After reading the recent threads which tend to be wandering off topic onto the question of feedback, I’m starting to wonder if some of the problem with feedback on these boards tends to be about expectations.
In the thread, 'How Much Slack Should Bad Clark Be Cut?', I thought Alcyone made a very good point.
It depends also what function you see the board play. Some people use it to beta for them.
Most of my stories get sent directly to the archives, and I tend to use these boards for a very different purpose. When I post a story here, it’s because I’m wanting a different type of dialogue with the reader. I’m wanting to know if they are reacting to the story the way I intended. I’m wanting to know if they are following what I’m trying to do. I’m wanting to know if they see things that need to be fixed or issues that I need to deal with or, at least, consider.
As a result, I tend to rewrite the story as I’m posting - responding to feedback. So I tend to want criticism and comments that can help me improve the story.
On the other hand, when I send a story directly to the archives, as far as I’m concerned, the story is finished. So if you send me feedback then saying that I lost you somewhere along the way or I have a big plot hole, I’m not likely to do anything about it.
So... what I’m wondering is this: is there some way that on these boards we could institute some kind of feedback rating system so that the writer can tell the reader what type of feedback they want? It could go all the way from ‘positive only’ to ‘anything and everything welcome.’ (Although, not sure I’d have the courage to say anything and everything welcome
). I’d be interested to know what others think - or if this is a really stupid idea (which, I admit, it might be
).
ML
