In another thread Jinn expressed an interest in hearing ideas for encouraging people to review stories. I have thought about this a little and a few ideas I can come up with really mean a lot more effort for Jinn but I'll get the ball rolling and hope someone else can add to the list and we can really provide a few workable ideas to not only promote reviews but reader response to the author as well. Some people really only need something little to shock them out of their laziness.

One idea I had was for authors of a story to have some feedback on the reviewing process. Say they got a particularly foolish review they could weight that reviewer poorly, or if they got a review that was particularly insightful they could rate the reviewer highly. This way a users profile could be given a reviewers grade, to see which users reviews were worthwhile and which were thoughtless. This idea is really a bit of a pipe dream though and it has a few flaws: I have an idea that the top reviewers would always be the same people and they also would be authors on the site and so it may not particularly get new people reviewing, it would also mean a lot of work for Jinn and then there is the question of what incentive, other than being thought intelligent and insightful, there would be to write reviews with substance. A byproduct though could be a page where you could list the top reviewers, people who had been judged by the various authors themselves to be knowledgable and of good taste, and they could list maybe their top 25 stories or something like that. This would give users a way to see what some of the best stories on the site are, apart from the relatively simple (and sometimes misleading) review star basis we have now.

Of course a foolproof way to get reviews would be for all the authors to go on strike. I wrote this as a joke in the other thread but it does have some merit, but also brings a rather hefty consequence that I would not wish to be responsible for - people may not visit the site as much and I would not want to disadvantage Jinn in any way. But if you are writing a serial story and say that you won't post further chapters, and tease people by saying you have 3 already finished, until a few reviews are written or you get some response by email that could work. I really wouldn't want to do that though and it was only said in jest. But alternative idea, that came from it may work to some degree.

If an author in the introduction to their story/chapter made a little statement that they were becoming a little disinfranchised with writing stories and not really knowing if anyone was interested in them and they were thinking of stopping then maybe that would get a better reader response, use guilt to get the lazy buggers to write even one sentence telling you they like the story.

I really think a lot of people don't write simply because they don't know what it means to the author. I have said elsewhere I was a lurker for a while. When I first decided to write to an author to tell them how much I enjoyed their story it was for Owned Teacher. The reply I got really shocked me and really made me think a little about why I hadn't done it before. Since then I have tried to write to all the authors whose work I have enjoyed or been impressed by, if they supply an email address, or review their story if they don't.

So maybe the best idea I have is that a small (or not so small) notice could be put at the top of the update page with words to the effect that: the authors who place their stories on this site are not getting paid for their work and so to show your appreciation, for all the hard work they put in to make the site what it is, review their story if you like it (and then maybe a link on how to review) or send them a short note by email. You have no idea how much a small word of thanks can mean to these so delicate of individuals.

If that is there at the top of the page each time a user visits the story update page then maybe, just maybe, they will be prompted to contact just one author, just once. But if that happens for even half the readers then I think there will be many an author who would be beaming with happiness and pride.

Just a few rambling thoughts. I am sure someone has some better, and more practical, ideas than those.

Jason