Comment on Curing the Comment Drought

  1. [Deleted] (Guest) on Chapter 1 Sun 19 Apr 2020 01:40PM UTC

    Yeah, I agree with all of this. The initial, satirical comment was concrit; not quite in the literal sense, but it was absolutely intended to demonstrate what the commenter perceived as shortcomings in the article. And then... it did, because it turns out that using negative words to describe someone’s work isn’t usually going to be taken very well. This is why concrit is never going to be well-delivered by unknown parties; you need a certain level of trust there in order to get through the process in a way that’s actually constructive.

    For all those reasons, I am 100% ok with a fandom norm that you don’t give unsolicited concrit (which the parent comment was; the request in the article was for comments on why people don’t comment, not an invitation to debate the premise.)

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    1. A_Friendly_Irin on Chapter 1 Sun 19 Apr 2020 01:42PM UTC

      The initial, satirical comment was concrit

      No, it was not. I've explained why in a neighboring post.

      Bad-faith actors exist, and you need to know how to recognize them. They are not relevant to the conversation of good-faith concrit commenters, except for how they poison the well.

      the request in the article was for comments on why people don’t comment, not an invitation to debate the premise

      No, people are allowed to do that too. But they should expect to be debated back, since obviously I believe in my own arguments.

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      1. [Deleted] (Guest) on Chapter 1 Sun 19 Apr 2020 01:48PM UTC

        I read that explanation post. I disagreed with it. I think that post was made by a person who disagreed with your opening essay and wanted to demonstrate why.

        Based on your reactions here, there, and elsewhere, I don’t think you actually want perspectives that disagree with yours. Since I appear to have such a perspective, I no longer feel that engaging in this conversation is going to be productive (or, uh, constructive...), so I’m going to stop replying further and delete my comments. I understand you’ll repost them, which is fine, but I don’t want my account attached.

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        1. A_Friendly_Irin on Chapter 1 Sun 19 Apr 2020 01:51PM UTC

          I read that explanation post. I disagreed with it.

          And once again, we have someone offering "concrit" without actually providing anything constructive. (Why and how did they disagree with it? We'll never know, and so I have no idea if they were right.)

          People. I am not going to immediately roll over and agree with you after one post, and I don't expect you to either. That's not an unwillingness to engage, it's the exact opposite. Don't say anything you're not willing to defend.

          Last Edited Sun 19 Apr 2020 01:52PM UTC

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          1. DeletedAnon (Guest) on Chapter 1 Sun 19 Apr 2020 02:16PM UTC

            (Upthread poster posting as anon)

            Look, the short version is that I reassessed my emotional energy and desire to engage in this conversation, which from my end now looks like a difference of opinion of what appropriate commenting culture is or should be, and decided it wasn’t something I would enjoy participating in any longer (you seem unlikely to change your opinion on the role of concrit in fandom, and so am I), so I stopped. I didn’t provide supporting evidence about how and why I disagreed with you, because I’m not interested in having a long back-and-forth on the topic. I commented initially to express my opinion, since you asked for them, but at this point, I have my opinion, you have yours, they don’t mesh, the end.

            (Yes, I realize the irony of making what is essentially a double-down exit post, but in the spirit of responding to a post soliciting comments about why people don’t comment, I thought I should make it more clear exactly why I stopped commenting. It’s not, as I now realize I may have been implying, that I think OP is acting in bad faith; I just think they’re unlikely to change their mind on the relevant points - as am I, that’s not a criticism - and I’m not interested in spending the energy to get deep enough into the debate to find out.)

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            1. A_Friendly_Irin on Chapter 1 Sun 19 Apr 2020 02:47PM UTC

              which from my end now looks like a difference of opinion of what appropriate commenting culture is or should be

              I'm unclear why you thought the topic of discussion was anything else?

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