Board Thread:News and Announcements/@comment-24486926-20131105024437

Now, this is an issue that has been going on for a while, so I feel it would be appropriate to adress it and clarify the definitions between the two.

First thing's first: Criticism is not Critique. Critique is helpful, Criticism is harmful.

Not liking a story, but not making an attempt to help, nor giving helpful advice is criticism. It is often times an inappropriate comment, insulting, and offensive. Criticism is stuff like: "This was f*cking bad," or "This was terrible. *Random insult here.*" Critique, on the other hand, is something like this: "I didn't like this too much, here's why: Reason X, Reason Y, Reason Z." or "Issues: Issue one, issue two, issue three, etc. Better luck next time." with ratings for the pasta at hand as well.

Now, lately, I have been tightening the Quality Standards in an effort to perform Quality Control and cut down on the number of pastas that lack description, are short and pointless, or just bad.

When I see criticism though, it is greatly upsetting. Why? I don't know, maybe because that's basically telling me I'm failing my job. Critique should always be reasonable, helpful, and actually assist in the growth of a writer. Criticism just causes a rage quit, which is something we're trying to stop. No one wants to come to a wiki with users that often make insulting critcisms toward the writer's works. I won't name names: but I've seen users who simply criticize pastas without giving helpful advice or anything to back up their claims. There's more than just one, so I don't expect names down in the comments section either.

So please, stop the criticism, give more critique. It helps the writer, it helps me, and it helps the wiki. :) 