Comments on: Ego 2.0: The Hater Phase

By: Scrivs

Scrivs — Thu, 18 May 2006 21:07:46 +0000

Yeah with constructive criticism you have to be careful of the tone which on the web can be taken however the mood of the person is in while reading it so it’s rarely a win-win situation.

By: Dharmesh Shah

Dharmesh Shah — Thu, 18 May 2006 19:56:56 +0000

Thanks for this article. Really resonated with me a lot.

I’ve written a couple of “constructive criticism” articles on 37signals as well, and the intent is just as you said: sometimes, scrutinizing something is the best way to learn — as long as it’s not vindictive or malicious.

By: karmatosed

karmatosed — Thu, 18 May 2006 19:23:54 +0000

That is a good point about the news and I definetly agree about people saying bad stuff easier than good. I also think the sheep thing is a big one, it is a bit of a wooly jumper festival online sometimes.

By: Steven Ametjan

Steven Ametjan — Thu, 18 May 2006 18:10:14 +0000

That’s exactly the case. It’s so much easier to bring up the things that you don’t like than it is what you do like. And that doesn’t matter whether it’s a website, a person, a technique or anything. It takes a lot of patience to put to words what you feel is good about something, just because our minds are geared towards thinking about all the negative things in life.

Look at the news… How often do you hear something good on the news, or read about it in the newspaper?

By: Scrivs

Scrivs — Thu, 18 May 2006 17:20:20 +0000

I know all to well what you mean Eddie. Pretty much along the lines of its a piece of cake to express your hatred towards someone, but telling somebody you love them for the first time is an impossible task.

Maybe it’s hard to say good things because we are so caught up in what we love and maybe we just figure that if we like those things then everyone else must like them as well.

By: Eddie Sowden

Eddie Sowden — Thu, 18 May 2006 17:15:32 +0000

I hear what you are saying. There is still a lot of sheep out there which makes the hating sound even louder. The other problem is that most people (in my experience anyway) are better at saying what they don’t like rather than what they do. This makes it easy to write about how rubbish you think something is, while writing about good points can take more effort.

By: Scrivs

Scrivs — Thu, 18 May 2006 16:19:39 +0000

I think the majority of us know its about the user, but we tend to drift away from that simple idea every once in a while and need a reminder here and there. I know I have fallen into that trap on many occassions.

I’m sure there are a ton of places with a positive vibe going on right now, but I’m just catching a lot of the negative in this community perhaps. Of course I should probably stop reading Calacanis so much.

By: karmatosed

karmatosed — Thu, 18 May 2006 15:44:16 +0000

I think you hit the nail on the head about the key being users and this is the single most important fact currently really. It comes into everything on a website now and I can’t see it changing for a while, yes maybe bouncing up and down as it balances about but not much.