Constructive criticism and commenting

Constructive criticism in blogging word seem to be one of those mystical unicorns that shouldn’t exist but it actually does, so people are afraid to use it.

Okay let’s be real constructive criticism is not a unicorn, but it’s still something that sends bloggers running for the hills and not uses it EVER. They all avoid it like the plague. Well to be fair SOME people writing comments on blogs actually give constructive criticism.

Actually, most people avoid commenting altogether and just “like” the post.

Don’t get me wrong! I appreciate your effort and the fact that you took 3 min to read and liked my post because darn you certainly didn’t have to! But you know it’s still annoying. I personally write to get a reaction. And as much as a “like” Is a reaction it doesn’t exactly tell me anything.

What? Did you like the post? You liked the post because you’re a nice person? You liked the post because you actually like what I wrote? TELL ME! Writing a comment is not that hard.

However on the other hand “Nice post” helps me just as much as you liking the post.

I know I’m incredibly demanding but honestly, if I like something I take 2 extra min out of my day to give a legit comment on the post. Most comments I get don’t even sound like the person read the post, but more like they read the first sentence (if any).

Now I know that most my comments are there because of Facebook groups and, darlings, I KNOW that you’re probably not even remotely interested in what I have to say, but at least try to make it look like you read the post. You know pretend and make it seem legit. Yeah, I know when you commented without reading the entire post, you’re not even remotely good at disguising that. However you probably don’t care enough to disguise it, cause any comment is a comment and you can finally finish that annoying Facebook thread, right?

It’s probably bizarre that I feel bothered by lousy comments that are only a pat on the back telling me I did great and having no backbone nor require thinking or reading the actual post. I mean most bloggers feel flattered when they get a “Great post!” while I feel incredibly bothered because it sounds so insincere without any explanation of why it’s a great post…

This particular pet peeve formed because I used to be a book reviewer and tough my education everyone told me to ALWAYS explain why I stand behind whatever I said. So there you have it, I know it’s a lot to expect but I can’t help it.

And yes, for those wondering I was a book reviewer on multiple story/book writing and sharing/selling sites. But I had to quit because I ran out of time to read…

Okay, let’s move to the constructive criticism. I honestly feel like people are afraid of it because they think they would be found rude. And that’s absolutely not the case. I mean yes I admit it, writing good constructive criticisms is hard and most people who start off do it wrong…

But! To clear this once and for all, constructive criticism or criticism alone is not the person bashing you and telling you how bad your post is! It’s just something that bothers them and something you should (can) consider in order to make your posts better!

And no!

“Your post sucks because I said so!” or “Oh this is amazing! I wish I could do that.” is NOT in any form criticism or constructive criticism. In order to write a constructive criticism you basically have to write a review of the post, what you liked, what you didn’t like and most importantly explain WHY.

I’m quite sure people will appreciate your thought out comment as well as the fact that you helped them out and pointed out what’s good and what they can fix. You have no idea how great that is! It helps the writer grow and get better, not only that, with writing a comment like that, you also help yourself because in the future you’ll be able to read better posts.

Of course, I have to go back to Facebook groups and commenting threads. I have to admit here, I really don’t feel like reading 30 or more blog posts that don’t interest me. But I do it, for the sake of doing my part of the deal. The problem occurs when I get to the part of commenting.

Now I know you’ll probably all call me an asshole for doing this, especially after my long-ish rant about how people should give proper comments and blah blah. But I never write constructive criticism when commenting for those threads, unless I really like the post.

However! I never write only “Good post!” or “Interesting read!” or whatever crap like that. I always take time and point out the thing that the writer seem to be the most excited about and comment on that while adding “Nice post”.

So yeah, I’ll leave you with a tip for your future commenting. If you can’t be bothered with thinking of a good comment, just use that the writer wrote and throw in one good and one bad thing about the post…. And voila! You have the perfect recipe to not sound like an asshole while commenting.

But yeah, you still have to actually read the post.