_____In early 2004 Colin Ward suggested on Usenet (i.e. the rec.arts.poems and alt.arts.poetry.comments newsgroups) the idea of
a poetry critical environment where neither the poet nor the critic would be identified--not even by a pseudonym. The idea was more than just allowing more frank, objective critique
while avoiding the usual drawbacks of an open critical forum. The goal was to emulate the kind of response that we might expect from an editor unfamiliar with us and our work.
_____Two Usenetters were conspicuous in contributing to this thread: David Rutkowski gave the idea a name ("egoless") while
Rik Roots commented on the practical details. Without any further ado, Colin and Rik each went to work creating their own versions of the egoless ideal. The first either knew about
the other's project was when Rik's The Poet's Lathe went into Beta testing in September, 2004. This
site differs from Egoless in that critiques are hidden for a week during the critical phase. Then, both the critiques
and the identity of the poet are revealed.
_____Colin suggested that he might abandon Egoless so as to concentrate
resources on The Poet's Lathe but Rik encouraged him to finish work on Egoless.
Rik argued that there were enough differences in format to warrant two sites. On October 21st, 2004, Egoless went into
Beta testing. There were growing pains, largely attributed to Colin's limited programming skills, but members remained patient and now enjoy the use of one of the fastest
and most reliable sites on the internet.
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