Community Feedback

I am a little bit late to the party having been in Pennsylvania since
last Friday, but I am happy to hear about #1. I know a lot of
commenters think (or at least defend their actions by claiming they
think)that they are merely helping out the letter writers. I
disagree. If this were the letter writing help blog and someone said
'hey, this would be better if you ran it through spell-check', that's
a value-added comment. To harp on spelling and grammar and all that
nonsense AFTER the letter is sent and posted is just an exercise by
commenters to make themselves feel smug and superior.

Same with comments that just preach - specifically I'm thinking about
credit card comments as well as those by commenters about how much
smarter he is (or they are) then everyone else is.

Thanks for trying to continue to improve the site!

When an enitre letter gets pulled, does it still get sent to where is
was to go to? I'm just wondering.

There are times when we believe a letter isnt appropriate for public
view on our site however we'll still send it on behalf of the letter
writer. Other times, we believe it's not only inappropriate for our
site but also is not something we want to send on behalf of the letter
writer. Every instance is handled on a case by case basis.

i'm glad PFB realizes that there was some petty comments and stalking
being practiced, so good on you guys to correct it!

I agree that harassment of letter writers and other commenters is
inappropriate and doesn't serve a useful purpose. I'm not known for
writing fluffy comments and pretty much get right to the point. In
the end I try to end my comments with a helpful suggestion.

We are not always going to agree on our opinions of the letter
writer's issue(s) and a little healthy debate is often times useful.
What isn't useful is when commenters battle among themselves to the
point where the subject matter strays from the OP's issue.

Unfortunately, there are those times when the tone of the original
letter is combative from the get go which makes it a challenge to post
a friendly, helpful comment. I think the trick is to review your
comments prior to hitting the "Post" button and remove anything
bordering on snarky. I don't want to cite any specific examples, but I
have been very careful to edit my recent comments after deciding they
were too harsh.

Just my opinion.

I'm going to echo Nicole, as the extremely mean replies to some OP's
letters is the reason I quit even reading PFB for many months. I only
recently started logging in and even replying after a long dry spell.
I did notice, however, that it was names I didn't recognize doing the
hostility, not regulars like LadyMac, Venice and Leanne. I'm glad PFB
is enacting these new enforcements.

I'm glad that PFB has finally addressed these issues. It was getting
to the point that I didn't want to read letters because of certain
users' actions.

I feel that any reputable company won't "trash" a letter because it
has poor grammar or spelling. The majority of the letters sent via PFB
I are understandable, even if the grammar and spelling is less than
perfect.

Very rarely do I make mention of a letter writer's grammar/spelling
and if I do, it's just a simple and friendly statement.

Some commenters get out of hand and are nitpicky. I am grateful that
the admin will be more vigilant in this area. Thanks. :D

I usually don't even respond to the poorly written letters anymore.
(I'm talking about ones that are REALLY difficult to understand.) My
thought is, what's the point? If the company can make sense of the
letter, more power to them.

As for the general spelling, I agree that the nitpicky comments were
getting out of control. A few typos here and there doesn't negate the
letter as long as the point can be easily understood. I'm an English
language buff and some of the misspellings in these letters have made
me want to scream. But, I've had to swallow the urge to write a
paragraph on the spelling issues because, again, what matters is that
the general point is understood by the company.

I do, however, agree with everyone else that it's all in how you say
it. Saying something like, "Your letter has five typos in it and will
be thrown in the trash" is uncalled for. But telling an OP that a
letter may be better understood with paragraph breaks isn't
necessarily bad. As Redhead pointed out, many OPs have come back and
thanked us for the constructive criticism. Many have also been
surprised to learn their letter DID go directly to the company and had
they realized that, they would've wrote it differently.

What I'm trying to say is that this is Planetfeedback, and feedback
works two ways: both from letter writers and from commentators.
There's a difference between **constructive** criticism (which is only
meant to help an OP) and criticism (which is self-serving to the
commentator).

Just my .02.

I also believe there is a right and a wrong way...and saying that the
letter would be better received if it had the correct spelling and
punctuatoin is not being critical as much as its being helpful to
someone who evidently has never had to write this type of letter.

So far as #1 is concerned, I think there's a difference between
saying, "Wow, this is a horribly written letter," and saying in a
respectful, helpful way "I think your letter would carry more weight
if you fixed the spelling errors, as it's difficult to read." I mean,
OPs have expressed appreciation (at times) for polite constructive
criticism.

Just my thoughts.

While I wholeheartedly agree with number 2, I somewhat disagree with
you about number 1.

I do agree that some commenters, myself included, have been overly
critical of spelling and puncuation, there are some cases that I think
it's called for.

One type of case is a letter that is just full of profanity, text
speak and name calling. I think it puts the site as a whole in a poor
light when a letter is sent like the following:

Dear (insert name)
Youse guys suck and r the worst. All your reps are aholes who suck
big time. I mean WTF, they don't even speak good english.

The other is an obviously valid complaint that would truly benefit
for a rewrite. If the comments are polite and well meaning, I don't
see the harm. Simply telling someone that the letter would be clearer
with the use of paragraphs and to not use run on sentences is not
being harsh, just realistic.

Thanks for the great job you guys do, Greg. I know it's not easy
juggling all of the issues, comments, etc., etc., in a way that
promotes open communication and pulls away from conflict.

I appreciate having you guys around.

For a while you had something that said a comment was removed. Can we
get that again? Maybe with the reason why. Sometimes people (myself
included) don't know or think what they wrote was against the TOS.

Thank you for addressing all of this. And I am sorry is something I
wrote was bad.

Thank you, PFB! I know many of us ( myself included)can get a little
rowdy and sometimes smart mouthed.

However, I truly feel it reflects poorly on the entire community when
folks behave in a manner clearly designed to do nothing but annoy or
even bait others.

I am pleased to see PFB taking a stand against this nonsense.

Hmmm...I disagree a bit with number one.

While I feel that some nitpicky comments over simple typos are
unnecessary and mean, there is often times when pointing out
grammatical errors in what is supposed to be a business letter can be
helpful.

I see nothing wrong with comments such as "Turn off the caps lock" or
"You should try using paragraphs." Also, if a letter is so poorly
writen that the letter-writer's point does not get across, I see no
harm in pointing this out and making some suggestions as to how it can
be fixed.

Since PlanetFeedback feels so strongly about commenters no longer
touching on the subject of grammar, perhaps someone on the PFB team
could be assigned to reviewing all letters and assisting
letter-writers with grammar, sentence structure, and the like.