March 6, 2008

I’d like to share with you something that happened to me this week that demonstrates to me what reader appreciation is all about: appreciating you readers.

Have you ever written something you thought would offend?

Writing can be difficult when you are talking about subjective topics, matters of style or taste, or even just good practice, so it is no surprise that from time to time someone takes what you have to say the wrong way.

What do you do then when you write something and realise when you read it back later on that you have just criticised something that a reader does, even though it wasn’t meant to apply to them?

There are a few options:

1. Nothing, if they are that easily offended perhaps they shouldn’t be reading it anyway;
2. You can wait, and hope they understand you enough not to take offence;
3. You can be extra nice to that person, possibly adding a link;
4. You can can go back and add an update to your post;
5. You can e-mail them directly and explain;

So which would you choose?

Be Honest

What happened to me this week is that someone e-mailed me to tell me that their comment wasn’t mean to apply to me, and clarified their meaning. I hadn’t read it as being critical of me, and even if it had been I probably would have agreed, but regardless of the original intent that e-mail spoke volumes. I, the reader, was appreciated.

I probably wouldn’t have been so forward thinking. I might even have opted for the head-in-the-sand approach. The web is full of people who like nothing better than to shoot you down so a few days under the duvet, sneaking furtive glances at the comments page when you think no one is looking, is a fairly easy choice to make.

So what would you do? Any of the above, or something different again?

  every 2059s, 1s ago, in 0.02s.