Monday, March 8, 2010

Hi everyone! I'm going to be attempting a rant, so please bear with me.

*hugs tightly* Thank you so much to Kelsey, Meagan and Noir for commenting on my last post! Wow, I don't think I've had three comments in a while ^^; Really, thank you! It was fun to read all of them and I appreciate your prayers for my friend. (and, yes, 34 degrees Fahrenheit is a huge heat wave. My brother is already convinced that he doesn't need to wear coats or hats anymore.)

~feel free to skip this, it ended up longer than I expected. I guess I was more upset about it than I realized~

Okay, now onto a touchy subject, Meagan (innocent heart, but I'm sure anyone reading this knows that) wrote a very well-worded rant on this topic and it just stirred up a lot of things that had been bothering me~

You all know that I've been taking A LOT of breaks lately, but when I come back, I try my hardest to get caught up with everyone. I know that I miss a lot of people, and I'm sorry for that. BUT these last few months, I've been noticing something that's really 'weirding' me out-

Very few people seem to be commenting. I thought that it was because they were all taking breaks, but they aren't!! My backroom it getting so crammed with so many people's updates that I keep missing the important ones! Yes, I said it- the 'important' ones! I don't want to make it sound like everyone's work isn't important, but it's getting to the point where I don't even like LOOKING at some of their things anymore because it's all so similar, I don't feel a connection with them because I never hear from them (yes, partly my fault for not updating enough) But it's just disheartening.

The worst of it is that these people aren't *commenting* on apparently ANYONE'S work! THE ENTIRE REASON I JOINED THEOTAKU WAS TO COMMENT. There, now you know. I used to come to this site to send e-cards and look at wallpapers to put on my computer. And, the more I came, the more I realized that people weren't commenting on the beautiful e-cards that I loved to send. So I created an account "KittenLark" just to tell a few of the artists how beautiful I thought their stuff was! So, I was really happy when I started to notice more and more people doing the same thing.

But, for some reason, that's changed. Last week, I decided to ignore my 'backroom' for the most part and just go through all the cards and wallpapers that I found that appealed to me and whether I favorited them or not, I left a comment. I could have cried after seeing some of the most beautiful artwork that had NO COMMENTS while a weird picture from Naruto with a nonsensical caption was the most popular -.-;

I can't force people to change, and I'm sure that right now I'm preaching to the choir (since I'm sure that if you're reading my post, you're one of the few people who do comment) But, it's frustrating and I'm just glad that I'm not the only one who's noticed this.

Part of me has a suspicion about it... I'm not sure if this might be the cause of it or not (and I'm sure that part of it is just selfishness, we're all human and it's a problem that I'm sure everyone, including myself!, has)

But I know that I just stopped commenting for a long time after reading article after article about how to 'properly' comment. (whoops, I think I'm falling into a completely different rant) It was a sore spot for me, though! To read all those guides to 'properly' leave a comment were disheartening. I tried to do what they suggested: make sure that all the thoughts are expressed with precise grammar, no excess exclamation points, don't abbreviate words, only comment specifically on the topic, don't mention how much you love the anime they used, and make all comments 'constructive'.

For heavens sake, I agree that certain aspects of those are necessary, but it honestly scared me off of commenting at all!!! (yes, I just used THREE exclamation points :O

I don't know if others were intimidated by that, and I'm positive that's not the only thing. But, what's wrong with losing track of what you're saying in a comment and just having fun telling them that you like what they've done instead of "look at the colors. The hue of ??? perfectly compliments the subtle undertones of ???"

Instead, maybe people should just try commenting as though they'd talk? When I did that last week, a lot of people who replied seemed very grateful.

OK, I'm going to be fair now- the people who wrote those 'how to comment' things probably were aiming it at those people who comment on EVERYTHING saying "Very good. I like it." and that's it. (wait, I've ranted about this before, haven't I)

So, I guess the point I'm getting at is that once I found time and found pretty enough artwork, I was able to easily sit down and quickly type out a couple paragraphs to cheer the artist on (not that I could offer any 'constructive' comments ^^;; I'll just leave that to the people who understand art better than I do.)

^___^ Thanks if you've survived this. I think this finally qualifies as a rant, doesn't it? Perhaps a bit too long (way too long) But I'm glad to have spoken my peace. If I can find time and energy to comment at least a few times, I hope that others will too.

And, as a message of hope to the people reading this who DO comment and are as sad as I am about all this- I believe it will change. Like I said, when I first joined, I didn't see a lot of comments on cards, but then more people started commenting. Maybe these people who post all the time will start to realize that commenting is important again. ^___^ I have to stay hopeful.

ON TO A DIFFERENT SUBJECT!

This week (just a warning) I'm probably not going to be very active. And, as I said, my backroom has been getting spammed ^^; So, if I miss something of yours, feel free to let me know.

You see, my Grandpa (he's recovered from his shingles ^^ ) has left on a cruise that my uncle and aunt are taking him on. They like taking him on cruises because they get to spend time with him and Grandpa goes along with it so he can spend time with them. It's really sweet. <33 Although, I always worry about him when he goes on long trips like this... I love him so much and miss him a lot... But I know that my uncle and aunt will take good care of him.

Oh, anyway, my point is that while he's gone this week, my Mom and I will be taking care of his shop. ^__^ If you're interested I can explain, but I'm afraid this post has become too long, so I'll leave it at this.

Questions-
1. What kind of comments do *you* prefer to receive?
2. Do you prefer rain or snow? *random*

my answers-
1. Heartfelt from friends ^^;
2. Neither and both depending on my mood (and how cold the snow is XP)

Anyway, I love all of you and may God Bless you and whatever you're going through!

Have a great day!

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