All,

As a rather dismaying addendum to this post I want to add that I was requested by a new (and now former) member, christine08003, to remove her poems. Christine's experience here is what prompted me to repost the group's mission. Feedback should never be delivered at the expense of respect for a fellow writer. Harshness, sarcasm, comments that sting are not useful, appropriate or welcome.

Having so said I will also confirm: the truth can hurt. And writers who are serious about their aspirations have to develop skin tough enough to withstand constructive criticism. Believe me, I know. Negative feedback on my work can send me into grief or fury for days. I am working on this because I must. Because I am at best a journeyman writer and there is so much to learn from so many. I want my work to shine, but diamonds come from coal, and coal is dug from pits. A clumsy attempt to remind all of us that becoming a good writer requires hard work, an open mind, a strong heart, and an unquenchable desire to learn.

Thank you for this reminder!

Is there anyway to add this mission statement to the main page? I think it would be helpful for new people (as well as useful for older people who might occasionally want to review the kinds of questions KenWritez has listed or the kind of work that is appropriate.

WS,

Am thinking around ideas for refreshing, updating, strengthening our model. Thanks for this.

I wrote strongly negative reviews of christine08003's and westerley's works. Someone whose judgment I respect told me my reviews violated T2's guidelines and been mean-spirited, disrespectful, and excessively harsh.

I did not mean for my reviews to be taken that way. I apologize for communicating so poorly and any hurt I've done to christine08003 or westerley, or anyone else troubled by my reviews.

I violated a basic law of message board communication: People can only see your words, not your intent.

I'll survive. I must say I was forewarned and attended my drubbing armored in my breastplate, my pointed helmet and lance, and braced myself. All in all, I found your two handmaidens, Arrogance and Sarcasm, (which you yourself cheerfully introduced by name, I hope you recall), to be no more obnoxious or formidble than usual. The knife of Kindness cut no deeper than is its custom. I'm over it, and I'm now hoping to bring a smile, but as there's often a slip between words and intent, as we have learned, you never know.

Ironically, the same issues you correctly took with my writing were the ones I have been re-writing on my own. So I know this stuff is not deathless, and certainly not above a make-over. You can't learn if you don't play.

Yes, I'll be back with the improved (I hope) version! Thank you for your comment on this thread. That was very decent of you. (I know,I know; decent is not qualitative. You're either decent or you're not).

At the risk of violating my own rather prim and proper Tier II persona, KenW and Westerly: you rock!

And further, you are part of the "rock," the foundation of this group. Don't change. Just keep writing.

- akabukowski

Ken, most of your reviews are so on-target that they are a treasure. Where you once in a while go overboard is that you allow a comment about the writer rather than the writing to slip in. That can be off-putting but still should be something that a writer with intent to improve should call you on but not throw out the baby with the bathwater. Truth is truth whether it is handed out on a silver platter or injected on the knob of a broomstick up the ass!

But some people - especially behind the hidden doors of anonymity and affectation - take their offense and run to the opposite goal. And once they are gone, it is too late to call them "Wrong-Way Corrigan."

Lollipops and unicorns.