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Hi Everyone

I'm filled with admiration for all you organised people who have done so
many reviews already! Now I am back from our ScotMoot (and once my badsickness
has cleared up) I shall be making a start on my own.

Could I make one teensy request tho? I don't know if this has been mentioned
before, but if when reviewing you reiterate part of the story, could
reviewers please try not to put spoilers into the review? I think this applies
especially where there is a twist or a surprise ending which is what makes the
story stand out.

Many people might be drawn to read and review from seeing an existing review
and having spoilers in them can really water down the impact of the story on
a new reader.

Hope this is okay to mention.

Cheers
Liza



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http://www.livejournal.com/users/llinos/
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"I have lost it, Bilbo dear," said Frodo "I got rid of it, you know."
******************************************************************






[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Hi Liza,

Spoilers are always difficult to handle. On the one hand I know how
hard it is to to write good long reviews, and putting a limit on what
people can discuss will only make that longer. But on the other hand,
I know that other reviewers may see the review and I don't want them
spoiled. (Or people who don't vote but read nominated stories on their
own, like Tari.)

So I don't want to say that people shouldn't say spoilers, but I am
sympathetic. If you think it would help I can write up a FAQ about
spoilers, and suggest that people put up a notice at the top of the
review (within the square brackets used for quotes so it's not counted
toward the total number of characters) that the review contains
spoilers. That way people could decide for themselves whether to
review. The other thing I can suggest is that people use the "hidden"
option for reviews containing spoilers, so they're not visible until
the end of the awards. That won't help people reading outside of an
award year, but it would mean reviewers aren't seeing those spoilers
until after the year's awards is over.

Unfortunately, it's really impossible to police this, but I'm happy to
encourage people to at least warn you that a spoiler's coming. Would
that be helpful?

Marta

On 10/12/07, LizaLlinos@aol.com <LizaLlinos@aol.com> wrote:
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Hi Everyone
>
> I'm filled with admiration for all you organised people who have done so
> many reviews already! Now I am back from our ScotMoot (and once my badsickness
> has cleared up) I shall be making a start on my own.
>
> Could I make one teensy request tho? I don't know if this has been mentioned
> before, but if when reviewing you reiterate part of the story, could
> reviewers please try not to put spoilers into the review? I think this applies
> especially where there is a twist or a surprise ending which is what makes the
> story stand out.
>
> Many people might be drawn to read and review from seeing an existing review
> and having spoilers in them can really water down the impact of the story on
> a new reader.
>
> Hope this is okay to mention.
>
> Cheers
> Liza
>
>

Sympathize with the spoiler point, although I admit I have been quilty a
time or two myself. (Kind of like the New York Times book review--hey, who needs
the book when the reviewer has given me the entire plotline!) I'll try to be
more careful myself. How about a little teaser now and then and not a
fullscale spoiler?



************************************** See what's new at http://www.aol.com


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Hi Marta et al

I know it's hard not to put any spoilers in when reveiwing a story -
in fact probably damn near impossible. And Lin, I think it's fine to
say there's a twist in the tale etc. What I'm referring to is
actually telling readers how the story resolves. Just to say, "Oh I
liked the surprise at the end" is not really giving away what
happens, but there are quite a few reviews that actually give
specific details of how the story ends.

I'd really appreciate it (and I suspect others will too) if
reviewers could either, as Marta suggests, put [SPOILER ALERT] in
brackets or at least try not to give away the the ending, such
as, "they all lived happily ever after" or "they all died in
misery" - you know, the kind of detail that actually makes you
go "Aha!" or "Oh no!" as you read the final paragraph!

Ta muchly!
Liza

--- In MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com, Marta <melayton@...> wrote:
>
> Hi Liza,
>
> Spoilers are always difficult to handle. On the one hand I know how
> hard it is to to write good long reviews, and putting a limit on
what
> people can discuss will only make that longer. But on the other
hand,
> I know that other reviewers may see the review and I don't want
them
> spoiled. (Or people who don't vote but read nominated stories on
their
> own, like Tari.)
>
> So I don't want to say that people shouldn't say spoilers, but I am
> sympathetic. If you think it would help I can write up a FAQ about
> spoilers, and suggest that people put up a notice at the top of the
> review (within the square brackets used for quotes so it's not
counted
> toward the total number of characters) that the review contains
> spoilers. That way people could decide for themselves whether to
> review. The other thing I can suggest is that people use
the "hidden"
> option for reviews containing spoilers, so they're not visible
until
> the end of the awards. That won't help people reading outside of an
> award year, but it would mean reviewers aren't seeing those
spoilers
> until after the year's awards is over.
>
> Unfortunately, it's really impossible to police this, but I'm
happy to
> encourage people to at least warn you that a spoiler's coming.
Would
> that be helpful?
>
> Marta
>
> On 10/12/07, LizaLlinos@... <LizaLlinos@...> wrote:
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > Hi Everyone
> >
> > I'm filled with admiration for all you organised people who
have done so
> > many reviews already! Now I am back from our ScotMoot (and once
my badsickness
> > has cleared up) I shall be making a start on my own.
> >
> > Could I make one teensy request tho? I don't know if this has
been mentioned
> > before, but if when reviewing you reiterate part of the story,
could
> > reviewers please try not to put spoilers into the review? I
think this applies
> > especially where there is a twist or a surprise ending which is
what makes the
> > story stand out.
> >
> > Many people might be drawn to read and review from seeing an
existing review
> > and having spoilers in them can really water down the impact of
the story on
> > a new reader.
> >
> > Hope this is okay to mention.
> >
> > Cheers
> > Liza
> >
> >
>

Hmm, I'm guilty of writing reviews with spoilers. If your whole appreciation
of the story hinges on this spoiler it is difficult to leave it out. I like
the idea to put [spoiler warning] in brackets into the review, when it comes
to that.

Chris

> -----Original Message-----
> From: MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com [mailto:MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com]On
> Behalf Of Marta
> Sent: Friday, October 12, 2007 9:40 AM
> To: MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: Re: [MEFAwards] Spoilers
>
>
> Hi Liza,
>
> Spoilers are always difficult to handle. On the one hand I know how
> hard it is to to write good long reviews, and putting a limit on what
> people can discuss will only make that longer. But on the other hand,
> I know that other reviewers may see the review and I don't want them
> spoiled. (Or people who don't vote but read nominated stories on their
> own, like Tari.)
>
> So I don't want to say that people shouldn't say spoilers, but I am
> sympathetic. If you think it would help I can write up a FAQ about
> spoilers, and suggest that people put up a notice at the top of the
> review (within the square brackets used for quotes so it's not counted
> toward the total number of characters) that the review contains
> spoilers. That way people could decide for themselves whether to
> review. The other thing I can suggest is that people use the "hidden"
> option for reviews containing spoilers, so they're not visible until
> the end of the awards. That won't help people reading outside of an
> award year, but it would mean reviewers aren't seeing those spoilers
> until after the year's awards is over.
>
> Unfortunately, it's really impossible to police this, but I'm happy to
> encourage people to at least warn you that a spoiler's coming. Would
> that be helpful?
>
> Marta

Hi Liza,

> I'd really appreciate it (and I suspect others will too) if
> reviewers could either, as Marta suggests, put [SPOILER ALERT] in
> brackets or at least try not to give away the the ending, such
> as, "they all lived happily ever after" or "they all died in
> misery" - you know, the kind of detail that actually makes you
> go "Aha!" or "Oh no!" as you read the final paragraph!
>

I think that's really the best approach. There should be an FAQ on
spoilers going up in a few days.

Of course, there are loads of reviews this year that have already been
entered. I don't expect members to go and edit all their reviews - that
would be a lot of work! And not even possible for the reviews that are
already finalized. But for new reviews people enter, I think enter a
spoiler warning in [square brackets] is a good policy.

Marta

Chris wrote:

>
>
> Hmm, I'm guilty of writing reviews with spoilers. If your whole appreciation
> of the story hinges on this spoiler it is difficult to leave it out. I like
> the idea to put [spoiler warning] in brackets into the review, when it comes
> to that.
>
> Chris
>

Hi Chris,

FWIW, I often find myself writing spoilers - maybe not for the big
finish, but certainly for plot details. I never thought to put a spoiler
warning in, just because it didn't occur to me. I do think the spoiler
warning is a great idea, and I like the idea of putting a spoiler
warning in. So long as you put it in [square brackets] so it doesn't
count toward the length of your review, I think that will be fine.

But please don't feel obligated to go back and add warnings to the
reviews you've already entered. This is something that's nice to do for
new reviews, but you don't need to go back and fix all the old reviews.
Better to spend the time reviewing *new* stories!

Marta

I have a bunch of reviews I haven�t finalized yet, since I prefer to write
them hidden and then release them a week or so later to make sure they make
sense<g> What's not released yet, can be doctored<g>.

Chris

>
> FWIW, I often find myself writing spoilers - maybe not for the big
> finish, but certainly for plot details. I never thought to put a spoiler
> warning in, just because it didn't occur to me. I do think the spoiler
> warning is a great idea, and I like the idea of putting a spoiler
> warning in. So long as you put it in [square brackets] so it doesn't
> count toward the length of your review, I think that will be fine.
>
> But please don't feel obligated to go back and add warnings to the
> reviews you've already entered. This is something that's nice to do for
> new reviews, but you don't need to go back and fix all the old reviews.
> Better to spend the time reviewing *new* stories!
>
> Marta