[Matt Q]

Originally Posted by Janice D. Soderling

The tag you googled forth is not the one recommended. Check out Alex's thread
http://www.ablemuse.com/erato/showth...ighlight=index

in staff announcements.

The thread title is: Revisiting Google protection for workshop threads

Janice, that's fantastic, thank-you, exactly what I needed to know!

So the big take home for me here is that all the workshop fora (met, TDE, and non-met) are already protected against indexing, and a fake title is all that's needed.

-Matt

[Janice D. Soderling]

I believe you need to include the "no index" tag at the top of the first post.
This is invisible to the casual reader, but I think it will appear in quoted material.

But as others have said, the whole thing is not that important as far as editors are concerned. Read the guidelines and follow them. If in doubt, ask the editor.

There are always new poems waiting to be written, should you lose one along the way. Welcome to the Sphere.

[Matt Q]

Here's what Alex said:

Originally Posted by Alex Pepple

First, all the workshop forums are automatically protected (Metrical, TDE, Non-Met, Translation, and Fiction). When posting there, there is no need to enter any additional protection code to prevent Google from indexing your poem or fiction thread. However, if you're posting in any of the non-workshop forums that are not protected, there is still a way to protect what you don't want Google to see by using the following protection code:

[noindex][/noindex]

Note that no value is required between the tags. Simply enter it exactly as indicated above as the very first thing in your thread.

Note, however, that tests have shown that this protection code only works on the first thread-page. Thus, if your thread is popular and begins to span multiple pages and you want the extra pages protected as well, send a PM to the poster of the first reply in each of the subsequent pages with a request to edit his or her post and add the protection code as the first thing in that reply. Alternatively, you may also contact the forum moderator with this request. Again, note that you don't need to do anything for workshop forums as listed earlier -- these protection instructions apply only to threads in non-workshop forums that you feel the need to protect from Google indexing.

[W.F. Lantry]

Matt,

I was just trying to say: this is not a thing to worry about.

It's rather like the infamous 'trolley problem.' Or those questions we got back in high school: "What would you do if you were stuck on a dory with four other people, and there was only enough food for three?"

I actually knew a guy who replied "What kind of god would stick five people on a rowboat with only enough food for three?" Sister was not amused!

But it's the same thing: we don't get stuck on dorys in the middle of an ocean, and when you see a trolley running out of control, there's never a plump gentleman standing handily right next to you. On the bridge. Right above the tracks.

Take a good look at editor's guidelines. Some are actually based on real world experience, and those are usually pretty practical. But many were clearly written in haste just before the journal launched, and have never been revisted. Some things are best honored in the breach. I don't know anyone for whom this has been a serious problem... and I can cite numerous examples of the opposite case.

There are other things to worry about in life. And I, for one, only have a limited amount of intellectual bandwidth.

Best,

Bill

[Allen Tice]

Caution seldom goes unrewarded, if not trumpeted. Oh, look, there's a bony gentleperson adjacent me pointing at a runaway tram. C U tomorrow!

[Ed Shacklee]

I've always assumed the kind of journal that cares about whether a poem has been workshopped at the Sphere or not isn't the sort I'd be rubbing shoulders with, anyway.

Are there, in fact, journals known to ban poems workshopped at online forums, and if so, which ones are they? My very uneducated guess is that the list is shorter than this thread.

Ed

[Allen Tice]

9/10ths of the ban-prone journals are those I wouldn't get into anyway because they have a stable full of Famous Warhorses and a barn of Milch Cows that they recycle. So, operationally, for low-lifes like me, they might seem out of reach anyway. And so it goes. But. . .

(Incidentally, band-width aside, there are people who regularly practice the kinds of "toss the plump gentleman" thinking dismisssed above, and sometimes they go to school to learn how to be most effective at it. Chess players do it. Famous military directors we think of as heroes have often done it, especially when having to retreat or when they engineer a feint or false front. Nowadays, the study of this psychology has gotten sophisticated.)

[Matt Q]

Originally Posted by Ed Shacklee

Are there, in fact, journals known to ban poems workshopped at online forums, and if so, which ones are they? My very uneducated guess is that the list is shorter than this thread.
Ed

Hi Ed,

Here's one:

Does Poetry accept previously published material?
No. We cannot consider anything that has been previously published or accepted for publication, anywhere, in any form. Work that has appeared online is considered to have been previously published and should not be submitted.

Sounds like there aren't many others that take such a strong position, but it would be interesting to know though.

best,

-Matt

[Michael Cantor]

Let me say this one more time before Allen hijacks the thread.

It is not a problem. What Nemo said, what Bill said, what I said (post #4). Matt, you're too good a poet to waste time worrying about this. I'm aware of Poetry's rules, and I also have the impression (from old discussions) that they're not really enforced. And if they are - change the title. Or dye your hair and change your name. The worst - the very worst thing that can happen - is that they don't accept you. And then you can blame it on the-rule-which-may-or-may-not-mean-anything, instead of simply assuming that you were rejected for one of a thousand other reasons.

[Orwn Acra]

It's not enforced at Poetry. At least not all the time. Wendy V. has had at least one poem which appeared on this board later appear in P. (I'm on to you, Wendy.)