This relates to comments made about what a list such as this can and cannot do.
On Facebook at the moment there is a thread (I don't even know if they call them threads) following a very negative comment made about Kate Tempest's poetry by Steven Walling. The comment has quite obviously produced a load of comments back, many of them quite non-commital considering the subject but a few of them annoyed and attacking back. But it is plain that the Facebook forum is unable to carry any serious debate about the subject - which, knowing Steve, would be the poor quality of cliche ridden performance poetry with the corresponding idolisation of those who produce it. As I said, most of the comment are non-commital, which is a bit surprising until you realise that people there either want to keep a distance from the original comment while still wanting to be seen responding to it (which is a complete waste of time) or really have nothing to say on the subject, which is even more surprising. You can also hear the wheels whirling in their heads - oo, what's coolest, agreeing or not agreeing? The reality is that a proper discussion is impossible there and the contributors to the thread know this, so all they do is insult back or trivialise.
But such a subject could, if all those people were on this list, find an outlet here and a positive discussion would have a chance of arising.
So yes, a list like this should still be useful if people chose to use it.
By the way, Steve's comment was something along the lines of 'is there anybody around at the moment whose poetry is worse than Kate Tempest's' ?
Cheers
Tim A.
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