Always listening to member requests, we've now added a feature where you can select the 'type of comments requested'
when you upload a new work (or edit an old one).

So if you're of a delicate nature you can select 'Be Gentle With me'; if you're tough as old boots, select 'Go on! I can take it!'; or if you're somewhere in between select 'Not too harsh, not too soft!'.

You can also leave it blank if you prefer things just as they are.

Ohhhh!!!! Spooooky or what!

Simultaneous postings on the same subject!

Well done David.

An old bt…

David

you must be getting soft in your old age however a good feature which I note seems to default to none even for existing work

take care

david

Yes I thought it best to let people update their status as they wished, rather than setting everyone to 'Not too harsh not too soft'!

David

there that proves it you are getting soft I think the devil in me would have made 'it go on I can take it' ( I would put a smiley now but I know how you hate them)

thing is if you update all of your posted work you have to make sure you update your latest work last.

still a site which updates at reasonable intervals is a site which will continue to grow so I cant wait for the next modification.

take care
david

Magnifico. Just altered all my currently uploaded work to reflect the kind of feedback I'm after.

So have I, but I can't see the pink box above the comment box!

<Added>

Sorry, I can now.

Brilliant Idea. I'm always very cautious about criticising other people's work - ie, I don't want to put anyone off, especially if they are a bit sensitive about their own stuff, and yet I expect people to comment on my stuff with combat boots and a sledgehammer.

(that's a constructive sledgehammer by the way)


Colin M.

Excellent idea. I often feel I need to know how sensitive the author is before I write my comment. Trouble is, the author may not be a good judge of how sensitive they are.
I think I'll leave mine blank - I like things the way they are - helpful and reassuring.
Thanks for making WW so effective. I picture it as a meetingroom with avatars moving around and meeting, discussing the works pinned on the walls or projected on to multiple screens. It is better than a writing club, in that most comments are considered and well expressed.

All the best,

JohnK.

I'm in two minds about it. Personally I can take it; artists either learn to look at criticism carefully yet retain that inner vision, or give up altogether. However I can imagine many members who really would prefer a gentler touch to feel that setting the level to anything less that Go on! I can take it! would reveal themselves as wanting less than honest critcism. Just a thought, still we'll see.

It is a really good idea. But isn't there an issue that some new-to-crit sensitive writers might just say they're tough as old boots for fear they won't get honest criticism otherwise?? But then maybe that's their own fault if they find it hard to deal with the comments they get! I don't know, I'm probably just being awkward....

I agree with Nell and Skippoo but like John, I'll leave mine blank (I'm glad we have that option) I was perfectly happy with the system as it was.

Elspeth

Nell, Skippoo - that was one reason we left the 'None' option in which case the work appears the same as it always did. That way you're not saying or implying anything about the type of crit you expect.

<Added>

e.g. posted at the same time, almost the same thought!

I'm happy with it as it was as well. Perhaps the angle that seems to have been missed in this discussion is that the style of criting each of us does surely doesn't change that much from piece to piece, does it?
If you're confident that your criting does not put people down because you've been sloppy with the words you use, why would you want to pussyfoot for sensitive writers.
And how could those people who chose the sensitive option not become stereotyped, even if they decided in later works that they had 'come of age' and could take it, and chose a harder option?
Another thought: sometimes we get slightly strange people on this site who might decide they could just 'trash' someone's work because the option was 'go on, I can take it.' I don't want to see any of that twisted stuff on WW. I hope this options thing doesn't invite any of that, if it does, we should all do something about it.
Becca.

What I had in mind was that bloke a long time ago who told me that my sentences were ridiculously long, and then posted another comment that got wiped, thankfully, before I read it. That was when there was a discussion going on about grammatical correctness etc.
Becca.