by the Read Write Poem Staff
You might have noticed that things look a little different around here. And you’re right: A lot has changed since yesterday. What a difference a day makes.
We now have participant profile pages, groups, forums, personal messaging, personal and group newswires — and other fun features that will allow you to get involved in Read Write Poem in new and creative ways. For a summary of the new features, check out this post: Bigger and Better.
Then go to the Help tab in the navigation bar to learn more about how to create your free member account and start taking advantage of all these great new features. We have detailed the basics in three easy steps.
- Step 1: Sign up for an account, get your bearings and set up your profile.
- Step 2: Learn about private messaging, your personal wire, the friend feature and ways to check out member activity.
- Step 3: Learn how to use the site’s forums (including the new critique forums), and set up and participate in groups.
Starting today, we also offer poetry-related content almost every day of the week. Take a look at our lineup, which we summarize in this post: The New Read Write Poem. The schedule includes a new monthly Read Write Prompt written by a “celebrity” poet.
What is a celebrity poet, you ask? The poetry equivalent of Brad Pitt or Angelina Jolie: a poet you would stalk if you could, because they have done so much in and for the world of poetry, and their work is life-changing. Just take a look at our first prompt (below) that we’re sharing today by celebrity poet Dorianne Laux. As always, we invite your feedback. So let us know if there are any poets you would like to see included in this series. We’ll do our best to stalk them cordially invite them to share a prompt.
wOOt!
Thank you, Dana & Andre, and to the entire creative team that has created a poetry-love-fest not to be believed.
Congratulations, the site looks wonderful and offers so much! Thanks for all you do
Yes, thank you Dana and Andre. This is an incredible project.
The new site looks great.But as usual I’ll be the last one to work out how to use it!Thanks for all your effort.
Looks great! I hope not too many headaches last night?
WOW! I love it.
Everyone, we have some issues with forum links from groups. I’ve only slept 4 hours, and Andre was up until about 4 a.m. working on the site, so we’ll be able to tackle that problem a little later this morning. Please be patient, and feel free to report any problems to us at info (at) readwritepoem (dot) org or by emailing us through our Contact Us form under About in the navigation bar.
Oh, and thanks everyone for being here. I am really really excited about it!!! (But also almost in tears from exhaustion.)
This looks great. I can’t wait to really explore it. Nice work, folks. Get some sleep.
Yes. Go rest.
i love it.
All I am is patient.
The site is gorgeous, and I hope you and Andre uncork some champagne when the dust settles. I’ve never seen anything like this out there, and I’m blown away. It’s a one-stop-shop for poetry.
I love Dorianne Laux’s prompt, and the poem she chose.
looks fabulous! i look forward to having some free time next week to explore. great job, everyone!!!!!
I jumped right in and now trying to find my way. However, I know I have esteemed company!
Remember Gautami, there’s always the help button at the top of the front page if you need it or just ask a question here.
Hi folks! I’ve temporarily disabled forum posting from the group profiles. For now you can post to them by clicking on the “Forums” tab at the top of the page and selecting your group forum.
Thanks for being patient with the typical launch day issues!
Help! It won’t let me in! I filled out all those question/answer things and clicked continue and it said something would appear in my inbox or email or something…so far nothing has appeared. What did I do wrong?
Joyce, have you checked your spam folder? Sometimes the notification email goes in there, depending on your account settings.
Very impressive. All the best!
Wow… how cool. Is it just bad karma for me that we got a “reminder” today at work about using the internet for personal stuff? Yikes! I’m glad the weekend is ahead so I can check everything out.
You guys are amazing!
Thank you so much for all the work on this. I feel both a bit overwhelmed, because there is so much here, and I’m already a bit over-webbed — and excited that this is apt to become a ‘home’ for me.
It’s beautiful. As you know, that counts for me.
If anyone sees Strange Stuff(tm) going on with the site, please feel free to send me a message or post it on my wire. I’m quashing some of the nastier issues with my meaty fists as the day goes on.
Thanks, Christine. Nathan, Dave and Deb did a whole lot of work, too. And wait until you see the pieces the contributors will be sharing on the site. It’s all VES.*
*That stands for very exciting stuff.
I like how you’ve trademarked Strange Stuff (TM), Andre. What’s the going price for that these days?
Andre Tan replied:
July 31st, 2009 at 4:32 pm
I dunno, but they’re not as pricey as Wacky Bits(tm) or Naughty Parts(tm) if you go to the right place.
Sharon, ditch those other online joints. Stay with us here. Stay.
Just kidding. Kinda.
Good job, to the entire project crew! I can only imagine the amount of work that went in to this.
Providential of you to launch the site when I am unemployed and can be obsessive about it…
Dana Guthrie Martin replied:
July 31st, 2009 at 11:39 pm
We launched it just to give you something to do.
This is great.I think you Dana and your crew are great. Thank you for all your hard work and lack of sleep. It may take me a while to negotiate my way around … but I will eventually. Just don’t wait for me … I’ll catch up and probably smell the roses along the way while taking time to dawdle.
Dana Guthrie Martin replied:
August 1st, 2009 at 7:36 am
Kay, thank you. We all did a lot of work. Andre hasn’t slept much, either. If at all.
You should do this week’s celebrity guest prompt by Dorianne Laux. That would be a great way of easing into things around here. It’s posted just below this post.
Dana Guthrie Martin replied:
August 2nd, 2009 at 8:21 am
Kay, just let us know if you have any questions as you navigate the site.
What a great idea and fabulous prompt – off to write a poem after reading Ruth Stone’s Pokeberries. Thank you
Just a heads up — there’s a post on the front page wire that looked interesting to me, so I clicked it — but it takes me to an error page: http://readwritepoem.org/blog/2009/08/03/american-life-in-poetry/#comment-7056
Dana Guthrie Martin replied:
August 2nd, 2009 at 8:20 am
Haha. That’s my secret comment on the not-yet-published post that’s going live on the site Monday. I didn’t realize that would show up in the feed! There are no secrets here.
I can’t see who has done the drawings for the header. I love them.
Dana Guthrie Martin replied:
August 2nd, 2009 at 8:19 am
Charlotte Peys. There’s a link to her under the About page in the navigation bar.
I received a notification that my Read Write Poem account is activated, and my user name assigned – but no password was sent??
Andre Tan replied:
August 2nd, 2009 at 4:25 pm
Rob, if you haven’t already, try checking your spam folder. Sometimes the activation email ends up going there.
Hi everyone! As I just wrote on my wire, I’ve been so busy tweaking the site after launch that I haven’t really been communicating with anyone! I do actually like people! Really!
Anyway, please feel free to friend me (I’ll try to say hi!). If you’re a group admin, be sure to join the Read Write Poem Group Aministrators group.
I’m bowled over by all the hard work put into launching the new site. Thank you, a thousand times over!
*jaw drops* Goodness! I took a RWP hiatus since NaPoWriMo only to find that this site has CHANGED A WHOLE LOT! I think it’s lovely and exciting!! I look forward to testing out all the cool gadgets and things around here. It feels great to be back with all RWPers. You know how it is, life gets in the way, of course.
Thank you Katherine!
Kathy, we’re really glad you’re back!
Hi Kathy! So happy that you like the place. Please don’t miss Dorianne’s prompt. We hope you’ll participate.
wow,this is great!
I ageree GREAT and thanks…It is such a good site.
now if i can only figure out how to put the badge on my blog
Wayne, copy and paste the code that you will see when you click through on the badge in the sidebar. We fixed the issue with the code that was making it tricky to upload before. You should be able to paste the code into your sidebar or post and be good to go.
Why is that robot leaving comments?
Andre Tan replied:
August 4th, 2009 at 1:02 am
(troublemaker…)
y’all have done a great job on this site. I like the organization. It navigates well, too. neat-o.
Sooooooooooooo many thanks again to Andrew and Dana and ALLLLLLLLLLL who have put soooo much work into this site…also to alll that contribute
Andre Tan replied:
August 5th, 2009 at 6:28 pm
Wayne, re: “Andrew” you might want to see my answer to one of the profile questions.
Regardless, thanks! As Dana has said, it’s a group effort, and by “group” we absolutely 100% include the members.
Who’s Andrew?
I think you mean Andre — and Nathan and Deb and Dave J. and all the writers and the participants new and old. OK. I will shut up.
I just like to spread the love like Vaseline. Erk … that didn’t sound quite right.
Barbara, thank you. Sorry about the little forum glitches. OK, the big forum glitches. We’ll get it ironed out or come up with a workaround.
sorry “Andre”…hey, Andrew was pretty close. now I will try that badge…dont know what I do wrong….ill try again
Hello. Thank you for this great info! Keep up the good job!