Hi guys
Because things have got busy for Marta in RL, I've taken over making the
regular admin announcements. This week, I'd like to make a couple of
points about responding to reviews.
Firstly, due to popular demand, we've given authors an easier way to
reply to their reviews this year. If you're an author, you'll see a link
beside each of the reviews left on your story when you're logged in to
the MEFA website. Clicking that link will open up a pop-up window that
will give you instructions for how to reply to reviews:
* Create a new email, either by clicking on the link in the instructions
if your email program supports that, or by manually creating a new email
in your email program.
* If you used the link, the email will already be addressed correctly
and the subject line will be filled out with the information we need to
forward the email to the reviewer. Otherwise, copy the address
(
mefareviews@gmail.com) and subject line given in the pop-up window into
your email.
* Write your response to the review and email it to the given address.
* The email will be sent to a volunteer who will skim it to check its
not a spam or a flame. If everything's kosher, the volunteer will
forward it on to the reviewer.
You /must/ include the subject line given in the pop-up window in the
subject line of your email to enable us to forward your response to the
right reviewer.
Marta was handling forwarding of reviews but has also had to step back
from doing this. PipMer, with Elea acting as a backup, have kindly
offered to take over the task our thanks to both of them for taking
this on! As part of the change, we've set up a new email address
(
mefareviews@gmail.com) where the pop-up instructions on the website
will now direct you to send your response.
When your response is forwarded on, the reviewer will see your email
address so they can reply back (if they choose to do so). We don't give
reviewers' email addresses to authors because we take member privacy
seriously, but if reviewers choose to reply back, obviously authors will
get their email address from them.
Secondly, authors who receive reviews can sometimes feel a sense of
obligation towards reviewers and as if they need to "repay" or thank
them by reviewing their stories in turn. But there's no requirement for
authors to "return the favor" by reviewing any other story in the
awards. (In fact, statistics from previous years show we typically have
only half as many reviewers as authors, so at least half of our authors
don't ever review.)
Of course we want as many people as possible to leave as many reviews as
possible! But you certainly shouldn't feel you need to review any
particular story because its author left you a review. As reviews are
the basis on which the awards are "judged", the only reason you should
leave a review is because of the story's qualities, not because you like
or feel gratitude towards the author.
If you do want to to show your thanks to a particular reviewer, you can
use the "reply to reviewer" feature described above instead
*******
Helpful FAQs
--- Someone left me a review, and I'd like to reply to it. How do I do
this?
http://mefawards.net/MEFA2008/index.php?page=FAQvoting#vot_20
--- How are reviews scored?
http://mefawards.net/MEFA2008/index.php?page=FAQvoting#vot_11
*******
Thanks,
Tanaqui
(MEFA Tech Support)