Are people afraid to be rude?

[Mordred]

heya,

I'm active on several forums on the web, and I notice the same tendencies on each and every one of them. People are nice. Everybody is complimenting everybody about how great their new models are and how much they like that nmm or blending. Same goes for my models. OVer the past few days/weeks I have heard nothing but ' hey, superb model ! ' or ' love that nmm dude ! ' . Every once in a while someone takes his time to type down abit of constructive criticism which I greatly appreciate, but this is often exception and not the rule.

Seeing how everybody likes everything, there is no need to change anything drastic about my model. After I finish it I post it on coolmini, where it scores super poor. I don't care about the scores of my miniatures, but I do want to improve. I want to win a golden demon someday and if I am spending hours and hours painting a miniature I'd like to improve over time. Without constructive ( and therefor harsh ) criticism that is impossible. Perhaps it's time that people actually tell me what they think, because this 'everything looks great' attitude isn't helping me at all. I hate being stuck on the same quality level. You can hate coolmini all you want but you can't argue with the scores. I can learn alot more from a dissapointing score then from 50 posts on different forums.

Why don't people just say what they think? are they afraid to hurt feelings or something. The way I see it, if I post pictures on a forum asking for things to improve, I WANT to know what's wrong with my model and I'm not going to cry if someone tells me they don't like the mini. Also people telling me what they like about a model is nice but it doesn't help greatly. I want to know what's wrong with a paintjob.

any opinions on this? or am I alone here

ps this is not a rant just something I have noticed. Don't take offence

As I think it would be good to know other people's opinions on this, I made this topic 'sticky' for the time being.
Mahon

[mahon]

nope, you're not alone here.

that's why I posted THIS and especiallyTHIS THING - you see, I also want to encourage people to be frank and to say what they think...

Somehow some of them don't want to go beyond the "it's cool" comments... Some of us try to help though - as much as they can.

But yeah, I noticed the same thing...

[Demi_morgana]

I think there are 2 reasons of what You write about
1. people like Your minis and honestly write they just like it

2. people who paint at lower level as Yours are shyed (?) too much to criticize
You; I know this shouldn't happens in a "friendly" community like this but
imo it does; and I'm afraid if You are good painter You have to live
with this

[NAVARRO]

well really depends on were you browse... dakka is funny 5000 views and 1 reply saying wow generaly people tend to be polite and thats really netiquete but, i like you, like those really harsh critics... it only gets my juices flowing...and try to improve more. So Mordred you can go downtown with my work and kick my knees with harsh critics... same aplies to all.

[Kenneth]

I understand what you are saying, Dred, and feel your pain. Let me give you a few possible reasons:

Some like it the way it is.
Some don't have the technical knowledge to give a good review, ie: they don't know why the mini looks the way it does or what the painter can do to improve it.
Some are too lazy to comment, or if they do, to lazy to work their brain to come up with constructive, but critical comments.
Some don't want to hurt the painter's feelings, or be thought of as being a bastard or bitch.
Some don't know how to criticize others without coming across as a azzhole.
Some have a feeling that something's wrong, or know darn well they've seen nicer paint jobs, but can't quite distinguish what it is that makes the difference between the two.

In a nutshell:

1. Many viewers are not qualified/able to give instructive criticism. (This eliminates lots of viewers on CMON right off the bat! )
2. Out of those who do know some don't have the time, or are too tired/lazy to go to the work of giving workable, helpful feedback.

[ToMaZ]

hmmm I know what you mean Mordred and I can imagine it's very frustrating. I think most of the reasons have been given allready.

Sometimes it's hard to say what you don't like about the mini when everybody else likes it. A couple of times now I said my opinion about a mini that I didn't like and I got attacked by other members...(not on this forum ) Most of the time I try to point out the things that I don't like, but I realise that my comment isn't always that great

Maybe it's easier for other members to be honest if you really say how you want it to be commented? Most of the time I ask for a bit harsh comments because I want to improve and I find that most comments really point out some flaws and weaker points of the mini.

But thank you for starting this topic... it's true what you say and I'll try to make more constructive comments in the future

[Trovarion]

well, so far on this forum I only saw solid, creative work. Not much you can say technique-wise when the only thing to disagree on is the "style" but who am I(e.g.) to judge someone's painting style? that's my main "problem" when comenting.

It was easy to give some helpfull advice on Ana's NMM because it was a field where I have tons of experience in and where I got an eye for it (read: small "flaws" jump directly in my face) but then again it is "only" the way that I think NMM needs to be done to look "realistic", from the tons and tons of reference stuff I looked at and from the "3 rules" I made for myself out of it.

I dunno! really! maybe I am just too tired with my current life, shit service, work, uni and therefore being exhausted I don't think all that much about models I look at...? no clue...but when I have the time I usually coment...

[mahon]

yep, as I said - I wanted this forum to offer constructive comments and most of the time they are offered.

Sometimes a comment like "I would like it to be highglighted more" can help a lot, because if you think everything's OK and nobody dares say something could be changed, you may never notice it.
If several people tell you "maybe blacklining would help" you may decide to try it.
If people say "hey man, the base seems to be too plain for such a mini" - maybe you will make a more complex base one day?

What I mean that even a small comment can sometimes matter, can open something new in your mind.

As for trov's comment on Ana's NMM - it was one of the helpful posts, which make you check the reference pictures, think about it and direct you a bit in the next attempts.

And you know - comments don't need to address the technical aspects, commenting about the style also can help you judge what the people like more and what less. If you know that "I'd prefer a brighter paintjob" you may expect more such comments (or votes, etc.)

I also feel tired or too busy too comment, but still I find this forum resourceful and helpful in the most cases! Thanks guys!

PS - Maybe I won't teach Cyril how to blend smoother, but I can tell him that I've seen other smoother paintjobs. I won't tell him I can do better freehand, but I can suggest a cool picture to paint on a mini, or propose a different choice of colors. Which still doen't mean I am right and he's not, or that I would win against him in a Golden Demon contest...

[Skrit]

Well everythings been kinda said. Sometimes you don't know anything about a certain technique (for me nmm) and therefor when I see Ana's work I either like it or not.

Sometimes all the things have been said already so why go through the bother of saying it again. I do think though that I've given my share of critisism about mini's that can be improved. Maybe I have been too polite, but hey, I'm just a nice guy I guess!

But I do think it's good you've brought this up! In the future we can treat you or anybody else who wants to be judged harsher (but still fair!) a bit different.

[Slawek]

I can be rude if you want too

But seriously: I do not comment so offen. Because I start to put some work in my mini this year. Earlier I was interested mainly in playing. I read a lot about mini painting but I understand very little. How can I say to someone that his nmmm is bad when I can't advice him what to do to make that better.