Well, I am one of those who helped hijack Terry's feedback thread. Although my first post did indeed contain specific comments on his story, the second was completely in response to comments by others.
Certainly thread "drift" is nothing new in this fandom or anywhere else. Sue pointed out that she saw some in one of her fdk threads, I know that I've read it in others. I remember one topic (at Zoom's boards) that went off-course and the original starter of the thread come on later to complain about it. I've seen it happen on email lists too - you would think it would be less frequent there because you can change the subject heading, but most people don't bother...
Regarding constructive criticism: in one small fandom that I keep my eye on, there has been a story mailing list active for several years. And usually the feedbacks are short gushes encouraging the author to keep posting. But a few months ago, a new member of the group suggested to the author of a new story that the story would be easier to read if she could put a space between paragraphs.
Sounds simple, right? She said it very politely, just as I've seen it here any number of times. It's not a negative comment on the story, just a suggestion to help clean up presentation. Well, the hullabaloo that rose from this remark. You would think that she had told the author never to post such "drivel" again. Yes, it's constructive criticism in that it's not a gush, but a lot of people on that list took it as an insult and an affront.
It's nothing like that over here, but it did get me thinking. For a couple of stories in the past, I've come right out and said that I thought people were acting out of character, based on my interpretations of these characters from the show (and, admittedly, influenced by reading a lot of fanfic). I was very polite - I had all sorts of "for me" "my opinion" "I feel" all over the place, but I tried to state honestly why something in the story wasn't working for me and
why.
Well, the authors were always very receptive to my and any other comments about their story. Did they make changes because of my suggestions? Usually not - nor did I expect them to. Would they have preferred that I raise the point in a private email? I don't know - no one ever said anything about it, but perhaps they were in fact cursing me under their breath and wishing that I wouldn't discuss it publicly.
And if they would have preferred such comments to be made privately, I wouldn't have blamed them. I don't write - as many of you know - so I've never felt the terror of putting my "baby" out there for public display. If I had belabored long and hard over a particular paragraph to get the phrasing just how I wanted it, how would I feel if someone came on and said - no matter how politely - that it didn't work very well for them because of... So now, no matter how careful I would be to word it, I would be much more reluctant to say anything that could be construed as negative.
And maybe that's a good thing, or maybe it's not. Because we have had some wonderful discussions about stories - leading to characterizations, etc. - from feedback comments. Sometimes they've started from one person's "this doesn't work for me because" and someone comes in to say, "well, actually, I thought it
did work because of". Two different interpretations of the same line - both, perhaps, equally valid. Because we all do interpret things differently - such as the example in Terry's thread with the different way that Carol and CC each viewed a certain line in the story.
I would hate to see such discussions end. Even if I don't always participate, I
always enjoy reading them.
Kathy
