jthserra
Thousand Cranes
- Joined
- Oct 12, 2003
- Posts
- 678
Wow, quite a theory. Speaking as one who, over the years, has easily amassed more ones than words you have currently posted in poems and stories here at lit, I disagree with this philosophy. The word hate is obviously derived from the words that appear as you point to the first star on the ratings. What you miss is the fact that the second star has the words "I didn't like it much" and there is no star for "I didnt like it at all." So while a person may not hate a submission, when they don't like the submission at all they unfortunately default to "I hated it!"
And of course the selection of a single star can an indicator of a person's opinion of the poem. Even if the person hates the poem and says so with a one vote it doesn't represent hate... this person is not expressing hatred toward the writer, merely the work submitted (that is of course the person actually hated the work and not just didn't like it at all.)
There are many other reasons for a one vote that have nothing to do with hate. Back in the bad old days here (2004-2005), there was a contingent of people that felt that any vote less than a 5 was a slap in the face. They took great pride in discussing how they used their votes to adjust the 2's, 3's or 4's others had voted. They also, happily voted ones to anyone giving honest, but anything less than stellar reviews and comments on works, adjusting the 3's, 4's or 5's some truly excellent work had garnered. No hate involved, just a mathematical adjustment by some less than stellar thinkers.
Sometimes 1's are as good as fives. I had one person give me a one and then commented that a dispicable character I created was so mean that when he took advantage of a woman in the story he voted a one because the character was so disipicable. The reader was so angry when the evil man won out in the end he voted with a 1. I took that one as a solid 5...
I typically don't vote ones, not because of any hate or otherwise, it's because when I read most anything I typically try to find something good in what I dislike and something bad in what I like. So it is rare when I can say "I didn't like anything at all," much less hated a submission. Besides, over time the ones usually get washed away in the sweeps anyway.
As far as the poem that wound up all the excitement, I smiled when I first read fridayam's comment because a similar thought came to my mind. However, instead of finding that "I didn't like anything about it," I did like the play of the title "Too Short" and voted a 3 - "Liked it - keep on writing." I did find the title to be an excellent critique. As a poem I thought more needed to be said. As a koan I just got the feeling I had heard that all before, that rather than expressing an insight, it was more of a flag... look at me, I'm Zen. Again, the title played a little on that softening that impression, but I still wasn't completly drawn in. So I gave the poem a 3 (oddly, even though you had apparently turned off voting on your work, the five stars allowed me to vote).
Now I've got to change shirts and go watch my story in the Valentine's Day Contest get 2-bombed. Perhaps I'll get a few ones but they won't stick around.
jth : )
