I Want Poor Ratings For This Article!

Here at Gather, it seems that one of the most commonly seen/read laments involves members who receive poor ratings on their writings, videos, pictures, or whatever. Many times it's obvious that someone's feelings have gotten hurt after some have been given, and much speculation is bandied about afterwards regarding why they were ever given in the first place.

For me, personally, I don't get much in an uproar about poor ratings one way or the other. I don't make any money off good reviews, and they don't seem to affect how many people read or comment on my articles. I've even had people who seem mega-concerned about them tell me that there's an easy way around them, and that's to just disable the ratings feature on our various submissions which will make all of them go away. Frankly, I don't want to do that, and there's a reason for it. If someone likes something I've done enough to want to give me a numeric kudo for it, well, good for them, and if someone wants to blister my heiny over some perceived poor writing or because I've offended them in some way, well, why not let them? Makes no difference to me one way or the other, and I'll give y'all the ultimate reason why: If you write, you live for reactions to it. Good or bad. People being bored or passing you off indifferently is a writer's worst enemy.

Now, with all that being said, we're going to have fun today - I want y'all to give me really poor ratings on this article! I want anyone who reads it, whether you like it or not, to just bomb the hell out of it ratings-wise! I want to see it ending up with a 2.0 average or even worse! Don't be shy about it, don't worry about putting a literary rubber on beforehand, just slip that verbal love weinee in deep and ram me hard! You'll feel really good about it afterwards.

Now, for the moral of this story, know what'll come from our exercise today? I think the following:

1. Some of y'all who never give bad ratings will secretly feel good about giving the zap. Admit it. All of us enjoy being a little naughty sometimes, but we don't allow ourselves the opportunity to be so. With this, you can enjoy a little bit of free naughtiness, the devil and I will both be smiling at you.

2. Won't it be kind of cool to actually see an article with a super-low rating? Just sitting out there in the broad daylight and all?

3. Maybe everyone will see that poor ratings mean absolutely nothing, especially if this article gets viewed and commented on by a decent number of people.

4. Finally, I sincerely hope that those who give poor ratings in order to hurt other people see just how silly, stupid, and pointless it is. Hurting people for the hell of it is a terrible thing, as the person being hurt can't help make the troll into a different or better person. And in the end, that's just what it is and why it happens, the troll/jerk gives out poor ratings so that they don't have to take that really hard look in the mirror. The one that lets them see and realize what they really are.

So have at it - bomb my ass, hit me heavy and hard with the "ones" and "twos." Leave some nasty comments for me as well, don't hold back, let the bad vibes pour right out of all of you in a meaningful way!

LET'S HAVE A NEGATIVE RATINGS ORGY TOGETHER HERE ON GATHER TODAY! POP IT TO ME BELOW!