My name is Ben Noah Suri & I've been on HP since the end of 2009. I left HP in 2015 completely disgusted with the sickness which affected it after 2012 but rejoined in 2017 primarily due to a few good poets who are found there.

Only those who have been on Hello Poetry since its inception or at least over the past decade will understand what we mean when we say, "Hello poetry is not as it once was"

In the beginning Hello poetry was a paradise for likeminded genuine poets but then came the riff-raff in the guise of poets. Just as the Hippie Movement was destroyed by fake Hippies so too Hello Poetry has been destroyed by Fake Poets who throw some money to the Promoter and are therefore allowed to do as they please without any checks and balances. Their intent is not to write poetry but to play politics, indulge in illicit relationships, threaten and bully others, form coteries and expect their groups to reign over others and remain loyal to them, sling mud on all those who speak the Truth or oppose them, etc

This may sound rather pessimistic and discouraging to the newbies who join Hello Poetry but that's the Truth and we just can't sweep the Truth under the carpet.

My presence on Hello Poetry in spite of all the negative things happening there and the dysfunctional technology which hinders me speaks volumes of my love for poetry...

Speaking of Technology I must say that it takes me more time to post a poem here than to write one. Notifications don't work and you are greeted with "502 Bad Gateway" whenever you try to post a poem. The messaging feature on Hello Poetry does not have a delete option and anything shared as a Private Message will remain permanently for the Admins to read. Since I have nothing to hide I have not been overly worried about this but I warn romantically inclined poets to beware of using this feature.

I also suspect that only those who donate money are allowed to reach out to a wider audience and guys like me find my posts are throttled and choked off. I'm quite sure that some software is being used to do this. The message is quite clear, "Toe the Line or remain Unread".

Messages sent to the Administrator cum promoter Elliot York are never responded to, by him. I'm sure the money he has collected as donations from fellow poets would be sufficient to create 5 or 6 such sites with better features.

The Admins here expect us to support this site but we poets are mostly broke and live a hand to mouth existence. Expecting poets to fund the site is rather futile on the part of the promoter. If he really wanted to make money from this site he should have created a site for billionaires not for poets...

Ben Noah Suri