I know, I mean, I _really_ know, that I should stop reading these posts.
No matter what I do, I eventually run across some statement that forces
me to respond....
At 04:10 AM 8/30/98 -0400, Nick Leifker wrote:
<some things which I might snip, as they're irrelevant to this
post>
On Sat, 29 Aug 1998, Andy Skuse wrote:
Is it just me or is there something ironic about the parallel
threads of
'what happened to public C&C' and the acrimonious sniping that
seems to be
occuring with a lot of that public C&C?
I guess my point is this: A good critic, one who is willing to work
with
the writer rather than order them around, is a rare thing anymore. At
the
same time, a writer who isn't jaded enough to be unwilling to accept
help
>from public C&C is equally rare. As such, we have flamewar after
flamewar.
OK, Nick, I agreed with a lot of what you said, but here we just
plain disagree. I honestly expected a lot more flak from authors about
my C&C to their stuff. I can get extremely picky on minor points of
grammar, some of which are at least somewhat subjective. Despite this,
the vast majority of authors I've replied to either expressed
appreciation or gave civil counter-replies.
Now, it's true I give most of this kind of feedback in private,
because a proofreading session is not very interesting for the other
800+ on the list. But when I give "content" C&C (usually expressed in
the general form of, "Overall, I liked it, but about this scene..."),
I've still gotten intelligent, open-minded replies. The only real
flamewars I have witnessed on the list have been of the "dead horse"
variety, such as character debates. (BTW, Gary Kleppe, may I suggest
that "Genre merit" discussions be added to the "Dead Horse" section of
the FFML RG? I suspect you'll declare that Ukyou really _is_ Ranma's
best friend before the pro-/anti-SI types make their peace....)
Which leaves us with one question: What can be done to stop it?
A possible answer (maybe I'm too much of a dreamer; I dunno):
The critic must ask if what he or she is writing is for the good of
the
work in question. Will his remarks help the work? If not, why not?
Is
there a way to state concerns while showing where those concerns come
from? Finally, is the critique offensive, in a way that is
preventable?
In addition to the possibility that the C&C help the work in question,
there is also the issue of its usefulness to other authors. That's the
rationale behind my "grammar private, style/content public" approach.
--Freemage
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