A short report on a now defunct website for on-line poets, and some background information about its owner plus where to find the archived version.
The website poetry.com has been closed by its owner, Lulu Publishing. Last month a notice appeared on the site to the effect that it would be closing on May 4; come May 5, it was gone. Some people have claimed the entire outfit was a scam, but as the blogger Michael Graeme wrote:
“...it seems there’s a problem – not with Lulu.com, but I think with the unrealistic expectations of some very naive writers, with dreams of stardom.”
Lulu was, and remains, a print on demand publisher, an ideal outlet for those with modest ambitions but unlikely in the extreme to launch the next J.K. Rowling. The domain poetry.com was acquired by Lulu in 2009, and allowed members to publish their own poems, to rate other people’s, and to have theirs rated in turn. Membership was free, and there was never any requirement or pressure put on people to part with their cash.
The main website Lulu is still running, and there are no plans in the foreseeable future for it to close; an incomplete version of poetry.com can be found at the Internet Archive at this link.
[The above article was published originally May 6, 2011, not May 5 as indicated here.]
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