Re: I'm seriously concerned
Oh by George, Ringo John and Paul!
Okay, there are a lot of different issues in this topic that are being somewhat conflated into one matter.
First, there is a huge difference between constructive and destructive criticism.
Constructive criticism is intended to help someone improve something:
eg: "it would be good if you did so and so"
Ie, it has a positive bent and an intent to improve things.
Destructive criticism is negative, eg, "this is terrible because so and so"
Now the simple answer is to say that all destructive criticism is bad, however that's not always the case, since there can be cases when for example if you've paid for something and not recieved it letting people know of your generalized irritation can be adviseable, though even here it is better to say "I'm annoyed because of so and so", or "such and such is irritating me" rather than automatically condemnin g whatever it is.
These are all comments that are true when dealing with people, and the vast majority of the time, that's who developers are. Just people who make things on their own. Yes, they need to have comments and criticism,and that criticism needs to be honest, but equally they need to be dealt with politely. Basically if you wouldn't say it to a friend who cooked you a meal, don't say it to a developer or anyone else.
One second problem is that of opinion. On the internet the "it's all opinion! It's just my opinion!" is used like a club to beat others into submission and for people to justify saying whatever they like. Again though, there is a big difference between having an opinion and how that opinion is expressed, particularly I'll say because what often happenes online is when one person voices a negative comments, a couple of other people start off with them and the flame wagon gets arollin', indeed most of the situations I tend to have to intervine with moderator wise are often of this type, where frankly mob rule takes over.
So, it's a balancing act, on the one hand not being actively dishonest or pandering in the name of politeness, but on the other not expressing opinions in such an overbearingly negative way that they come across as just bashing, and still worse, start the flame fest going.
Now as to developers.
firstly, developers are people who want feedback. if they didn't want feedback on something they wouldn't be on this forum, therefore if something is wrong, the developer does need to know. On the other hand, developers are! people, mostly just people working on their own. They're not huge coorporations who don't care about anyone's opinion, there just guys and girls who work on soemthing. So a good rule I'd advise is, if you wouldn't say it to a person who cooked you a meal, don't say it to a dev, or at
least find a way to say it without getting overtly personal, particularly because as I said the bashing can go way too far.
on the other hand, if you see someone criticising unjustly, telling them of their own bad virtues and starting a personal arguement is not going to help much either, again, as I have said before, keep any comments on the subject at hand, because just as people love to pitch in when a bad opinion is expressed, people are equally quick to polarize about! a bad opinion, and bashing of some people for their views by others is hjust as bad as needless bashing of a given game or subject.
All of these are fairly general comments and could occur on any forum that involves people who produce things independently from games to books to films.
blindness and the blind community are another matter. I've noticed that people throw out the word "entitled" as though it is an insult in many different contexts and debates, whether to do with sp am, flaming, games or goodness knows what else.
Frankly that is why I would always look at comments about criticism just based on that criticism.
Again there are a few different sides to the hole question of "entitlement" and what is and is not reasonable adjustments to be made in terms of disability, and what are and are not reasonable things for blind people to do or what blindness might justify. However to bring this into a debate about criticism and netiquette is again quite conflating the matter since the two issues are rather separate, and as I said, a discussion of the personal motives or other views of someone who holds an opposing opinion to you probably won't make a lot of sense and just cause further problems.
So in conclusion, why the hell can't people just be nice to each other for a change? .
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