Okay seriously stop. i have been reading posts about hummers being bummers and all but seriously guys i think we all are taking it to be more than what it really is. i am not defending anybody and definitely not that one juvie who's doing rounds polling hmmm for everyone. He needs to be traced. What he/she is doing is chaos and nothing else.
But 'hmmm' is not bad. Think about it. If it meant "Oh! shut the fuck up" or "What a boring piece of shit!" then it wouldn't have been one of the options in the poll. I mean c'mon does it really go like "Hmmm What the hell have you written?" -- Oh! this is nice! -- Hats off man! -- Oh! Speechless!" This seems odd. The Hmmm can be an intrigue, which means the reader is slightly interested but your writing couldn't hold him for long and he certainly isn't bowled over. Well so what! Paulo Coelho is considered boring and retarded by so many out there! That's what writing is. It's what you are. Not what people think you are.
Having said that, the Hmmm can also mean that your writing has errors. So the Hmmm-ers need to understand that the errors SHOULD be pointed out. Say it! no matter what bothered you, grammatical errors, boring writing, plain language, rambling, offensive. No matter what, say it! (in a decent way of course. Try saying "Hey, why don't you lose the extra adverbs? You get the point right without them." rather than " OH MY GOD! you talk too much! I was lost there!" -- be critics and not bullies please).
If you are scared you might hurt your friend, well then give a poll remark and stay anonymous! viola!
Critics are important, everywhere! Wherever creativity is emerged, it needs to be challenged or it will cease and make rounds around itself. I write on other sites too and have been critiqued too! but it has only made me improve. I mean once a guy literally asked me to cut down my dictionary words so that my writing can appeal the earth dwellers too! LOL all i said was Oh! is it? will try then. And i seriously did! He was not wrong. If i put excess heavy vocab words then many won't understand what i am writing. Well eventually a writer survives on readers after all!
So please Hmmm-ers, it would be better if you explain yourselves, and authors, increase your critic appetite. If you have a right to express yourselves than the readers do too! Because no offence but i have seen more egotism here. But Writer Babu has a homely feeling that other sites lack. I am not as old as many of you authors here but i like this site.
PS: i have seen 2-3 post on Hmmers being bad and all and have read only one. I did not post my opinion there - and am posting as anonymous here - because name makes people judgmental. I know. I have been through it. All i want to do is write and be complimented or critiqued without any preconceptions!
I know this was lengthy, but the fact is that i read a post and wanted to poll Hmmm but i stopped. And THAT made me write this!
Feel free to say if you agree or disagree! :)
Comments (21 so far )
but i guess i should have kept a different title for this post. readers taking me wrong :(
I have witnessed arguments following a critic as plain as a grammatical error on a post so just wanted to try and change certain things. readers shouldn't be wary of polling Hmmm right because of this one jerk! and yes the admin really needs to do something about it!
But i have stumbled upon a post stating Hmmm's are useless (summed up). So thought to give an insight...
a hummmm badge would be great ... :P ... awesome idea ...
i would be really happy if people would poll for every read
i mean what does it take a second or two
:)
i will be really happy if readers even poll for hummmm
having said that it does not mean i would like those hummmms if they were polled even after not reading my writings :)