Interesting and (IMHO) healthy dialog going on here. My thoughts follow:

1) no matter who you are or how good (or bad) you may be, once you put your work on public display, you certainly WILL be judged by those who see/hear it. If that is not OK, then it may be too risky to post in a public forum. Once you post, you lose control and you have to accept whatever happens after that.

2) There is a wide disparity of skill level among those who will review your work, and people tend to judge you as a peer, whether you are or not

3) in a perfect world people would take some pains to determine another's level of proficiency before passing judgment. As has been stated already, it is inappropriate to judge a hobbyist's work by the same standard used to judge a pro's work. Even among the pros, there is much disagreement about what constitutes quality.

4) as a general rule, praise is in order when a person stretches past yesterday's accomplishment, for that means progress is being made. But there is no way for the average listener to know if these submissions are the half-hearted efforts of somebody capable of better, or the whole-hearted efforts of somebody who is fully immersed in a growth spurt.

5) Free speech is a two way street. We are free to submit, and we are also free to critique. Punishing those who critique is no different than punishing those who submit. Both are equally offensive. May we all learn to walk both sides of the street with kindness and encouragement, but without patronizing.

6) honesty is generally well received as long as it is served up with a little grace. A pompous put-down will be seen by most as unnecessary and rude. However, people vary widely in where they draw the line between honesty and brutality. All who post here should realize that responses will be based on the responder's standards, not the poster's.


7) some people are hard-wired to praise while others seem hard-wired to criticize. This is normal. It is unrealistic to expect only positive reinforcement. Average the best and worst comments and find a functional reality somewhere in between... one that neither inflates your ego or deflates it, but which gives a new basis for moving forward.

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/ey71h8ep047758h/AAC12jNM0Hz9Q8zsh5iDeqNHa?dl=0