Regal Seagul
If you have spent any amount of time in online forums then I’m sure you have run across individuals looking for feedback on their work. Forums are a great tool to communicate with others and obtain feedback, but almost every time I see someone posting their work for review, a good amount of the comments are grossly negative. I am sure that the individuals posting their projects are expecting and looking for honest and constructive criticism, but that’s not always what they get.
A forum I visit regularly is Designers Talk. While many of the participants are very talented and bring a lot to the forum, there are also a lot of students and other designers looking for feedback on work and business practices. You would think this would be a perfect marriage for a forum, but there is also a third group… the high horse, condescending bullies. They seem to be the most frequent posters, which makes me wonder when they have any time to design, and they certainly don’t bring anything to the table.
We need to realize that everyone is always going to be at different levels and a newbie isn’t going to benefit from some bully bashing their work from behind their computer screen. My approach is to tell them what and HOW it could be done better and also tell them what they did well. In fact, there’s a lot to be learned from kids these days… the bullies could probably lean a thing or two if they weren’t so quick to criticize.
My point is not to tell you to avoid forums… In fact, I think they can be extremely beneficial, but if you’re posting your work, post with caution and an open mind.
