What is appropriate protocol? When someone writes something about your site that you think is incorrect – or you think should inspire further conversation – should you e-mail them and talk to them about it. If the original comment is a criticism, should you be able to address it? Or is it more appropriate to “rise above” criticism?
I’ve just been reading dissing.org. Brief bit of history on this one. A while back someone who posts to dissing.org wrote something about plasticbag.org that wasn’t a criticism – but brought some fairly standard concerns about weblogging (how useful/interesting personal content was on a site for example), and asked a couple of questions (like how many people read sites like plasticbag.org).
I wrote an e-mail which I thought explained why I thought personal content had a place. I don’t know – perhaps it sounded harsher than I intended. I don’t think it did. I’m now trying to work out if I should have said anything at all or not. The reaction I’ve got from the site seems completely out of proportion to the e-mail I wrote. So here’s my question to you – is it better to respond to criticism or to ignore it?