From a reader who wishes to remain anonymous:
Hi, this is [redacted] on twitter. I've subtweeted you and your site a few times and I think you noticed - you said [redacted]. (Or at least, I think you're the one who runs the twitter account... I'm not familiar with how your site operates the police officer blog posting account or the social media handles.) Anyway, I've been getting the impression that I may have struck a nerve with my tweets, though since we haven't had a lot of direct interaction, it's hard to tell if some of your posts were influenced by that or if I'm reading too much into it.
You said in a recent post that 2016 wasn't particularly easy for you, and I noticed you changed your bio on the site to be more self-deprecating, so I wanted to apologize. I had assumed that if you saw my tweets at all - which I thought at the time I was vague enough that no one would know who I was talking about - you would just brush them off and not think twice about them since I'm just some random schmuck. I hope my comments didn't come at a particularly bad time and just add more baggage to what you were already dealing with.
I also want to apologize that this email turned out much longer than I expected when I sat down to write it. But since I'm emailing anyway, I wanted to give some context to why I had criticized you before, in a manner that's hopefully more useful and less aggressive.
While I don't agree with all your reviews or points, I think you generally have a fair opinion on what works in a comic and what doesn't. And I'm certainly not expecting you to give glowing reviews to everyone who knocks on your door. If I have a real criticism for your site, it's that you seem to treat the creators that you're reviewing disrespectfully. Not saying you have to like everyone you review or kiss their feet, and I know some people will come in swinging if they got a review that wasn't as good as they expected (regardless of whether you're respectful or not). But there are quite a few times when I've seen an exchange where the onus is on you.
Your Decrypting Rita review is a good example of what I'm talking about; I'm personally not a fan of that comic (and the sparse times I've spoken to that creator, we haven't gotten along), but I thought her reply was fairly modest/friendly, she thanked you for the review, and she even played along with the site's cop gimmick. But your reply comes off as aggressive and makes no attempt to reach a common ground, or even possibly joke back with the Cop blog account. But my thoughts on this aren't limited to just the comments section - the reviews themselves could be worded differently to be less confrontational.
I do think getting a bluntly negative critique of your webcomic can be an eye-opening experience and motivate improvement for some people, but for others, it's a discouraging nail in the coffin. When doing a review, it's really easy to look at a work and think "this is a product, and my thoughts are aimed at trying to make it better." But what you'll find is many webcomic artists are a) young, and b) not good at taking criticism, because they aren't looking at their work as a product, but a passion project. It's often times something they're making to cope with depression (or other problems), or it's a deeply personal idea that they've put their whole heart into making real, and thus take criticism as a personal attack. They want to be told it's good, which is why they ask for a review; and when they get the blunt truth that it isn't quite what they thought, they go into defense mode. They don't see it as a product, they see it as an extension of themselves.
I did find it interesting in one of your recent posts that you said this: "What's going on is that I'm vulnerable to being overwhelmed with negativity and self-criticism in a way that kills my ability to be productive." Which, if I'm reading this correctly, tells me you already understand what I'm talking about, at least somewhat. It's easy to look at a webcomic and think "this is clearly bad," but if you follow creators, you often find they're very critical on themselves and often struggle to find the motivation to share their work. They often don't know where to go to improve - which is where a review can come in handy to help them find their way. But if that review just tears them down, then instead of thinking "this is where I go from here," they may think "I'm not good enough to do what I want to do," and give up completely. It's going to be their own job to thicken their skin and learn to distance themselves from their work, but that takes time, and I believe your reviews can still help them reach their goals rather than being the wall that ends their journey.
My point with all this is not so much "give everyone nice reviews," but rather be mindful of your wording and how you engage with people. It is possible to word critiques in ways that keeps the creator(s) receptive to them while still getting your points across; communication itself is a skill that takes practice, and plenty of people aren't very good at it. I think that if you keep all that in mind, it can help you write reviews that are more productive. AKA: The difference between criticism and constructive criticism.
Ultimately, it's not your job to make people feel good about their work. It's your website, you can review however you want. If your goal is more to provide a recommendation to readers on which comics to read, or just appeal to the crowd that likes to hate on comics/creators, then my thoughts above probably don't mean much. But if your goals are to try to influence creators and help them make a better product, then maybe this is worth considering. Just my two cents.
Anyway, I hope that you enjoy the work you do. Your site bio before, if I remember correctly, said you don't enjoy reading webcomics. If that's true, I'd encourage you to find a hobby that you truly do enjoy and motivates you to do great things. If that's not true, however, then I wish you luck in meeting your goals and growing/improving your website. My bottom line is I believe people should enjoy what they do - it's better for your blood pressure and mental health - so I hope you do.
I hope that 2017 goes well for you. Feel free to brush off my comments if you don't find them useful for your goals.
Good luck,
[redacted]
