1.  Limited Categories. No Cutting,or cutting related poems on your first submission due to the fact I get too many people that will post only in those categories and never post again. I don't agree with self mutilation and do not want my site to become known as a site about cutters and self destructive behaviors.

2. Submissions in simple text form only:   Due to the number of virus' that are out there it is no longer safe to except any files other than text files. (.txt) It also makes it easier to be able to copy and paste to my website after I proof read your poem/comment.

3.  Capitalization:   I like my site to look uniform.  My choice is that I like it in upper and lower case.  I have to re-type all poems/comments that come in all in capital letters.   With the website getting larger, it takes more time.  Since this is my hobby, I don't want it to become work.  I feel that since this is a free service to you as a  poet, that it should not be a problem to help me keep the submission flow easier to update.   Submissions WILL NOT be posted if they arrive to me in all capital letters.

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4.  No Special Characters, Single Spaced:    Special characters take special hand editing to get rid of as does double spacing. Mostly the same reasons apply as with capitalization.  Keep it simple.  Normal punctuation IS okay.   Breaks between stanzas or paragraphs is okay.

5.  Content Filters: This website is designed for general audience readers. School age children frequent my site as well as people of various backgrounds and ages.  Sexual content not only may cause problems with the visitors of the site; but also in the ranking of many search engines. So I do not except it.  As for swear or cuss  words.. we are poets there are plenty of words that can be used to get a point across without using objectionable content. Once in a while I may allow one or two to pass through. I will however put a "*" in place of a vowel in the word If I feel it is important to the content of the poem. But I do ask that it is not made a habit.

6. Racial/Hate poems: I should not even have to mention this one but....  I feel that my site is no place for racial hate.  All people are equal in the eyes of this Dreamer. 

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7.  Email addresses are very important on my site.  If an e-mail address is fraudulent or does not work, I will not except submission. Sometimes I am asked if a person can use a poem on my site for a various reason.  Some times it is not one of my poems.  Poems and permission for their use is to the sole discretion of the author of the work.  When I have the address I can keep in contact with the writer so that the person may get permission or denial for the use of a poem.

It is also important in case of during proof reading I notice a typo or a missing line or something amiss.  (Which happens quite often.)  I can then contact the writer so that the poem may be displayed properly.

Due to data mining and spammers and safety, I do not allow posting of e-mail address' of a writer on my site. I hate spam, you hate spam, everybody hates spam.  I try to do my part by protecting my writers addresses from spammers. I will not let anything from my site to add to the junkmail of my writers.  I keep your e-mail addresses in a safe place for my use and contact only.  I will not send any mail unless it is related to your poetry/stories directly.

It is up to you to update your email address if things change on your side. 

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8. Submissions by authors only:  Poems will be excepted only if submitted by the author of the poem.  They may not be sent in by well meaning relatives or friends.  Due to copyright laws it is important that I know that the works belong to the person giving me permission to use them on my site.

9.  Stories: Capitalization, spelling and punctuation in stories is important. It doesn't have to be perfect. I do expect to see capitals at the beginning of sentences and a few periods to separate run on sentences. A comma or two in the middle of a sentence, properly placed, would be nice too. ;)

I am not an editor. I am not a perfectionist. But I like things to look close to correct when I get them. At least readable. I shouldn't have to spend an hour correcting obvious mistakes. There are lots of spell checkers and dictionary programs and websites. If you don't take care in your writing I may just send it back and reject the submission.. After all if you don't care about your writing.. why should I?

You can submit stories a couple of ways: 1. cut and paste either to the submission form, if it is a short writing, or into an email. 2. If you just have to send it as an attachment, please make it .txt file. I don't need anyone unknowingly sending a virus to attack my computer.

10.  Submitting Comments. Keep it Kind..  Think how you would feel about getting the comment you are writing before you click submit on the comments. This site only works if people remember that writers are very passionate about their work. Poetry is very close to the heart. Avoid personal judgements. It's okay to say "I feel" I don't like this poem and state your reasons. But it is another thing to start the comment with "This poet sucks" or "this poet has no talent." (or something similar) I WILL remove these types of comments or not allow them to be posted at all. I WILL NOT allow personal attacks of any kind. Play Nice..

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11.  It is my sole discretion on what is found on my site.  I own DreamersReality.com; I pay for it's webspace.    I will not argue about it with anyone.  If for some reason I do not place your poem on my site I will try to let you know the reason.   (Usually it is due to extreme or excessive content). I am a fair person. 

If you notice that your poem has not been placed on the site within a few days and you have not received a notice from me Try submitting it again.  I am sure you know sometimes emails can float off to get lost in cyberspace somewhere..  Unfortunately it happens here too.  Once in a great while.

Most of the time poems will be posted on the site within 48 hours. Unless stated on the Weekly and Monthly submissions web pages.  Usually this is for holidays, short vacations and sometimes webservice outages (boo hiss!!)

12.  Use only One Nick or Name per user It gets confusing when a user uses more than one name There is no reason to publish your poems under several names. It is also unfair to others who might come along and have the same name or nick and you are using two. Again as with many of the other rules this also takes more time and is harder to manage for me. In order to keep everything smooth running and organized for me this is the way I need it to be.

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13. You must Give Your Poem A Title Have pride in your work. When a poem is finished it should have a title It shows you really care about your work and are not just dumping it off somewhere.

14. Double space Short Stories submissions at paragraph breaks. Make sure special charecters transfer to the form as the charecters they are meant to be and not their alpha/numeric code equivalents.

15. There Is No Advertising allowed If you have your own website keep it your own. If you have a favorite site that is fine, but don't advertise it here. Do not solicit poems from my site.

I have worked hard to get my website to the point it is now; using search engines and word of mouth. Other websites have the same options for advertising as mine does. If you take the time and do the work people will come. Violations of this rule will get you banned from using my site.

16. Be sure to Back up Your Work It is your responsibility to back up your work. I do not maintain or retain copies of your poems. If your work is removed from the site for breaking of rules or as requested by you it is gone and there is nothing I can do about it

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FAQs

1.  Why New Rules?  Unfortunately with the recent growth of the website things get more complicated.  As much as I hate rules; I am having to make a few due the changes in the numbers of submissions of comments and poems.  I am a believer of the Keep It Simple philosophy.  Most of the new rules are common sense and courtesy.

I am the owner/web designer/web master/writer of DreamersReality but it is a hobby.  The new rules will help me to speed up the updating of my website. Mostly in the way people send me the submissions.

Until recently people have sent me poems in all sorts of formats.  Some of which my software doesn't support. Some of them look real pretty when they arrive, but are a real pain to convert to using on my site making me have to rewrite their poems and stories.  This was okay when the site was small and only a few poets were doing it.  Now is starting to get out of hand.   Try finding the time to retype up to 20 poems a night, then convert them to a website and still have time for your family

Hopefully these small changes will allow me the extra time that will continue to keep this fun for me. As we know poetry is a labor of love; it sure doesn't make a person rich.. :))

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2.  Why Do I do it?  There have been times when I have asked myself that same question.I wanted to place some of my poems on the web. There were a few websites that took submissions but wanted way too much personal information to suit me. I didn't want to risk losing my poetry by placing it on someone else's site. The thought of accidentally giving away my copyright due to some fine print I didn't read didn't excite me. I found one site I liked but it was aimed at only a specific subject matter.   I have alot of variety of types of poems.  I wanted one place to share them so they wouldn't be scattered around.  Loosing track of them.

I guess that's when I started to get interested in HTML and making own first website.   I decided to share some of my poetry on it.  Some chat friends asked me if I would display their poems on my site too.  I started thinking that there might be other people who would like to share their poetry somewhere too.   People like me who didn't want to give up copyright or all their personal information the information on their first born just to share their writing. Thus the beginnings of my website

I do it for the love of writing and reading poetry.

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3.  I started writing when I was around 13.  Back then it was pretty much  music and diarys.   Most of which I still have. Over the years (1973 to present) my writing seemed to progress toward poetry and some short stories.   I am a third generation poet. My great-grandmother and grandmother also wrote published poetry. It is very natural for me I can write a poem in a matter of couple minutes on a selected subject I frequently do it that way just for fun.

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4.  Will I tell you if you are good or not?  Nope.  I will not judge any poet as I feel a poem is a time capsule  of the poets life and feelings.  I don't feel I qualify to tell anyone that their thoughts are not of value.  Poetry it is a matter of what you like; how it makes you feel.  Like music, different people like different kinds of poems.   I am no different. I have my favorites and not so favorite.  

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5.  Submitting Poetry :  The best to do it is to type the poem/comment/story into the submission form. You can usually copy and paste it in. A poem can also be sent to my email address at: dreamer@dreamersreality.com with "poetry submission" in the subject. This method is only for those that for some reason cannot use the online form.

If sent as an attachment I will only open a text file (.txt)  this is usually made in notepad.  Don't forget if sending it as an email you take the usual chance you do with e-mail delivery.   Remember to choose a category for the poem and to follow the regular rules

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6.  No Email or web addresses allowed on site:  I do not allow spamming or advertising on my site. When you put an email address on a site it can be picked up by robots mining for email addresses. I do not agree with this and so I do not permit it to happen on site I also do not allow websites to be advertised due to not knowing what kind of content they may have on them. Other site owners may not be security conscious nor be safe for children.

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7.  Donations and money made on the website:  That which I recieve goes directly into the website costs. (ie:domain costs, server location, future contests...etc )

8.  The reason poems don't update right away.   Most sites do automatically update. You will usually also find that there is some content on those sites that don't belong there. Many sites are passworded and a closed community websites. Or worse yet there is no person to contact in case of problem and can take days to get a reply I have always liked to keep my site open for all people to enjoy and easily submit the work. I also care about my baby (the site) and what appears on it. So I read thru all submisssions and watch for spelling errors, obvious typos and unneeded special charecters.

I check the content to determine if it really belongs on this site and weed out content that is too risque, violent, or racially motivated or contains too many cuss words. I also determine if a writer actually has pride in his or her work by submitting it correctly and per the rules. If a person does not read the rules and/or continually breaks them, the submission is very sloppy (dozens of spelling error and grammerically awful, or sends in something better sent in a text message) it gets cut from postings. If, in the case of a paragraph, short stories or creative writing work there are no line breaks or punctuation or paragraph breaks. I do not except it.

Since I do take the time to read all the submissions it can take a while to go thru and update. I do work during the day so it may not be put on the site for a few hours. Usually I proof ongoing thru the evening pretty fast since I am in front of my computer most of the time