Thread by @brianscully

Still thinking about the entitlement from those that believe it’s their duty to tag creatives and shit down their throats with unsolicited criticism and negativity. Some justify it by comparing it to criticizing the work from other professions, like a lawyer. Let’s unpack that.

If you go to a doctor, that doctor is providing you a service. You are paying the doctor to address your specific needs. Should they do so in a way you find unsatisfactory, certainly you have justification to make that known.

Same with a lawyer or a plumber or many other professions that involve you hiring someone to provide work/service for you and/or on your behalf. That is their job. To address the needs of the person hiring them.

The public is not hiring a creative to do the job of creating.

Do you know who does hire creatives to do the creating? Producers. Companies. Financiers. Directors. Patrons. Creatives are hired to provide a service for them.

Not you.

THEM.

And that’s if we’re even hired in the first place. Creatives create on their own clock and at their own expense all the time because that’s the freedom of creativity. We can create whenever the hell we want. We are our own bosses in that regard.

Still definitely not you.

We solicit feedback and criticism all the time. We’re given it by the people who hired us (oh my, are we ever given it by them). We seek it out from those we trust that we know can help us make something better, see what we don’t see, etc.

Definitely still not you.

Creatives are plagued with crippling, soul-crushing inadequacy enough without Nameless Twitter making sure to come in our faces to tell us how we did X Y and Z wrong and did not meet their needs to their satisfaction.

We do not care.

Now, before you unsheathe your daggers...

I will never ever say “don’t share your opinions openly”. Share them! If you hate something, feel free to express that if you’re comfortable.

But there is zero, and I stress that beautiful prime number of ZERO, need or benefit to tag the creator to tell them you hated the work.

We also don’t seek out positive tagging. Sure, it’s nice to see a positive tag, but we still aren’t asking for them. If we want to know what the general public thinks about something we’ve created, I promise you, we can find it with ease and without the need for tags.

I have lost my mind with joy over things here. Occasionally I’ll tag a creator. Usually I don’t. I have also lost my mind with rage over something on here. I absolutely am not tagging anyone with that. Because I’m not a flaming shitsack.

So. Dear public (a group of which we are all members in one way or another). I stress again with all sincerity.

Thank you very much for having enough investment in our work that you feel compelled to express negative opinions.

Do not tag us in them. Not now. Not ever.

We deal with enough criticism (constructive or otherwise) from the people who hire us to do the work and those in whom we trust our in-progress material.

Within that framework of the creativity being a paid job, we are also trying to tell our story.

Not yours. Ours.

If you are dissatisfied with how we tell our stories and create our creations, then they didn’t speak to you. And that’s fine. If you think something failed spectacularly, that’s fine.

We have never once asked for you to get in our faces to tell us. So don’t. Don’t be a dick. K?

(Btw, zero is even, not prime, I don’t know why I typed prime when I meant even. I look forward to your corrections.)

tl;dr — Don’t be like this to creatives.