Understanding poem visibility
Public, followers-only, and private — what each setting means.
Reviewed regularly to match the current app.
Overview
Every poem you write has a visibility setting that decides who can see it. You choose it from the Privacy dropdown in the composer, and you can change it any time afterward. There are three settings, and this guide explains exactly what each one does so you can share on your own terms.
The three settings
- Public — anyone can see this poem. The default. A public poem appears on your profile, flows into your followers’ streams, and can be found in discovery, search, categories, and forms. This is how your work reaches the widest audience and grows your following.
- Followers Only — only your followers can see. The poem is visible to the people who follow you and no one else. It’s a good middle ground for work you want to share with your circle but not the whole site.
- Private — only people with the link can see. The poem stays off your profile and out of every stream and search. Only someone you hand the link to can open it. When you publish a Private poem, GS Poetry gives you its shareable link so you can pass it to exactly who you choose.
A Private poem is published — it’s live at its own link, just unlisted. A draft is unpublished and visible only to you until you decide to publish it. If you want a poem no one can reach yet, save it as a draft instead. See Drafts and auto-save.
Where you set it
Visibility lives in the Privacy dropdown near the bottom of the poem composer, just above the publish buttons. Pick the setting you want before you publish. To change an existing poem, open it from My Poems, click Edit, choose a new visibility, and save — the change takes effect immediately.
A few things to know
- Scheduled poems must be Public. Because scheduling is about timing a release for an audience, the composer locks visibility to Public while you’re scheduling. See Scheduling a poem for later.
- Highlighted poems must be Public. A poem you feature on your profile needs to be publicly visible, so highlighting a non-public poem isn’t available.
- Your category strength counts Public and Followers Only poems. The badge on your profile that names the kind of poetry you write most is built from poems others can actually see — Private poems and drafts don’t count toward it.
Where to go next
New to publishing? Start with How to publish your first poem. To keep a poem unpublished while you finish it, see Drafts and auto-save. And if your concern is a poem’s subject matter rather than its audience, see Content warnings and sensitive topics. Questions? Contact support.