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Msg# 10755

ADMIN - when you see a troubling reviews Posted by telperion1 August 19, 2010 - 0:48:30 Topic ID# 10755
Hey guys,

Currently, there are over 1,500 reviews displayed at the MEFA website.
That's amazing in many ways - thanks to all reviewers! But as with most
things in life, a blessing in one area can mean increased responsibility
in others. Every year we get more MEFA reviews than I could read on my
own. That makes it a bit hard to see where reviews don't follow all of
our rules.

Now, there are lots of reasons why people could break a rule without
meaning to. Maybe they haven't read all of the rules, or maybe the rules
changed and they missed the announcement. Or they could have just
forgotten one. Nearly all of the mistakes are good-faith errors. But
even in those cases the problems need to be fixed, and we can't fix what
we're not aware of. You can help the awards by keeping an eye out for
reviews that contain mistakes, and bringing them to my attention.

*****************************************

WHAT KIND OF ISSUES NEED ADDRESSING?

Here are some of the most common mistakes in reviews.

----- 1. If a review contains a spoiler for the story being reviewed, it
should be marked as such. This alerts people reading the reviews, that
they may want to skip over that review until after they've read the story.

----- 2. Reviews shouldn't contain HTML markup. Some people
automatically enter < b > and other tags, thinking this will make their
text show up formatted, but our website doesn't work that way. If
anything, those tags just make the reviews a little harder to read.

----- 3. If a review-writer quotes from a source (canon books, the
fanfic story, or something else entirely), that quote shouldn't give the
review more points. The quoted phrase needs to be included in [square
brackets].

----- 4. Review-writers can include URLs, but the URLs shouldn't give
the review more points. Again, URLs should be included in [square brackets].

----- 5. Reviews are posted to LJ and Yahoo, so anything you write
should be suitable for general groups like that. Even if the story is
Mature, keep your discussion of it PG13 at most.

----- 6. Occasionally, a review-writer may enter the review for the
wrong story. If a review describes the story as set in Gondor but it's
really set in Doriath, maybe the reviewer clicked the wrong link by
mistake! And we want to know about situations like that.

----- 7. If you see the same reviewer using the same review (in whole or
in part) in reviews for more than one story, that's a big no-no. They
can reuse reviews from other sites, but there can't be any carry-over
between different reviews on the MEFA site.

Flames are a bit more tricky. The MEFA rule is that reviews can contain
criticism, but if a review is entirely or nearly all negative, it's a
flame. Authors can ask to have a flame about their story removed, and if
I agree it's a flame I'll do it. The catch is the author loses the
points they would have earned from that review. So for readers beside
the author, I will only take down the review if (a) I think it's a
flame, and (b) the author wants it take down. Obviously they don't want
that in every case.

Those are just the most common issues. If you see something that doesn't
seem quite kosher, I'll look into it.

***********************************

HOW TO REPORT REVIEWING ISSUES

It's quite simple, really. Just send an email to
mefasupportATgmailDOTcom, with the review "information" and an
explanation of what you think is wrong. The easiest way to do this is to
highlight the "grey" text above the review. At a minimum, include the
story ID # and the reviewer's name.

Authors, you will see a link to "Reply to this review." Do NOT use this
link to report a problem. That link will let you send a response back to
your reviewer. They're forwarded on by a volunteer, but not by me. Our
volunteer is usually pretty good about getting me those emails, but it
creates a delay, and it means more work for her if you report trouble
reviews to that address. Just email me directly at mefasupportATgmailDOTcom.

************************************

WHAT HAPPENS AFTER A REVIEW IS REPORTED?

I or some other volunteer will look at the review. For most issues, if
we agree with you, we'll edit the review to fix the mistake and reset
the review to "hidden." That way the review-writer can add to the review
if they want, in case the change made the review worth less points.
We'll also email the review-writer, to explain why the review was
changed and explain how to edit the review if they want.

With flames there's sometimes another step. If someone else reports a
flame, I'll look over it and first decide whether I think it's a flame.
At that point I'll email the author and explain the situation, and offer
to take down the review - but only if the auhor wants me to. If the
author wants it down I'll do it. If the author wants it to stay up,
though, nothing will happen.

I will usually email you back when you first report the review, but not
after the problem is actually handled. (I sometimes need to discuss it
with other volunteers.) It's just simpler for me that way.

***************************************

P.S. - Don't forget, Annmarwalk is posting MEFA reviews to the Yahoo
Group [mefa-reviews] and to the LJ community [mefas]. Sign up at one or
the other if you'd like to read MEFA reviews in your inbox or on your LJ
friends' list.

Marta
(MEFA Admin.)