loving the world he crafted with his own hands.
Another vision is at foot here. There was forever a segment there who complained and tried to twist his baby out of order, making it allegedly more competitive with the famous allpoetry.com, but if you wanted that, just go there. So villains drove it into the ground and someone else with an eye for success revived it.
Problem is, aka Johannes Fosseus never had “success” per se in his eye. That’s why his site was so perfectly suited to its purpose and a world none else before or since knew.
Happens far to much when theirs changes in sites management
Exactly.
I existed on the old site, but I rarely posted and never talked to anyone, which is probably more or less what I’ll wind up doing on the new one. So with the disclaimer that I’m probably not at all representative of old poetfreak, I haven’t really minded many of the changes. The omnipresent chat (and, more to the point, the “PoetFreak Chat (#)” tooltip that never goes away) is a little annoying, though.
I suspect the lack of activity is mostly a product of the site being fairly recently relaunched, but I dunno. Maybe there’s more to it than that.
Now, the site I really *don’t* miss is poetry.com. Well, maybe a little, just for the entertainment value in how much of a hilarious train wreck it was.
Ya, I believe I recognize your user. You must have been a recent user if the only excitement was taking pleasure in the obvious train wreck it’d become thanks to that webwide attack of all sites with “poet/poetry” in their mention and then a singular attack of that free little world.
The idiotic “chat” option is annoying, to say the least.
As for traffic and the general quietness of this newer site over the previous, this one lacks a sense of the old, being only the same in name, site alterations twisting it more and more out of sight of the original until I cannot recognize more than the name, nor have an appetite to waste much time here. Add to that my own preferences having changed since then, whose haven’t, and then how do you at all resurrect what was when you never intended to do so?
Thank you for your comment and input!
Yeah, recentish. I think poetry.com had at least three different incarnations. The version I remember as a train wreck was the one with the blue logo that wiggled when you moused over it, points and badges (a.k.a. incentive to spam), and a bazillion and a half reposts of the same five poems by someone whose name rhymes with yuppie tan.
As for this site, I agree the new poetfreak has lost some of the old one’s charm, maybe more than that. And yeah, that chat thing is annoying me more by the day. I’m currently debating whether having it minimized or “closed” is less invasive, which is pretty ridiculous.
La dee! CAN we actually close the wretched chat option?! I”d do so in a jiffy if only I knew how. And it was always poetfreak.com, which label messed with people’s minds and left them either fleeing the site because they would not be allied with freaks, or else being weird cuz they were tapping into their alleged “freak” nature. Whereas I simply left the name to lie, never taking it seriously (which is my own error) and trying to reason with the leery that it was nothing. But it was never “poetry.com.” I don’t recall the exact user name of whichever bot worked successfully to bring the site down, but sounds from your memory you only knew it when it was on its last legs. I could swear I recognize your username from earlier, but whatever. Thanks again!
No no, “poetry.com” was an entirely different site. poetfreak—old or new—has never been a train wreck. I actually don’t even remember poetfreak being overrun by bots, but maybe I wasn’t paying enough attention in its last year or so. Sorry for the confusion!
The chat doesn’t really close, but you can click the “x” or the “—” in the corner, both of which make it smaller in different ways, but still pretty annoying.
I have since moved on from the debacle that was PF. A short stint at AllPoetry, and poetry.com, places I found that either ignored you or meddled too much in private convos.
I have posted some of my work here, just not feeling it.
Problem with “here” is it’s so damn impossible to accomplish anything. You must be checked and choked at every move, the chatbox pressed upon you when all you wanted to see was your notifications, and this other thing, this “who’s on now” and the lack of ease in just playing around as we did there gone, I almost hate logging in to even take a gander.
P.S. I’m on AP, have been since those first months on PF, but shortly finding it was keener on favouritism (in 2011), and the madness of users who had absolutely NOTHING in 24 hours to do, thus racking up enough points to be popular, I have a life to live and can’t find my way around there even now. If you want my username link there, let me know. (haha, or is it posted already in my profile here?!)
I’m hanging out at Hellopoetry these.
We’ll summon the witherall
and scale the cliffs so high
not woman, man, can be so tall
looking a god/goddess, in eye
Hahaha
Hello Jenny. You may remember me or you may not. I was here when Poetfreak was filled with battling trolls and the site was about to disintegrate. I remember our chats too. I see the site has changed a lot since I was here and I’m seeing a lot of poems that are months old. I’m wondering if there was a mass exodus or if people are just hiding?
By what you’ve posted here I can see my visit may not be a long one. Lots of changes and that chat notification won’t disappear which is quite a distraction. I’m also seeing lots of young faces. Perhaps my presence may be out of place. In any case, I’ll drop in once in a while to look at the wallpaper or something. I hope you’re doing well. 🙂
Thank you Tim. Yes, I recall you. Frankly, perhaps I don’t know how to communicate, but I do NOT endorse nor appreciate this reinvented version of the ultimate poetry site. But here it is. If you post hopefully I’ll not miss it. However, if you look at the dates on my work posted here you may belatedly realize I’m almost never here.
Nice to see you here! I hang out on Hellopoetry.com, whence I’d rather interact there. If you decide to return there, hit me up mebbe?
Either way, Welcome!
Oh, Jenny. I reminisce with sorrow, too. My dear home failed us all, the old poets hanging in shadows to write our hearts out. I’m sure you remember me. I was only 16 when I first found Poetfreak and I can thank it for saving my life. I message now only to feel some connection to that time.