Negative Internet Feedback Isn't About You, It's Them

[Sir Thomas Sean Connery]

This is one of the first times I've actually agreed with a person about how to handle internet hatred.

Seriously, this is absolutely perfect.

Take what you can because there can be good points hidden in the foul language, but otherwise just ignore it. It isn't difficult. 99.999% of the time, there is no actual threat to a person being insulted online. Hatred on the internet isn't going away any time soon and trying to connect it to people in real life isn't going to help the situation in the slightest.

Thank Lady With Way Too Many Tattoos, thank you very much.

 

[Weaver]

I don't think she is talking about negative feedback as much as completely hateful trolling.
As a musician, DJ, and small time youtuber: negative feedback is great. You'll never improve if you expect everyone to love everything you do right out the gate.

 

[VanQ]

So really, to summarize:

Have a thick skin.
Don't feed the trolls.
Don't immediately assume that negative comments are by default hateful.

Absolutely nothing new to be had here, but every bit of it valuable. Ana Kasparian said everything she already did but much more eloquently years ago. Some people will always play the victim though and they're just as bad as the hateful commentors.

 

[Norix596]

In such a line of work you're going to have to be faced with obnoxious safely anonymous negatives feedback and often personal attacks so I hope techniques/preparation like this helps people in the industry deal with some of this issue.

 

[NvrPhazed]

So, Mr Tito, have I ever told you exactly what I think of your DragonAge 2 review?

Indeed. It's hard to take someone seriously when they create a review as mind boggling as that.

O MY GOD! Someone really liked a game I didn't, and had the gall to put his opinion about it on a website. The world is ending because a reviewer really liked Dragon Age 2.

I am really tired of people complaining about scores. Opinions from ANYONE is just that ... an opinion. It doesn't hurt you in any way. (But what if I buy it based on his review?) Then you were too dumb to get second and more OPINIONS about the game, but it still doesn't change the fact that He genuinely liked DA2 a lot. There is nothing wrong with that. I mean people always complain about strawmen on this forum, but what about the Bandwagon (appeal to popularity) fallacy.

 

[Foolery]

A thick skin is mandatory. The internet doesn't so much change people, as it heightens existing personality traits, opinions, or behaviors because of the lack of real world repercussions.

 

[Redd the Sock]

It's a six of one / half dozen of the other problem. I'll be the first to say the internet could do with a few lessons in tact and decency. On the other hand, I'm not grading you on your effort. If I think what you do is flawed, I'm under no obligation to mute myself, or lie to preserve feelings. Yes, sometimes we should, but we don't improve if we don't acknowledge our faults, and we don't do that all that well by avoiding our critics. Just because you create content of any kind doesn't make you flawless, and looking at the comments for people telling you how great you are makes you little other than a narcissist.

I mean, I get the frustration of the content creator. People get into that line of work to make their dreams a reality, only to find they're subjects to the mass market, hence a desire to put as much of the fan demand as possible into the "angry and unreasonable" pile so it can be safely dismissed. Still, that's a path to self absorption. If you have done everything to try and please the fans and the complain, you have a valid concern about what they send you. If you don't, that concern holds less validity. Do things that openly piss off the end user and you forfeit any right to be angry that they're angry no matter how they put it. (no name dropping to keep things civil, and we all know a few examples)

In a search for a middle ground, it's safe to say the internet as a whole needs to learn threats are not criticism, and content creators need to be more open about how they'd accept criticism if delivered. A part of me thinks the anger comes from the mindset that being polite gets you nowhere, and there needs to be an avenue for criticism to flow and be received, or that anger festers and grows into a one dimensional "us against them" issue.

 

[Saetha]

Well, thank God someone gets it. I was beginning to think I was alone in this whole "I actually care about this thing I made and I'm not gonna change it because of one or two people whining online" thing.

This is something that I feel like a lot of people, even fans (Especially fans, really) don't understand about the media they consume. Someone put their heart and soul into that. Your favorite movie, your favorite book, your favorite game - chances are good that, whoever went through the effort of making it, loves it even more than you do. I feel as though many fans, while they know, intellectually, that someone made this and cares for this, on an emotional or subconscious level, they think it sprung fully formed from the aether. They think they're discovering it, not having it given to them. They think they OWN it, not just their copy of the thing, but the idea or work as a whole. Any changes to that work, especially when it's a change they don't approve of, isn't just the creator taking their work in whatever direction they think is best. It's a personal betrayal, some one taking what that fan thinks of as "theirs" and making it "someone else's." And it can be difficult to remember that it's not theirs, not really. It's the creator's, and ultimately it's the creator's decision.

This does not mean that it is free from criticism, of course not, but it does warrant some... delicacy and understanding, yes? Because vitriol, ultimately, only helps you. It makes you feel accomplished and right, but that's all it does. No one listens to the crazy guy yelling at them online. No one's going to change because of that. Plenty might listen to the calm, rational human being who understands why you think like that, but perhaps it would be better if you tried this out instead.

 

[Shamanic Rhythm]

It's not that he had a different opinion, it's just that his opinion was just as bad as some random gamer giving the game a 0 because they didn't like it. The difference here is that he's supposed to be a professional and review things with a little more tact. He's literally the only professional reviewer I've seen give the game a perfect 10/10 and hailed it as the "pinnacle of role-playing games".

He didn't give it 10/10. He gave it five stars. There's a subtle difference.

OT: It does cut both ways. It's important to ignore the people who are just making hateful noise (DA2's homophobic complaints spring to mind), but developers are often guilty of dismissing legit criticism as just noise (hellooooo, EA).

 

[NvrPhazed]

snip

IN YOUR OPINION it was just as bad as a random gamer. Let me give you the definition of review from Merriam-Webster:

: an act of carefully looking at or examining the quality or condition of something or someone : examination or inspection

-note that the first one only refers to examinations or inspections.

----->: a report that gives someone's OPINION about the quality of a book, performance, product, etc.

: a magazine filled mostly with reviews and articles that describe the writer's thoughts or opinions about a subject

Note the word opinion in there, it is important. Nowhere does it say anything about professionalism or tactfulness. Who cares if he called DA2 the "pinnacle of role-playing games"? That is just how HE views it. It's worth no more or no less than your opinion about DA2 or mine (Decent but the lack of locales does make it boring after awhile). Every review you ever read is just some other person's opinion about it. There is no such thing as objective reviews because it is subjective at its core. People need to realize this.

 

[Shamanic Rhythm]

Considering they give half star scores, 5 stars is comparable to a 10/10 score. Just like a 2.5/5 stars would be comparable to a 5/10 score. The difference between the 10 and 5 star system is pretty much negligible.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/editorials/7149-What-Our-Review-Scores-Mean

Other websites often use 10/10 to mean 'perfect'; whereas the Escapist makes it explicitly clear that 5 stars does not mean the game is perfect. It also notes that stars are relative, meaning the experience of what is the 'pinnacle' of a genre will likely change over time.

 

[Zhukov]

So, Mr Tito, have I ever told you exactly what I think of your DragonAge 2 review?

Indeed. It's hard to take someone seriously when they create a review as mind boggling as that.

Uhh... that was a joke dude.

Y'know, 'cause the article is about people being nasty pricks and Tito's DA2 review...

OH NEVER BLOODY MIND!