Hmmm...What's left to rant about?
I just popped off a note to the admin people to de-volunteer myself as a reviewer. I just don't have a lot of time for extra-curricular activities and I wasn't really good at it anyway. I kind of approached the subject as an exercise in creative writing more than a practical, factual commentary on a particular story. My opinions were my own and I stand by them, but so far as what would serve the authors and the site best...It probably isn't me, at least not in that capacity.
I did get a lot of email about my reviews though, a number of them, like 6 or 7 different readers, basically commented that my reviews were more often better than the stories. I'm not sure how true that is, I certainly reviewed a number of very well written stories. My reviews might have been funnier, but I doubt they were better in all or even some cases.
It was fun though. I enjoyed the writing a lot. I was supposed to read Ken Randall's "Charlotte's Movie"
and I sorta, kinda promised him an opinion, if not a full review of it. I'm still working on it. It is a nice piece of writing he deserves much credit and I sincerely urge all of you to take a look at codes and synopsis and then take a chance on it. I'm just a very slow reader and it is a lengthy story. But I'm getting there!
I guess I can rant about reviews, since I have read them, written them, and been subject to them...I have a pretty good perspective, I think.
What I dislike about reviews are that many of them are too short. I mean, they say "I like this story..." and take maybe two paragraphs to say that and the end. Look at the review for Charlotte's Movie, for example. I just don't see the purpose of those. Here I'll post the review in its entirety:
Review by y2 [other reviews by y2]
Reviewed: 2007-03-11
It starts off just like any other teen romance, except one of the teens is a slutty daughter of porn stars. And while the story is predominantly a sex story, it is nice to know that porn stars are people too :p
This is a story about love, life and everything in between. It is a story about consequences, and about tollerance. And there is great sex...
===========================
Now I know some people will opine that such a review is all that's necessary. That's all a reader or an author should expect. But I know for a fact that Ken wants more from a review than that. If it was my story I'd want something more. It's public feedback. It's a message from one reader to alllllll the other ones. If you could email every person on SOL about a story, is that all you'd want to say?
Maybe that's why I tended to go a little overboard with my own reviews, I'm not sure. Obviously I have that sort of attitude and ego. But it baffles me, it really does and that isn't the review or the only reviewer I can point at with my unhappy finger.
Fuzzy...Come on, dude! You give everybody tens all the time (except me heh!) or it seems that way. That's the perception people have about a Fuzzy Wuzzy review. Paula Abdul :)
There's a limited number of slots for reviewers and I'm not saying it should be a full time job, or carries any specific obligation to select stories a reviewer won't like, but I'd like to see the selection mixed up a little more. A negative review isn't necessarily a bad thing. It doesn't have to be brutal and an honest opinion of a less than average story can be beneficial to the author. I've beaten up some people in my reviews, but generally they came right back at me asking me to look at a new story and see if I thought it was better, or asking for some more information on what I liked and disliked. Give authors some credit because sometimes it looks like the reviews avoid anything that can be construed as negative.
Not true, I know! They're getting ready to mug me, because some of them do in fact review stories that they didn't necessarily enjoy and they do tell us about it. But in between those few lower than average scores, the reviw board is generally a flood of 9's and 10's ...But people like to say nice things. It's much easier to read, finish, and want to review a story we find enjoyable. That's human nature, so I understand it. I'm not asking for a flood of really mean reviews, far from it. I'm just making an observation without really having a good answer.
The scores...I dunno. an 8 is the new 5 it seems to me. I mean everyone gets eights and so that's the middle of the bell curve. basically the scale for stoies, reflected in reviews, is 7-10...a four point scale with anything less than a six being punishment. Maybe it's a love hate thing. "I love your story, I give you a 10, I hate your story I give you a six, because I don't want to hurt your feelings."
Of course I get 1's all the time, so I'm biased about scores.
I'm just rambling on. I'd like to see a small paranthetical number next to the title on the New Stories and Updates pages specifying how many stories that particular pen name has on the site. Just to make it super-readily apparent who is a new author posting his/her first story and who has posted 65 stories. Of course I'm saying pen names, so an uthor could have a hundred stories and have story number 1 under a new name. That's okay.
I suggest this mostly because when I look for stories to read I much prefer first time authors over the established ones and it's a pain going to everyone's homepage over and over to see how prolific the individual is. I also think new authors should be reviewed much more often than they are. It's kinda hit in miss because reviewers go off synopsis and codes and probably by author name if they have a favorite. A new author cannot be a favorite, obviously, so they don't get that little advantage. It's just something i'd like to see because new authors are the future, stupid as that sounds. I won't be writing forever, a lot of our favorite authors are gone, or busy, or retired, or in jail, whatever. Time marches on and we're all replaced by our children, so I always think new authors should be kind of spoiled like children.
My opinion anyway.
So that's about all I got to say and see ya later!
rache
And for my next magic trick...
