And people wonder why the freelancers are becoming more and more rare here.
3 years ago, you couldn't open a single thread without a freelancer commenting on it. Be it funny, informative, sharing an idea, or just chewing the shit.
Now, you can't find a freelancer to save your life!
Well, after reading 9 pages of "YOU FUCKING SUCK!!!", I know why they are so rare here now.
And I have to admit, if I was a freelancer, i'd give many of you here the double finger salute, and not ever come back! Heck I'd be sorely tempted to NOT write anything again for SR as you're all just a bunch of whiny spoiled little crybabies and have no appreciation for time and effort I put in....
Be DAMN thankful that the freelancers have heart and soul for SR. If it wasn't for them, you'd have nothing at all.
So, I think I'd like to elaborate a little here.
In general, this is basically absolutely true. At least for myself personally, and I would suspect for other freelancers in general. I'm going to speak in terms of "I" here, but I think this is porbably true for most of us freelancers.
The problem is that, for a reason I'm still trying to figure out and in ways I'm still trying to deal with, I am very emotionally attached to my writing work. I actually have in general very high EQ (it is necessary for my day job) and can keep my cool in many complicated situations. But when it comes to my writing work, I have trouble. I have said things I regret in defence of my work. Every time I lose my cool, I feel stupid and I believe it reflect badly on CGL.
Why do I lose my cool so much? Like I said I still need to explore this within myself, but basically it stems from the fact fans typically present opinions as facts. Further, no matter what you say, they rarely change opinions or factor new information. So, it's frustrating. We COULD explain things, but few are actually there to listen. They are there to vent. Further, most fans do not understand at all the reality of the writing process. I wouldn't expect them to know that, of course, but again, few are interested in knowing that. If we explain it, we're "making excuses".
When something we worked on is released, we get very excited. We're proud of what we created. We put thought into it and want to see if fans can feedback on what we perceive to be great ideas. We would love to see fans discuss how something is exciting and how they plan on using it - hopefully in ways we hadn't though of - thus creating an awesome creative circle. We feed something in, fans evolve it, we pick it back up and feed it back as new content, etc. That's kind of what we dream and keep hoping will happen.
And, it does sometimes, by the way. Often it does, even.
But the thing is, fans with "positive" things to say aren't typically going to be very vocal. After all, if you agree with something, there typically isn't much more ink to spill than that.
So what we get is far more vocalization about negative feedback. And so, circle back to my early comments about how people that present negative feedback do so very badly.
So at the end of the day, for me, it unfortunately comes down pretty simply: If I interact with the fans (specifically about my work, as a freelancer), I will invariably be confronted by vehement negative criticism. I am going to be powerless to address that criticism, because posters aren't looking for a rational conversation. That will frustrate me. I will say things I will wish I hadn't.
Conclusion: I must not post, because I don't trust myself to control myself sufficiently when the time comes.
Now, for those that aren't in the habit of posting negative feedback and are worried about this, some caveats:
1. No freelancer is under the impression that the vocal angry fans are the majority. The vocal angry fans ARE under the impression they are, but we're not. So don't think our lives and work are driven by that feedback and we're all going to quit
2. While it's hard for us to do so, and it's hard because the ones giving the feedback MAKE it hard, we do take note of (some of) the criticism. So it's not like we're not hearing some of the problems brought up. We just have a bigger picture and can put feedback into context and separate the wheat from the chaff as it were.
3. At a certain point, I understand human nature. I understand WHY some people act the way they do on the internet. To ask or expect anything else is kind of the same as wishing for world peace. You have to be realistic in your expectations.
Anyway, just my thoughts. Doesn't really change the current of conversation, but I saw some, err, concern for us freelancers, so just wanted to add some of my thoughts to the mix.
