Where creative people come together to review and critique one another’s work.
For the last several days, I have been posting and reviewing poetry at
Urbis
and I have to admit that I’ve become quite besotted with the site. Why? Because it is one of the better writing communities I’ve found out there in my travels on line since 1997.
Yes, I think it’s that good.
Urbis has a system of rewarding your reviews of other’s writing with credits, which you can then use to unlock their reviews of your writing. What this creates is a website where your comments and critique are valuable, are a form of currency. This results in thoughtful reviews of your work. It also challenges you to come up with more than a mere “I liked it!” when reviewing the work of other writers. This is bound to develop your critical reading skills.
So far, I’ve posted three poems from my archives, and found ways to improve them. I’m finding this invaluable, despite its addictive qualities. Work that has languished in my files for years is being dusted off and given new life.
Poetry isn’t the only thing you can post at Urbis. Short stories, essays, non-fiction, journalism, blogs, novel treatments – there is a category for nearly every known form of writing.
Now let’s talk interface, because there’s nothing worse than a great resource with a bad interface. Thankfully, Urbis has a clean user interface. It loads quickly, and is extremely intuitive. To submit your writing, you click “submit”. To review the work of others, you click “review”. When there is a new review for you to read, you are emailed. To “unlock” your review, you click on it, and if you have enough credits, it opens up for you to read. If you don’t have enough credits, simply click on “review” and give a few critiques.
It’s simple. I like me some simple.
October 7th, 2008 at 8:47 am
Urbis is filled with bizarre individuals whose work would not otherwise stand public scrutiny. It has immature cliques, site problems and some individuals will stalk you by submitting various ‘profiles’. And if you want answers to what happens to you when you give a ‘bad’ review to the uber sensitive troglodytes…you’ll never know because the ‘owner’ or site administrators will keep it to themselves.
Serious writers would be better off going to a creating writing class for proper critiques.
May 2nd, 2009 at 4:07 pm
I totally agree with caveat. Unless you write poetry, which I don’t, you’re better off just going to a class.
May 20th, 2009 at 11:22 pm
Yes, they are no democracy, they like to censor writings, I have Proof. They don’t like to hear any writings about God. If you write about God, they ignore you and close your account. Go see for yourself, a big percentage of their scrap is about the Dev. You don’t believe me? Go take a look?
May 20th, 2009 at 11:43 pm
I am glad people are coming forward with their experience in those dark rooms. We’re getting to write a big story about all of them including their writers willing to avoid negative opinion at all costs. It should be very soon that this is gonna break wide open, with proof to back up, every word about them censoring and hijacking writings.
May 21st, 2009 at 1:18 am
I agree with freedom of speech, people should be able to say whatever they want responsibly. Some people think they are untouchable because they have friends in high places. Our founding fathers were the ones to write the constitution, and lady balance of justice is blind.
July 6th, 2009 at 3:54 pm
I guess there can be one or two people who don’t get the value of a website…clearly you are the few exceptions to truly a great site for serious writers. I’ve been on Urbis for 2 years now. And while you don’t always get rave reviews that stroke the ego, you get honest feedback. So if you have a weak ego, it’s not for you. If you want to really grow and improve as a writer and meet other good writers, I would highly recommend the site!