Encouraging Reviews

[H Dean]

I happen to like the idea of reviewing stories with a numbered system for different categories.

The idea of a 1-10 (10 being best) with categories like story flow, content, writing skills (ie; grammatical) and maybe a few others would be a good way to rate these things.

I, for one, have been stymied by certain stories due to the fact that the flow was bad based on grammar. However, some of those tales were quite interesting and erotic.

As for a free membership...I tend to think that if an author contributes on a consistent basis, tales that are well liked and receive generally good reviews, that it might be worthwhile to provide free membership as a thanks to solid contributory participation. After all, a good writer will draw keep people coming back.

Also, you might want to encourage authros to report bad reviews that are based on idiotic reasons like - "Good story, but I don't like snuff, so I gave you a 1." And, if someone repeatedly makes reviews based on such criteria they should be restricted from reviewing since they shouldn't be reviewing anyway.

Dean

[alura]

I've been a member of a site called writing.com for years now. It is the number one writing site in the US today. There are many famous and well known authors that are members [anonymously]...all this to build up to........

....... MY point. They have an area where it gives a step by step breakdown guideline that really helps you get the logical and proper steps of reviewing burned into your brain. From what I understand, some parts of this guideline were submitted anonymously by the editors of the famous authors who are members.

You might want to go and check it out.

[Aurelius]

Coyote: The one thing that I can say is that a reviewer should not be able to "low grade" an authors product simply because he/she doesn't like the subject matter. I had this happen to me and it was not only disappointing but took an otherwise highly reviewed story and dropped it's rating severely.

Interesting point. At the Olympics (in ice skating, diving, boxing etc.) the lowest judge's vote is ignored to make a fairer and less corrupt rating.

The idea of entirely removing the reviews of destructive imbeciles also has merit. Witness: http://www.bdsmlibrary.com/stories/u....php?uid=10015

[zephyr]

I seldom make reviews but I've made some in the past. Most of the time, I haven't really got much to say and don't want to spam the reviews by making a review that has less than 10 words in it. I never let my kinks determine the rating of the stories that I read. Mostly I base it on grammar, development of the plot, etc.

Interesting point. At the Olympics (in ice skating, diving, boxing etc.) the lowest judge's vote is ignored to make a fairer and less corrupt rating.

The idea of entirely removing the reviews of destructive imbeciles also has merit. Witness: http://www.bdsmlibrary.com/stories/u....php?uid=10015

Now that is definitely a user that should be banned from making reviews. He's destroying the ratings of perfectly good stories.

Btw, I recognize your name Aurelius. You're the only one who bothered to respond in a PM to say thanks for my writing a review for your story. It was a pretty nice thing to do.

[ProjectEuropa]

Now that is definitely a user that should be banned from making reviews. He's destroying the ratings of perfectly good stories.

I think when a rating for a story is so out of sync. with other ratings for the same story, it should be removed, unless backed up with competent and objective analysis. Of course not all story ratings can be indepentently adjudicated because there are so many of them but I think there should be an appeals system where an author can make an objection to an outrageously low rating that is out of sync. with other ratings of the story.

There should be no truck given to maliciousness. That is not to say I want authors protected from critical and competent analysis that might well be hurtful. Authors actually do put themselves up there to be shot at. It's malicious intent that I object to.

[Mothbrad]

I'd love to review stories, but, as I think I mentioned before, every time I like a story enough to review it, it seems like the author loses interest and nothing is added to the story. See my list of reviews here (not counting the Cortez story, which was already complete before being posted here). That's 3/3! Come on writers, just cause I like something doesn't mean it has no merit

[H Dean]

I'd love to review stories, but, as I think I mentioned before, every time I like a story enough to review it, it seems like the author loses interest and nothing is added to the story. See my list of reviews here (not counting the Cortez story, which was already complete before being posted here). That's 3/3! Come on writers, just cause I like something doesn't mean it has no merit

It might be a good idea - in your case - to check to see if the authors have other works. I suspect that those authors who failed to continue the story had few to no entries prior to that story.

Chances are good that if an author has a few stories he/she will finish what they started.