I sympathize with you guys, and your negative experiences. I first came to this site a couple years ago, wrote a few nodes, all of which were deleted (None were perfect, plenty were fun). I left the site and have not returned until now, on an account I made just for the sake of posting this one account of sympathizing with you.
It turned out at least one of my original writings was undeleted, but I was long gone. You're not alone, and the fact is for every noder who has remained and tells you it can work if you remain, there are probably 10 who left and whom you will not hear as they didn't stumble upon this node.
My suggestion: Don't use this site. It brings out the exhibitionist and competitive tendencies in us. The objective voting system that comes up with a quantifiable "approval number" of every writing tempts human nature to get competitive and rank your own self-value based on the opinions of others.
I actually started coding the material for a site like this that would allow subjective preferences. No nodes would be deleted, they would only be classified as people who liked node A usually like node B, therefore people who like node A will be shown node B. If you approach things subjectively it'll be much easier to feel good about yourself.
Whatever, the point is love yourself no matter how well or poorly you are rated by others. And don't look down on those others, on matter how much they seem to admire you. Most of all, do not let yourself be bitter at those who dislike your writings.
Ask yourself why you write. If it's to boost your ego, then you shouldn't expect any more approval than you give, particularly with something extremely subjective like poetry. If you write to meet friends, then I'd say college is probably the most practical place to do that, or maybe local poetry meetings. If you write to please yourself, then it doesn't matters what others think, so don't publish.
Just trying to help a disconcerted stranger out of a burst of compassion. (P.S. If you respond I'll never see as I'm done). I'm sure this post will get deleted, as it surely violates some rule, and I am happy with that, I just hope you get to read it first.
Alex Rohde