Negativity.
I've just witnessed my first negative post/comment... not towards myself but towards another member.
This person had tried to give some honest, unbiased feedback about a website and was shot down by the website owner. I was actually cringing at the response I would receive also as my feedback was far from glowing. To my surprise the response to me was ok.
I just want to say that a) if someone goes out of their way to critique your website honestly, you should take their feedback on board. Even if you disagree, there is no mandate that compels you to reply; and b) if you have given honest feedback on a website then you should pay no attention to their replies.
I honestly hope that as a newbie, I am taking this more to heart than anyone else.
And finally, thanks to the "Ungrateful Website Owner", because I now have my sites set on you and beating you in every way because such a cocky, ungrateful individual truly deserves to be at the bottom of the rankings.
Night night WA friends :)
Recent Comments
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This is brilliant. Give ' em hell. Comments that are just pointlessly critical are useless and really just spam and trolling.
Real critique can be done nicely with a view to helping not discouraging. Your sites are yours not theirs so tell them exactly where to get off if you feel like it.
It'll give your other visitors a giggle at the trolls' expense and could lead to sub-comments. Have fun and good luck.
Andre
Oh no Andre. This was between 2 WA members... one who was giving feedback on the others site. Honest feedback from what I could see... and not too much different to the feedback that I gave (although maybe I was a little more delicate in the way I said it). The website owner didn't like that someone dared to say that they didn't like something about the site and so was quite rude in telling them to stick it.
My way of thinking is that there are 2 different things here (and I've read a post somewhere on WA about this):
1. Feedback - where we help each other to improve our websites by taking time to have a good look at the website and giving an honest and constructive evaluation and possibly recommendations to improve. This of course with be different from person to person as it is going to be influenced by personal preference.
2. Comments - where we help each other's websites to gain rankings by viewing and commenting on content. Not to be confused with feedback as we don't want any problems with the sites pointed out toothed visitors.
I believe that we should graciously accept any advice from others but what we do with that advice is then up to ourselves - take it or leave it. There is really no need to blast someone for simply not liking our website.
We must learn to choose our battles wisely. :)
Yikes!! I just spent all day working on my first WA website. Putting a lot of blood, sweat and tears into it. Thanks for the heads up.
I'm sure you'll do fine Mark. I'm also sure that if someone gives you feedback you'll accept it even if you don't necessarily agree (we don't have to act on any feedback if you choose not to). Most of us would be gracious regardless.
In this case the website owner blasted the person giving feedback and basically called them stupid (and then called me petty for writing this blog post... I was shocked that they even read my post).
Sure, the critic could have worded their comments a little differently but some people are not able to articulate themselves well as others.
I completely agree, Although I haven't read the post in question.
It sounds like the person critiqued, from his point of view considers being critiqued an invalidation of his ego, rather than accepting the feedback as useful data to work with.
I usually find this comes from senior members of the community. I have had this happen. I unfollow all of them and only ask my followers for feedback and website critiques. Why? because senior members don't follow us we follow them. Why bother? Some are so stuffy they smell!
Just my experience but I hear yours
That's interesting Peter. I'm still quite new to WA so I will give it some time before I make a conclusion about that. :)
Hi Kim,
I think your attitude towards honest critiquing is the same as the majority of us here at WA. As in society, there are those who think they are above others.
When I was an engineering designer checking drawings, I used to get a similar type of reaction some times when there was a lot of "bleeding" ( red pen corrections ) on the check print. You learn to deal with the reaction and move on.
You will move onto greater success with our support.
I hope the person receiving the harsh response knows they have our support too,
Rushton
I had negative criticism about my site from a fellow WA member and I accepted in good faith and did his recommendation and hey it really worked for me.
We must understand that "The one carving the road does not know the road he has carved behind him is bent". We must accept when corrected.
But please find another way to talk to that fellow to appreciate every criticism he or she receives. Thanks.
Daniel
Oh I have no hard feelings... the comments weren't to me so there's nothing to forgive. I was just surprised because everyone has been so positive and kind so far.
Maybe I shouldn't have blogged about it but I want to keep a record of my progress and thoughts to refer back to in the future.
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This is what I mentioned to you a month ago. I always just ask my followers for feedback and I never ever use site/website comments section of WA. I'm just fed up with that. That's just me and not advice to anyone else to do the same. It's just what I do and my experience so far has been positive:)
I like the comments/feedback section simply because I can keep track that I've done my part of paying it forward... I would hate to think that I've missed returning the favour for someone. The problem I find with that is that I often land websites that I honestly have no interest in and then find it really difficult to give useful comments or constructive feedback.
So for that reason I too am opting to go with the Need Website Comments thread... however I was just sitting here thinking "hmmm, I've received 11 comments and I know I've commented on quite a few over the past 3 days but I'm not certain if I have repaid all 11". I think I will have to keep a notebook. :D
Yes, use the give and take thread. It's best.