Comments on: Positive Blogging

By: Kelley Ritchey

Kelley Ritchey — Thu, 13 Oct 2005 04:06:04 +0000

What you say is very true. Part of the problem was that Instablogs didn’t fully address the issue in their first attempt. This led to further criticism, which they then responded to, etc. I think continuing in this dialogue makes one weary and defensive.

I think the advice that corporate types give is to address the issue fully and directly quickly and in one shot, then let the issue die. Eventually, if you correct the problems and produce good work, the mistakes are forgotten.

By: kahsoon

kahsoon — Wed, 12 Oct 2005 09:05:27 +0000

Excellent post! I’ve live with this for quite some time and really, sometimes you really need to turn a deaf ear of those “bs” that people says and concentrate on your own stuff, you’ll be successful one day :)

By: maruthi

maruthi — Wed, 12 Oct 2005 03:39:20 +0000

Isn’t it true in other professions too, and life in general? There will always be criticism, both positive and negative on everything we do. After all, without feedback it is not possible to improve. Probably, as Martin says, the best thing to do would be to read every feedback, say thanks to every feedback, make a list of things (leaving out those that dont make sense) that can be improved and just start working on the list.

By: Fly Girl

Fly Girl — Tue, 11 Oct 2005 18:26:02 +0000

Sometimes the best defense (showing critics that they are wrong) is to have a good offense (great content which rises about the pettiness of critical comments).

By: Martin Ralya

Martin Ralya — Tue, 11 Oct 2005 17:26:47 +0000

This is pretty good advice for publishers, too: if you put out a book that gets bad reviews, “fighting back” only makes things worse. Step back a bit, try to separate the useful criticism from the BS, and thank your reviewers for their feedback. Otherwise, you look petty and people who might have been neutral on the topic start feeling compelled to take a stand.

Great post, Darren! :)

By: Lisa

Lisa — Tue, 11 Oct 2005 16:59:15 +0000

I agree with what you’re saying (though I find it hard to ignore criticism when it’s directed at me ;-). I’ve been following the whole Instablogs thing and the tone seems to have gone from excited to frustrated to angry to downright whiny. It’s the whining (”Why this unfair treatment?”) that gets to me the most. I hope they rise above it all because I think their network has potential.