The fact that I chose not to be a 'sweetheart' with my tone should not be a valid argument against what I wrote. Like I said, I was perfectly polite and I didn't insult anyone. I stated my problems clearly and specifically, and I even framed the entire issue as an OPINION rather than a FACT (e.g. 'Tapas Emotes Suck').
If that isn't good enough for you, well I apologize, but I'm not the "coddling" type, especially when I'm dealing with other adults. I figure the simple truth should be enough; after all, no one is being forced to read or care about any of this.
I don't understand how this is any pettier than any of the dozens of other things I've complained about. ._.
Is it because I posted it in a place where the people whose work I'm critiquing could actually see it? Would it somehow become less petty if I posted it somewhere pointless, like DeviantArt or Twitter??
Is it the bluntness of the title? Because if I made a topic titled 'I don't like Fortnite' or 'I don't like Steven Universe', I highly doubt this many people would be contesting my right to have and express that opinion EVEN if I said nothing to support it. If I had time to look right now, I could probably find tons of evidence in clear support of that hypothesis, which begs the question: where was all the sympathy for THOSE artists?? Yes, REAL, ordinary, probably underpaid PEOPLE worked on those things and many others, and any one of them could conceivably stumble across all the "petty" things people have said about their work here.
Honestly, that's the biggest problem I have with all this backlash: It's not the fact that it exists (to be honest, I'm starting to get used to people being mad at me) it's that this is the FIRST time I've seen anything like it despite having spent over a year criticizing things left and right.
I literally made a topic about feeling bad that I (fairly harshly) criticized the work of a seasoned professional who has a widespread reputation for being a great artist, and the consensus was that I didn't have to, that NO ONE IS ABOVE BEING CRITICIZED.
Now what I'm hearing from the same community is that not only should I not have expressed this criticism (without ample sugarcoating, apparently), but that I shouldn't even have thought of it in the first place. And considering the context that I just described, it really smacks of hypocrisy. 'No one is above being criticized...except the Tapas team', evidently.
Anger I can tolerate, but hypocrisy I cannot abide. That is to say, if nothing else, I expect to see all this outrage return the next time I criticize something on this forum. T_T Either that, or an official rule added that states outright that 'criticism of the Tapas staff and developers will not be tolerated', so the next poor fool who dares to speak out of turn at least has a warning...