Haters gonna hate: Dealing with criticism (and those who criticize)

Hey folks!

I co-authored a little article over on Opensource.com with some tips on dealing with feedback. The article itself it slanted slightly towards general open source communities and software development, but a lot of what we cover in that article is also applicable when it comes to sharing your art (or for interacting on any online forum, actually).

Anyhow, thought it was relevant, so I’m sharing. How do you handle feedback?

This reminds me of that person that made a special GUI for Blender. There were like three haters and they got all the attention from the developer.

It’s more important to learn to use “ignore user” button.

To bad the ignored user post is a huge red wall of text saying that you ignore that user. Thanks for reminding me. To bad it doesn’t blink and make low hearts sound like in Zelda just in case. /s

It’s just two lines in CSS to fix this.

Though often i think people are too nice, anyone seams an artist on the internet.
But how many artist can you handshake, that did regular real world expositions ??.

I think for the education of an artist and growing up, there is (and there should be) no easy road
Dont tell his work is good, be critical, give him a chance to grow, to find his road cause he’s not there yet.
He will never be there, and deep inside he already knows that.
Its not about the last bus station its about the road to get there.

haters try to provoke every time they start typing anything. if you take the same attitude when you answer them, they always win. i only try to find if something is good or valuable in what they say, and that’s enough!

That’s not how ignoring really works. Here’s my tutorial on how to actually ignore someone:

  1. Do not pay attention to what they are saying
  2. Do not respond to anything you happen to witness regardless

If you’re not able to do that, you fail at ignoring. That person still has power over your attention.

What you’re asking for is a better way of filtering. Yet, if you fail at ignoring, even a filter will not solve the problem completely. That person is still around, writing things that you know exist. You may only find peace if you truly do not care what that person writes. Then you might as well scroll over it.

The first question to ask is: Is this person relevant to my life? (this could be something like: “do I have to work with this person? is it a customer? is it an expert in the field?”)

If the answer is “no”, then I don’t care. Learn to not care. Everybody has opinions. Everybody is frustrated about something. Maybe it’s something you did. It doesn’t matter.

If the answer is “yes”, then I try to find the relevant information contained within. The tone actually contains information, too. If I’ve done something that is really frustrating to someone, they better signify that in some way. Otherwise, it can be hard to tell if the issue is really important to them. Some people use “colorful” language, other people write “sternly”, yet other people are just passive-aggressive (which I personally find the most annoying). Don’t mind the tone, focus on the issue. Deal with the issue as you see fit. Pat yourself on the back accordingly, you’re an adult now.

I must admit that my ego is thought to be a possible explanation for the nature of the dark energy that makes up 70% of the universe, but I fail to understand how the kind of feedback we’re discussing here can affect anyone, unless there is some self esteem issue at work.
I am sincerely puzzled by it: why do people even care?
I suspect this has to do with some kind of primordial reaction to an aggression, projected into the virtual environment of this day and age, magnified by some personal condition, but I’d really like to hear what a cognitive scientist could tell us about that.

If it’s feedback saying I’m amazing, I print it and put on my wall. I also will give them credit in my RPG Maker game.

If it’s bad feedback, AKA they accuse me of making mistakes, we’ve got a problem. I don’t make mistakes, I just have a weird style sometimes. So I usually respond with personal attacks and report their posts for trolling. Most people realize I was right after that. If they don’t, I put them on ignore. Then, ironically, I remind them that I am ignoring them whenever I see them post.

I usually am defensive, then absorb the feedback, and try and change.

Sometimes people don’t agree, and both are right.
If they tell you, you can’t do that because you don’t have software X,

I then ask what makes software X better, then proceed to add it myself to upbge or ask the devgods for it.

The good tree, grows around their obstacles.

Of course the person exist, but with ignore button I don’t know what the person writes. It takes some discipline to not click “Show ignored message” but I’m at peace. Just like in real life. If you ignore a person you don’t want to meet them on the same lane you’re walking or the same space. But to walk by that person and pretend to ignore is more an act, I’m no actor. The less I see or hear about that person then it automatically becomes a real ignoring like you described.

On the one hand I agree that you need to get better and always strive to learn new skills. But on the other hand, so many people who could have been good artists just get discouraged and give up.

It takes a lot of courage to post your art online.

When I give critique, I try to do what my friend calls ‘the compliment sandwich’. You start out offering encouragement and pointing out where things are working. Then you give it to them straight about what needs to be improved. Then you follow up at the end with a little more encouragement. Like, “It’s looking good! Keep it up!”

I find that if I have nothing encouraging to say about their work, then I have forgotten how bad my own work was (or is for that matter).

Also, the part I find difficult when receiving criticism is how relevant it actually is. Like, sometimes you post something and a 15 year old sees it and thinks the eyes need to be bigger because all cartoon characters need to have large eyes because they learned that in a book or something. The part that’s difficult is that it’s sometimes hard to know that they are just a 15 year old and they have very little experience in the world.

I sometimes find Blender guru critique to be lacking because he’s really, just learning himself. When you start out, you should learn all the rules. I agree with that. But then you need to develop your own style. When you do that, you have to accept that some people aren’t going to get it. For instance, I love characters with dot eyes. Conventional wisdom suggests that the eyes are the windows to the soul. How then, does it work that dot eyed characters are still great? Because, the original wisdom is wrong? Because rules were meant to be broken. It’s a stylistic choice.

Many great artists have very strong opinions about style. You need to find your own way through this and that can be very difficult. Who you decide to trust is entirely up to you.

Very nice article!

I am telling you a lot of managers should be teachers first.

existentialism re-discovered :wink:

take it as it comes & use your greatness to make that better, after, observe the results, finally see to know who you really are, if lucky, you might be aware most of your lifetime

enjoy all interaction bursting in passion and emotions, feelings… good or bad, cold or hot, fuzzy & wet - everything takes time to consume, to process and contemplate, which fulfills the life’s existence as much as it’s meaning

i stopped seeking for reasons why, instead am oriented towards solution in sharing, caring

also, i consider ignorance, a fancy wrapped hate, an arrogance, a seeing man’s vanity, because also haters might act based on love, passionately, love is crazy, love is blind & hearts pumping can grow wild
we all know how war starts, out of love… either for self or another
there’s no escape, but to conquer that self
in the moment of a momentum, to prevent inertia, it’s a thin fat line, reasoning the paradox :slight_smile:

read Soren K. more often

:wink: enjoy

You think the problem comes from those who criticise. In my opinion, communities poorly managed are the ones more lilkey to have issues.

If the criticism is valid, and well put, then it’s useful. And if it’s useful there’s nothing to get upset about. So I try not to assume a person is being critical for the sake of it. And you should be able to tell fairly quickly, if you’ve seen enough of it. At the very least they should be giving you some information. “I don’t like it”, Or “That’s lame… lol” is completely worthless in terms of critique. In fact it’s not critique.

There are some that seem to think being blunt, or brutal is a virtue. I’ve noticed a lot more of it lately. Not necessarily here. Just in general. Perhaps it’s something to do with the recent backlash against what people call political correctness.

If a person can’t get their point across without being insulting they should be ignored. Especially when they provide nothing that could actually help you improve in some way. Few things annoy a troll or an idiot more, than being completely disregarded. I know That’s harder to do than to say or write though. Sometimes you do feel like strangling them. :slight_smile:

I think that in a normal community you will find very few examples of ill intended criticism that deserve any special attention or mention. Even in communities with issues that is still true. I usually do not judge how something is said across a very limited communication method where different cultures and personalities interact, but what people say and do with their time here. Sometimes I find that the most valuable criticism is not the best handed one and for someone sharing work in the free, indiference is the worst option.

However, heated debates and arguments are a symptom of something else. Good decisions from a management team and a good project culture can send ripples of good vibrations across any community and specially in open source communities which are particularly averse to vertical structues, opacity, cult of personality, etc. In a community with good foundations it is easier to accept and take other’s opinions about anything.

Trolls prey on dysfunctional communities.

Knowing how your ego works is very helpful. I am a little Buddhist, so dealing with the ego comes naturally. I can take any critic without getting emotional, defensive or feeling personally attacked. Best case, it motivates me to get better.
I don’t like it if people sugarcoat their critique or are in general too nice. I don’t want to hear political correct bullshit. If someone has nothing to criticize on my work, his opinions are useless.
So i always try to get criticism of people who are much more better than me. After all you can only get better if you play a better opponent.

No one in this thread seem to know what they are talking about and on top of that you all seem to be pretty horrible people. :smiley:

#trainingexercise

There’s a trick here, I’ve found, and that is to treat the element to be critiqued as a puzzle to be solved, and this particular puzzle has multiple solutions. For 2d art I always ask people to do draw overs. This way, anyone, even a novice can take a stab at solving the problem.

This way you gather multiple solutions, and the person doing the critiquing usually learns something from it as well.(This is also the value of giving good concrit, usually the person giving it learns a lot about art as well, because they need to go back over the basics and figure out how to articulate them)

Of course, the draw-over or invite to solve the problem should be done courteously, not like “oh, if you can’t solve this, I won’t accept your criticism”, because that just leads to people being tense and defensive, while they should instead be drawing :c

When I give feedback, I consider both what’s good about the piece and what’s wrong with it based on the 12 principles. However, every style is different so when it comes to appeal, it’s a mystery until I see it. When I receive feedback, the first thing after it’s explained is how to improve on it and try to apply it on the next piece I release. In my case, if I can’t pull it off in the way that it would be explained, it eats me up inside if I can’t improve on it further which in turn eats at my limit of artistic skill.