Your first 15 minutes
Six things to do in your first sitting on GS Poetry, in order, so you do not have to decide where to start.
Reviewed regularly to match the current app.
Overview
You are one of a small group testing GS Poetry before it opens to everyone. This guide is the short path through the site: six things, in order, that between them touch everything we most need eyes on. It takes about 15 minutes, and you can stop after any step and pick it up later.
You do not need to read anything else first. Each step links to the full article if you want the detail, but the step itself tells you enough to do it.
If something breaks, tell us right then. Use the feedback button in the corner of the page. It stays with you everywhere on the site, so you never have to leave what you were doing or remember it for later.
Step-by-step
- Create your profile (3 min)
- Publish a poem (4 min)
- Read and comment on someone else’s poem (3 min)
- Follow two poets (2 min)
- Try one GS Pro feature (1 min)
- Check your GS Analytics (2 min)
1. Create your profile
About 3 minutes
Add a photo, a cover image, and a couple of lines about your writing. Readers decide whether to follow you from this page more than from anywhere else, so it is worth three minutes before you post anything.
Nothing here is permanent. You can come back and change all of it later.
Edit your profile · Full guide: Create your first profile
2. Publish a poem
About 4 minutes
Bring something you have already written. Paste it in, give it a title, pick at least one category, and publish. Your line breaks and stanza spacing come through exactly as you type them.
If you would rather not publish to everyone yet, set the privacy dropdown to Private and only people you send the link to can open it. The rest of this guide still works.
Open the composer · Full guide: How to publish your first poem
3. Read and comment on someone else’s poem
About 3 minutes
Open a poem that catches you and leave a real comment. Name the line that landed, or ask the poet a question. "Nice poem" is the one thing we would rather you skip.
This is the flow that makes or breaks a poetry site, so tell us how it felt: slow, awkward, fine.
Find a poem to read · Full guide: Commenting etiquette
4. Follow two poets
About 2 minutes
Follow at least two people. Two is not an arbitrary number: your home stream is built from who you follow, and with an empty follow list there is nothing in it to judge.
Pick poets whose work you would read again. You can unfollow any of them later without a fuss.
Browse poets · Full guide: Build your following
5. Try one GS Pro feature
About 1 minute · GS Pro testers only
Some testers were given GS Pro for the alpha. If you are one of them, spend a minute inside any one of its features and tell us whether it felt worth paying for. The richer composer and the deeper analytics are the two most people reach for first.
If you were not given GS Pro, skip this one. It is not part of your run, and nothing later depends on it.
See what GS Pro adds · Full guide: GS Pro plans and pricing
6. Check your GS Analytics
About 2 minutes
GS Analytics is where you see how the poem you just published is doing. On day one the numbers will be small or zero, which is expected and still worth a look, because this is the page you will keep coming back to.
Tell us if any number on it confused you. That is the most useful thing you can report about this page.
Open GS Analytics · Full guide: Understanding GS Analytics
If something goes wrong
Something will. That is what this round is for, and a broken thing you tell us about today is worth more than a hundred that go quietly unmentioned.
- Use the feedback button on the page you are on. It records where you were, so you do not have to describe it.
- Say what you expected to happen. One sentence is enough. If several things are on your mind, put them all in the one note.
- If you cannot find the button (or the page will not load at all), the contact form reaches the same people.
There is more on what makes a report easy to act on in Sending feedback and feature requests.
Where to go next
That is the whole first sitting. After this, use the site the way you would if it were already yours: write when you feel like writing, read when you do not. Welcome to GS Poetry is a tour of everything the site does, and Understanding the stream explains the page you will spend the most time on.