Alex,
Nicely done, and big thanks for all the work on this. I for one deeply appreciate the response to these concerns.
I wonder if you have considered doing the automatic permanent thingy that you have done with the workshop forums on Distinguished Guest, since the Bake-off, Deck the halls, and Master class stuff is all archived there forever. I suppose we don't want to hide all of the great conversations (Frostfest, Women in poetry, etc.) from the rest of the 'net. Meanwhile, it would probably be a pain to go back through those threads and put the tag in on top of every page of the contest threads.
What about this idea: two separate DG forums, one for discussions and symposia-type-stuff, one for bake-offs, contests, and master classes to which people might submit otherwise unpublished work. The latter could be protected from indexing, and the former left alone. It is tough, because I think of all the great discussion that emerged, say from Lee Gurga's responses to people's haiku drafts, or Rhina's DtH comments, or Rose's and Wilbur's sonnet comments, and what valuable resources such discussions could be to folks out on the net looking for insights; while on the other hand, some of us might be less likely to submit unpublished stuff again.
This is especially the case for a master class, in which participants are explicitly seeking critique on unfinished drafts, and in which the critiques themselves provide the launching point for the Master's instructional insights.
I don't know what could or should be done about any of this.
David R.
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