I also respect your point of view and in no way am I attacking your integrity or the integrity of the site. When you look at the (stupid) statement you can clearly see that I was not calling you stupid or other mods or even writers.... but only those who feel the need to write poems to please crowds or write poems as a means of justifying their skill as a writer.

Writing is a difficult task, good writing takes time and understanding.

When considering whether or not to have a poetry tournament, consider this....
what is the essence of poetry?
will this tournament be compromising the essence of poetry seen on these boards?
will poetry battles really improve the poems that people write or will they feel a need to conform to a certain style because that is what gets votes?
Is it worth it to attract people to the forum or site for poetry battles and risk having a backlog of threads and replies where one writes
"dope work, like your style... this line was dope.... hey, check my shit out it's called blah blah blah..."?

I do not yet consider myself a great poet... I have too much to learn, read and write... but I will say that the best poets that I have seen on the internet have not 1 battle in any form ever recorded. Poets should not have to prove themselves by competing in an art that leaves so much to interpretation.

I have not yet posted any of my works on these boards because I do not think that I have contributed enough to the site and tried hard enough to apprecdiate everyone elses shit.... but I read more than I post on my friend.

Lastly, (and sorry for going on forever). if you want topical battles... you already have a topical league... you brought up the point of more originality, but in concept opr style?... most of the writing in there is purley story-telling and it could be much more...that league has potential. I write raps as an exercise to become a better writer. There are times when I invest my whole self into a rap but never into a battle rap. Battles are merely exercises..... poetry exercises should not become battles seen on the net.

Peace and good luck.

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I'm a goblin hooked on rails, stuck drinking ale/ I'll rip the horn out a unicorn and shove it up your fairy tale.