Are Your Comments Truthful in the AC Comment Section of Articles?
Do You Read the Entire Article?
I am being honest when I relate that I am guilty of both. I have several favorite CPs, whose writing I just love, so whether the article is a subject I am interested in or not, I will read all of it and truthfully comment on it. However, the articles that I read which attract my interest, and are not from one of my favorite CPs, I may not fully read. If the article is poorly written, containing poor grammar and spelling errors, or if the subject matter does no flow, I will not finish it and will not leave a comment, which to me is the same as not leaving a truthful comment, even though I know comments are not required.
I do not think I am alone when I say, "I just don't want to hurt anyone's feelings or embarrass anyone or myself by leaving a negative comment." When I use the term 'negative' I mean pointing out what I think is wrong with the article or stating that I might not agree with the CPs take on the article subject. I know many CPs put their heart and soul into writing their articles, so who am I to pick apart their work? I am, in no way, a professional writer, but I do know I can learn and improve my own writing skills by reading other CPs articles, so I do try to read the entire article, whether they are well written or not.
Another reason CPs may not leave truthful comments is they may be afraid of retaliation in that the CP they negatively commented on may do the same to their articles, which has happened. AC has given us the ability to delete comments.
As writers (professional or amateur), we open ourselves up for criticism whether it be positive or negative, and as human beings, we will react to either in very different ways. According to Webster.com, one definition of criticism is the art of evaluating or analyzing works of art or literature. To help us become better writers, I think constructive criticism is needed and I welcome it. However, I am not sure the comment section is a good place for this, but CPs do have the option of emailing each other, which is a great way to convey true opinions and offer constructive criticism, as long as hate mail does not start flying back and forth.
This probably could have been in the forum as it is more of a blog than an article, but I chose to make it an op-ed instead. I await your comments.
Published by Agnes Farside - Featured Contributor in Lifestyle
Agnes loves writing on a wide range of topics, but craft and gardening articles are her favorite. She may be a 'techie' during the day, but her evenings and weekends are filled working on one of her many cr... View profile
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This article is food for thought. While I can't say I agree with the premise that not leaving a comment is the same as leaving a false comment, I can see how you may draw the correlation. I am glad that as writers we have the opportunity to connect with each other and grow from each other. I suppose those of us that choose to take full advantage of any opportunity to improve at our craft will utilize the tools at our disposal.
Very interesting - and I mean that!
Thanks to all who left comments. This article has even made me think more about posting comments. ;-)
And I agree- this article is a super topic!
Your article certainly got me to ponder the use and abuse of comments, let alone the honesty aspect. After thinking about this, I really feel that there isn't one single rule that all writers follow when it comes to comments. Some do feel that they need to give reciprocal comments and that they need to be polite or friendly and some feel that they should offer up their opinions about the topic and/or the writer's quality of writing. I would guess that if you polled 100 writers here, you'd get a wide variety of reasons why people comment as well as their feelings about truth and comments.
I can say some might be truthful and some maybe lie! But I tell you this this article is great!!
My response will be a combination of all that has been mentioned here. I do read most of the articles thoroughly and leave a comment without being nasty, definitely do not just leave a smiley face. I also want to encourage fellow CPs and do not wish to leave a comment on the grammar, punctuation or silly mistakes. I would PM that CP. Sometimes though, if the article does not interest me that much I just leave a short comment.