The topic at hand is not about a review of a famous person.That is another matter entirely.
It is about workshopping and perceived cruelty to a new member.
A person who puts their work up for workshopping is seeking advice to improve craftsmanship. No one will become a better poet by being praised for bad poetry.
Honesty is no guarantee for quality critique. But since a workshop is a public forum, there will hopefully be input from several members who look at the poem in several different ways. This is a cross-section of the same readership as the general public. At least of the general poetry reading public. The poet who is posting will get some useful opinions and some less useful opinions but all of them have to do with someone's perception of the poem and are as such valid.
The best and most useful criticism will focus on specifics. That gives the poet and others taking part in the discourse, an opportunity to object and say why they object. It is this give and take that one learns from.
However, I would like to hear a little more closely what Janet is objecting to as regards cruel critiques at the Non-Metrical forum.
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