Is any critique truly objective?

[ICSoria]

i think what todd says has some merit but if we try and be honest we can do so without hurting (in the main) i like everyone here and i'll be the first to admit to tempering my feedback, what i don't or won't do is say well done if i don't think that's the case. i think we have lots of people here like that. i think it's one of the reasons why the forum isn't thousands big but i'd prefer a group wit a few who give honest feedback to a group of thousands that mainly spend time in feedback fawning over each other.

i try and look just at the poetry, i think that's the best way.

In the last few years, I have come around to embracing more of a this particular view. When I began writing on internet forums shortly after acquiring my first computer, I belonged to one of the first forums on the net; AOL's Writer forums that covered various subjects. Poetry Corner was (as far as anyone knew), the only poetry group on the internet with hundreds of posts per day. This was 2001 and they had already been around a few years before that. There were lots of serious people on these forums and some professional writers. However, very few of them really had time or patience enough to give any really constructive criticism (I know, “constructive:” a relative term as well). Yet most felt inclined to give a personal critique on anything they didn't like...which was most of the newbie poetry. So, I had to listen to some really abrasive feedback, but I learned to take it--I didn’t have much choice--Most was spot on anyway. I also began developing sort of an attitude and when AOL, as we had known it, disbanded, I guess I sort of missed those diverse personalities and perspectives. Looking back, on some later forums to which I belonged, I now regret having been quite so frank in my comments to more than a few newbies. I guess I figured if I had become thick-skinned, everyone should.

So far, this place is just the right size.

Sid