(Hooray, Google searching stock photography criticism)
Sometimes I worry about getting criticized. For awhile, I was afraid that I just didn’t have the ability to take the comments, and that’s why I always put off checking the comments on my article. But last night I was going over comments from the last month or so of posts and one really stuck out to me that made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.
A comment from kingofbubba on my “What’s Next, Microsoft” article –
Hahahaha…as soon as I read those first few lines and came across “Microsoft has been pretty lax on creating any content that doesn’t have you flailing about in front of a camera” I immediately thought, “is this a Benjamin Yoder article?” and scrolled up to find out that yup, it is! I guess he’s just a generally cynical guy who has very negative opinions of things when they aren’t done exactly how he likes it. Can’t just say “meh, it’s just not for me”, huh…
I mean, I’ve seen he’s generally upset with Nintendo in his posts, although he seems like he’s logged plenty of time with Ninty consoles (based on his profile). So I don’t think he just hates things, but I suspect he likes stuff a certain way and then is particularly outspoken in a negative fashion when it isn’t how he likes it. But it can help your writing if you tone that negativity back just a little bit, because readers don’t like to feel like the author is using his position on the website to troll them. (although, as I said, I don’t think he’s intentionally trolling I just think he lacks a filter between how he feels and what comes out)
This comment is literally the most helpful piece of feedback I’ve ever received. I’m being criticized, but I feel good about it and it makes me want to work at fixing the above problems.
I’m pretty sure now that I’m not scared of criticism, or really scared at all. I just think most of the negative comments I receive just aren’t very productive. I don’t want this to be a “don’t call my work shit,” kind of post.
Just straight up saying my work is awful doesn’t really give me any feedback to work with. It’s just demoralizing and scrapes away at what self-esteem I do have. Of course, I don’t expect everyone to writing paragraphs about me every post, but it would be nice if people elaborated a bit more.
So thanks kingofbubba for the first piece of helpful criticism via comments I’ve ever received.
