Oh Janice! I was meditating and thought others might like to join in. It's not meant to be a court of law. I was merely starting a discussion. A pleasant discussion. Where did all these police officials come from?

Roll with it , baby!

Roll with what?

Actually, the way this well-intentioned thread developed kind of proves my point.

Duh.......

Well, this is a difficult sort of thread to step into. Some sort of behavior or habit in critique is being criticized or questioned, and the criticism is in the guise of a discussion about critique in general, although there are hints that it's really about (or was at least prompted by) something recent and specific, but I'm in the dark as to what that was.

To discuss anything sensibly, with a view to correcting what's wrong, we need examples. If there is a recent example, let's point to it. If that's awkward or embarrassing to do in public discussion, let's take it to PMs--with copies to me, please, so I can do something if needed.

Maryann,
I really did mean it as an introspective interrogation. A personal philosophical discussion about the nature of intruding into the work of other people. Nothing more than that. It may be that this is too far outside the square. I don't expect any conclusions to be reached. merely a bit of pleasant back and forth. "Wrongness" isn't in my mind. I don't know what is "wrong" and I have no complaints nor examples of bleeding corpses.

My surprise at seeing so many responses so quickly appended to what is (forgive me) a rather unfocused and uninteresting rehash of so many similar discussions we've had over the years is mitigated only by the fact that nearly half of those responses have been by Janet herself. Are we really ready for another Critiquing Etiquette war? Even when we all already know how the ones who will compound the postings feel about this issue? Please don't tell me this thread will end up being three pages long. Please.

This thread will end up being three pages long.

At least.

Sorry, Chris.

No it isn't meant to be about Etiquette or criticising as such. It's an abstract sort of discussion and I wish I hadn't started it.

Why did you join in Chris? No don't answer it. I'm out of here.

Well, if I may pipe in on this one, I have recently posted 1) a piece that was pulled from Metrical, rightly so, because I said "this is not a poem yet, I am just looking for feedback" and then 2) I posted a poem on the non-met board that received a lot of feedback, on and off-board, and a lot of it pointed out what was lacking. I appreciate this direct feedback, and I hope I responded directly to every crit, either publically or by PM, to let people know I can take it and I encourage straight talk. I've been watching this board, and I have seen newbies who couldn't take it, and I have seen folks push through all the weird dynamics here, and become valuable contributors. I don't like to hear that "cruelty can be fun." It has taken me a long time to get brave enough to post my work here, and if I thought people found fun in cruelty, I would have stopped paying attention to this board a long time ago. Janet, I am surprised to hear you say that. Publically, I must say it makes me as a new contributor very uncomfortable.