• Welcome to BookAndReader!

    We LOVE books and hope you'll join us in sharing your favorites and experiences along with your love of reading with our community. Registering for our site is free and easy, just CLICK HERE!

    Already a member and forgot your password? Click here.

What did Thumper's Daddy say?

I agree

I agree Novella. It's up to the writer if he of she decides to use the advice then do so, but the whole point of posting your work is to get some feed back. If you don't agree and your hurt by it, then you don't have to take the advice. Nor do you have to post anymore if you don't feel comfortable doing so. To each their own.I don't however feel that I'm being astue. I do care what others feel and hope that they don't run off, but if you want feedback you get it here and you can deal with it anyway you want.
 
now if we can just get laboi_22 to tell us what he likes on his pizza, and how he feels about .....oh....go look around the general chat area a bit and let us know a little about yourself good sir...it's really quite addicting if you give it a chance....just watch out for spamzilla and jenngorhspam.... :D
 
This thread itself is a pretty good place to get to know some of you people. I joined just a few days ago, and I am still searching for threads about my favorite books and examining all the different catagories, so I haven't had much chance to see people's personalities. I was going to ask for a rough estimate of how many people actually post, so I'm glad someone already answered that.
 
General Chat is where you'll really learn about the individuals that dwell here. Or at least a few handfuls of members anyway. There are many threads that dig into occupations, tastes in food, views on many different issues, and humor. There are even some that dig into more serious aspects of forum life and behavior. Search around. Plenty to read.

And laboi_22, blogs are ok for reading fact sheet type info, but the general chat is a conversation. I'd rather find out about people through the communication of the forum than by a well thought out speech or announcement type thing like a blog. I might go look at someone's blog if I want to know more about a person, but I don't want to use the blog to get my first impressions. That's just my personal feeling.
 
a couple thoughs here

1.- you guys seems to be missing the point of this thread
- its not about criticism in a bad work, if you think its bad and feel compelled to do a harsh comment on the posted work, do it please.
- its about some smartass sometimes ofensive actitude that doesnt help in anyway.

in other works something like:

..... i cant feel interested on the main character, maybe if you could include some hints about..... ---> ok

..... you are overstating the fact of ..... --> ok

its the torture over? --> bad

boooooriiiiiiiiing --> bad

dont you have something better to do with your life than make us waste time reading this crap :mad: --> bad

2.- i dont visit much the new writers area, since i can only express a general impresion, and i dont have the hability to give an educated opinion about writing tecniques even in my own language, and dont really feel like following you guys around just to point when you are going overboard as if i was your personal stalker.
but i have an alternative, how about opening a thread in the general chat area addressing the situation and let everybody know that a little respect for those looking for genuine criticism would be apreciated.
oh wait, it seems kookamoor already did.
 
Motokid said:
..just watch out for spamzilla and jenngorhspam.... :D
Click to expand...


hey now!! we are very nice. yes we infect the world with our spam, but it is good spam, not baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad spam.

errrrr, go constructive critiquing!!!!yay
 
mr_michel said:
its about some smartass sometimes ofensive actitude that doesnt help in anyway.
Click to expand...
Thanks mr_michel, this is getting a little off topic. I know Moto started a similar thread about critiquing work in the writers section. This is more of a general statement about respecting people, particularly new people, in the forums in general.
 
another newbie interjects his thoughts

As someone whose only posts have been in the Writing and Publishing Forum (until now), I thought I might add something.

I came here on a tip from phil_t, who I know in a different incarnation, mainly to get criticism of my poetry. As in, people telling me the bad stuff so that I could improve it--I love getting criticism (go criticize my poems! Now!). And I put all of the poems that I actually show to people through a pretty intense review process of my own, in an attempt to ensure that I don't accidentally reveal to the world what a terrible poet I am 99% of the time, instead projecting a mediocre poet who works only rarely *grin*.

It's clear that some of the people posting in the Writer's Showcase are less interested in self-improvement and less scrupulous. HOWEVER, that's not a bad thing all on its own; I'd probably improve as a poet if I got people to point out the flaws in stuff I know is bad, but I'm too scared.

What I have noticed, not so much in people's responses to my threads (overall, people's advice to me has been apt and helpful), but in other threads, is a general, forlackofabetterword, 'air' among some of the heavy posters that (as was pointed out) make up the mainstay of the real community here, or at least the heavy posters in that forum. A very, "we'll take the time to point out your flaws....*sigh*" type of attitude, sometimes bordering on contempt. If you asked me to point out specific examples, I probably wouldn't be able to find many, and I certainly can't think of any names offhand, but it's the very tone of the forum. The image that sticks in my mind when I think of the forum is: there's people who've been published and put up stunningly well written vignettes, and then there's people who dream of being published and put up drivel, and not a lot of really positive communication between the two. (I fall into neither group, as I haven't been published and don't seek it particularly hard, though hopefully I'm not writing drivel).

The reason that I have not, until now, branched out from that forum, is that the tone there wasn't really the tone of a site where I wanted to spend a lot of my time, and so I go, rarely (haven't been on in a few weeks), to check out some writing, maybe post a poem of mine or see if someone's commented on it. I haven't even looked at any other forum, and wouldn't be here if now for a link from one of Motokid's posts.

I'm not trying to attack anyone, or make anyone defensive, and I haven't made a snap judgement about anyone here, or really even about the site as a whole (I mean, if phil t spends his time here, it's got to be quite a nifty place [though I sometimes wish he'd spend more time in our other site in common, hint hint, mate]), only that what I did experience there made me not want to spend the time to look further.

Yes, if you post something you should expect to have its flaws shown to you. Otherwise, people are doing a disservice.

But at the same time, by taking the time to phrase criticism constructively, and to point out good things as well as bad (very few things are cover to cover bad, unless they were written by Henry James *impudent smile*), you accomplish far more than merely stating your opinion, however well informed it may be, as undeniable, chiseled-in-stone fact. I wouldn't call it sugarcoating, I'd call it doing what we do every day in our lives when someone asks us how we're doing and we say "okay, you?" rather than "well I fell getting out of the shower this morning and my back hurts like hell, and my 4-yr old son got in a fight with the neighbor kid so my neighbor was banging down my door last night threatening to sue and I don't know if he's serious and I'm slightly worried about that, then my wife's parents are getting a divorce after 30 years of marriage, so she's a wreck, you?"
 
Moto, was this just for people who post in the writer's forum?

I really wish a few of the newer members that have signed on in the last month or so would chime in on this thread. I'd love to know why they stuck around, or what almost chased them off.
Click to expand...
or is it directed generally at all newbies?
 
Slacker said:
Moto, was this just for people who post in the writer's forum?
or is it directed generally at all newbies?
Click to expand...
I think it's directed at all newbies.
 
Acolyte said:
The reason that I have not, until now, branched out from that forum, is that the tone there wasn't really the tone of a site where I wanted to spend a lot of my time, and so I go, rarely (haven't been on in a few weeks), to check out some writing, maybe post a poem of mine or see if someone's commented on it. I haven't even looked at any other forum, and wouldn't be here if now for a link from one of Motokid's posts.

I'm not trying to attack anyone, or make anyone defensive, and I haven't made a snap judgement about anyone here, or really even about the site as a whole (I mean, if phil t spends his time here, it's got to be quite a nifty place [though I sometimes wish he'd spend more time in our other site in common, hint hint, mate]), only that what I did experience there made me not want to spend the time to look further.

Yes, if you post something you should expect to have its flaws shown to you. Otherwise, people are doing a disservice.

But at the same time, by taking the time to phrase criticism constructively, and to point out good things as well as bad (very few things are cover to cover bad, unless they were written by Henry James *impudent smile*), you accomplish far more than merely stating your opinion, however well informed it may be, as undeniable, chiseled-in-stone fact. I wouldn't call it sugarcoating, I'd call it doing what we do every day in our lives when someone asks us how we're doing and we say "okay, you?" rather than "well I fell getting out of the shower this morning and my back hurts like hell, and my 4-yr old son got in a fight with the neighbor kid so my neighbor was banging down my door last night threatening to sue and I don't know if he's serious and I'm slightly worried about that, then my wife's parents are getting a divorce after 30 years of marriage, so she's a wreck, you?"
Click to expand...

Very well put.

I do hope that now you've ventured out of the writer's forum, you'll take the time to look around at the others. There are many other posters on the Book Forum who never read the writing/publishing threads.

ell
 
Directed to all...in regards to all forum areas and topics

we want your thoughts ..... all of them...even the tiny little ones buried deep within...
 
Now I KNOW you don't want my deep buried thoughts. Especially the tiny ones.

I may nose around a bit more than I had, since I now have some sort of stake in this community *stakes someone nearby in the heart*. I'm glad my comments were taken as intended, as constructive criticism, not as an attempt to be nasty.

And thanks, in advance, to everyone who now checks out and comments negatively on my poetry so that it may improve. *advances not so hidden agenda...okay, so it's not hidden even remotely, more like blatant...okay, my EXTREMELY blatant agenda*
 
acolyte, seriously, do check in over here now and again. we're not the most well mannered group of people, but we're never dull.
 
"we're not the most well mannered group of people"

I assume you're only speaking for yourself there jennashleagorhspamzilla?????

right? :D
 
Okay Motokid, now you've gotten my thoughts flowing.

I stuck around because it seemed like a fun board. What almost chased me off? Puh-leeze. I have four siblings, like y'all can compare to the sh*t I've taken from people who supposedly love me.

I don't want to suggest I'm insensitive or unable to talk about something like this with more elegant terms, but frankly, anyone who is "driven away" from an otherwise promising board by a comment like "yawn" is a freaking crybaby.

It's such a cliche, but how people feel about themselves is all that really matters in how they make thier decisions. And unfortunatley, a lot of people who haven't figured that out (despite it being a constant theme all the time in everything from books to songs to TV) look to the internet for validation in an unhealthy way. The thing is, they are never going to find what they need here, and if they're already down on themselves, anything and everything that isn't purely affimative is going to be a possible confirmation of thier own insecurities. And no one else can be held responsible for that.

But you know what? Y'all aren't really as bad as you think. And maybe, soem newbies have already just decided this place DOESN'T seem promising to them, and then a "yawn" type of comment is just the last straw.

I'm obviously not trying to say I find it boring here, after all, I stuck. But it's possible that there's no big mean monster scaring away new folks. Not everyone is going to think TBF is where it's at no matter how nice people here are to them.

I make friends on the internet, and I care about lots of posters I know at my older, more familiar boards. Really care, with all the fervour of more traditional friendships. But in the end, geez, it's words on a computer. That happens to be a machine with an off button. And I don't have to read everyone either, nor does anyone else.

Would more civility be nice sometimes? Of course. But I guess I just don't see any type of issue with incivility here that is worth any real great amount of concern. Y'all don't look any different than any other board I've ever been on.

That's not to say I've never had my feelings hurt online. Sure, I'm just human too. And that's not to say I haven't ever read something wrong, or just been having a bad day, being pre-menstrual, whatever, and taken it way too far to heart. But that happens once I've ALREADY decided to care about the person who said it, it's not like any random person can send me into a tailspin of pain by being sh*tty. Because I DECIDE for MYSELF. No one else gauges my worth, or the worth of criticism directed at me but ME.

Plus, I didn't think I was so great or interesting that I should just fit right in automatically, or conversely, that this a board of gods whose acceptance or rejection is a personal indictment of my worth as a person.

So that's what I have to say about that. Aren't you glad you asked Motokid?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top