New rules. I've made some changes to the comment system on tinywords.com. First, I've renamed "comments" as "responses." Second, responses must be shorter than before -- they are now limited to 250 characters. Finally, you may only post one response at a time per haiku. Once you've posted one response, you must wait until someone else posts a response before you can reply again.

I'm hoping this is sufficient to curb the argumentative and self-important tone that discussion on tinywords has taken recently. Even more, I'm hoping that the word "response" -- and the short character length limit -- will encourage people to post their own haiku in response to the published haiku. I'm not making that a rule -- you can still post prosaic comments of praise and critique. But I'd be delighted if each haiku published on tinywords generated its own renga -- a linked chain of haiku verses, each one responding to the ones that have gone before it.

Let me know if you have any questions or comments on the new rules: dft at tinywords.com