If I'm enjoying your painting / song / whatever, should I leave a comment "I liked it! +1" or would you rather only hear from people who have something substantive to say?
How important is it for you to hear feedback from people who enjoyed (or even didn't enjoy, but at least noticed) your work?
I prefer substantive to just "I liked it" or "+1".
I know people will like things or dislike them, and my particular specific creative pursuit is just another thing.
I'd prefer to know why, and in the telling I can either discount or accept their positive or negative critique.
If I know you're reading/viewing/whatever, and you've mentioned "I'm reading it, it's cool." (or whatever) then I'm not so much in need of solid feedback. If I ask you for feedback, and it's not given, then I'm going to wonder why.
If on the other hand you're reading it, and I don't know, and you like it, I prefer substantial feedback to a "wow, cool, +1, yeehah!" or similar.
There's a bit of a double-edged sword, there, though. Because unless someone actually tells me they're viewing and appreciating my work, I often find myself in that all-too-common trap of thinking "no one likes my work, I suck, I should just stop!"
And that's the tough bit.
There's a bit of a double-edged sword, there, though. Because unless someone actually tells me they're viewing and appreciating my work, I often find myself in that all-too-common trap of thinking "no one likes my work, I suck, I should just stop!"
And that's the tough bit.
I should have been more clear in OP. This is more what I'm interested in. Clearly, a person would prefer substantive feedback to just bland platitudes, if the choice is between the two. But often I don't have any substantive feedback other than just "I really liked this, I'm glad you did it."
So I'm wondering to hear from some folks if that sort of thing is REALLY REALLY important or kinda sorta important or not even important.
And I'm sure there is wide variation from individuals but that's why we ask questions in public ;)
Maybe clearer: "Do you honestly care that an anonymous stranger enjoyed that song you posted on Youtube 7 years ago?"
(and even if you do care in the abstract, do you necessarily like to hear from them specifically?)
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In that case, yes. Speaking in that abstract (and maybe a bit in the non-abstract), as a creator, I'd love to know if you're taking a peep at my stuff on a regular or semi-regular basis. I wouldn't call my art any kind of good, but I'm keen to know who's looking in on my serial fiction tumblr or my world-building blog.
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If I know you're reading/viewing/whatever, and you've mentioned "I'm reading it, it's cool." (or whatever) then I'm not so much in need of solid feedback. If I ask you for feedback, and it's not given, then I'm going to wonder why.
If on the other hand you're reading it, and I don't know, and you like it, I prefer substantial feedback to a "wow, cool, +1, yeehah!" or similar.
There's a bit of a double-edged sword, there, though. Because unless someone actually tells me they're viewing and appreciating my work, I often find myself in that all-too-common trap of thinking "no one likes my work, I suck, I should just stop!"
And that's the tough bit.
+1 ;)! In all seriousness, though, I appreciate both kinds of feedback. Even if it's a short comment, I know that someone took the time to make it.
What they said.
Substantive, thoughtful feedback requires that I have the time to think in detail about what I like and don't like and then to put that into writing and correct the results of my dyslexic fingers.
If I haven't got that time, is "I liked this" better than no feedback at all?
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Personally, I would say yes. While it does not give specifics about what exactly you liked about it, it at least would let me know you enjoyed seeing/reading/playing what I put together so I did something right with the art/article/game.
Additionally, people tend to be more vocal when they have negative things to say, so even getting a "+1" helps offset what could be one sided feedback (as long as you are clear the "+1" is for the product and not the previous negative feedback ;) ).
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Personally, I would say yes. While it does not give specifics about what exactly you liked about it, it at least would let me know you enjoyed seeing/reading/playing what I put together so I did something right with the art/article/game.
Additionally, people tend to be more vocal when they have negative things to say, so even getting a "+1" helps offset what could be one sided feedback (as long as you are clear the "+1" is for the product and not the previous negative feedback ;) ).
"You marked this as a favorite."
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A +1 is good, it tells me at least that I'm doing something right, and is far preferable to silence.
An actual review is preferred, it tells me what (if anything) I did right, and hopefully what I could have done better.
A straight "this sucks" (or a -1, if you prefer) on the other hand is pretty useless to me. It doesn't tell me whether that person was even someone I care about pleasing or not. Sometimes people don't get that, and assume that because they're the customer it's all about pleasing them - we see a lot of that on these very boards, after all. Now, if I was producing the work for that individual under contract, I might take note of their opinion, but otherwise it's just getting filed under "obviously not someone from my target demographic."
Example: I can write "this sucks" as a review of any platform game. However, I pretty much hate platform games in general, so it'd be kinda silly for the author of one to care what I wrote about it. If I tell them it sucked, I need to tell them why I thought that, so they can determine whether it's something they want to change or not in the future.
So give me a +1, or tell me why you liked it, or tell me why you didn't. Any of those three and I'm happy :)
Matt has it in a nutshell.