Review... system?

Blazemane · Unread post by **Blazemane** » Wed Jul 22, 2009 1:34 am

I must admit, I tried this on fanfiction.net and it didn't work there, but I figured I may as well try it here.

What if we established a system, maybe just on this thread, based on a sort of pay it forward methodology, in which one could post their story and have it reviewed by someone, under the condition that they will review the next posted story?

So if Bwinter A posts... "Dark tales of Doom", and Bwinter B posts... "Fillinwhatevertheheckyouwanttheirstorytobecalled", then person A would review person B's story. C posts a story, and B reviews it. D posts a story and C reviews it.

The only problem with this chain is that the very first poster would not benefit directly, so for all intents and purposes, if this happens, I will gladly review the first poster's story.

So I review story A, person A reviews story B, person B reviews story C, etc.

Official rules, etc. will wait for if this seems like something people want to do.

Anyone interested?

EDIT: After some confusion, I want to post this-

The idea of this is not to exclude individual threads for posting stories. If you post something here, then of course it can be posted elsewhere.

This doesn't exclude/disqualify any other method of displaying your fiction. Not one. I'm not talking fan fiction fascism here. This is merely something where the motivation to get a review from someone encourages one to give a review to someone else. It's like an exchange system. You can get a review automatically so long as you're willing to give one.

It would be extremely illogical, and arrogant of me, to assume that this idea would reign over other fiction posting. It's an addition, not an overhaul. So yes, you could make your own thread, and people could post comments on that topic. But you could also come here, and at the cost of giving someone else a review, get a review from the next person who wants one.

Also, after some thought, "B reviews A" does seem a heck of a bit more logical than "A reviews B".

Darkshadow14 · Unread post by **Darkshadow14** » Wed Jul 22, 2009 6:22 pm

That could be interesting

That way; everyone gets a shot of their story being read and reviewed!

Tor · Unread post by **Tor** » Tue Aug 04, 2009 10:10 am

Aaaand if I wanted to post two stories in a row? Would the poster after me have to read two stories?

Night-Hunter · Unread post by **Night-Hunter** » Tue Aug 04, 2009 1:29 pm

Yeah what she said, i think Tor is a girl and if i'm wrong i'm sorry sorry.

Blazemane · Unread post by **Blazemane** » Tue Aug 04, 2009 2:21 pm

Aaaand if I wanted to post two stories in a row? Would the poster after me have to read two stories?

Well, it'd be the poster before you that reads the two stories. But that'd be double the work for them, and slightly unfair if they had only posted one story and got it reviewed and had to "pay" two story's worth of reviews back.

I think we might want to limit it to one at a time.

Also, the reason I want it to be that the person who posted the story directly before yours reviews yours, is because if we did it the other way, where people review the story above them and then post a story, people would likely be unmotivated to give any sort of thorough review in their haste to get their story posted.

So, if person A reviews a story from person B, then they aren't on any sort of time table to get their story up, since it's already been put up. They can spend their time on the actual review.

If person B reviews story A, it could easily go... "Great story. What's going to happen next? O.k., here's mine..."

Now, these results aren't guaranteed of course. A person from the first scenario could give a short review just as easily as a person from the second scenario could give a long one. But it just seems easier to get quality reviews this way, even if its not simpler.

Of course, going back to the two story thing, if you wanted to post the very first two stories on here, since I'm not getting a story reviewed anyways, at least, not yet, then I wouldn't mind reviewing two. It just means that you would have to review two stories from the next person, if they chose to post two stories themselves. And they would have to agree to the same thing. But, if they only posted one story, you wouldn't be reviewing theirs, and the next person's. But... I'm getting confusing now.

Like I said, we can discuss official format if this seems like it has any thing behind it.

Tor · Unread post by **Tor** » Tue Aug 04, 2009 2:50 pm

Night-Hunter wrote:Yeah what she said, i think Tor is a girl and if i'm wrong i'm sorry sorry.

Bingo! Ten points to Night-Hunter for guessing my gender correctly.

Blaze, I like your system, BUT I think it'd be easier for poster B to read poster A's fic and review it and then post up their own story. That way poster A gets a review and, I assume, there will always be someone else coming along to post their new material and review the fic that came before.

But you do have a very good point in saying that some might sneak in a general and bland review in order to get their fic up. But honestly, I think that no one would purposefully blow off a review like that if we had this system validated by an admin.

I'm curious... why would you want to set up this system anyway? Of course it is always nice to get reviews, but not everyone has the time or the correct 'stuff' to be a good reviewer.

Blazemane · Unread post by **Blazemane** » Tue Aug 04, 2009 4:34 pm

Blaze, I like your system, BUT I think it'd be easier for poster B to read poster A's fic and review it and then post up their own story. That way poster A gets a review and, I assume, there will always be someone else coming along to post their new material and review the fic that came before.

Well, if you mean the first poster A, that's why I offered to review it.

As for wanting to post, and reviewing the story before to do so, I might be over-analyzing, but I think people might get unmotivated if they realize there is a review in the way. If you can post your story first, you can worry about a review later.

Of course, my suggestion for the A reviews B, affects timeliness perhaps. A could post a story. A few days later, B posts a story, and A could just sit there and wait. That could be a problem, even if a rule was made "no posting another story until you've reviewed".

There are pro's and con's to each side. But I suppose more people probably want "review the story above you", so we probably should go that route.

I'm curious... why would you want to set up this system anyway? Of course it is always nice to get reviews, but not everyone has the time or the correct 'stuff' to be a good reviewer.

Even if someone can't review well by most standards, all that can be asked for is one's best. A four/five line review which might not sound all that eloquent, but at least says something, is better than no review at all.

Why should someone who is perceived (in the eye of the one who's story gets reviewed. It's not for the rest of us to decide) to write "less satisfactory" reviews be stopped from trying?

Do you mean that some people would get less satisfactory reviews than they'd have hoped for, or that others get? But then, when someone posts a story on say, fanfiction.net, that is the risk they take. People easily can get no feedback, or small lines of it. This isn't all that different, except we remove some of the risk. You get at least a minimum standard length bit of feedback, and in that that feedback, naturally, at least one review.

One line reviews would be the problem. There's no effort.

After all... it's not like if someone posts a story here, they can't still upload it elsewhere on the console, bwint or fanfiction.net.

I guess I'm confused about what you mean exactly.

Merbum · Unread post by **Merbum** » Wed Aug 12, 2009 1:59 am

I think it would be good just to comment on people's work right on the topic. Simple and easy so the writer gets a good idea at how others see his or her work.

That way they can fiddle with their writing if they need to.

That is my opinion.

Blazemane · Unread post by **Blazemane** » Wed Aug 12, 2009 2:23 am

Oh yeah, of course Merbum.

The idea of this is not to exclude individual threads for posting stories. If you post something here, then of course it can be posted elsewhere.

So like, if, for example, we were running this, and you sent in the first chapter of "Beast Wars BeYond". The fact that it's here wouldn't exclude you from making the individual threads that you have title "Beast Wars BeYond."

I will stress again- this doesn't exclude/disqualify any other method of displaying your fiction. Not one. I'm not talking fan fiction fascism here. This is merely something where the motivation to get a review from someone encourages one to give a review to someone else. It's like an exchange system. You can get a review automatically so long as you're willing to give one.

It would be extremely illogical, and arrogant of me, to assume that this idea would reign over other fiction posting. It's an addition, not an overhaul. So yes, you could make your own thread, and people could post comments on the topic. But you could also come here, and at the cost of giving someone else a review, get a review from the next person who wants one.

I'm adding this as an addendum to the original post.