I want to bring up a subject that may or may not upset people. It has to do with reviews, sort of, but more specifically, people stating their opinions on how they feel about a story. I bring this up because it seems as though the more "popular" a story is, the more apt readers are to find negative comments about a story as "hateful" or "bashing" even if they are truly just one person's opinion. People seem to find it very easy to use the word "Hate" when people say something is not for them or they didn't like it. They may say that someone is "bashing" a story when they say that they tried it and couldn't get into it. But, these are just people's opinions. Right? Why are we so quick to judge these readers as being horribly wrong? Is it fear that maybe we are not seeing something that they are? Is it sticking up for something we love by making another feel bad about their own opinion? Is it really that we can't understand that people have different likes and dislikes?
You may say "If you have nothing nice to say then don't say anything at all." But lately this sentiment has irked me. "Nice" is not that subjective. If someone says they don't like something, they are not being "Mean", they are not being "Hateful". You may say that sometimes they ARE, but I am not talking about those times. I am talking about this little times. You may say that those don't count, but there are specific cases where people have called little remarks like "It's not for me" HATEFUL and BASHING.
My problem is this. I come to A Different Forest to get REAL recommendations for fics. If someone recs a story and it gets lots of people agreeing with it, I assume that it must be great. If someone were to come along and say "I really didn't like the infidelity (or whatever)" I would take that into consideration as well and decide based on lots of opinions if it is something I want to read. If we follow the "don't say anything at all" advice, we may not hear something that we WANT to here. It's kind of like telling your beta to PLEASE be honest, because it doesn't help anyone if you are not.
I am NOT talking about real hatred, bashing PEOPLE or really hurtful comments, but lately even the smallest criticism has become labeled as HATE. Can someone maybe come up with some advice on how we can just all be adults and get real opinions? Because I have been around a long time and still don't get it.