Listing suggestion

[Beethovenfan]

I have another stupid suggestion, please feel free to disregard. I won't be offended :-)

Jinn, you are such a whizz with databases. Can your database handle another index in the "Quick Story List".

Order stories by "Most Recently Reviewed". That way I can be nosey and keep up with all the most recent reviews and will give other stories a chance to go briefly to the top of a list!

Keep up the excellent work, this is a wonderful site. There is so much writing talent on display!

[Beethovenfan]

Having just read the posts about the lack of reviews, can I revise my idea and have a "Please review me!" category that lists stories without a review, or "Least reviewed"?

[Tiger]

For your second suggestion "Least Reviewed", using the search option under the "Story Archive" section on the left side. Choose "Number of Votes" and "Ascending" then click 'show stories' button. When you say "Most Recently Reviewed", how are you going to define 'recently', last week, last month?

[boccaccio2000g]

Originally posted by Beethovenfan
Having just read the posts about the lack of reviews, can I revise my idea and have a "Please review me!" category that lists stories without a review, or "Least reviewed"?

Although the lack of reviews remains a sore subject with me, as with most authors, if one sorts the stories by newest stories first, one can see quite quickly which of the newer stories have yet to be reviewed. In fact, lately, that's pretty much how I've decided which stories to review. Length, subject matter, and familiarity with the author also play a role.

I think it was Marcus who pointed out on another thread that it's unfortunate that a relative handful of people seem to be responsible for a preponderance of the reviews that get written. Because that limits the number of points of view available to the potential reader. To the extent that the reviews matter at all, the tastes and predilections of a dozen people certainly shouldn't speak for the vast readership of this site. There have been a number of stories that I liked a lot that others didn't care for, and vice versa. I'm sure that's true for all of the frequent reviewers.

May I say again, though, that it begins with us authors. There are enough of us (unless we're all writing under multiple names <g>) to provide more than enough reviews, even if the casual readers NEVER joined in. You can do so under another user-name if you wish. And you don't have to write much -- even "Great story!" or "Nice job!" is better than nothing. I would add that if your review is on the negative side, it would probably be only fair, and possibly helpful and constructive, to explain how you feel the story misfired. "Didn't work for me" or "this story sucks!" is probably not likely to be of much assistance to us writers, most of whom, I'm sure, are anxious to do the best job we can.

Beethovenfan's (love the Violin Concerto!) note does raise another question, though. There's probably no way around this, but there are so many new stories (and updates) coming in all the time, that the older stories tend to get neglected; nearly every new story will attract at least a few thousand readers -- some up to ten thousand or more. But stories that are more than two months old (and have not been updated) rarely attract more than a few hundred hits in a month (except for a few of the all-time most popular stories). I'm sure that there are a number of forgotten gems out there.

And that is why the review mechanism is so important.

Presumably this site will be around for years and the number of stories will continue to mushroom. There will continue to be new readers coming to the site for the first time. And they really will only have our reviews to guide them to the standouts among the increasingly daunting number of stories.

So, fellow authors and fellow readers -- if you read a good story, take a couple of minutes and click on "Review".

After your heartbeat and respiration return to normal, of course.

Boccaccio

[Beethovenfan]

For your second suggestion "Least Reviewed", using the search option under the "Story Archive" section on the left side. Choose "Number of Votes" and "Ascending" then click 'show stories' button. When you say "Most Recently Reviewed", how are you going to define 'recently', last week, last month?

OK! Got it. Might have known you had it covered! There are 277 stories without a review. As for most recently reviewed I was thinking of generally the most recent order, although I guess it depends on whether you store that date in the stories database.

Oh well, better get on with my reading I suppose....