Fewer posts of creative writing...why?

I know I will sound like a snob but frankly there is so much real junk lately that it is a effort to wadew through it. especially people who who post to every group on gather. Like games, pickups from CNN anpeople who use gather to vent every hate and disappointment they have had with religion organized or otherwise and peoplw who think they are funny and cool when they are mearly vulgar

John, you are right. It is a real pain when I try finding good posts. I seldom found any for sometime now. It seems all good writers have left in disgust.

I thought we are here to meet like minded people and not to vent our frustrations.

It seems I was wrong all along.

No Gautami you were not wrong.

I for one would prefer intelligent political debate, no matter how dry, to the bombastic, fustian melodramas and vogon poetry of people without a talented bone in their body. This includes myself.

I used to upload my short stories but I never got any responses to them. I guessed that fiction was supposed to go in the Amazon contest..(is that thing still around?) and that this community was more for just sharing articles and opinions. People didn't want to have to switch gears as they read their posts.)I still send my short stories to another site. I tried to join a short story group here and I was declined, which I didn't understand because I publish regularly in literary e-mags but I was too proud to ask why)....but anyway, yeah, I just gave up.

Good article, I'm more of a reader and less of a poster but I have felt quiet lately. I thought after reading this why am I slowing? The only thing I could think of is I tend to slow down in winter hibernate a little.

adjust your settings and eliminate those "connections" that write articles that don't appeal to you. That way the irritation will be removed and you will be able to more easily concentrate on that which really is interesting to you.

Speaking only for myself, I try to follow my comment threads in determining who's work I look up to read and I have been falling very far behind, thus I'm saving my fiction until I am more caught up.

I also think the culture around here has changed but that is a whole other topic.

I find when I publish something thoughtful, creative...something that takes research and work to write....then publish....there are not many who comment.

I did a little experiment and published something "silly" and it got far more comments and votes. But that won't stop me from continuing to write articles of substance.

The culture of Gather may have changed, for the time being, but eventually the writers...the poets...the artists will see the dust settling and return to their life's passion...creativity. The others will become bored, and wander off to the next stop.

I think the turmoil in the world, the war, politics, the stress of the holiday season, etc....all have an effect on people's creativity and ability to focus, even to read.

Playfulness, humor, and distraction are necessary at these times to alleviate the stress and strain of critical events.

Don't give up hope, Guatami....or anyone....the tide will turn, creativity will return.

Cheri D is right, fluff gets more comments. However, I'm bored with fluff, unless it's very creative. Controversy also lands you a ton of comments, but tends to make people mad and rude comments fly. Thought provoking, serious articles maybe get you a couple of comments, if you're lucky. I published one this week that got none! Plus, with the holiday coming up, I think people are burned out and/or busy.

I am with those who found not many reading my fiction. I still write, but I am working on getting it published in paying markets.

well gautami, I am a good writer and I am still here

I'm trying!

I find that even my contacts that I enjoy reading are posting less in general. I do try to find new writers but have to admit that I am drawn to the shorter articles as much attention span these days is limited. But you are right Gautami that there is far less to read of the serious work. I try to stick to the writers that I consistently enjoy reading and try to comment as much as time allows to support them so we don't lose the quality content.

The tone of Gather has changed. My network of what I consider to be very fine writers seem to be reluctant to post much of substance anymore. I know I find it hard with my work and other concerns pulling me away from my creative side. I write a piece over and over, fuss at it and hold off until I can't stand it anymore!

I don't know about Gather culture, but this is a good question and I will pay more attention. There are some very good writers here, and they deserve recognition.

OH!! OH!! Pick me...pick me... YUP....it seems that the wading pool is full and the search for what I consider 'good' writing and poetry evades me at times. I've tried tapping into groups and reading and seem to find only the same articles no matter where I go. but with close to 1000 groups I run out of coffee and fall asleep.

I've been reluctant to post 'serious' writing since the travesty of a contest with Amazon Shorts. It bothers me that every time I go to a specific type of group there are unrelated posts. I still regularly post my continuing story of the Gather Gnome but my real writing is off line. Maybe the answer is to have more moderated groups. I carefully moderate all content in my group to keep it on topic. I know as a full time writer I don't have time to post willy nilly and not get useful critiques.

Well, as for me, I dont care about other people say about my article. I just want to express myself. Write what's on my mind. Who cares about what i want to write? This is me.. if they post a comment either good or bad, thank you very much. nothing more to say.. nothing to argue about. I accept whatever they say.. that is their opinion and if they dont bother to post a comment on my article then so be it. that is their freedom.. Everyone has a freedom.

My very first article on Gather was a satire. It generated four comments and one vote (a one). That hardly makes the effort worthwhile.

I'm not around enough to say for sure, but it seems the decline started when some of the old timers took offense at Gather for doing TV advertising, which brought in a large wave of newcomers. The old timers started running around making rather petty remarks at peoples articles, stuff like grammar and originality. They seemed to stop writing about anything else themselves, but just posted articles complaining about the general quality here being threatened by all the inexperienced new folks.

I was hoping this would fade away, but it seems to have left everyone sort of afraid to really take any chances in their writing. And I think a lot of good writers just up and left in disgust at all the bickering.

I haven't written anything recently as I am not a prolific writer, but an older poem I wrote I posted just for you Gautami :) as when you wrote this article you inspired me to put my poem up for ratings and comments. Happy thanksgiving everyone.

one coming up...

Part of it might be the politics and elections just held. Seemed to me there was too much antagonism going on during all that, and we were buried in articles of mud slinging. After a while that can be a big turn-off.
I have read some good articles though, but the quantity does seem down.
I'm sure the internal battles for what should be here had some effect as well. Like politics, that can be a big turn off too, no matter what you thought.
Hang in there.

Now this is overwhelming. So many responses. What I get is no one really reads serious writings. Inane posts get hit my most comments. If no one reads, we stop posting. Now thats bad for our creativity.

Susan has a point. I am going to adjust my settings so as to get to the more serious writers.

Holiday season, politics are reason enough but I feel if people can and do post fluff, why can't they post serious posts? I do not think all creative writing is tripe. There are many good writers here who make interesting reading. I keep looking for their writings and do comment too.

ll said and done, I am gonna stick here, hoping....

I don't think anyone should be surprised, considering that fact that when some of us fought for 'quality' content here, we were called elitists, snobs, grammar police, bitchy old people, to name a few. Many chose to 'stay out of it' and others, who professed to care about quality content but were truly looking for friends instead, jumped on the bandwagon with the name callers and published "ignore them, there's room for everyone here" articles. Now, it has gone so far that some of the original "campaigners for quality" are the biggest supporters of people whose work is the lowest quality on the site. One publicly proclaims the girl who published her butt shot repeatedly and nothing else of any quality as a "personal heroine", and several laud people whose work wouldn't make it past a fourth grade teacher as "great writers".

The community allowed this to happen. Many of the people who do care about writing are gone and not enough of the ones who remain will take a stand. I feel like a broken record, but it IS in the ratings and numbers. A one-line piece of crap will have a ten rating and a 1000-word story a six. The ratings determine what is on top, and we control the ratings. There is not "a" one-rater. There are many people who down-rate quality work and give tens to crap. Unless writers are willing to 'even the score', crap will stay on top.

I published a serious article yesterday. It isn't a literary great, but it is better than 70% of what I saw here last night. It has one comment and a five rating.

Gather Inc. has made it perfectly clear that they care only about numbers, and are now publicly recognizing people who would be an embarrassment to a site that cared about quality.

The community does not care about quality. Many of those who professed to care about writing are only in it to see how much of their souls they must sell to convince others to pretend they are friends. I know this from the many letters I receive warning me that I am "hurting myself" by defending writing and writers. Some of the people I spent months promoting and supporting will not admit publicly that they are my friends because "it is bad for their ratings." Some of the people I spent months promoting and supporting have never commented on anything I've written and either never did connect or have disconnected now; but I still drop their names and links to their articles when someone asks where to find the quality work on this site. A couple of them have made fun of me for doing so but I continue, because I want to help those who ask for quality work to find it. But, if you listen to the buzz, I'm the bitch and the point whore.

Bottom line: there is room for everyone here EXCEPT writers, and the writers helped to create this situation.

I miss quality fiction on Gather the most. Most fiction i've read here doesn't necessarily interest me, but at the same time i don't think the fiction i write is popular with the majority of readers either. I'm sticking it out here because I have found that small list of writers to continually read and check up on and who have similar interests (in the sense of pursuing good, creative writing) as i do.

Well as many have said here, it's not the ones that we take great pains to write carefully that get read. It's all the fluff, and short simple articles, vents, complaints etc, that will get read. I'm sure it all has a place, and I thought with the groups that would also help change things. Unfortunately, I don't believe it's just about a person's writing, or the group you happen to be in. I think popularity plays a big role in a lot of what happens on here, on the number of comments that people get and who happens to make them. I'm really not interested in the fights, or the points, or reading a lot of cursing and swearing. I don't see where the use of profanity makes the article or story any better.
So much time can be spend commenting on people's articles, and I don't mind comments, so long as I get the same respect back and have people making comments on my writing. I realize that everyone has their own styles and types of things that they like to write. You don't always have to have an interest in a certain topic to enjoy a well written article or poem or any type of writing.
I'm just interested in trying to learn to write, and doing th best that I'm able to.
I'm not giving up and I'm not going to stop writing, but sometimes I feel it's hardly worth writing especially to submit short stories and articles on here, unless I only share with a specific group. In most cases, what I've written is not going to get read anway...unless of course I have something to vent or complain about.

I tagged short stories and got a bunch of articles on how to get published, or how to write a query letter, but no short stories. I wrote an article on "spirit" and my article got taken off the Christian Readers and Writers because I mentioned Native Americans. I tried to connect with a person whom I admired and got turned down. I joined a group that had publishing restrictions. I get a lot of negative reactions to what I have to say. And even took two of my drawings down when they offended a lot spiritual people because I didn't use the circle. I am not giving up. I just need to regroup.

Guatami, don't you dare give up - I love your work. Sometimes I just rate you and ponder your words, but I will try to respond more.

And finally, is that the real Sandy or the fake Sandy Knaur who posted here, I can't tell anymore because there are so many imposters here these days.

Rosa, thanks for the reminder.
I have not added the 'tag' short story to my short stories!!! I will do so over the next few days.
I did post some previously published stories of mine as links inside my article in Pastimes 'A Writer's Thanksgiving Holiday Read, if you have time to read a few. (They are short shorts = 850 or so words.)

sandy, I am with you there. We serious writers are to be blamed for such state of affairs here. I am going to remove those connections who only post for popularity and points. I think I will be better off without them.

I still have some hope left...

I will not give up so soon....