Guidelines for Reviewing

[Opal]

As much as it pains me to do this, I think we could all stand to have a little refresher course on what constitutes a good review. I'm not exempt from this in any way, nor am I using this as an opportunity to say "Y'all suck at reviewing. You should review like me, because my reviews are immaculate." They're not. These are for my benefit as well (er, not that I'll be reviewing this contest, but, y'know, future reference and all that). ^^

First, and foremost: A review thread is not merely a dumping ground for all the things you hate about the contest.

You're here reading this story because you want to be here, right? Well, then, act like it. Of course you're not going to like everything the contestants write. And I swear, if one person replies with, "Tara why are you saying we can't tell them where they can improve? ur so mean **sobsob**" I will smack them about the face with a herring until the stench is buried deep in their skin. Because that is not what I am saying at all.

What I'm saying is, in a recent contest there was a certain review thread which wasn't updated very often, and the only times it was was when several different people came to dump on things they disliked. In fact, it got so bad that a contestant literally had to ask them what they liked about the contest before they posted up a brief list. True, there was a positive thing here and there (and the thread did start out as a credible review thread) but it quickly dissolved into a negativity party.

This kind of review thread WILL NOT BE TOLERATED HERE.

Just like your momma said, "If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all." Believe it or not, you can say something you dislike about a character in a nice manner. As long as it is helpful and constructive (pulling specific examples from the story is always, ALWAYS helpful), and not just, "Well that sucked," you should do just fine.

No, I'm not saying the contestants should be coddled or protected from mean old critiques, or only told what they want to hear. But read the reviews you've written back to yourself and imagine you're that contestant. Would you be able to take what you'd written as a serious critique and something to improve on, or would it sound more like an insult? Would you be able to take it seriously?

My advice (and something I've been trying to do recently) is to find at least one positive thing about the character or post, even if it was your least favorite post ever. It can't be completely awful; otherwise, would they have made it in the contest? As a contestant, even when a review is mostly "improve this and this and this" a simple "...but I did like this part here" is very nice to hear. It gives you hope that you can improve. If the tone of the review is all about everything you screwed up, it doesn't really instill you with much confidence or hope for future posts.

I have heard people say that they wish for tough critiques because they would expect them from professors and publishers and such. If you want, PM a reviewer and tell them not to hold back on your character. But you know what? We are not professional writers here. We are (mainly) unpublished amateurs. Survivor contests are an excellent place to hone your writing skills, excellent. But first and foremost, we do these for fun. We don't get paid for them. They're never published. Most of the world will never read them. I will do everything in my power to ensure the contestants and audience in this contest just relax and have fun. And not everyone has fun reading a blunt, harshly worded, totally negative review.

Reviewers, unless a contestant asks you for a tough PM review, you are not allowed to send them. That is an attempt to skirt around the rules and will not be tolerated. Contestants, please feel free to report any unsolicited PM reviews to me.

Another point I would like to make: Try to review everyone equally.

And I'm talking numbers of reviews here, not the content of the reviews (because those will inevitably vary from contestant to contestant). No reviewing only the contestants you don't like, or only the ones you do. All contestants are interested in what people think of their characters, as they're all writing for an audience. Sure, sometimes you get busy and fall behind. A quick way to catch up is to give a summary of each character at the end of the week, rather than post-by-post reviews (unless you're awesome like Magical Fish, of course).

You may think the real solution is just for contestants to stop being such big sissies, or that by being nice reviewers are actually not being nice, because the real world is much meaner and blah blah blah. It is fine for you to disagree with these rules, but keep it to yourself. Save it for another contest. Frankly, I am not interested.

I really hope I do not have to enforce these rules. Usually RedVenture reviewers have been pretty constructive, so I don't think we'll run into any major problems. Still, it's never a bad thing to step back and take a second look at things.