Feedback is a gift, however it comes. If you put your opinion out there, not everyone's gonna like it. They don't have to; you can't please all of the people all of the time. One of the important things about having a position is being happy to engage in debate, exploring the rights and wrongs of that position and seeing things from the other side. And one of the great things about having a blog is that blogging sites are all set up to invite comment and opinion. I love reading what people have to say, what they agree with and also what they disagree with. Everyone's entitled to their opinion.
What's not so good is when people, usually anonymously, just post rants that point out all the failings of a course of action, but without suggesting any better course. Sometimes without even offering any kind of rationale or context for the view. You only have to look at some of the comments pages for the online version of the broadsheets, or the BBC's news site to see how quickly rational debate turns into mud-slinging. Not helpful for either side of the debate.
What's not so good is when people, usually anonymously, just post rants that point out all the failings of a course of action, but without suggesting any better course. Sometimes without even offering any kind of rationale or context for the view. You only have to look at some of the comments pages for the online version of the broadsheets, or the BBC's news site to see how quickly rational debate turns into mud-slinging. Not helpful for either side of the debate.
I was pondering a particularly colourful comment when I was reminded of one of Barack Obama's speeches where he asked people not to simply criticise him for who he was, but to join in the debate, to get involved in finding solutions to problems. I love this speech - see if you agree!
Posts
Re: the above you might like to check out the following open letter from Joanne Poyourow of Transition US
ReplyDeletehttp://www.energybulletin.net/stories/2011-05-24/world-it-should-be
There has also been some mighty feedback on a recent This Low Carbon Life article on Transition Culture:
http://transitionculture.org/2011/05/30/transition-and-activism-a-response/
Not sure which is harder as a blogger - lots of response or none!!
All the best,
Charlotte