Alright, help me out here fellow poets.

Here's my gripe about Writco, and it's not limited to this app. I had the same gripe about Poetizer. Take it with a pinch of fish food flakes. Go easy on the salt.

I don't understand why popular poetry here is popular; most of it is not good.

Heck, I don't bother to read most of it because I honestly can't tell if it's AI generated or not. A lot of it does feel AI generated. And for stuff that isn't, not a whole lot of it is good.

And yet it garners much attention.

Why?

I realize I'm ranting partly because I'm bummed by the lack of engagement I'm seeing for my work. That's on me. I gotta figure that one out for myself. Why am I writing? Who am I writing for? And is it worth it if nobody ever reads it?

Still, I can't be blamed for wanting feedback and discourse around what I write and put effort into. And I would have no qualms if the poems getting traffic were actually good.

I found a good poet yesterday, and I bookmarked several of her poems. I know for a fact there are more amazing poets here, but they go unnoticed.

Or maybe the algo is just not doing me any favors and only shows me the worst of the works.

I do apologize to any of you who do put great care into your work. My rant is not aimed at you. I'm just gonna say though, since this is a rant, why so many emojis??!! Are we preschool kids that we need starts and stickers to make things look pretty?

I'm also aware that art is subjective and all that, and if it touches the heart it touches the heart, even if I don't think it's great (cuz I'm such an amazing genius and grand poet (note the sarcasm)).

Having said that, there is bad art. And we have to call it out. And we also have to hold empathy for those learning. I know I can't write to save my life in Gujarati or Arabic. So anyone here who writes in English without being a native speaker, respects. Keep it up.

The absolute irony would be if this rant gets no engagement either lol. I do think this topic extends beyond my need for approval though.

But I'm not about to try and write a reflecting and exploratory essay about social media algos, art, and popularity.

I bet chatgpt could do a good job ;)

Sigh...I miss the days of old, days of gold, the year it started, 2019.

I miss the writers, I miss the readers, I miss the memories.

I do feel better now.

Thanks for listening.



© Walyullah (my rant, no stealing)