9 Sep 2014 02:59 pm
Betas and me
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frayadjacentI'm getting a bit behind on answering comments today due to an epic bad mood this morning, but I'm carrying on with the daily posting!
goodbyebird asked: what do you look for in a beta?
In the past my main answer would have been to not be afraid to give me concrit. Don't get me wrong: my feelings are as tender as the next vidder's, and it will take a moment for my bruised ego to recover. But I'm always grateful for it. Not only does it help the vid and me as a vidder, it also gives me a boost of confidence that, when I post my vid, it's been viewed by at least one person who would have told me if it sucked.
I don't even mind if the concrit is of the "if this were my vid I'd do this" type, because it's obvious to me that if my beta has a different idea of what the vid should be doing than I do, I can always ignore some or all of their advice. But it's still useful to get the information of what they think the vid should be doing, because maybe it means that it's not currently getting its purpose across clearly enough.
However, praise is also great! I love the confidence boost, and if the praise is specific about what is working and why, that's every bit as useful as concrit.
So a more general answer might be, asshati said, a "discriptivist" beta. As in, "the vid is doing this", whether that functions as praise (because that's what I wanted it to do!) or criticism.
A few vidders have answered this question along the lines of, "someone to bounce ideas off of", which sounds SO GREAT but I'm always worried I'm asking too much of my betas so I've never done this before. I mean if nothing else, just having to put into words what I want a vid to do would probably be super useful. Anyway after the Orphan Black S2 finale I did have a great time chatting withviolace about a vid idea, so that was at least a step in that direction.
goodbyebird asked: what do you look for in a beta?In the past my main answer would have been to not be afraid to give me concrit. Don't get me wrong: my feelings are as tender as the next vidder's, and it will take a moment for my bruised ego to recover. But I'm always grateful for it. Not only does it help the vid and me as a vidder, it also gives me a boost of confidence that, when I post my vid, it's been viewed by at least one person who would have told me if it sucked.
I don't even mind if the concrit is of the "if this were my vid I'd do this" type, because it's obvious to me that if my beta has a different idea of what the vid should be doing than I do, I can always ignore some or all of their advice. But it's still useful to get the information of what they think the vid should be doing, because maybe it means that it's not currently getting its purpose across clearly enough.
However, praise is also great! I love the confidence boost, and if the praise is specific about what is working and why, that's every bit as useful as concrit.
So a more general answer might be, as
shati said, a "discriptivist" beta. As in, "the vid is doing this", whether that functions as praise (because that's what I wanted it to do!) or criticism.A few vidders have answered this question along the lines of, "someone to bounce ideas off of", which sounds SO GREAT but I'm always worried I'm asking too much of my betas so I've never done this before. I mean if nothing else, just having to put into words what I want a vid to do would probably be super useful. Anyway after the Orphan Black S2 finale I did have a great time chatting with
violace about a vid idea, so that was at least a step in that direction.Tags: