Yahoo Forum Archive

Hey guys,

This week I want to talk about review goals. Some people at MEFAwards
have asked about that already, so some people may be wondering what that
is all about. The basic idea is that some reviewers want to set a
"target" to the number of reviews they will write. We then recognize
them, both at the MEFA site themselves and by giving them a graphic they
can display wherever they like.

But before we bet started:

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REMINDER - RECEIVING REVIEWS BY EMAIL

Starting on 16-July, "final" reviews will be shown on the MEFA website.
Annmarwalk will also be posting the reviews to two other sites: the
[mefas] LJ community and the [mefa-reviews] Yahoo group. Sign up for
either one to read reviews by email or on your LJ friends page.

Reviews will *NOT* be posted to the MEFAwards Yahoo group. You need to
sign up for mefa-reviews if you want to have them emailed to you.

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SETTING A REVIEW GOAL - THE MECHANICS

Review goals can be set July 16-August 15. You do this by editing your
profile (the same page where you can change your password or contact
email). When you log in to our website, one of the first things you see
is a line like

"You are logged in as user aure_enteluva. Your email address is
marta.fandom@gmail.com. If this information is incorrect, please update
your profile here."

and clicking on "here" takes you to the page where you can edit your
profile. You can also reach this page by clicking the link under
"Reviewing" to set your reviewing goal, or by clicking "Name/Password"
further down the page. These links all take you to the same page. Once
there, you will see a place to enter the Target number of reviews. Just
enter the number of reviews you want to have as your target, and click
the "Save" button at the bottom of the page. You know your goal has been
set when you are taken back to the main page, with the notice that "The
user data modifications were saved successfully" at the top of the page.

You can change your goal until August 15, by doing the same thing. After
then, your goal can't be changed.

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CHOOSING A REVIEW GOAL

What your goal is, is largely a personal question. Each person reviews
differently. If you like to read longer stories, if you are newer to the
awards, or if you will have less time to devote to the MEFAs because of
offline/other fannish obligations, you may want to set a lower goal. In
general I encourage people to choose a goal that will stretch them but
not be impossible to reach. What exactly that means will depend on the
person in question.

Here are some different approaches different people take:

==> Skim the whole list of stories, and add the stories they definitely
want to read to their wish list. (Just click the Wish link on the right
part of the screen.) Then make your reviewing goal the same as the
number of stories on your wish list.

==> Decide based on past experience on a percentage of stories you want
to review. For instance, if in past years you have read about a quarter
of the stories nominated, and that you liked about half of *those* well
enough to review hem, do the math and figure out how many stories you
expect to review. 1/4 * 1/2 = 1/8 of all the stories. Since there are
606 stories in this year's competition, that works out to a review goal
of about 75 stories.

(Or, adapt this method if you want to only review a certain type of
story, or only some categories. For instance, if you only want to read
stories that selected "Elves" as one of their main category choices,
that's 144 stories. If you thought you would read a quarter of those
stories and reviewed half of what you read, your review goal would be 18.)

==> Take a review goal from a previous year, and increase it a bit. If
you did 50 last year, you might try for 60, or 75. (Keep in mind, we
have roughly 10% fewer stories this year than last year; you may want to
adjust for that.)

Of course I did a math degree so percentages and so on make sense to me.
If words like "denominator" and "transitivity" scare you more than a
raiding band of uruks, some of these approaches won't work for you.
That's okay; don't overthink this. Just set a goal that you think is
reasonable and go for it. If it was too high or too low, you can always
adjust it for future years. And there's no shame in not meeting a review
goal if you set one. The only real *rule* here is that your review goal
has to be at least 10. After that, whatever you choose is up to you.

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WHAT REVIEWS COUNT?

Basically, the website counts the number of reviews wrote that will
actually be displayed and counted for the awards. That's reviews with
the status "hidden" and "final." When this count meets your review goal,
you've met your goal. Congratulations! I'll talk about what happens with
that, in the next section.

Draft reviews do *not* count for this, unless you switch them to final
or hidden by the end of the awards.

Things get a bit more complicated if you reviewed a story that didn't
compete. If you reviewed a story (status hidden or final) and that story
didn't compete at all, those reviews still counts toward your review
goals. These reviews won't be displayed or counted, but we want to
reward you for the effort anyway. It's not your fault the story didn't
compete. If the story was just nominated twice and you reviewed the
version that we withdrew, Tanaqui copied your review over to the
competing version. (From the website's perspective, each nomination is
distinct, even if it's for the same story.)

Like I said, that's complicated. I emailed the affected members a while
back, but if you have questions you can always email me.

The main point is: the website looks at *all* the reviews you've
written, from the beginning of competition until now. So if you want to
review fifty more stories, you should add this to the number you've
already reviewed, and *that* should be your review goal.

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WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU MEET YOUR GOAL?

When you meet your review goal, you will be sent an email from the site
congratulating you. It will also describe what happens next. Basically:

==> you can choose a banner for those members who have met their review
goals. (Link in the FAQ and in the email.) Display it wherever you are
allowed to show graphics, like at LJ or other blog sites.

==> you will be listed in a list of reviewers who met their goals, along
with the goal you set. This list is in the FAQs, and will be linked from
the website of story winners posted at the end of the awards.

==> in the list of site users, there will be a blue ribbon by your name
to recognize your reaching your goal.

All of this will happen as soon as you meet your goal.

The one thing that *doesn't* happen: you don't have to stop reviewing.
If your goal was 75 and you reach that mid-October, more power to you.
You can keep reviewing as much as you like. In fact, I encourage it! The
review goal is just a way to motivate you to review, and to recognize
those people who make reviewing a priority.

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DO YOU HAVE TO SET A GOAL?

Nope! Some people like the challenge of meeting a goal, and for them the
review goal can help motivate them. But other people just want to keep
up a steady reviewing pace and review as many stories as they can.
Others find it hard to predict how many stories they will actually like,
and don't want to pressure themselves into reviewing stories just to
meet some goal. If the review goal won't help you, you can ignore it.

We won't be able to officially recognize your work as a reviewer (one of
the most important ways you can get involved with the awards IMO). But
if you're okay with that, and f the review goals won't help you, then it
really is okay not to set a goal. Review whatever way works best for you.

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For more information on review goals, see:

http://www.mefawards.net/MEFA2010/index.php?page=FAQreviewergoal

To set your reviewing goal, log in and go to

http://www.mefawards.net/MEFA2010/index.php?page=editPerson

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Marta
(MEFA Admin.)