Well, today I had the pleasure of adding yet one more person to my ignore list. This list now consists of 25 people! As I look over the names I remember why each individual ended up there.
Far more than half of them are there because they could not take polite critism and attacked me! I start to wonder at the point of this website. If it is not to get honest feedback on your writing, to improve, then what is it for? It becomes nothing but a place to get your ego fed. It makes you pompous, full of yourself, and - ultimately - less knowledgable than when you first joined.
I strive to be my harshest critic and I am rarely satisfied with any of my poems. Yet whenever someone responds to one of my critiques because they did not like it, they never fail to accuse me of being a stuck up person. Why is this? I can only conclude that it because they are the ones who are stuck up (is it not THEY who think their work is above criticism?) but do not want to admit it, so they point fingers at others.
They call me a hypocrit because I say that I do not think I am a fantastic writer but have the nerve to offer corrections to others. Do they believe that no one who is not a famous writer can offer helpful suggestions (or is it... no one beside themselves?) Just because I am not fifty, famous, and/or world-wide renowned, does not mean I can not offer suggestions or know something that they do not. And on top of that, did I ever say they were required to listen to me?!
If they are such fantastic writers tell me this, why do they post their work here? Why do they not have it published? And - most humorous of all - why do they not write in proper english?
Why do the majority of those who say, "I consider myself a better poet than you" not even utilize proper grammar? Yes, yes... it's true. They did not say "I consider myself a better poet than you" they said "I consider myself a better poet than U!" Oh... how surprising!
It is true that this column is mostly just for venting, but is also to say this...
Be your harshest critic. You are NOT an expert. You do not know everything there is to know. Do not be too small to take criticism and if you really think you're such a great poet and writer, why don't you actually WRITE instead of oozing a bunch of immature and illiterate chat lingo!!!
A note to those on my ignore list and all those who make a habit of getting onto other's such lists...
Add a comment
Comments
1 - 6 of 6
-
Amen, fellow mortal!
-
Sometimes We Need To Be More Aware As Critics
In one of your critiques of a piece of mine you said:
"This rolling lady reminded me of whoever that weird rolly polly guy was in Vathek! I stopped reading it... to[o] out there to hold my attention."
At first, I thought you meant you didn't even bother finish reading my poem, but also considered that you didn't finish reading Vathek. You awarded me with a clappie, so I think it was Vathek you didn't finish reading. Any ambiguities like this can cause strife if you mean something one way and the poet being critiqued takes it another.
On another piece of mine you said:
"To be compeletly honest, this made me cringe. Not my type of humor at all. I don't find it funny I just find it dumb and disgusting."
While that is fine, you certainly have the right to be disgusted, it doesn't speak to the technical merits of the poem. (To be fair, in the next sentence you conceded the rhythym was OK.)
When a movie critic thinks a movie is dumb and disgusting, he'll usually mention such things as flaws in the plot, poor character development, wooden acting, a poorly written script... any one of a number of concrete reasons why the movie was perceived to be dumb.
I'm not trolling to get put on your ignore list, but if my reviews are any indication, perhaps your negative reviews are either too ambiguous, too caustic, or too subjective to be taken seriously.
If we are going to give a negative review, we had better be certain we aren't guilty of the same thing. I critiqued a piece by Emile and knocked him for elementary rhyme combinations. It wasn't too hard for him to come back into my catalog and find a piece I had authored with less than glorious rhyme choices. So I think a lot of times, we abbreviate the fullness of our thoughts, but all the recipient is left with is sort of a condensed condescension and not the fullness of what we meant. -
sending you a
never knock yourself babes and those who chose to slaughter you then I say they are not worthy
take care
Juliexx -
I have to say I agree with this so much. I realize that criticism isn't always fun, but by posting things on here we as poets should be able to accept comments, no matter if they like them or not.
-
Cripes! Thous hast verily shown thyself to be the possessor of a just and terrible wrath! Methinks a great wisdom hideth in thine words. Mayhap ye sorry olde fools who standeth up to thee wilt learn a mite of humbleness. (Though verily thou didst intimidate myself when I came first to this place 
)
-
You are correct, Frodofan. The best gift you can give to someone on this site is to give constructive criticism. I wish more people would do this. I also wish I did not have to think twice about whether to give it or not. It requires more work, and not a little trust.
I have a friend on here (actually, she wrote us both a poem in a recent contest, I believe) who thanks me profusely when I point something out to her, and considers me to be a better editor than a poet (I prpbably am!). Her name is Diane aka Mirthryl. I think she is one of the better poets on here. She takes critique very well. Her work is easy to critique because it's usually at least 99 percent there. Something that is only 10% there I would not critique forthrightly. I only have so many hours in the day!
Bravo for you for giving honest feedback. You can critique my poetry anytime!
Adding your comment:
1 - 6 of 6
