Review or not to review?

Here's what I think:
I found myself with a wee bit of extra time and was about to read and review some of the "recent popular" stories that lacked any reviews basically to give the authors some feedback.

BUT, I found it hard to do as the stories I read I just didn't find interesting. I thought, well, I could comment on the technical aspects but I was SO disinterested that I couldn't think of anything good to say--all told, I didn't review.

How about you folks? I see a lot of stories are not reviewed --what's stopping ya'll?

I like the reviews for my work--one of the reasons I do it--sure aint's for the $$$ n'cest pas?

I think, there have been some fine storys posted here in the last months. I very much like Tricia (The Degradation of...) and Captured!. I see you now the second time this night behind my bum (posted already another one after you)! What are you holding in your hand?

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Originally posted by emmaadmirer
II see you now the second time this night behind my bum (posted already another one after you)! What are you holding in your hand?

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Guten abend emma,

I'm holding a short crop to apply to your butt as needed--I imagine that would be fairly frequently.

Auf wiedersehn,
Obersturnbanfurher Boxer

I review stories if I find them interesting or not. I base my desire to read the story based upon story codes. if the story has the codes I like, but sucks, I will let the author know that it could be improved. Although, I do tend to rate higher than I probably should, because I don't want to be a complete jerk about things.

You might not have been around for the fiasco with Brenda and her "cheesy feet" stories. Had she put the "feet" code on her stories, I naver would have read them as feet do nothing for me. However, she didn't, so I read one of them and rated it poorly, because it wasn't written terribly well and the content was not interesting to me. I did give it a 4, which, in my opinion, wasn't too bad.

I guess the point to be made is to review the story based on how it is written and how it interests you. if you think the author could have done better, made it more interesting or should use a spellchecker, then tell them. Heck, that's how people improve; by knowing what they need to do to make their works better.

I do try to review stories, but sometimes it is hard, for the same reason Master BruceBoxer said – I'm not interested. Other times, I find the rating 1-10 to be hard to adhere to, because story might be poorly written, but I liked the context, or more often – I cannot say that I liked the context, but I read the story because the writing style is to my liking and it was easy read.

So I think that rating should be revised – just because one does not like or agree with the theme does not mean that the story is poorly written.

My mom thought me long ago “if you have nothing nice to say – don’t say nothing at all” and I tend to do so.

The review system has been updated. The descriptions are much better now than they were six months ago. I think the rating system is probably fine the way it is and improving upon it any further would be counterproductive, in my opinion.

What you, as a reader and as a reviewer, have to do is to use your judgement and assign a rating based upon how you enjoyed the story. If you thought the story you read was superb and couldn't be improved upon at all, then give it a 9 or 10. If you thought the story was great, but the author really needed a spellchecker, then rate it slightly lower. So forth and so on...

It is perfectly possible to write a poor review and be nice about it. Many people here do it all the time. If we can get boccaccio out of hiding, I'm sure he'll agree.

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Originally posted by BDSM_Tourguide
The review system has been updated. The descriptions are much better now than they were six months ago. I think the rating system is probably fine the way it is and improving upon it any further would be counterproductive, in my opinion.

What you, as a reader and as a reviewer, have to do is to use your judgement and assign a rating based upon how you enjoyed the story. If you thought the story you read was superb and couldn't be improved upon at all, then give it a 9 or 10. If you thought the story was great, but the author really needed a spellchecker, then rate it slightly lower. So forth and so on...

It is perfectly possible to write a poor review and be nice about it. Many people here do it all the time. If we can get boccaccio out of hiding, I'm sure he'll agree.

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Thank you for the explanation, I have joined the forum recently so would not know how it was 6 months ago. Still, the point I was trying (unfortunately totally unsuccessfully apparently) to get through is that the rating is from bad to good and there is no flexibility as to say “I liked the context but your grammar is awful” or vice versa.

As to giving poor reviews to people – most people get offended, and no mater how shiny the paper is – if manure is what you wrapped in it, it will still stink.

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Originally posted by redEva
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Thank you for the explanation, I have joined the forum recently so would not know how it was 6 months ago. Still, the point I was trying (unfortunately totally unsuccessfully apparently) to get through is that the rating is from bad to good and there is no flexibility as to say “I liked the context but your grammar is awful” or vice versa.

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Sure there is. That's what that little review box under the rating drop-down bar is for. If you give a story a 7 raiting, you can just type in, "I gave your story a 7 rating, because I enjoyed the content, but you really needed to work on the plot and the spelling was poor."

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As to giving poor reviews to people – most people get offended, and no mater how shiny the paper is – if manure is what you wrapped in it, it will still stink.

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I don't know about that. Did you think my example above was rude? Seemed fair and objective to me. Although, it's hard to tell if your own opinion is objective. Kind of an oxymoron, I think.

If people get offended by what you rate their stories, then that's their problem, not yours. You just tell them how you though tthe story was and let them interepret it how they will. They can always email you and ask why you gave them such a poor rating or why you thought the plot was not so good.

Jeez. You can tell you're Canadian. Worried about offending people you'll never meet and don't know. I love that! :)

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Originally posted by BDSM_Tourguide
Jeez. You can tell you're Canadian. Worried about offending people you'll never meet and don't know. I love that! :)

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Actualy im Croatian - just live in this Ice hole.

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Originally posted by redEva
Actualy im Croatian - just live in this Ice hole.

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Come on red--admit it--with that red hair, green eyes and spirit--you GOTTA be Irish (like me) or Texan (like me) :)

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Originally posted by BruceBoxer
Come on red--admit it--with that red hair, green eyes and spirit--you GOTTA be Irish (like me) or Texan (like me) :)

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for you MyLord ill be anything you like, as long as you promise to be nice and gentle with that crop of yours *smiles and looks at Master BruceBoxer with sapphire eyes*

Like most, I try to be fair in my reviews, and sometimes need to remind myself how much effort it takes to write a few thousand words of good fiction.

I tend to rate lower stories where I think the author has been particularly careless or has posted something with absolutely no erotic substance.

What I really dislike is where mine is the only review for a story, particularly if I haven't given it a good rating. After all it is just my subjective opinion. What the story needs is more opinions, not just my entirely subjective one.

(Hey Tourguide, subjective opinions are much more fun than objective ones!)

The 'worth' of a story should not be measure by a single review. Those 10/10 stories with just 1 review come to mind. I bet it won'tbe more enjoyable than a 9/10 story based on 10 or more reviews.

We really do have some talented writers on this site and we should encourage them with reviews and feedback.

For all those that care, can I make a suggestion that we each commit to writing at least 5 reviews per month. That could make a big difference.

HAPPY READING (and reviewing!)

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Originally posted by BDSM_Tourguide
The review system has been updated. The descriptions are much better now than they were six months ago. I think the rating system is probably fine the way it is and improving upon it any further would be counterproductive, in my opinion.

B: Generally speaking, I too find that the rating system is easier to use since Jinn put in place the system Marcus proposed several months ago. One of our most prolific reviewers - Hyphen666 - has mentioned numerous times that he finds the descriptions that go with the various rankings to be constraining. I understand what he is saying, but I think that they are useful, albeit imperfect, guidelines. The new ratings help to define, in relative terms, what a '6' or an '8' should mean -- making the ratings more both more consistent and more meaningful.



What you, as a reader and as a reviewer, have to do is to use your judgement and assign a rating based upon how you enjoyed the story. If you thought the story you read was superb and couldn't be improved upon at all, then give it a 9 or 10. If you thought the story was great, but the author really needed a spellchecker, then rate it slightly lower. So forth and so on...

B: The new system has, I think, made for tougher (but much more accurate) ratings over all; I can't prove it, but I suspect that in the old system almost half of the ratings were 10's. Readers who liked a story saw lots of other stories given 10's and felt that anything less would be unflattering.

B: But with the new system one can give a good but not world class story a '7' or an '8' without fear, I hope, of hurting the author's feelings. And even stories that need a fair amount of work (4, 5, or 6) can show promise and deserve constructive encouragement.

B: Scores of 1, 2, and 3 I reserve for those authors who, in my imperfect judgment, didn't make a serious effort to make the story a pleasure to read -- by permitting numerous spelling, grammar, diction, errors. Huge paragraphs are a big turn-off for me, too.



It is perfectly possible to write a poor review

B: Hey, my reviews aren't that poor ;-)


and be nice about it.


B: My niceness quotient went up considerably after someone (perhaps someone whose story I had reviewed harshly, but perhaps not) trashed one of mine. :-)

B: Marcus also suggested that we should use different names for authoring, posting to the forum, and reviewing. Perhaps he is right, but it would be nice to think that we are all adults here and can accept impersonal criticism in that vein.

Many people here do it all the time. If we can get boccaccio out of hiding, I'm sure he'll agree.

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B: Boccaccio is not in hiding -- he's just an idiot. :-)

B: Trying to write two full-length stories at the same time (one of them under another name) is just stupid. And he has lost a couple of weeks to business travel in the last couple of months. So he hasn't had much time to work on his own stories, let alone all of the other stories here. But one of the two stories (not the interminable Jade Pavilion II unfortunately) is nearing completion, and maybe he'll be re-entering the reviewing lists in the next month or so.

Boccaccio

I review from two perspectives, editorially and critically. From an editorial perspective I try and assist the author in matters of grammar and composition. Good editors help authors get better. From a critical perspective I try and analyse what I liked and what I loved. Critical reviewing should allow the author to bask in the glow of achievement and to alert other readers.

Unlike in the real world, when something sucks I don't have to go into detail why it sucks. Believe me you have to use a lot more keystrokes to shoot something down than to praise it. Therefore here in fantasy land, if I don't like it, I don't have to review it!! YEAH!

Lastly, I like authored reviews. If somebody reviews my writing, I like to go and read their fiction, see how they did it. In my sixth decade of life I still feel that I am learning. I don't care how harshly you treat my prose or trash my fantasies but I want to read what you have written. In the world of Science and Nature not knowing who has shot your paper down really sucks (although you can often figure out from their sytle and what they said who they are). Since we are here at the cutting edge of the avant garde and most of us are using psuedonyms, let's be straightforward.

I personally love to have my stories reviewed and I'm very interested on what people have to say about them so I can improve. But I've found that not that much people review stories. Maybe it's just because it's been 2 weeks online or maybe it's that the story codes of my stories don't appeal so much to readers, I really don't know.

Regards

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Originally posted by BDSM_Tourguide
[B]The review system has been updated. The descriptions are much better now than they were six months ago. I think the rating system is probably fine the way it is and improving upon it any further would be counterproductive, in my opinion.

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I have a suggestion for the review system. Maybe it could be subdivided into 2 categories:

-Content: Where you'd rate from 1 to 10 only the content of the story, the plot, and not taking grammar, spelling, etc. into consideration

-Writing: Here you'd rate, again from 1 to 10, the writing skills of the author, his grammar and spelling, not taking the plot into consideration

You could have an average of both the categories and when you searched for a story you could do so by either category or by the average between them. As for current reviews that have used the current system, my only suggestion is to give the same rating to both categories (so if I reviewed a story and gave it a 7, both writing and content should have a 7).

What do you think about this??

Regards

I hesitate to review for many reasons.
These stories are written more than anything for the telling of fantasies. They are meant to stimulate our desires and to arouse.
Few stories that I read are really well-developed in plot.
The review will be influenced a lot by the reader's taste in BDSM.
Did he/she like the content? Was it something he/she found stimulating?

So, I don't review. From time to time, however, I come across real gems. Either stories that have a well developed plot in addition to well-done scenes of BDSM, or stories that have exquisitely written descriptions full of detail and imaginative writing.
When I find one of these, I send the author an email.
This is not saying that I don't enjoy the others I read. I just am not inspired to comment.

Generally if a story has few reviews I'll try and give one. Also if I enjoyed it, no matter how many reviews I'll give one :)
I agree with Woodsman's Game; few have a decent plot. It's surprisingly hard to balance plot and sex, and keep people interested in it.

I usually try to review the stories I read. Sometimes I read a story and I know that it isn't my cup of tea. I tend to like the psychological aspects of bdsm and not so much the physical ones. If it tends toward the former, I leave a review. If it tends toward the latter, I don't, because I don't think I can be impartial.

I guess I review more than I should. I should write more original articles and fewer reviews. However it comes naturally to me as a teacher and peer review (scientific) reviewer to comment upon what has been written.

Any review must encompass both expression (grammar, spelling, style) as well as content (plot, character, etc.). To do otherwise is to either encourage illiteracy (in the classical sense) or boredom.

Naturally, if you want me to review your fiction pander to my prejudices which are F/f corporal punishment with a bit of bondage thrown in. If I do not read it I will not review it. To do otherwise is to be truly pedantic and academia is too full of pedants as it is.

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Originally posted by e.e. norcod
I guess I review more than I should. I should write more original articles and fewer reviews.

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I've enjoyed reading your reviews and would encourage you to continue. I often learn something from your comments.

Regarding reviews in general, I often use them in deciding whether or not to read a story. Sometimes I find the reviews more entertaining than the story.

For my own part, I maintain separate identities for writing and reviewing. As someone else mentioned earlier in this thread, I also tend to pay more attention to reviews done by other authors, so I'm considering changing that policy.

When I do write reviews, I try to ignore my personal preferences and fetishes. A story shouldn't be downgraded simply because the author's kink didn't correspond closely to my own. I'm particularly impressed with stories that don't correspond to my own preferences but are written with sufficient skill that I enjoyed them anyway.

I have strong doubts that the review process as practiced on this site has any positive or negative impact on most writers. I am beginning to realize that the true review of any story is the number of hits it gets! I think most posters have figured this out as well.

Ah come-on lex. when you get a nice review you glow! I pay more attention to what they write than the numerical score, however, because the numerical scores seem to vary so much.

You by the way, write pretty good reviews (that means I tend to agree with what you write).

I myself review fiction under the same name as I write fiction. Helps prevent flaming. You can look up examples of the reviewers fiction. If you sharply criticise someones writing you better write better than they do!

I read the comment by Lex Ludite ...

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have strong doubts that the review process as practiced on this site has any positive or negative impact on most writers. I am beginning to realize that the true review of any story is the number of hits it gets! I think most posters have figured this out as well.

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Lex, I totally disagree with you.

I submit stories to this site specifically because I WANT the reviews, I want the feedback into my writing. Believe it or not, I especially want to know how I can improve my skills in storytelling, scene setting, character development, etc. That is, if you DON’T like my story, tell me why.
I interpret the reviews this way: only a small sampling of readers will take the time to write a review. Even fewer will contact the writer. For every review that is written, there are probably 100 or more out there who agree wholeheartedly. For every e-mail the author receives, there are probably 1000 who agree. Flamers included, by the way.

As to the number of hits being a true review of a work, then I’ll resurrect my FoxTales website and not share “the glory” with anyone.
I respectfully suggest that in order for your statement to carry any accuracy, certain steps must be taken by Jinn:
- all stories must be listed, alphabetically to ensure equal access, and the “new” and “updated” categories scrapped.
- All stories must be complete when submitted, no serials or revisions or updates
- In addition, a new start date with all stories counted as zero established so that a fair assessment can be made.
- No multiple “hits” by a single user. Visit the story once, then that’s it. The user isp code will be the judge, not the nick.
- Finally, no posting of “ads” or “hype” on the forums saying “have you seen Fox’s new story? Wow it’s even better than all his others …” by the writer or by anyone.

In the real world, Top Ten lists are but one of the measures of success. The truly great works are not always the best selling works. Gao Xinjiang won a Nobel Prize, but does he outsell Nora Roberts? Jimmy Buffet is one of only 3 authors to ever be Number One on the New York Times bestseller lists in both fiction and non-fiction. Does that make his work more noteworthy than John Irving? Harlequin Romances outsell just about everything, a measure of “hits” does not make them great literature, only popular …

Sorry Lex, but in this case, democracy does not rule. Reading and writing are not popularity contests.

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Fox: I respectfully suggest that in order for your statement to carry any accuracy, certain steps must be taken by Jinn:- all stories must be listed, alphabetically to ensure equal access, and the “new” and “updated” categories scrapped.

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Good idea. I've just uploaded my new story. "Aardvarks in Bondage."

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Lex: I have strong doubts that the review process as practiced on this site has any positive or negative impact on most writers.

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The reviews are a kind of 'visitors book' for a story, and while not necessarily a true measure of the 'worth' of a story, they do provide a useful guide for readers and writers alike.

We writers work harder than many would suppose to produce our little stories. Knowing that somebody out there was amused and/or aroused by my work encourages me to keep writing.

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Originally posted by Aurelius
Good idea. I've just uploaded my new story. "Aardvarks in Bondage."

Not bad, Aurelius. Only time will tell if "Aardvarks" is in the same class as "Aachen Achin'" my, um, Frankly erotic epic that tells the tale of the establishment of Charlemagne's first capital, in which barbarian princesses are taken prisoner and mistreated in ways one would not expect of a Holy Roman Emperor.



The reviews are a kind of 'visitors book' for a story, and while not necessarily a true measure of the 'worth' of a story, they do provide a useful guide for readers and writers alike.

We writers work harder than many would suppose to produce our little stories. Knowing that somebody out there was amused and/or aroused by my work encourages me to keep writing.

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Well said, as regards each of those points.

Boccaccio

... will get to my contribution

"Aaaaack!"

first, which will quickly zoom to the top of the charts, making me the all time most popular widely respected and hallowed BDSM writer.
I wonder which tux to wear to the Nobel awards?

;)

Hmmm, I just saw the review of " Aaaaack!"

Oh well, maybe next year ...

They don't wear tuxes to the Nobel ceremonies its strictly white tie and tails.

I love serials. I like to read them and I like to write them.

Lets just let Jinn run the site the way he likes to. I like this site better than any other I have ever contributed to.

I like to sit and read what others think of my work. It gives me a little thrill when there are new reviews to my stories. Of course, it would help if I would write some more stories, instead of keeping an eye on the kids here. ;)

I like receiving emails from people telling me what they thought of my pieces. I would never have guessed so many females would have read my stories and would take the effort to email me about them because they enjoyed them. That part boggles my mind.

More importantly, though, it lets me know if I should continue with what I am doing or not. If the overall consensus is good after three or four chapters, I will keep the story as it is written. If it is not, I will try to take it in a different direction or trash it altogether.

And, just so everyone knows, there are more chapters coming in "Rose..." There's also a new story in the works.

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Lets just let Jinn run the site the way he likes to. I like this site better than any other I have ever contributed to.

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Well said, e e norcod.