I have thought about the review process here a little since reading this thread for the first time and a few things have jumped out that I think bear discussion.

Why is it that the reviews on this site, with the exception of a very small number of dedicated reviewers, consist of either one or two lines of praise or many paragraphs of invective?

Sites like imdb and amazon attract people who take time out of their day to review movies and books and cds and are able to write coherent and insightful reviews that encompass the work, its failings and its triumphs. Why does this not happen here? A lot more people visit imdb and amazon but my initial thought was that while the people who read bdsm stories are niche, they are still a solid cross-section of society.

Now to be honest a lot of what is published here is not of a high standard (I have attempted to read four stories over the recent months and been dissuaded from finishing any - a big issue seems to be formatting, spelling and grammar). Having said that, there are some excellent stories here of a very high standard. I think the problem might be that these stories are simply hard to find, buried like a diamond in the mud. You need the review process to find them, but if the review process doesn't work properly, well then it seems we find ourselves in a catch 22 situation.

There are problems with the site itself (story format - those fucking black diamonds!) and with the review process (no formatting whatsoever) but I don't think these are the reason why so few people review and when they do, the reviews are so short. I have thought about this a little and I'm sorry not to be able to come up with an answer. I can just pose more questions.

If Lucy, or anyone else with the knowledge, could post the names of a few sites that do have a good review process I would love to check them out, compare and hopefully come to a conclusion that may help.