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Criticism: Use and Abuse
We've all been there before: someone flat out says that your (insert content made by you here) sucks. Whether this is a real life painting, or some video game building, someone saying that the fruit of your work is a complete failure isn't very pleasant. Now they might justify this as just being criticism, but they would be mistaken. Criticism is, by definition, an analysis/review. Saying something is bad without providing reasons or being more specific is useless, and is hardly an analysis. I'm going to talk about what makes criticism good, and when/where to give it.
First of all, just because criticism is negative does not mean it's bad. A movie review that tears the movie to shreds is quite helpful, as it can show the producers where the weak points in the movie were. How can one get better if they don't know their faults? Negative criticism should never be rejected, unless the point is to provoke the creator or some other reason rather than specifically to review the piece. People have opinions, and sharing them is part of a free society.
Having said the above, criticism is not always respectful or polite. In the case of a movie or submission on PMC, it is a great idea to give criticism. Criticism helps these people get better. Going on to servers and telling the members that their houses need to incorporate more color is an example of a situation that didn't need criticism. Most people who build Minecraft houses aren't trying to appease the crowd, they're just having fun. In general, when a person isn't trying to sell/market/popularize/improve their work, refrain from giving criticism. You'll just end up looking rude and alienating those who you critique.
The polar-opposite of negative criticism is fan boy criticism. This criticism is just, "Great job!" or "Cool. This is the equivalent of saying nothing. Great, you liked it, that should be reflected through the diamond count. Why not say what you liked about it? Be specific... Make a useful comment!
Manners are always important. Negative criticism is really okay if you don't go over the top.
"This skin was ugly, and you have yet to make a good skin. Get better shading, noob."
"This skin needs work, try to shade it better. Check out this tutorial!"
Obviously the bottom critique was better. Needs work is much more understandable than ugly. "Ugly" is an opinion and brings a sense of rudeness, while "needs work" makes the same point in a friendlier tone. The part stating the skinner has yet to make a good skin is unnecessary and just provoking. Avoid comments that don't pertain to the content at hand. Suggestions for methods to get better are the best, if you can offer an alternative method to make them better, do it!
People, take criticism. If someone says "learn to spell" maybe you should try a spell-checker. If another tells you to "use punctuation, the whole thing is one sentence" its quite possible they have a point and you should fix your grammar. People who get mad at those who point out flaws either are trying to deny that they aren't perfect, or don't understand that people's opinions matter if those people are the ones you want to diamond your submissions. Criticism is golden. Use it.
That's all for today's blog! I'll be fixing up some old skins this week, and you should expect a new blog coming this weekend, so make sure to keep yourself posted! If only there was a button you could press to get a certain user's newest content when they released it.. oh wait, there is. Subscribe if you want to support my quest to become a fabled scribe among talented bloggers.
- Tomandgreen
PS: The font size issue is a bug with the editor, not me! I'm sorry, it's out of my hands.
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