I am a world laced with rivers of wizardly blood.

Arguing that one thing is “better” than another (without specifying contexts and goals “while aware that all contexts and goals are based on arbitrary assumptions”) is like arguing with a four-year-old that their favorite color should be “red” instead of “blue.” If I did that “with complete seriousness” I would view myself as “insane.” The four-year-old would probably feel severely confused and hate itself, since to get it to like “blue” instead of “red” I would probably say more intense versions of things like “blue is ruining colors,” “blue is what is wrong with the world today,” “blue is not important compared to red,” and “blue is what inferior people like."

— Tao Lin

Criticism. The lifeblood of the online community. Weak blood, sickled and iron-deficient, but blood. Bro-Bricks is notorious for its fuzzy attitude, appropriate for its position as the de facto face of the community. But everywhere else, warm smiles appear to have sworn a blood brother oath with the community, together until death.

If everything is swell, neat, keen, and "nice," how shall people improve? Some people simply don't "get" design. Others just need some tips on where to best use rubber bands and inside-out-tires (nowhere). Clearly, criticism is desirable; all good things require a sacrifice in blood.

But the community, high on love, has forgotten how to do it right, or rather, to recognize good criticism from bad. Example: when Adrian made his "big" spaceship, a brave user piped up:

Great piece of work, but I'm not blown away with it... It looks a bit too "clunky" for me. I think the texture of the hull could be better. —stenertje

And the sharks descended on the open wound! But instead of being emboldened by Stenertje's brave move, instead of a rallying cry of "less sculptural modeling, more innovative techniques!" they attempted to heal it back. Nurse sharks.

Let's see you make a round object with square bricks better. —turkguy
(oh, dear reader, if only you knew the irony, Turkguy was first to come to the Drake's defense)

Ah yes, the "let's see you do it better!" defense. A ridiculous argument, to be sure. In the real world, people critique things they can't do all the time. Monet and Warhol aren't the only ones writing art crit, right? Ebert's never filmed an alien attack. If this argument held, the saying would be "why don't you pick on someone slightly smaller than you," for everyone would be forbidden from questioning anyone harder/better/faster/stronger.

It is tempting to make a corollary; if one's own work doesn't validate or invalidate criticism, then anony-blogging is ok, right? Wrong. Anony-blogging is the cowards way. A person must stand proudly, declaring "This is MY opinion. I wrote this, I feel this way. Hate me if you will, but I believe!" and "World, this is my blood, it's red just like yours, so love me."

While it might be easier to accept criticism only from the blue-blooded elites, and the red-blooded plebs often get design totally wrong, the world is better for allowing all to speak. There will be blood, dear readers, the crowd requires it splattered on their faces to keep them from yawning.