The Value of Cruel Reviews
By Tracy on February 2nd, 2010Posted In: Blog
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WARNING: THIS BLOG IS FULL OF ADVICE.
Well, How-To's, Hacks, and General Discussion, really; but also alot of guidance on how to do things, and on what not to do. It's what I've learned, and what I'm sharing with you.
Much of it is solid. The rest requires more be said. Please weigh what you learn here with other insights to see what works best for you. Thank you.
For more tips and tutorials, see: http://www.reddit.com/r/makecomics
The other day I was in the forum of a popular webcomic listing site when another new cartoonist came asking for opinions on the quality and content of his new webcomic; and while a lot of the resulting critiques of the new webcomic were spot on, they were also (in my own opinion) cruelly worded and gratuitously unkind.
Now let me say that this post is not a commentary on what the social skills or conversational graces of reviewers and critics should be nor is it an appeal to them to be less caustic to people who apparently value what they think and have to say.
No, this post is a call to action for webcomickers like you to understand that although Harshness and Insensitivity disguised as Frankness and Candor seem to be features of most reviews these days, you have a responsibility to yourself (your growth as an artist and business person) to sift through the bile that is a ruthless review and take whatever good advice it has to, uhm, “offer”.
Here are 2 tips for webcomickers who are interested in getting reviews for their work:
1. Don’t ask for reviews too early. In fact, if you can help it, do not ask for reviews at all.
It’s not that you should not care what people think, but making a comic is a lot like cooking a fine stew. It needs to simmer to let the flavours develop. Your art skill and writing are those flavours. You need to let them build before you let people drool and gnaw on it. As your archive and reputation grow (due to your promotional efforts) reviewers will come to you.
2. If you simply must ask for a review, ask it of a reviewer in your own genre.
For example: If you do a stick-figure, gag-a-day, webcomic about physics and computer science, a reviewer of long-form, furry, manga comics about Middle Earth fantasies will probably think your stick man doing Linux jokes sucks; and vice versa.
That being said, this post is also a reminder to webcomickers to be gracious in the face of criticism. Your becoming defensive is not productive and should be avoided because it makes you look bad (read: “stupid”). If you get a bad review either say “Thanks” and then move on, or skip the “Thanks” and just move on. Your detractors will be inconsequential, if your loyal readers say they are. Work on getting loyal readers, not arguing.
So when a critic tells you that your art work or writing is unappealing, see it as an invitation to learn to draw better or write better and to be zen. When a critic mentions a specific issue they have with your work, like your lettering, or shading, or proportions, or site design, then by all means evaluate their comments and make adjustments if possible.
Simply put, look for the value in cruel reviews, apply it and let your resulting great work and good reputation speak for you.
1 Comment
Sad to say, there may come a day (or perhaps, today is that day) when visitors to your site will report that while attempting to access pages on your site they encountered the above error message.
Meanwhile on your end, as you attempt to access your blog’s login page, you are recieving an error message stating that your databases are unavailable and require repair.
These messages indicate that your site has crashed. Your databases have become corrupted.
Don’t panic (or if you already are, stop). Panicking is a waste of time better spent trying to repair the databases.
The first thing to do is to log into your webhost’s Control Panel and look for the tab labeled “MySQL Databases”. This tab will have a link called “Open database utilities”. Open it. The utility page will probably confirm that your MySQL (the back end of your blog) tables have become corrupted. The page will show you links to click that will automatically repair the broken databases.
Other self-hosting panels will send you directly to phpMyAdmin. phpMyAdmin is a tool that essentially creates an online control panel for you to manage the existing databases of your blog. If you do not already have phpMyAdmin, then I recommend you get it here. (install phpMyAdmin)
1. In step 1 of the phpMyAdmin installation, read the GNU General Public License Agreement, which governs your use of phpMyAdmin. If you agree to the terms of this agreement, click the “I Agree to These Terms” button. (If you disagree, click “Cancel.” You will not be able to continue with your installation of phpMyAdmin.)
2. Choose a directory in your site where you want to install/save phpMyAdmin (or create a new directory)
Note: To simplify your ongoing file management, I recommend that you install phpMyAdmin in a unique directory with an easily identifiable name, such as phpmyadmin or mysql_admin.
3. One of the downloaded files will be called: user_password.php; This file will show you a link to your phpMyAdmin home page. Click the link to get started using phpMyAdmin.
Note: You can access the tool anytime by visiting your phpMyAdmin home page at http://www.yourdomain.com/subdirectory/, replacing yourdomain.com with your own domain name and subdirectory with the name of the site folder in which your phpMyAdmin files are installed. You’ll be asked to sign in using your MySQL user name and password.
4. When phpMyAdmin loads in your browser you will see a dropdown menu to your left. Click on it until you get to the database that looks like shorthand for WordPress (like wrdpr**) or the name of the site you are trying to fix. Open the file. Here you will see all of the databases that make up the backend of your WordPress blog. Search for the “Check All” button. Under the “Check All” button you should see a “With Selected” drop down menu. In that menu you will see “Repair Table”. Click on that and wait while your databases get repaired.
If these steps do not work, then contact your webhost and/or attempt to rebuild your databases using your backup files. If you don’t have backups, then take a deep breath, relax, and start rebuilding your site from scratch. Don’t worry, it happens.
When you finally get your site up (or have created a new one) you should schedule REGULAR, OFTEN and FREQUENT backups of your site. (i.e: DAILY!). WordPress.org users should immediately install the WordPress Database Backup plugin to do this.
If you are the user of a free blogging tool (including WordPress.com) you probably do not manage your blog’s databases and so will never encounter this particular problem. Still, I encourage you to create your own database of your blog’s content by utilizing a third party backup solution, just in case your bloghost crashes one day or goes defunct taking your blog with it.
REMINDER: Make REGULAR, OFTEN and FREQUENT backups of your site!
