A little finality

In a way, the Starlite Café can apply to everyone. There are issues there that apply to everyone around the world. Everyone has to deal with grieving and loss, (which is one of the headings on the site’s links.) Yet, there are some things that don’t apply to everyone. There is a section called “For the Troops” which I highly doubt that anyone that doesn’t have someone involved in a war, or perhaps their country isn’t involved in a war, cares about. Though, like I said, everyone can relate to at least one kind of poetry there. This website is available to people all around the world, and it (I believe) is offered in a bunch of languages. When I think about it though, I know that not everyone likes poetry… but this site is easy enough to understand, where if the site is accessed, it’s obvious it’s for poems.

If one is just browsing for poetry, then the place to check out is the newer stuff. This section holds all of the new poetry for the hour, and while it may not be exactly what you’re looking for, it probably will help send you in the right direction. The better poems are aimed at something that everyone can enjoy, and they hold a sense of professionalism. If one was visiting the site for the first time, looking through all the genres might help, but here too, there is an issue. Some of the poems are deep, painful, or something that only the author understands. Then there are generics, the people such as this lady here --who post only daily proverbs on their sites. Though this isn’t the author’s original work, certain people (like me,) like seeing little inspirational things such as this. There’s not much else to it, because it doesn’t have a whole lot of complexity. Something that just came to mind is that the entire site’s theme is pink. While some people can look past their dislike (if they have one) of the color, it may turn some people away from the site. Sometimes, when I’m down, I go and read something uplifting to cheer me up from this site. It’s not flashy, attention grabbing or a seizure flashing site, but it’s a nice change from the rest of the internet.

Visit to the Starlite Cafe

The strongest impression that a website has ever made on me has to be the Starlite Cafe. This site is for poetry, for poets, or readers, or both. Really for whoever wants to be there, they can go. When it comes down to it, the majority of the site is love poems. That in turn isn't that surprising, because most poems are that; about love. Yet, depending on what you select, there are vast amounts of political, spiritual, and dark poems there as well. The main page of the site has a huge rose on it, and that’s the first place anyone will look. Under the rose, it says “Bringing poets together, worldwide” as well as, “For the love of it!” displayed under that. Way to the right of that, there is a column of the genres of poems the site holds. Just very basic website conventions are here, links to the poems of others, and once you click the link, it takes you to another site where the most recently updated authors’ poems are first. Overall, I do find this site quite hard to use because the organization method used. If you are a poet, and registered with their services though, it’s quite easy. Once a poem is posted, you head to the “backroom” area, and once you are there, all of the poems posted under your username are there, in chronological order. The harder thing is when you favorite a user, it’s complicated to get to their poetry and find what you want to read, or what they want you to read. There is, however, a nifty little search down way at the bottom of the page, and it’s really helpful if there’s something specific you want to find.

When it comes down to it, this website is a bit less practical than some sites where authors can put things up. It is quite confusing, but once you get used to it, it’s alright. Most people, (like myself) wouldn’t try to get their poems published, or ever have their work read, but this website changes that, because with this site, it opens poetry up to all the people who never thought their work might be liked. When I was a sophomore in high school, a girl that was in my history class got some of her poetry published, yet I never saw it available anywhere. I personally don’t use Starlite Café that much anymore, because I do not write poetry as much anymore. When I was using it though, I got a lot of nice feedback from people that I have never encountered before otherwise. Compared to a book, well yes, obviously if it gets published and it sells, people like it – But, when something is published, unless the writer gets letters of feedback, the writer never knows what was good, as well as what was bad, or what could have been different. Though, I am on the fence about that, because a lot of the times when people comment on poems, it just says “NICE WORK!” or something of the like, nothing that helpful, as to where if someone took the time to write a letter, it would probably be more thought out than just a ‘good job.’