“If you have nothing nice to say then don’t say anything at all!” 
We all know the quote from little thumper and most of us probably grew up with a parent and or grandparent teaching us something similar and yet this isn’t applied to the internet. Once we get on the net it gets messy, rude and down right appalling. I am not saying that we shouldn’t write negative reviews when we dislike something or when something doesn’t meet the standard we expected it too, however there is such a thing as tact. Tact a four letter word that has been forgotten in the online realm. What spurred me on the little rant? I’ve been scouring goodreads for a new book/ series to delve into and I have been astounded by some people’s reviews to the point of disgust and a couple of them got me worked up enough to pose the question: when is it too much?
A couple of months ago I read a book which was… less than impressive but I didn’t log into my goodreads account and start bad mouthing the author, I clicked on a star and left it at that. Yes it’s true everyone is entitled to their own opinion but let me refer you to that four letter word again… TACT people TACT, if you are going to write feedback/ a review then try to make it constructive criticism or at the very least you can state what you didn’t like without calling the writer names. As an aspiring author myself I realise that there are going to be negative reviews and there is always going to be people who dislike your work, but attacking the author personally using obscenities is not called for, at least in my opinion. It’s not just reviews and comment on goodreads tact can be applied to, we can apply it net wide. It a shame that this type of behaviour is supported and encouraged on the net nowadays, it is already making its way back into RL, so the question is: when will it be too much?