Offering feedback - Warning-Rant Follows
I had a totally different post in mind (in fact wrote it yesterday but couldn't post as I'm limited to 1 blog a day), but I've just read something that really got me ranting here in real life.
A little earlier someone asked for feedback on their site. He's working on it - it's got a few issues and I gently pointed a few things out to him (careful that you don't look spammy etc.), along with a few positive notes. Sometimes it's hard hearing negative feedback, but we should all seek it (as this member has done). It's hard starting out, particularly if it's your first website - there's so much to think about and it can be overwhelming. And of course you wind up doing a couple of things not so well. That's ok - there are so many members are here to help. I'm trying to help, and asking for help and feedback myself. That's the way it works.
Just now I saw that someone else has provided feedback - and totally shredded this guy's site.
To that person (and anyone else who cares to read)
Your feedback was extremely rude, and unnecessary. It made me angry - what if it upsets this new member who is trying so hard to get it right? What if it discourages him and he just gives up because of your rudeness? What if, in correcting his grammar, you make him feel belittled because you were so rude doing it? How about just saying "Hey, I found a typo - it should be {whatever}"? We all make mistakes in spelling and grammar occasionally - in fact you did in the very sentence in which you criticized his spelling and grammar - one which spell check would not have picked up. I suggest you look up the proper use of "your" and "you're". But that's ok - not everyone is an English Lit major right? In fact not everyone here has English as their first language- that's ok too. I'll be interested to review your perfect website - but I suspect that perfect is going to take you a very long while, so I'm not holding my breath.
Ok to everyone - particularly new members.
WA is a supportive community. I haven't been here long myself, but I suspect that if you're rude, trolling, or just plain nasty, you won't be welcome here long.
Constructive criticism is extremely valuable - not just here but in whatever you are doing. Listening to other people's opinions is essential to growth - you may not agree with them but you never know - someone else's opinion / feedback could change your life. And we all have a right to our opinions.
If someone is rude to you please just ignore them. There is too much going on for you to be concerned about that one person.
Please ask for feedback. It's a bit scary but so helpful to have another person look over your work occasionally.
Please give feedback when it is asked for and please do it in a way that is polite and respectful. We are all here to learn - if you feel you have nothing to learn then I suggest you leave WA and go it alone.
/end rant
Recent Comments
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Yes, we are mostly a helpful bunch of people. I have always met up with great people here. I hope there is no more negativity.
This is very well said and to the point. ANYTHING said to other members needs to be done in a positive and uplifting manner. There isn't anyone on this website who has everything down perfect. There is always room for improvement, on everyone's part.
My rule is when giving feedback if you can't give constructive feedback then you shouldn't be giving feedback. If you don't know how to fix it don't destroy someone for trying. Great topic keep p the good work.
I could not have said it better myself. Well said. It's ok to give CONSTRUCTIVE criticism but not DESTRUCTIVE. It's counter productive and I agree rude. Thanks for the rant.
NO DOUBT! If someone is being rude in any way, especially destructively so to an extreme, you know it has to be purely for pitiful ego gratification! How mean! -Alexx
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I had a little rant the other day myself. Someone said that they couldn't figure out what my niche was about and that I had a lot of pictures and not much content. If he had read the content, he would have read what the niche was about. I removed a few of the pictures because of him. I probably did have a few too many, but it was like he just skimmed over without reading a thing.
Also, I had asked for a comment on SiteComments and I know it wasn't more than 2 1/2 minutes before somebody had already commented, asking what was in the products. If she had looked at the menu, she would have seen that I have a page with product labels that show all the ingredients. It irritates me when people don't take the time to at least glance around before asking questions that could easily be answered.
Ok, I'll stop with my rant now, lol. Sorry about that.
Yeah... there are some people using the comments/feedback section just to get comments and feedback for their own sites. They're being lazy - all you have to do is spend a few minutes on a site or post to give meaningful comments!
On the other hand... the comment on "what is in the products" might have been intentional. When something like that happens, it's a good opportunity to say "Hey - great question! The ingredients are all high quality and it's really important to me that people know that. You can find all the details here ... {site link}".
I didn't give her the actual link (which I usually do), but I told her where to find it. It would be nice if it help with rankings. Not so sure she did it for my sake, but if so, I guess I should thank her. :)
Laziness abounds ;))