A suggestion...

I've got a suggestion.
What about making a space in the comment pages to the poems where the author of the poem can response to the person who commented his/hers poem?

Just an idea, thought I would post it here...

*BrokenToy

I know that you can respond to it just by commenting in it yourself.

But I was thinking more on the line of something that is directed just at the person who made the comment and that lets the one who commented know that the author has responded to the comment.
I mean, like it sends out a email automaticly or something...

I don't know. It was only an idea... *Shrugs*

For now, if you want a person to know that you liked a comment they left, then go to their profile and send them a private message. If they don't have that enabled, then just return the favor and comment on one of their poems and include a "thanks for the comment" note.

As for the praise button (this has been explained a few times now):

When Janis introduced it, he was planning on making a critic of the month award. This would be decided by how many "praises" an author got. Janis was hoping this would encourage people to leave more thoughtful, helpful comments rather than just "Good job", "Loved it", etc.

Maybe if we start leaving better comments, and people start regularly praising those comments, it might encourage Janis to actually follow through with that award.

~Ann