Here is just a few points on receiving crits on your work. I hope this helps you out in the future to benefit more from what critiques have to say about your work and how to deal with crits that are purely non-related to your work at all. When you post a poem, shed some light on what you may wish to receive help with? What areas you feel that you would like others to look at for you, what are the problems you sought to solve? You are not infallible, neither is your design. Let yourself be wrong and you will learn more and become better for that. Criticism by nature is a tricky beast because it relies almost on subjective means. If someone is having a hard day they can quite easily take it out on you in a critique. Don't let yourself been drawn into the moment. Stick to facts and the challenges at hand. Keep your mind open to the feedback, try not to get defensive. You are often close to your work and at times don't see the obvious that others can. Sometimes prodding people for their real thoughts is a way of getting more insight. If people are saying "I don't like it." ask questions to try and draw a real response out of them. Chances are their problem may be with a small piece of the design and they are just having trouble communicating it to you. But on the same note, take the feedback with a grain of salt. You should at least entertain comments from your peers, but if you feel strongly about an aspect of your design, stand-up for it and make your case, but not flaming others or going over board causing arguments. Feedback is not just meant to be taken; it is meant to be discussed. Ask questions in response to criticism and be open minded at all times. If you receive comments on your work or someone else’s work that you are displeased with, disregard the comments, ignore them completely or inform a moderator or admin of the comments and let them sort it out. At times comments/crits are over looked and people take offence to them, but remember that these people are taking time to read and comment on your work out of their own time, they are actually spending quite a bit of time looking over your piece to help you with your work and when they do this they are taking more note of your work than someone who simply reads it and says, that is great. (no offence intended) But basically any feedback is good feedback, you can either utilise what the reader has said or take it with a pinch of salt. But remember that flaming helps no one, it only creates a bad atmosphere and causes less and less people to read and review your work, as well as everyone else’s work. Hope this helps you out. ~Torana
