Board Thread:General Wiki Discussion/@comment-4833240-20140301051701/@comment-4832646-20140302174906

Marsh0l0mew wrote: Dubiousdugong wrote: Princess Callie wrote: There's a difference between criticism and meaness. Criticism doesn't have to be nice to be constructive, and sometimes down right telling someone their story is shitty is the only way to get the point across.

There is a difference between that and just saying that it's shit because it's shit. That's not true, though. It's that kind of mindset that holds the Wiki back. It does have to be at least civil to be constructive, and nasty remarks add insult to injury. You think the people who write these flawed stories don't know they're bad? Of course they do. You telling them that just makes them feel ashamed for their contribution. There's always another way of getting it across. You catch more flies with honey than with vinegar, after all. Dugong is right. There may be a lot of stories that are poorly-written, but that doesn't mean you should insult the writer. They're probably doing independent writing for the very first time! But critiques should be precisely that: critiques, not insults.

And true, Callie, criticism won't always be nice. But like Dugong said, it does have to be at least civil. There's a difference between saying "this story is shitty" and saying "this story could use some improvement".

Before Guy left he dealt with a stubborn person who had written a very bad story, that had LITERALLY NO PLOT, didn't delve into characters or settings, and had little actual content at all whatsoever. Sure, it can be civil. But civility is something that is not limited to formality. When you deal with stubborness, people unwilling to listen, and etc, you can't say "It could use some improvement." They don't listen to that. Telling them it's shitty and giving the accompanying reasons would get through to them in some way, and if it doesn't, the person isn't going to listen anyhow. When you're being critical, it's important to be honest.

For example, JC the Hyena would've still thrown a shit fit when Sonic.exe was deleted if we just said "It could use some improvement." By saying such, you're making it look better than it is. It's called sugarcoating. It's not something that makes things better. It makes it worse. It would've probably been a bigger shit fit simply because he would say "OH, BUT IF IT'S NOT SHITTY THEN HOW COME YOU DELETED IT! IT COULD JUST USE IMPROVEMENT." Honesty is the best policy.