What’s Your Curmudgeon Rating?

I've been thinking about developing a curmudgeon meter, a rating for people who complain about other bloggers, except they might be overly critical of the other blogger when laying out the facts would just suffice. Jason Calacanis inspired the idea from a post he made last year some time.  I forget the post, but I remember he was right it was just the way he said the things he did about the other blogger, it left me wondering.

I’ve chatted with other bloggers about this before, sometimes I get suspicious that the reason for all of the bile and hot air is because people want more attention and links, but I was also thinking it was because people don’t know how to give critical feedback to others without sticking in the knife once or twice.

My model for constructive feedback is a toastmaster, toastmasters is an international organization for public speaking and as it turns out polite criticism of other’s work.  Toastmasters recommend you always complement the speakers presentation, and then provide facts as to how they might improve their speaking next time.

Therefore elements that would go into making the curmudgeon meter would be:

• Sticking to facts

• Level of personal attack

• Level of importance of the incident

Can you think of any other measurement criteria?

Oh, by the way, I think I have achieved high rankings on the curmudgeon meter for several posts over the years, but that’s part of blogging as a group bloggers can sometimes be passionate and post things that we regret later.  Hence the reason for the meter, the best use of this meter would be that it can only be used for a measurement for yourself. Let me know how you think you rate on the Curmudgeon scale from 1 to 10, 10 being the top curmudgeon level.