Really? Is it that hard to give feedback? · 1:49am Sep 23rd, 2016
Hear me out, this has been bugging me for awhile.
So I have noticed a trend of people who down vote without giving feed back. Now I know internet and online culture has changed societal interactions to the point we believe a simple thumbs down and thumbs up conveys a million words. Even though it doesn't, generally a thumbs up means good job and is pretty straight forward. It is better to get comments or a nice dinner paid for by friends who can afford food, but a thumbs up is pretty nice.
Now as a writer, giving a thumbs down with no feedback is like you just grabbed my lunch, dumped it on the ground, and walked away without saying anything and I have no idea who you are.
Do I know why you are apparently mad at me? No, nor do I know why you used my lunch to hurt me and my dietary regime. I don't even know who you are. You are a random person who just walked up to me and grabbed my lunch, and dumped it on the ground then walked away.
Do you feel you said something with that act? Yes, but I don't know what it is because you silently walked away after destroying my glorious lunch. The only nutrition I get all day in besides tea and coffee for most of the month. As far as I am concerned you are angry at me but I don't know why.
The only way a writer can improve is feedback, preferably typed and posted in the comments section. If you just down vote and run, a simple thumbs down, all you are saying is I did something wrong. Something felt off with my story, you didn't like it, but I don't know what it is. Since I don't know I can't fix it in the future, and my skill as a writer is harmed as a result. Even though my stories on here are based on ponies in a fantasy world, I do like to make sure they are well written and that viewers like what they read.
Is it my usual stuff involving pathogens, high fantasy, my millions and billions of custom author verses, the creatures from my psyche, and characters that bring the words "power at the ultimate price" to whole new levels of subliminal depressing? No.
Is it my varied short stories related to the horrible things some kids go through? No.
Is it a poem based on experience concerning being long term ostracized? A story based on the same? A song? No.
Are any of my works overly descriptive in my usual manner? Well one or two maybe three might be but most aren't.
Are my MLP stories different from my usual fare? Absolutely.
But this does not make them worth any less in my mind, these stories I post here are as important as any of my others. This is a place to improve my skill in art and writing, and of those two writing is the one I can't stop doing or it starts driving me utterly mad.
However when you down vote with no feed back, with no given reason, how am I to improve in the style of writing I use here?
This doesn't just harm the author by making them question why you down voted this story, but others who may read later works as well because you didn't explain why. Your action may turn people off my story and others, and if that was your goal it is truly petty.
So in the future, if you down vote my story or any pony else/anybody else explain why.
Otherwise you are little better than that person or pony who grabs a random person's or pony's lunch, and throws it on the floor, before quietly walking away.
Glen Gorewood