Giving Support Without Putting Others Down

April 14, 2021

Something that's come up on my radar is how some people go about giving compliments. Now, I'm all for showing support when someone is trying their hardest, regardless of the end result. What rubs me wrong is that some people gauge their success on how they come across compared to the others around them.

I was perusing the common Blender forums where people show off their latest creations. One of the common projects I see is a donut render (literally a plate of donuts). Everyone's work is a bit different, but for many it's their first completed project in Blender and you feel really proud of learning about the basics and the new techniques to make a finished piece like texture, lighting, etc. I noticed one person commented that the the render was really the best out of all the ones they've seen and it made all the others look like crap.

I am completely supportive of recognizing someone's abilities and their hard work and letting them know. But if you're rating someone's work off of other people around them, then it's not about this person's work, it's how they compare to everyone else, which isn't always a healthy mindset to have.

Hopefully I'll find less of these sorts of comments and more of a congratulatory comment of how far this person has gone rather then how they compare to the community as a whole.