I have recently met a couple of people here that are now my "friends". I shared the fact that I am a "half-assed" writer, and found that they also wrote. I read some things each had written, and found them to be fairly good. The IDEAS were superb, but the technical delivery was a bit ragged...BUT (and this is a big but), the content was excellent.
I then read comments that people had left for them. I was amazed at the number of mean, non-constructive comments people make about other people's writing. Most totally ignored the content of the pieces (which, after all, is the reason for writing), and immediately zoomed in on the way the material was presented. I feel sad for those people, as they are missing out on a wealth of interesting stories, information, and thought-provoking ideas.
THEN, I sat back for a bit and thought about that situation. After doing so, I came to the realization that this is not limited to this site or to critiquing writing, but that it is now a basis of our society. People are not trying to focus on ideas and what matters, but want to show others that they may not have an original idea in their head, but they can certainly post criticisms with good basic (very basic) grammar and spelling. Personally, I would take one good idea delivered poorly over 10,000 mindless, stupid criticisms of that idea that are all written "properly".
