I think it is really interesting to compare the Open Mic nights with posting on the blog.
At an open Mic night, the compere can set the scene, encourage everyone to applaud everyone's efforts, and it is not difficult to do so, even if you are harbouring feelings of superiority or jealousy. You give a good clap because someone has made th effort to share their work and take the risk of it sounding daft out loud.
On the WOL blog, there may only be three or four people 'present' i terms of being online when you post, and if someone happens to post a dozen poems a minute later, your contribution disappears off the bottom of the page before anyone has noticed it.
The internet is advancing, and I was looking a a virtual 'farmers market' the other day, where you could ramble around the market and listen to stall holders telling you about their wares.
Is it possible to have a virtual Open Mic in some way? Where instead of being restricted to the scrolling list of blogs, you can go onto a page, see a range of poets, and click on each in turn?
I suppose you will say this is the poets showcase. It is not the same.
Also I find writing appreciative comments sounds insincere unless you take time to establish what you like, and why, whereas clapping at an Open Mic is genuine and simple.

Hi there all, freda Davis recently posted the words in the box below. I thought it worth exploring this idea in a new thread. How amazing would it be to go to a virtual open mic night on line!

Things that could happen at an open mic night on line -

- see an avatar of each poet speaking
- see and hear the compere introducing each poet
- download their words
- you could make it really fancy (a bit like a video game) firstly entering the venue, paying? ordering a drink?
- heckle
- clappometer
- If the software were available we could all submit our pic / words / mp3 file to the compere who would piece it together

bring it on!

I don't think this could / should replace a real open mic night but could be complimentary.what do we all think?

This 'sounds' to me like a great idea Winston.
I think maybe better if poets include an audio, although i personally haven't mastered that bit yet.
You could 'invite' people to view all poems blogged on a specific day and maybe be asked to 'clap' vigorously, vaguely, happily, with some candour and/or appreciation rather than actually commenting at length, or maybe write a 'whoop' or just a smiley with appropriate facial expression. A quick and easy method just for the occasion.
Would be interesting to see how many would actually turn up to this virtual event in a specific time scale of perhaps two hours, maybe three. I've noticed there are often large numbers of poets online on Monday evenings. Just a thought and added contribution. :-)

A virtual Open mic night would indeed be a fine thing, but just to pick up on another point Freda raised, which was how the blogs are set up, having to scroll down etc. Most poetry forums/workshops would have a page, similar to the discussions box, where you simply click on the poem or poet you wish to find. I know WOL isn't, and perhaps doesn't wish to be, a poetry workshop, but it would be more user friendly and go some way to alleviating the "disappearing off the page" scenario.

But I don't know the poem or poet I wish to find til I've found it/her/him. It's the delight of the unexpected that I find so delightful with the bloggs. Sometimes one poet may not have "grabbed" me before, and then - whooom - a great poem appears. How do we know unless we find these things serendipidously!! (Or however you spell it!)

I have no idea how a virtual open mic. would or could operate [maybe via skype as it seems to have a conference fascility that I also haven't got a clue how to use???]... but I'd certainly be up for making a complete arse out of myself across the binary hairwaves... as y'do... innit

Ann, yes, the serendipity aspect is good. What I find most irksome is when you want to find out what others have had to say about a particular poem, which isn't your own, or maybe an interesting discussion starts off and each time you've gotta traipse over the same old ground to get where you want to be. Not that I'm one for complaining!

Rev,
Chance to make a complete arse of oneself? Count me in. Is it a competition?
Will Darren play fair and keep his trousers on?
Seriously, I too like the idea of the "Index" page of poems as opposed to the moving blog - perhaps the two could co-exist?

Only just picked up on this. it is interesting because - as ever, perhaps - we have wanted for a long time to run virtual open-mic nights; or, more precisely, a live open-mic night that could also be attended, and participated in, virtually.
If you imagine we are in the room of a pub - The Howcroft, say, for those who know it - which has a big screen for the footy matches.
We run an ordinary open-floor except that the night is being watched in real time via the website. The compere has some of the virtual watchers listed, and then ivites Morag from the Isle of Lewis to give us her rendition, watched in the pub by the assembled crowd, and online by whomever.
She can hear the applause online as she finishes.
Snags are, cost and technical requirements; but we still intend to do it.
byon the poetry night

Slamidol.com run a podcast in a sort of virtual open mic night. Could always do the same sort of thing with Youtube.