Keep Criticism Constructive

[depp]

I was browsing the story forum today and noticed that some of the criticism users were giving to the writers was not very constructive. Instead of saying a story "sucks" how about letting the reader know what you did not like and how it might be improved. I don't moderate this section much but some of the things I saw today troubled me.

[brownie]

i agree with u. nice point.

[Jappio]

Another thing about criticism and keeping it constructive. The same could be said about positive criticism. "Good story" doesn't really let the writer know what they did right. Anyone can say "Good story", and it makes me happy to see people say that, but it would be nice to know exactly what I did right, so I could make sure to do even better on my next story.

[SubMissChievous]

I agree with both depp & Jappio concerning positive & negative comments. I'd like also to add one observation I've made recently concerning comments on ongoing stories. I read a lot of posts that says: "do you mind posting the rest"; "have you forgot about your story" & so on. Now I don't think that's necessarily negative since it means that people love the stories & are eager to read more. But having one ongoing story myself I now understand how it is for authors. Of course, we love our stories & want them to be as great as possible. Which is why time is required sometimes. Personally I keep asking myself: "Do I like the way my story is going?", " Is this part as good as the other ones?" etc.

People just remember that sometimes life gets in the way but we haven't forgot about our stories

[Marc]

And if you can't say anything positive (other than 'good story') why not just add reputation - I'd be far happier receiving positive feedback that way than with a number of 'good story (oh, needs to be 16 characters)' posts in the middle of my story posts!