GotPoetry - Aka John Powers another example of a money making operation under the cloak of public service ripoff Michigan Nationwide

I was a member of gotpoetry.com since 2006 or 2007, I am an amatuer poet who writes for fun and find it is very theraputic.  I never paid a dime to the site and had access until the site disapeared this year.  I had 14 poems on the site and now I do not have access to them. Most of them I had copies of. 

I am extremely upset to find this ripoff report.  It obviously is personal in nature.  None of the claims this person is making has been true for me.  I received alot of encouragement and never paid a penney.  Noone was rude or critical or crude.  If this yoyo has something to do with the disapearance of the site and it was on the up and up, why is nothing on record.  I google and search and cant find anything regarding this wonderful site or the fantastic group of people I had access to. 

This site was huge with thousands of poets adding their work daily.  If there were some less then savory characters it wouldnt surprise me.  You dont get a backround check of everyone on any site.  It is your job as a parent to supervise and protect your children.  You may as well shut down the internet if this is your attitude. 

I must emphasize that this site never ripped me off or charged me a penney, however I view the person who was persecuting the owner of the site and insulting decent law abiding "normal" people who contributed their poems to the site,  as the true rip off con artist.  I want access to my work and I want that site back on the web.

In a total of two e-mails to the assistant editors of this site, I have asked that this thread be removed in its entire contents.

Let be known Mr. Powers, based on our exchange of e-mails I truly have made every effort to get this thread removed.

It is very sad indeed that by the very nature of the web, message boards, chat rooms and general communication via e-mails these kind of situations arise. John, the owner of the site and I have come to an agreement through an exchange of e-mails. The bottom line is that by my request to cancel the membership and the way the whole process was handled we came to a place of total misunderstanding and lack of communication between us. A phone call by either of us, may have put this whole thing to bed, but sadly that did not happen.

There were things said by John and some of the personnel on his site that were out of line, there were impressions on my part that were also in the same catergory. At the time we both felt that our conclusions about each other was totally correct, now we both have grave doubts that all of this could have been handled in a more gentlemen way. The loss is to both of us. My charity driven poetry work on John's site to possibly inspire his members, while I could have had a larger circle of friends through poetry on the site.

All of this is gone for the both of us. Perhaps there is a lesson to learn not only for John, but also for me, and you the reader. Our best wishes to all of you for a blessed Christmas Holiday. Hopefully this will represent the end of this for us.
P.S. RipoffReport had nothing to do with this exchange of e-mails between us and our decision to bury this flamed disagreement. As to my complaint to the state AG and the IRS, those documents have not been sent, nor will they be sent.

Madam (or whatever you are), John Powers and I have just had a series of e-mails between us, that has brought us to an "understanding in this matter." Before you continue, may I suggest you contact via e-mail "immediatedly" and relate your postings here. First he would be very displeased. Second, he will ask you to stop your postings. Have a great Christmas.

Madam (or whatever you are), John Powers and I have just had a series of e-mails between us, that has brought us to an "understanding in this matter." Before you continue, may I suggest you contact via e-mail "immediatedly" and relate your postings here. First he would be very displeased. Second, he will ask you to stop your postings. Have a great Christmas.

Madam (or whatever you are), John Powers and I have just had a series of e-mails between us, that has brought us to an "understanding in this matter." Before you continue, may I suggest you contact via e-mail "immediatedly" and relate your postings here. First he would be very displeased. Second, he will ask you to stop your postings. Have a great Christmas.

Madam (or whatever you are), John Powers and I have just had a series of e-mails between us, that has brought us to an "understanding in this matter." Before you continue, may I suggest you contact via e-mail "immediatedly" and relate your postings here. First he would be very displeased. Second, he will ask you to stop your postings. Have a great Christmas.

You have a right to complain. I have a right to rebut and pick apart what you say in order to defend against the complaint. It may not be my site, and I may not be a moderator, but I have the right to do so since you did this publicly do I not? So why are we now in a hostage situation? I gave you a few points that would rebut some of your claims. You still feel like the site contains people who act like 13 year olds. I can refute that. Nor would I try to. I am simply giving facts where I can. It will ultimately be up to those who view this complaint whether they choose to believe it or not. This is my last post. I am not here to argue, simply to give straight out facts to some of your claims.

Do tell which lies you are referring to? I haven't told a single lie here. Please, post which lies you are referring to and I will address them ASAP. I have yet to lie SIR. I AM NOT a moderator...never have been, never will be. There are only 3 moderators on that site (and just to be clear, again, I am not a moderator). I await your response.

If one checks out the site, the site speaks for itself with the foul-mouthed posts the misrepresenting on being a non-profit, the child like postings indicating that the 13 year old rule is not enforced and even slander against this poster when the so called natey was warned not to do this again by John himself in a previous post, even on this post.

Here is my gift to you madam and the rest of the site, continue with these lies and I will spend the rest of the Christmas season posting 12 one page individual web sites pages naming GoPoetry. com and my negative experiences on this site. As your natey has attempted to slander me on the site by posting my name to appear on a google search. GotPoetry will be spread over the entire net with negative press on my experience before the first of the year.

If you don't believe he has 5 books, check out Wikipedia. I am NOT an administrator btw...again an uneductated response. I am a regular, not an admin. And as far as the "man-b***h" comment...it was never played out as fact...you aren't even part of this original history so this is again an uneducated comment. Face it...you don't even know what you're talking about. As it stands right now... you're fabricating things out of very thin air ...air that everyone sees right through and it is making you look like a complete moron. SO again, just let others form their own opinions... you spoke your mind, now move on. I am at 26 year old poet/author, I am not an admin and I have told you before John that I have like your poetry. It's unfortunate that you want to bash gotpoetry as they are wonderful. I had to come to John Powers aid as well as GP's. You are simply fabricating lies now and it is getting old.

It is so strange how this man-b***h revealed fact is suddenly such a joke....the joke continues with one of John's site administrators coming to his rescue. Another lie on the site, the five book author and his books are no where to be found on the site or in any google searches on his name for such books being published. I ask any prospective joining member to spend a few days just checking out the forum postings, the quality of the poetry.....they will find foul lanquage, comments that are from minors and a quality of work that would not pass a grade school contest. One of my qualifications that this so called poster says "puts me out of touch" is recently judging poetry for one of the largest poetry organizations state-wise in the state of Texas as early as last year where I judged the work from students state-wise from the entire state for the Texas Poetry Society. With the information I have turned in to various authorities, I would judge ninty days from now this site will hopefully be history including this so called poster which more than likely is John's man-b***h posting this remark under the unlikehood of being a 28 year old married female member.

Beside last post, blockers will be put into place to prevent future e-mail.

John,

It is obvious that you're a homophobic who thinks all young people smoke pot and are general heathens. Your points are all invalid and obviously you think that making everyone think the members of GotPoetry and/or regulars as the above will help your case. You are in for a nice cold dose of reality. This is a new world since the one you grew up in and I think you've lost touch of that. Being gay (Natey's manbitch comment is not an admissionit's a joke you obviously don't get) is not wrong for one. Two, John has done much more for the poetry community than you could ever accomplish.

Three, John has written FIVE books of poetry, I would say that gives him an opinion and right to criticize others work as that is what this site is partially aboutgiving feedback. Four, the 10 to 1 ratio is in reference to the poetry workshops. They are there to give help to poets who need it on unfinished pieces. If someone is going to take the time to give their opinion on what worked, and what didn't, they expect them to at least help out other fellow poets with the same courtesy. Five, this site doesn't make any money. The donations are put to the cost of running this site and it is all voluntary.

I suggest you move on and let thousands of other poets (who love this site and keep coming back) make their own opinions. GotPoetry has been around for years and is not about to go away. They've helped the poetic community by giving poets a place to gather and also promote slam events and authors alike. Oh, and on a final note I am a 26 year old married female with a prolific job and a book of poetry of my own. I am not a heathen and I think this site is absolutely wonderful.

There is no doubt in my mind the above posting came from of "John's" man-girlies" from the site....age between 13 and 18.

There is no doubt they ever served in the military. As a gentleman of "normal sexual preference"....that being for my wife of 18 years, I will explain what a Cosmic Top Secret Clearance is....it means Top Secret information relating to the security of the NATO alliance. This is also recorded on my DD214, but of course, you would not know what that means.

As to all this smoke as to the status of a non-profit, this poster must have been smoking some fun stuff as most kids in this age range are doing. This comment was so much bull.

As to the IRS audit, I welcome it, any day, any time the IRS wishes to render such. You see young man, I lead my business life as a business man of 45 years in an honest and ethical way. I am sure you personally would not understand that since you more than likely still live with your parents. Good night punk!

Well, anyway, I have NO clue what "Air Force with a Cosmic Top Secret Clearance...." means. No clue. Never heard of one of these clearances...

The IRS has very specific guidelines for non-profits, and nowhere here does the website in question obviously violate them. The IRS cannot require any org to abridge free speech as a condition for nonprofit status except that an org cannot push political viewpoints or candidates.

Not to mention that when YOU "turn in" someone else to the IRS for IRS scrutiny, the IRS as a matter of policy will ALSO subject YOU to the SAME scrutiny. I hope the OP enjoys his experience with the IRS.

And I doubt the AG will ever care.

Maybe GotPoetry is happy now?

In my sixty-five years of finally becoming a grown adult I have come to the conclusion that criminals are basically stupid. Thank God for that. In my four years of active duty in the Air Force with a Cosmic Top Secret Clearance I became skilled in keeping facts and figures for the U.S. government. The huge difference in the e-mails I have from this gentleman and the e-mail I received from his assistant administrators paints an entirely different picture of the GotPoetry site than the misquoted and distorted quotes that are rendered in my so called behalf.

I have come to the conclusion that the easiest thing to do is turn this over to the professionals that deal with elements such as Mr. Powers and his non-profit site. It is an ability that is available to all tax paying citizens of this great country. It is called turning over to the Attorney General of R.I. all the information I have on this gentlemen and his site and let the attorney general determine what course of action to take in further investigations on this site.

Since the gentlemen claims to be running a non-profit site, I will also turn all my information to the Internal Revenue Service to further investigate this gentleman and his site for possible tax avoidance.

If there are any rewards given to me from both or either source leading up to his arrest and conviction of the crimes I suspect he is guilty of, I will promise to turn all reward money over to charity in my state.

Again, my deepest thanks to Ripoff Report for rendering me this opportunity. I would suspect that the GotPoetry.com site will be closed within ninty days or sold, as it was to Mr. Powers, to another individual.

Criminals are highly skilled in distortion. This response is no exception. Three-quarters of the e-mails are quoted out of content or have certain words changed. If fact I have decided this thread can set a "world record" if the owner of the site wishes it so. I doubt that he will be able to continue the thread hopefully in prison. It was recently reported on a T.V. Program that 43 immates on Dead Row had spaces on My Spaces.com. This makes this observation, a wish on my part.

"Totally free" is a major part of the distortion. The individual called "natey" by his own admission is the "orginial owner" of the site and created the site (more the program that runs it) and indicates that he "sold" the side to Mr. Powers.

Observation, non-profits are not "sold." The next question is, "Mr. Powers since you claim your site is a non-profit, what is your state charter number as a non-profit." I have no doubt that such a non-profit charter exists for this site.

As far as protecting minors, at this point I am sure further investigations of this site by law enforcement will either prove or disprove this statement, by the very nature of some of the postings I came across indicating minors were very active on this site in sexual interplay with adults.

To a degree my background in life has demonstrated a live and let live attitude. What turned my stomache was seeing a picture of this individual holding a child in in his lap claiming to a married family man while at the same time having an affair with "his man-*&*&" by his own admission on the site named "natey."

As I have said in three previous postings, this site is not what is it, a criminally centered site for profits possibly dealing in sexual contacts with minors by adult posters. Hopefully this posting has not given the owner of this site enough time to ditch his main program and computer before being held by law enforcement for investigation.

GotPoetry.com is a free message board hybrid web site. We are like a very tiny MySpace but for poets. During the five years that we've been around, less than 30 members out of the current 2500 ever contributed monetarily to our costs. The website is built upon open source software and like many Internet 'businesses' out there operates at a monthly loss. It is a hobby of mine to keep it running and frankly I enjoy giving people a place to share their poetry.

GotPoetry.com requires you to specify you are over 13 when joining, otherwise you are not allowed to join. It is a standard way of running a web site community. Free speech and use of any language by the members is guaranteed for the poems that are posted, but not for the discussion of poems. Belligerent arguments are not tolerated and the users are warned before eventually being banned from the site.

This user was warned about his combative and belligerent rants against other members. An administrator named Natey told him that his account would be suspended if he continued to interact with the other members in such a combative manner.

After this warning, an email was sent to me complaining about another member who disagrees with him that read in part - "I did not realize it was this gals mexican face peering out of half a picture that wrote this trite." I mistakenly let this possible racist comment go by and went out of town.

On the 17th of November after returning, I read an email that asked in part:

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"I respectfully request that my free membership to your site be cancelled. I also request that all my poetry work be removed including any poet's pages and blogs."

"I have pages of reasons for this action. Much of it deals with the queers, general low-lights and foul mouthed members on your site. Since my published poetry is spiritually written by my Lord in order to further His charitable purposes, He is offended that His work is on your site . I did not also take kindly the remarks from that jerk you call an assistant in his personal threats against me and finding him also foul-mouthed. You ignoring my personal e-mails after your return from your absence did not help the situation also."
-------

Upon reading this email with the homophobic remarks as well as the previous racist remarks I notified one of the admins to go ahead and honor his request as soon as possible. Unfortunately this admin didn't realize the reason for suspending an account that is entered into the system is also emailed automatically to the user being suspended from the site.

That email read:
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"Reason for Suspension / Other than the fact that he's a pretentious right wing a**h***? He doesn't want to be on the site, received diatribe in some feedback form, passed to John, kept in my email, he's gone. requested ip address ban as well. -natey"
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That email was an unfortunate choice of language and not professional and it is unfortunate that the email was sent to the member. I wish this had not happened.

Removing all postings of a member is not always a quick task, but we did remove all of the user's postings as well as his blogs and any other data item attributed to him in less than 24 hours of his request. We are a tolerant site and do not discriminate according to race, sexual orientation or political leanings. We encourage all political beliefs as well and have regular columnists who are Democrats, Libertarians and Republicans as well as a few other leanings I'm sure. The choice of language and description by the admin was unfortunate and he has been told to be professional in his future dealings. He is also an unpaid volunteer. This user is only the 3rd regular contributor that has had to be banned in several years.

His response to me upon reading his suspension notice was:

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"I just wanted you to know this e-mail that you had one of your funckies sent to me, will be responsible for bringing bad press to your site. In the long run in will hurt you in this part of the country. I gave you a fair warning in my e-mail about handling this with class, in that I would leave speaking well of your site provided you would show class in my leaving. I can see you did decided not to do that. I look for your site in being gone in a year. There is not a place for foul-mouthed sites on the internet that only have a one purpose, that is to make a buck under the cloak of being a public service site."
--------

I decided to accept the bad press because a mistake was actually made in dealing with this user and stop responding to any emails from him since anything he ever posted to GotPoetry.com was deleted. I then posted a notice on the message board stating the "Nightmare" the members were going through with the person was over because he was banned. Upon reading my note on the web site he then emailed the following:

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"Excuse me....my attorney calls this information gathering. This happens generally before criminal charges are brought and/or civil lawsuits against individuals such as you. Now that is what a nighmare is all about. Hope your venture makes you a great deal of money...you will need it...you and your "man b***h" as natey quotes it. Rest well.
In regards to: http://www.gotpoetry.com/Forums/viewtopic/t=7583.html"
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As far as this person's other claims of child predators, money making schemes and the economic viability of a hobby website dedicated to poetry, I will not even give these accusations the dignity of a response.

-John Powers
www.gotpoetry.com

A little research goes a long way to avoiding what I would call an undesirable site such as GotPoetry.com. Suggestion....on any site before joining spend a few day surfing the actual site. Take time to find some things which will convince you that you are in the wrong place.

First note, they refer to themselves many times on the site as a "non-profit." No where on the site is the charter listed for having a "non-profit." Check out the bio's of the members and administrators. Following is information on one administrator of site, and I quote from the actual site, "John Powers is now the owner of the site....I write silly poetry...founder of site and 'man b***h of John Powers'....'consider donating to this non-profit'....statement which reads out after posting a non-member comment. Is this a site on poetry that you would want your children to be members of? No where on the site is there mention of age restrictions. The site seems to be full of homosexuals claiming to be married with children. The key to safety on the net....research and more research. My deepest thanks to the owner of Ripoff Reports for providing me this opportunity to educate the public on sites like this on the web. Sadly, this is an example of just one of millions of sites that basically is a scam operation for the almight dollar and other in place scams. Self empowerment in knowledge brings safety on the net. Especially from websites such as www.gotpoetry.com.

Many folks approaching the internet are lead to believe that many of the poetry sites are a form of "public service." Upon closer inspection one can find the details of sites like GotPoetry.com are basically a "front" for the owner to pick up some additional income. GotPoetry.com is a prime example of such a site.

Upon close inspection of the front page, one notices immediately a "donation corner on the left side of the site." A vistor or member is lead to believe that $150 a month income in donations is what it take to run the site. Of course, the site owner never records the donations that are made, constantly leaving that $150 figure posted. More than likely just this corner of the site brings thousands of dollars to the site owner per month.

Further down the page there is promises of benefits for a fee such as ad fee site, monthly fees for upgraded access (for which is nothing more than air over the word "Free." There is even a lifetime membership for $250....good luck in not being run off the site by foul mouthed posters long before that lifetime is over. More than likely, the site will be closed down when there is enough money made and the complaints become unbearable, and then reopen under another name.

Further down the page is a count of members, nothing could be more misrepresentative. First of all in order to be on a so called rating system one must post ten poems. Out of 2,498 members on the site as of this date only 69 members have 10 or more poems posted. The last twenty posted are beyond more than funny in their lack of talent or ability in poetry writing. It was latter that I read the "fine print" that said one had to rate two poems before being able to post a poem or be run off the site.

Again what is a joke about all of this, there isn't ten poets on the site qualifed to rate anyone. Next is the list of folks running the site. First the owner, John Powers....no published works of any kind in poetry....a former programmer who makes it a point to tell about his new baby to come across as a nice guy. Further checking on the threads posted in areas such as the coffee shop and various forums basically finds a bunch of kids cracking jokes and using foul lanquage. The assistant administrators in most cases do not even have a rating in the first 50-60 poets on the site. When they do post work it is a huge joke. By being administrators they run the site for the owner who is gone most of the time setting up and running other scam sites to capture would be members that hopefully will sent some green on PAYPAL. This is another red flag, if the site does not honor American Express, avoid the site at all costs.

My suggestion is not to join any of these sites on the net that ask for donations or sell ads. Consider also that anyone can have a web site hosted for a little as eleven dollars and change a month through Yahoo with a huge selection of plates to set up to 300 plus pages. A huge difference from what site owners say they need.

Avoid joining sites of any kind that are not local web sites from your community. Do not post on message boards or join forums of any kind on the net, unless you personally know face to face the individuals involved.

The most scary part of all of this, that one never thinks of is that most of these sites are criminal operations attempting to gain more information about their members for the purpose of "identity thief." In many cases this information is passed on for a price to others to steal your identity.

After almost ten year of surfing the net, joining various message boards and so called poetry clubs, the only site to date that seems for real in the Literary field is LiteraryForums.com. This is a site filled with professional people qualifed to rate and judge new poetry. In many cases most of them are published. You will also note they are endorsed by local colleges and schools in there area. Take one step further and compare the quality of the site which is always a clue. Note the overall appearance of the sites. GotPoetry is cheaply displayed. Hopefully this information will be of help to you, in your surfing and poetry posting in the future. Never believe that sites like GotPoetry.com are there to serve you out of the goodness of their hearts. They are there to make many bucks and give nothing in return.

Many folks approaching the internet are lead to believe that many of the poetry sites are a form of "public service." Upon closer inspection one can find the details of sites like GotPoetry.com are basically a "front" for the owner to pick up some additional income. GotPoetry.com is a prime example of such a site.

Upon close inspection of the front page, one notices immediately a "donation corner on the left side of the site." A vistor or member is lead to believe that $150 a month income in donations is what it take to run the site. Of course, the site owner never records the donations that are made, constantly leaving that $150 figure posted. More than likely just this corner of the site brings thousands of dollars to the site owner per month.

Further down the page there is promises of benefits for a fee such as ad fee site, monthly fees for upgraded access (for which is nothing more than air over the word "Free." There is even a lifetime membership for $250....good luck in not being run off the site by foul mouthed posters long before that lifetime is over. More than likely, the site will be closed down when there is enough money made and the complaints become unbearable, and then reopen under another name.

Further down the page is a count of members, nothing could be more misrepresentative. First of all in order to be on a so called rating system one must post ten poems. Out of 2,498 members on the site as of this date only 69 members have 10 or more poems posted. The last twenty posted are beyond more than funny in their lack of talent or ability in poetry writing. It was latter that I read the "fine print" that said one had to rate two poems before being able to post a poem or be run off the site.

Again what is a joke about all of this, there isn't ten poets on the site qualifed to rate anyone. Next is the list of folks running the site. First the owner, John Powers....no published works of any kind in poetry....a former programmer who makes it a point to tell about his new baby to come across as a nice guy. Further checking on the threads posted in areas such as the coffee shop and various forums basically finds a bunch of kids cracking jokes and using foul lanquage. The assistant administrators in most cases do not even have a rating in the first 50-60 poets on the site. When they do post work it is a huge joke. By being administrators they run the site for the owner who is gone most of the time setting up and running other scam sites to capture would be members that hopefully will sent some green on PAYPAL. This is another red flag, if the site does not honor American Express, avoid the site at all costs.

My suggestion is not to join any of these sites on the net that ask for donations or sell ads. Consider also that anyone can have a web site hosted for a little as eleven dollars and change a month through Yahoo with a huge selection of plates to set up to 300 plus pages. A huge difference from what site owners say they need.

Avoid joining sites of any kind that are not local web sites from your community. Do not post on message boards or join forums of any kind on the net, unless you personally know face to face the individuals involved.

The most scary part of all of this, that one never thinks of is that most of these sites are criminal operations attempting to gain more information about their members for the purpose of "identity thief." In many cases this information is passed on for a price to others to steal your identity.

After almost ten year of surfing the net, joining various message boards and so called poetry clubs, the only site to date that seems for real in the Literary field is LiteraryForums.com. This is a site filled with professional people qualifed to rate and judge new poetry. In many cases most of them are published. You will also note they are endorsed by local colleges and schools in there area. Take one step further and compare the quality of the site which is always a clue. Note the overall appearance of the sites. GotPoetry is cheaply displayed. Hopefully this information will be of help to you, in your surfing and poetry posting in the future. Never believe that sites like GotPoetry.com are there to serve you out of the goodness of their hearts. They are there to make many bucks and give nothing in return.

Many folks approaching the internet are lead to believe that many of the poetry sites are a form of "public service." Upon closer inspection one can find the details of sites like GotPoetry.com are basically a "front" for the owner to pick up some additional income. GotPoetry.com is a prime example of such a site.

Upon close inspection of the front page, one notices immediately a "donation corner on the left side of the site." A vistor or member is lead to believe that $150 a month income in donations is what it take to run the site. Of course, the site owner never records the donations that are made, constantly leaving that $150 figure posted. More than likely just this corner of the site brings thousands of dollars to the site owner per month.

Further down the page there is promises of benefits for a fee such as ad fee site, monthly fees for upgraded access (for which is nothing more than air over the word "Free." There is even a lifetime membership for $250....good luck in not being run off the site by foul mouthed posters long before that lifetime is over. More than likely, the site will be closed down when there is enough money made and the complaints become unbearable, and then reopen under another name.

Further down the page is a count of members, nothing could be more misrepresentative. First of all in order to be on a so called rating system one must post ten poems. Out of 2,498 members on the site as of this date only 69 members have 10 or more poems posted. The last twenty posted are beyond more than funny in their lack of talent or ability in poetry writing. It was latter that I read the "fine print" that said one had to rate two poems before being able to post a poem or be run off the site.

Again what is a joke about all of this, there isn't ten poets on the site qualifed to rate anyone. Next is the list of folks running the site. First the owner, John Powers....no published works of any kind in poetry....a former programmer who makes it a point to tell about his new baby to come across as a nice guy. Further checking on the threads posted in areas such as the coffee shop and various forums basically finds a bunch of kids cracking jokes and using foul lanquage. The assistant administrators in most cases do not even have a rating in the first 50-60 poets on the site. When they do post work it is a huge joke. By being administrators they run the site for the owner who is gone most of the time setting up and running other scam sites to capture would be members that hopefully will sent some green on PAYPAL. This is another red flag, if the site does not honor American Express, avoid the site at all costs.

My suggestion is not to join any of these sites on the net that ask for donations or sell ads. Consider also that anyone can have a web site hosted for a little as eleven dollars and change a month through Yahoo with a huge selection of plates to set up to 300 plus pages. A huge difference from what site owners say they need.

Avoid joining sites of any kind that are not local web sites from your community. Do not post on message boards or join forums of any kind on the net, unless you personally know face to face the individuals involved.

The most scary part of all of this, that one never thinks of is that most of these sites are criminal operations attempting to gain more information about their members for the purpose of "identity thief." In many cases this information is passed on for a price to others to steal your identity.

After almost ten year of surfing the net, joining various message boards and so called poetry clubs, the only site to date that seems for real in the Literary field is LiteraryForums.com. This is a site filled with professional people qualifed to rate and judge new poetry. In many cases most of them are published. You will also note they are endorsed by local colleges and schools in there area. Take one step further and compare the quality of the site which is always a clue. Note the overall appearance of the sites. GotPoetry is cheaply displayed. Hopefully this information will be of help to you, in your surfing and poetry posting in the future. Never believe that sites like GotPoetry.com are there to serve you out of the goodness of their hearts. They are there to make many bucks and give nothing in return.

Many folks approaching the internet are lead to believe that many of the poetry sites are a form of "public service." Upon closer inspection one can find the details of sites like GotPoetry.com are basically a "front" for the owner to pick up some additional income. GotPoetry.com is a prime example of such a site.

Upon close inspection of the front page, one notices immediately a "donation corner on the left side of the site." A vistor or member is lead to believe that $150 a month income in donations is what it take to run the site. Of course, the site owner never records the donations that are made, constantly leaving that $150 figure posted. More than likely just this corner of the site brings thousands of dollars to the site owner per month.

Further down the page there is promises of benefits for a fee such as ad fee site, monthly fees for upgraded access (for which is nothing more than air over the word "Free." There is even a lifetime membership for $250....good luck in not being run off the site by foul mouthed posters long before that lifetime is over. More than likely, the site will be closed down when there is enough money made and the complaints become unbearable, and then reopen under another name.

Further down the page is a count of members, nothing could be more misrepresentative. First of all in order to be on a so called rating system one must post ten poems. Out of 2,498 members on the site as of this date only 69 members have 10 or more poems posted. The last twenty posted are beyond more than funny in their lack of talent or ability in poetry writing. It was latter that I read the "fine print" that said one had to rate two poems before being able to post a poem or be run off the site.

Again what is a joke about all of this, there isn't ten poets on the site qualifed to rate anyone. Next is the list of folks running the site. First the owner, John Powers....no published works of any kind in poetry....a former programmer who makes it a point to tell about his new baby to come across as a nice guy. Further checking on the threads posted in areas such as the coffee shop and various forums basically finds a bunch of kids cracking jokes and using foul lanquage. The assistant administrators in most cases do not even have a rating in the first 50-60 poets on the site. When they do post work it is a huge joke. By being administrators they run the site for the owner who is gone most of the time setting up and running other scam sites to capture would be members that hopefully will sent some green on PAYPAL. This is another red flag, if the site does not honor American Express, avoid the site at all costs.

My suggestion is not to join any of these sites on the net that ask for donations or sell ads. Consider also that anyone can have a web site hosted for a little as eleven dollars and change a month through Yahoo with a huge selection of plates to set up to 300 plus pages. A huge difference from what site owners say they need.

Avoid joining sites of any kind that are not local web sites from your community. Do not post on message boards or join forums of any kind on the net, unless you personally know face to face the individuals involved.

The most scary part of all of this, that one never thinks of is that most of these sites are criminal operations attempting to gain more information about their members for the purpose of "identity thief." In many cases this information is passed on for a price to others to steal your identity.

After almost ten year of surfing the net, joining various message boards and so called poetry clubs, the only site to date that seems for real in the Literary field is LiteraryForums.com. This is a site filled with professional people qualifed to rate and judge new poetry. In many cases most of them are published. You will also note they are endorsed by local colleges and schools in there area. Take one step further and compare the quality of the site which is always a clue. Note the overall appearance of the sites. GotPoetry is cheaply displayed. Hopefully this information will be of help to you, in your surfing and poetry posting in the future. Never believe that sites like GotPoetry.com are there to serve you out of the goodness of their hearts. They are there to make many bucks and give nothing in return.

In my request to the owner of the site, my request was rendered in a civil and gentlemen fashion. To show the low-light quality of the assistant moderators, the following e-mail in part was received in notifying me of my account being suspended. I quote, "other than the fact that he's a pretentious right wing A _ _ H _ _ E? signed by "natey." This gives huge insight to the mindset of the individuals running this site. I might add that I requested that my account be closed, not "suspected." I also requested that all my blogs and all my 22 poems be removed, which was not done. The reason for the site not removing my copyrighted written work is because they are so deperate for well written poetry on their site.