Why or why not would you turn to Y!A for advice on your writing?

What's your reasoning?Why or why not would you turn to Y!A for advice on your writing?
I would not turn to Y!A for anything substantial. I understand, you want someone to critique your writing. Got ya. You should have your work critiqued.





Y!A answers, unfortunately, isn't the right medium for your problem. Here is why:





1)Y!A is a public forum--meaning, anyone can copy and paste your work.


2) Not all users on Y!A have a background in literature. Some users may become offended by fictitious circumstances that may arise in the plot. Also, some users might slam your work for slam sake--not give your work a worthwhile critique; whereas, others may give you false hopes by writing judgmental praise, such as ';Sounds good.'; The user might have genuinely enjoyed your story, but provides no input on how it could be better.


3) If your manuscript is meant for publication, agents and publishing houses absolutely hate material that can be found on a public forum. They may even refuse to print, or to pay, if they ever found out.


4) If your paper is for school, ';plagiarism search programs'; might reference your question on Y!A as unreferenced material on your paper. Even though you know you wrote both instances, your teacher/professor might not know you wrote both instances, and you will have to prove that you are [REAL NAME] and [USER NAME].





So, I would not do it.Why or why not would you turn to Y!A for advice on your writing?
There are good things and bad things about it. The good things are:


a) You get a good idea of what the American Public will think of your writing (especially the teenage American Public, which is great for if you write YA books.)


b) No one will really step up and trash you, but that can also be a bad thing.


c) They are random strangers and therefore have no emotional ties to you. This somehow makes the whole conversation about your writing (and I know that for me, at least, my writing is incredibly personal and private) a bit less awkward when you know that they will not speculate on your thoughts and personality.


d) It's a bit of a weight off my chest to know that SOMEONE bothers to read what I write! (A bit of an ego thing, I guess.





The only really bad things about Y/A! are:


a) Ideas could be ';stolen'; or your writing could be copied.


b) Most opinions are a little dishonest like ';OMG that was great! I hope you get it published!'; when they're really thinking, ';Horrible.'; You never know how to sort out what people really think about your work compared to what they wrote.





I think it's a good thing, all in all, to be able to ask for writing advice here.
I think there are pros and cons for turning to Y!A for advice on writing.


Here are my top 2. I would just be careful on what you post and how literal you take the answers.





Pro - Constructive criticism hurts less when coming from someone who is close to you





Con - Some rude person on here could be just pulling your chain, and making you screw up something that was already good.
I'm already a professional writer with enough of a network of other professionals to not need the advice of others on here. However, there are a select few writers on this site that I have met (through e-mail) that I would trust for advice and have with one who is also a working professional.
i see no reasoning against it. there are so many people on here from so many different places, you could get a lot of creative ideas.


whats there to lose?