At first I was excited to find a place to showcase my poetry. But there are so many members posting poems that in a matter of seconds, yours will be lost in the shuffle. You can "follow" individual poets. But if you want a fresh audience, it’s a tossup. Because, as I said, there are too many members. And 90% know nothing about writing poetry, many of which will post several poems every day, and the trash quickly overtakes the quality work. It is a morass of "adult only" peurile soft-porn, an ocean of unrestrained emotional vomitus, and greeting card-type mush.
So, while it is a free publishing site(you pay with comments on the work of other poets, or you can buy a membership), you get what you pay for. I hoped to get serious critiques(and asked for them) but never get any. I have been a member for a couple of years, so I know what I’m talking about. More and more, I am disappointed to find that the quality of the comments I get is just as bad as most of the poetry posted there. One guy said he’d had a stroke and only had half a brain left, yet he went on to make comments that did not even apply to my poem. Other comments are simply narcissistic and drude. As in the guy who used his profile to brag about winning a European IQ competition.? If you want to publish online and draw a serious audience, AllPoetry is definitely NOT the site for you. I say it is social media, because you compete for "likes" by making tons of comments on the works of others. You "like" them, and they "like" you in return, even if your poetry and theirs totally sucks. So, go ahead if you like social media. This is another place to get narcissistic supply.