I’ve been looking at forums these days, and I guess what I’ve read stirred up some thoughts within me that I felt a need to write on it. (Just me and my thoughts, nothing else. Besides, who reads this blog of mine anyway.)
We all have the right to what we would like to say. For that, I guess the best moderators for our thoughts should be ourselves, so that we know what is the best way to bring across our thoughts with the least ill intentions where possible. And when we are passionate of certain issues where we would like feedback from others in order to share and learn, all the more the way we are others bring across their thoughts is crucial.
However, what I’ve seen so far is only criticisms. So let me share with you what is the definition of criticism:
From Dictionary.com
- The act of passing judgment as to the merits of anything.
- The act of passing severe judgment; censure; faultfinding.
- The act or art of analyzing and evaluating or judging the quality of a literary or artistic work, musical performance, art exhibit, dramatic production, etc.
Out of the 3, I would think that the third one is actually the best. Because I believe when one analyzes, evaluates or judges a quality of a piece of work, it would mean one goes down to detail to breakdown what is good or what is bad, unlike faultfinding where it only focuses on the bad. For that, I would actually prefer to describe 3 as constructive criticisms rather than criticism itself.
With that, does one learn better with the definition of No. 2, or No. 3?
The forum is “the best in the region” from what I read in one of the threads. However, in my humble opinion, I beg to differ. Comments given by others, especially those of Senior and Moderator in rank can only be defined as nasty. They have not given anything constructive but to pull others down. While I agree that constant praising when it does not deserve to be so does not help the person to learn and grow, does constant negative and unhelpful comments makes it any better? How do these serve to let anyone learn when it is suppose to be a learning forum? Or is it my own illusion that it is a learning forum?
Perhaps it’s the latter, that it is my own perception. But I guess I can never understand how a person can be so nasty. In my learnings, one would link that person as to having some underlying issues, that the act of putting others down is an illusion to give to themselves power and authority over others. And when it becomes like this, to be, it is also considered a form of cyber bullying. With it becoming to rampant over the Internet especially in blogs, I’m not surprised if it has come into the forums, where through a screen of anonymity, one can be nasty and not be caught, especially when you have reached the level of senior or moderator.
I guess that’s why my lecturer emphasized on the importance of having a mentor, and I understand it very clearly now. Because with such rampant faultfinding by others, it’s really hard to learn when they expect you to know everything when as a beginner, when I seriously doubt one can do that. Even with all the books you can read, one can never learn as much without having hands on experience. Yet, even if one has done the practical hands on, having a mentor to point out the mistakes to us for further improvements and what one should do would be the right way to complete the learning circle. Because, isn’t this the way how we were taught in school? I see now the importance of having good teachers in school as well.
So, all in all, to those who have been criticized by nasty people, who know nothing except giving comments like “cannot make it”, “you should just quit” etc, take heart. If you are truly passionate about your work and want to learn, the forum might not be the best place for you to be. Rather, seek mentors from other sources. Once you’ve found them, hang on to them to maximise your learning. And when you have finally developed into a master yourself, remember to give your mentors credit and appreciation, and do not take the path of arrogance where now, you start to diss the amateurs. Remember, you were once like them.
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