If you are like me, then you like to discuss articles in the BBS once in a while. You also must be noticing all the hurtful criticism in the them. There is at one person in each article's BBS that has to ruin it and bash the whole article. For those of you (and you know who you are), I have two words for you: constructive criticism.
Let's take a look at the definitions of those words, shall we?
constructive: helping to construct; leading to improvements or advances; formative; positive
criticism: the act of making judgments ; analysis of qualities and evaluation of comparative worth; esp., the critical consideration and judgment of literary or artistic work
What these two definitions combined equal: be nice when telling someone what you thought of their article. It isn't that hard. Constructive criticism is when you don't necessarily like something someone wrote or did, but instead of telling them how much you hate their article and that it's a waste of space in the Times, you tell them that they need to improve. Constructive criticism is the key to a happy BBS. :P
And, new BBSers, please, don't try to be someone else and tell everyone that you thought your BBS article was horrible, and you should be banned from Whyville. It's just not that cool for you to do that. Pretending to be someone else? Come on, you must have better things to do than sitting at your keyboard, typing in useless stuff such as, "I'm Lolypop93" (when you're not) all day. There's better ways to get attention. Maybe you should try writing for the Times!
"What's the point of all this?" you might ask, "Who needs peace in the BBS?" The point of all this is that by telling people what they did wrong in a constructive way, you might help improve the quality of the Times, as many people have been complaining about. We need peace in the BBS to make Whyville feel like a town again. We are somehow woven together because of this big, exciting place called Whyville, even though some of us don't want to admit it. When you think about it, we really need to be united in our town, to show the whole world that Whyvillians are friends with each other, we don't just argue with one another and only have a limited number of friends. I know that, once upon a time, everyone in Whyville knew everyone, and Whyvillians could share their opinion without being ridiculed. I know that it's impossible to make friends with everyone in Whyville, and not every person going to be kind, but hopefully this article will help.
Not all BBSers are rude or mean. There are many nice ones up for a good conversation, but one person always has to ruin it. It's not always the same person. If you have ever been a tad bit rude when stating your opinion in in article (almost everyone can raise their hand), think about how you might have made that person feel by saying that. How did that make you feel?
The basic message for this article: use constructive criticism. Be the person everyone wants to be around. It'll make you feel better about yourself. It's not too late to change!
This is book67 signing off and waiting for the tough questions and strong opinions in the BBS.
