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On the one hand, I hate to say that there are comments I don't want to receive on my work. Feedback and appreciation are great, and I don't want to discourage anyone from leaving comments!
On the other hand, there's a particular type of comment that consistently leaves me feeling drained and flat and with a desire to avoid the whole world in general. It's not flames. It's not even "update now!" or "write this random plotbunny to my exact specifications!" (Those are annoying, but tend to either amuse me with their sheer futility, or make me go do something else out of spite.)
The life-sucking problem is the person who thinks of themself as an arbiter of fannish good taste/correct interpretation, and leaves comments that practically bleed the assumption that you agree with them.
...
This post brought to you by the fact that I've had two separate people like that leaving comments on a LOT of my work over the past twelve months or so, and I have never been more tempted to abandon my policy of replying to at least the first comment anyone leaves on my work. It is mentally and emotionally exhausting to figure out a way to say something bland and polite without either starting an argument I deeply do not want to have, or making the person in question decide that I wholeheartedly agree with their particular flavor of smug gatekeeping. And the more comments they leave, the harder that gets because a bland template response can start to seem rude very quickly if deployed more than a couple-three times in a row.
*sigh*
Okay, back to crafting noncommittal replies.
On the other hand, there's a particular type of comment that consistently leaves me feeling drained and flat and with a desire to avoid the whole world in general. It's not flames. It's not even "update now!" or "write this random plotbunny to my exact specifications!" (Those are annoying, but tend to either amuse me with their sheer futility, or make me go do something else out of spite.)
The life-sucking problem is the person who thinks of themself as an arbiter of fannish good taste/correct interpretation, and leaves comments that practically bleed the assumption that you agree with them.
...
This post brought to you by the fact that I've had two separate people like that leaving comments on a LOT of my work over the past twelve months or so, and I have never been more tempted to abandon my policy of replying to at least the first comment anyone leaves on my work. It is mentally and emotionally exhausting to figure out a way to say something bland and polite without either starting an argument I deeply do not want to have, or making the person in question decide that I wholeheartedly agree with their particular flavor of smug gatekeeping. And the more comments they leave, the harder that gets because a bland template response can start to seem rude very quickly if deployed more than a couple-three times in a row.
*sigh*
Okay, back to crafting noncommittal replies.
