At this point in my career I want the truth, preferably with a constructive suggestion. Don't bother to sugarcoat it, but don't be unnecessarily nasty either. I know I can write. I've been published a lot. A truthful rejection isn't going to crush me. However, early in my career, I think a general rejection might have been better because it would have given me less to obsess about. Now I limit my obsessing to 2 hours and one grande non-fat latte.
However, a rejection is still a rejection. The best one I ever got was a handwritten note on a piece of creative nonfiction that said "Three of us in the office loved this story. The publisher refuses to use it because he thinks it makes rural South Carolina look backward. We think you should send it to" and then they named 3 other publications, one of which eventually did publish the piece. The point is that there are a million reasons for rejection, including unwittingly hitting the publisher's pet peeve. Sometimes it's good to know, and sometimes it just makes you smack you head against a wall.
