[EDIT January 26^th 2008]
Do I even need to say it? You get what you want. Oh yeah, she’s moved to Kawaiipurinsesu, in the meantime.
[/EDIT]

For those of you who’ve been regular visitors, you would know that I never start e-drama. I admit to feeding e-drama, and egging the participants on, but I never start e-drama. Why? Free link to the “victim”. However I decided to make an exception this time. After all, if Barbi kept accusing me of starting drama I might as well do it.

Piqued your interest? Then read on for an unrequested review of Mystical Drama (that’s the site’s name, by the way).
(read more…)

… or if you prefer: generators of e-drama. They give the innocent webmaster an unrequested review and the whole world turns against the victim. The latter, wishing to fight back, starts to complain to everything and everyone, causing even MORE bullying. Since this seems to be “all the rage” these days, I couldn’t possibly deprive the world of my take on said topic.

Wonder why it all degenerated into petty “cat fights”? See below.

First of all: you asked for it.
There is no such thing as an unrequested opinion. You might not have specifically asked for a certain person’s opinion, but you published your work for all to see. Everyone has a right to form an opinion on it… and yes, voice it. No one is obliged to like and/or agree with you. It’s called freedom of thought respectively freedom of speech.

Second: you’re actually privileged to have visitors.
You’re not God’s gift to Net surfers. On the contrary, you’re lucky enough to have that many visitors take an interest in your website. Keep in mind that your site would be NOTHING if it weren’t visited by anyone. It would defeat the purpose of having it.

Third: they’re generally right in some aspects.
If they dedicated an entire blog entry to your site, it means that it made a big impression on them. If people just feel the need to flame you for no reason(i.e. jealousy) spamming your tagboard/comments is much easier. There may also be exceptions, hence the use of generally instead of always.

Fourth: he/she IS entitled to do it.
Regardless of parentage, ethnicity, age, artistic and/or coding skills the person IS actually allowed to think negatively of you. Just because I can’t compose music or write lyrics doesn’t mean I’m not allowed to think badly of Eminem, for example. I’m not saying that the instigator’s reasoning is always correct, but that is in no way related to his/her
right to express an opinion. Like I said before: freedom of speech.

Fifth: no one likes whiners.
It is not good to be pitied, so don’t start telling people how sorry you feel for yourself because the whole world is targeting you. Not only aren’t you important enough to be targeted by the whole world, but there’s a high chance that lots of other people are going through a similar experience. Also, by whining you just give others more fodder for
ridicule.

Sixth: heed the majority.
If one person tells you that “you suck” he/she may very well just be jealous. If 10 (or more) different people tell you the same thing, they must be on to something. Bigger font sizes and larger layouts won’t compromise your personality.

Seventh: commenting systems, tagboards and guestbooks mean you CARE.
DON’T try to tell us that you have no interest in others’ opinion. You are practically BEGGING them to give you their opinion, providing the necessary means for this.

Eight: never EVER be rude.
Name calling is petty, immature and denotes a striking lack of education. If you’re convinced the other is mistaken, then you are also able to argue your point. An action which can ALWAYS be done in a civilized manner.

In conclusion: before you go on a rampage, sit down and consider the ‘accusations’. Try them out if unsure. Sometimes you need a proverbial “slap in the face” to see things as they truly are. It’s not pleasant, but you’ll know better next time.
Also, there will always be more rudely worded reviews than polite and thoughtful ones. Let’s face it: it’s much easier to just say things as they occur to you. Then again, these are the risks of having a site for all to see.

Considering the number of website reviews I received you’d think I’d seen it all, when it comes to terms/rules/guidelines, however it appears that I can still be amazed. I’m not going to point fingers, as I believe that bad publicity is petty. Technically I don’t really speak badly of the site, I’m just somewhat perplexed by a certain aspect of said site. That said, please don’t start attacking the site in question, should you find out which it is. If I won’t get reviewed because of this… oh well, I’ve endured worse things.

One of this WPR site’s requirement states that the reviewee should state bad graphic design skills in advance. Does that mean that those whose skills are bad aren’t allowed to get constructive criticism? Or maybe it’s a warning of possible reasons of criticism? Or maybe the reviewer has low tolerance for lack of good graphic design skills? Me, being the honest webmistress that I am, clearly stated that my graphic design skills are nonexistent, however I still wished ‘normal’ evaluation for it.

I recently read a review on Captious Pedants (by Veve) where she criticizes a webmistress on confusing webdesign with art. It really made me think on how much of a role does visual appeal play in web design. I always thought that web design can be a type of art, however one CAN have a well designed layout without it being artistic (Susie of Vision is a good example). Nevertheless Veve’s portfolio, Signed by V, is also well designed, and visually speaking more artistic. So which is it?

That being said, are reviewers going to demand a personal evaluation before they start a review? Isn’t evaluation the reason for getting reviewed?