Why I sometimes remove my comment areas
Hello, everyone. Just a quick blog post I wanted to write since it's obvious too big for a simple twitter update.
I just wanted to address why I will continue to remove my comments and why I might do so again in the future concerning ALL my releases no matter what the genre is.
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But first, I have some clarification to do. When wanting to explain myself I thought, as I always do, the loud sounds of people in my head ranting and complaining. See, that's what happens to someone after so long, whether you grew up in a negative household or had negative friends, or even had a past negative experience on the huge mobs of social media.
In my case, I often hear negative people whenever I post anything or want to do something.
Like, I could be working on a Skyrim mod, and in my head I can already read all the negative comments about "Gee why don't you do this" or "why don't you do that?" or "wow what a great mod much better than those devs at Bethesda!" or "why are you even making mods, you loser, Skyrim is an old game."
All this stemming from the Skyrim community, both those that download mods and those that comment on Skyrim videos.
I don't know WHO could even handle negative people for long periods of time and NOT succumb to depression or cynicism themselves. After a while of "Bethesda sucks" and "Bethesda is horrible" you eventually get what we have today, a Skyrim community with no shortage of negative people ready to comment on anything Skyrim related, especially on content about reviews and complaints.
In a way, there is such a thing as a civil complaint or a review. When you genuinely cover a certain problem you as a consumer have noticed. Those are less complaints and more valid criticism.
The problem is when our criticisms begin to be nothing more than just complaints and ramble rantings. Which in itself begins to taint the very idea of what constitutes a valid criticism and a mindless vent.
Which had me thinking, where is the line in the reception? How can you tell when someone is simply commenting toxic negativity, rants, slurs, gossip, slander, compared to when someone is honestly highlighting an issue?
The line is blurred, let me tell you. As a content creator that releases poetry, music, all forms of nerd projects, the reality I face with criticism is a real matter of discussion.
On my end, when it's up to me to decide the rules of who comments and who gets muted, I have to face both scenarios between "someone that can't take criticism" and "someone that has to monitor a healthy community."
And in my case, if I begin to notice that a certain project I release is attracting too many toxic people, or maybe there is just 1 person that ruins it for all, I simply remove the comments all together.
I find I have to do this more often when I release a project that is closer to a criticism than to an entertainment piece.
Because when it comes to criticism, there is NO line. Everyone mixes in between the mature and responsible critics, to the WORST of online trolls.
It doesn't matter WHAT the genre is. If you ever release a criticism piece in your projects, be prepare to attract some unwanted toxic people whom feed off everything that is a critique.
Am I derange for thinking this way? No! It's perfectly sensible to think about a possible issue when creating a project. But in my case, I have been along the internet for TOO long to not be so sane in a way. Whenever I do work on a project now, I mostly hear negative comments even before I release something. So, it's no wonder I myself become a little quicker to ban comments as soon as I see them spiral out of control.
This is pretty common. I have seen this in other creators, even some telling their viewers to behave and not fight among the comments. I personally choose to disable the comments. I'm not so patient anymore as other creators.
People need to realize that the content someone else makes is a privilege, and not an entitlement. To even critique something we do not create ourselves alone is a thin line just because we feel entitled with our subscriptions, even our payments.
Like, even in the real world. If you bought an item, and it was broken, or faulty, or just wasn't as you expected. Who cares. You will live to accept your loss and perhaps in the future choose not to return. As soon as you pay for something, or pay for something you already used, refund isn't always an option.
But to go online, or in public, telling others what they should and should not buy, is not okay either. The role of you as a consumer does not make anyone an automatic expert to critique anything. It simply means you bought something, and in your case you didn't like it.
Nevertheless, there will never be any shortage of people that will do the ranting for you. Online, or in public. These are the people I don't like to a certain extent when their power is simply telephoning onto other people's reviews in order to sway the public.
But anyways, this blog is beginning to unravel into too many faces of criticism, so before I mix into too many scenarios, I'll end it here. I might do a more in-depth blog later.
The reason I made this blog is because I wanted to address that there is a huge difference between "someone that can't take criticism" and "someone that has to monitor critscisim"
since we ALL know criticism doesn't just come in 1 form, it also comes in the toxic traits of negativity (putting others down or discouraging the value of what was released), rants, slurs, gossip, slander, insults, accusations, like
"no one's out to get you bro" or "you're just coping" or "its you that doesn't know"
ALL THIS BECAUSE PEOPLE CAN'T HANDLE BEING ONLINE.
A conversation online DRAGSSSSSS on in so many forms from 2 people vaguely discussing a topic, to 2 people attempting to clarify specific intricacies all in the area of a photo comment.
In it's best, comments can be a really healthy place for people to discuss the content.
In it's worst, comments can be a slum for toxic ranters, nitpickers, and drama starters.
So can you blame me for trying to show SOME kind of control? Although I live in the Open Source philosophy, I don't live in the Anarchy philosophy. I will remove comments I find offensive or rude. I will remove comments all together if people can't handle being friendly.
I'm fine with this as long as people return their focus on what I release.
I can't do ANYTHING about what others do on their platform. I find it disgusting. If I was really back to my roots, I would stoop to likewise being more hostile, swearing, slandering others, but that's not me anymore. I don't even want to swear for the sake of setting a positive example.
It's just sad that no matter what you release, somewhere else someone will release a video about YOU and encouraging other's to slander everything you do.
Sometimes, I feel like the world will be a better place without any comments. It would be a hard sacrifice, but a sacrifice for our own sake.
