You can't please all the people all the time.
So much time spent negotiating the curves. So much time spent trying not to hurt people's feelings. So much time spent trying to explain my actions. Honestly, this is ridiculous. I regularly deal with people who tell me there are too many low quality writeups that they don't believe belong here. On the other hand I regularly deal with people who complain about having a writeup that in their opinion is a fine and dandy piece of work being deleted.
Here's my take: Anyone who is without sin is welcome to throw the first stone. Check yourself before you start complaining about what other people are doing. I recently had a user complain that there were too many writeups in violation of copyright law on the website, so I went and deleted three writeups that were clear copyright violations. They all happened to be submitted by the user who was complaining about copyright violations. Check yourself before you wreck yourself.
Here's my take: Move on. Having a writeup deleted is not the end of the world. It isn't a personal attack. Most of the time when I delete writeups around this place I tell the user, "I know you can do better than this." Those aren't empty words. I mean it. All too often I've seen fine writers here who throw out something they half-assed and then act as if it were their first born child and they were the king or queen of Assyria. Having your work deleted is an opportunity to ask yourself, "Where did I go wrong with this piece and what can I do to write something that the people will love and embrace me for?"
Here's my take: There is far too much drama here, and I'm not talking about people writing about plays and movies. If you had any idea how much time I spend here trying to sooth bruised egos and moderate arguments between users, you might be driven to put your fingers down your throat and say hello to what remains of your lunch. And I'm not the only editor here to be weighed down by this sort of thing. There are some people who are of the mindset that because they've been here a long time they should be able to post whatever they want. There are others who think that their writeups are being downvoted by people who hate them and are plotting against them. We all get our share of those "I hate you" downvotes, but when you've written something that isn't up to par and it gets downvoted to hell and back, maybe it is time to ask yourself a question...
Am I writing for myself and my friends?
Or am I writing for the audience I have here?
Here's my take: Take the bag of excuses and flush it down the toilet. "My factual piece isn't getting any attention, I guess I have to write about monkeys and lesbians to get any love around here" is as ridiculous as the "People hate prose here" talk. You can't please all the people all the time. There will always be someone who doesn't like your work. All the top authors with a catalog of published work have their critics, people who think their books are crap and trash them at every opportunity. They get over it. There are too many people around here who think everything they write deserves to be upvoted and C!ed to the heights of Mount Washington and back in celebration of their genius.
The most telling sign I encountered recently was related to a node called "Tell me of the nature of love." A group of noders had gathered to write their own piece of under 100 words to "define love." The original concept was for them all to email one certain user who would create a sort of collage of their ideas, but many people didn't seem to bother to read or acknowledge that and we ended up with New Writeups being clogged with entries that were being downvoted and laughed at "publicly" in the Chatterbox. I decided to change the entries to "hidden" instead of being publicly posted in order to stem the mass downvoting and to keep New Writeups from being overwhelmed with a single node title. Most users understood and some even thanked me for doing so. Some agreed and confessed they could have done a much better writeup if they weren't under a one day deadline and asked that their work be removed so they could improve upon it, but there were those who took it personally. A comment from one told me that whether the writeups were posted hidden or publicly "should be up to the authors, not the people in the catbox," which brings me back to...
Am I writing for myself and my friends?
Or am I writing for the audience I have here?
Here's my take: There are those who like to cite E2 is a community as an excuse to post less than stellar material. You lessen the value of that concept when you use it as an excuse. I've even had one user tell me, "I wrote this for a couple friends I have here on the site, I didn't expect anyone else to really get it." There is a little thing called node for the ages that you might want to check out. This place used to be overrun with inside jokes and things no one outside of this site would understand or be able to relate to. Is there a point to doing this here? There are plenty of sites where you can blog or journal, and most of those who have been successful here seem to also have one where they deal with such things. In addition, no one will stop you from daylogging these things.
Here's my take: The user whose work I have deleted the most of on this site is myself, and whomever is in second place will never be able to catch up. I've deleted over fifty of my own writeups since I became an editor here. Not because I'm a masochist but because as I went back I said to myself, "This really isn't up to par and it isn't what I'd want someone to read if they were reading my work." Move on. Use criticism and writeups deletions as a spark to encourage yourself to do better, to improve your writing and to find your audience. Once upon a time I had a user flip out on me because I told him that the ending of his story made no sense to me and that maybe the reason it was incurring so many downvotes was because other readers were in the same boat. This user told me I was upsetting him because the piece was perfect, he worked very hard on it and refused to change it at all. When I went to this user's homenode I found it amusing that his "Mission drive within E2" statement was "To improve my writing."
Enough said. Move beyond the drama. Write.
If I refer you to this Editor Log, it is because I've grown tired of explaining this over and over again in too many /msgs. Just to set the record straight, that isn't a personal affront either. Thank you.