Friend Friday #10: Criticism

A couple of week's ago, Leia - of Leia's Delights - wrote a post entitled No Comment? The post questioned why someone would turn off the ability for readers to comment on a blog and her thoughts on this. The post has attracted a fair amount of coverage - including Independent Fashion Bloggers' Links à la Mode - and has created much discussion amongst bloggers. This has - naturally, I believe - to the question of how we deal with criticis and the difficulty of being truthful without being hurtful or rude but remaining constructive. Which happily takes us into this week's Friend Friday topic:
 

1. Do you allow comments on your blog? Why or why not?

I do allow comments on this blog. I feel like blogs are a unique platform in that they allow for interaction between the readers and the authors and that this interaction is an important part of the discussion and conversation that takes place in this format. I enjoy hearing what my readers think of a post or of the blog in general. I haven't really had any really negative comments - although I do seem to be receiving a high number of lovely spam messages. I do wonder that, if I received negative comments - once or more regularly - I might think differently about this. As it is, I don't. Yet.

2. Do you think people leave comments that are insincere or not well-thought out? What's the point?

I think that there are some people who simply leave a comment to get a link to their blog and these often have little or no correlaction to the post concerned. I'd rather these people sent me an email with a little more information about why they think I might be interested and refer to the contents of my blog, rather than just leave a lot of comments on a lot of blogs with no real thought.

I know that often the comments I leave aren't particularly long but I like to demonstrate that I am reading those blogs that are on my Daily Reading List and I try to make a comment that as least refers to - and hopefully adds something to - the post.

3. Would you ever leave a comment that could be considered negative?

I'm not sure that I would. Not because it might not be justified, or I am not a negative person. But instead because I know that, no matter how true, I would be upset to receive one. If there is a real problem that I wanted to raise, I might send an email to the blogger.

4. Most people claim to like constructive criticism. Do you really and how do you offer that kind of criticism to others?

This is difficult for me. I would say that I like constructive criticism but ask my boyf and he will tell that I am not at all good at taking it.

I'm not sure I've ever tried to give constructive criticism to a fellow blogger - yet - but I know that with friends, I usually try to encourage or complement them on something they do well, in the hope that they will continue with that. For example (and this is a really bad example), I had/have a friend who used to wear really REALLY short skirts and they looked fine but not. Whenever she put on a slightly longer skirt (still above the knee) I would tell her - a lot - how good that length skirt looked on her. Not sure if it made any difference.

5. Some bloggers don't allow comments in order to cut down on negativity. Do you think that is the way to go or are there other ways to deal with the negative vibes?

I wonder why some people continue to read a blog if they are negative about it. There are so many blogs, with so many different angles, that surely it would be easier to find one that you enjoy reading...?!

Anyway, I think that if you are getting a lot of negative comments, you have to ask yourself why. Is it something you are doing? Have you changed something recently that has upset your regular readers? Do you target the wrong audience? Have a look at what these people are saying.


Now then, over to you: as I do allow comments, let me know what you think!!

Postscript: a few weeks ago, you might remember, the Friend Friday topic was Copying In The Fashion Industry. A few days ago I wrote a follow-up to this, which you can find here.

Friend Friday is a collective of bloggers who each week answer the same questions and aim to create discussion and debate, if you would like to join us or read the other contributions, please visit the Modly Chic blog that started it all.