Hope for Next Year
<< Thread Modifed December 25 at 11:25PM >>
Here is my wish for the New Year: STOP LYING!!!! My God, some of things I've this year, this month, today have been so poorly written, they look to be written by five-year-olds. And they are given five-star praise by the Top poets and writers on the site. Members who would NEVER post such poor work. NEVER!!! Yet, they not only do call out the many errors and lack of content. They heap praise and false ratings. So, when an honest reviewer comes along, trying to help, we get ridiculed and disbelieved. You are not helping. You are not being nice. You are phony, just collecting money. AND you are hurting those writers who will never improve. You are teachers who gives As for F or D work. SHAME ON YOU ALL.
Have a Merry Christmas.
RE: Hope for Next Year
Happy New Year, lancellot. :)
RE: Hope for Next Year
How about...
If you don't really care about ranking but you DO really care about a proper critique, that you begin (or end) your title with an asterisk or a similar distinguishing mark that might be informally agreed upon e.g.,
*(title)
[or if the system will not tolerate a symbol then some combination of letters]
...so that the reviewer can do their job properly, knowing that their thoughts are welcomed and that they will not be struck down by a Bolt of Righteousness from the armed wing of the Hard of Thinking contingent.
A writer need not mark every work - just the ones they want to be properly considered.
Something like that.
Ideally I'd prefer the option of allowing a "no-star" review; an option that neither adds to nor subtracts from a writer's statistics. I'd certainly review a LOT more work that way.
But whatever, I would like to see 'something' happening in 2024 that makes the writing and the reading more meaningful and halts the sense of it all being a race to the bottom.
nor84
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RE: Hope for Next Year
Once upon a time, and for a short while, I think we had "no star" reviews.
I joined in 2006. At that time, there were on the site several very good reviewers who gave three stars when warranted, with explanations. Somehow, we have gotten away from being a serious writing site and are now a site composed with far fewer prose writers, and even less honest reviewers. It's too bad, but I don't see it changing, so why worry about it? There is nothing we, as individuals, can do except to be sure that in our own reviewing, we use the star system and use it correctly.
I'm sorry the site has allowed these changes to occur, but it is beyond the efforts of individual members to do much about it when it doesn't seem to bother site administration. It's a waste of time tilting at windmills.
RE: Hope for Next Year
...that's the spirit!
RE: Hope for Next Year
It's called 'integrity'
RE: Hope for Next Year
Yes, integrity takes a back seat to vanity, and that also is a growing problem. Years ago, phony reviews weren't so widespread, we understood we were all amateurs, and valued learning from our mistakes, shortcomings, and sloppiness. Yes, we were rightly called out for rushing things or not making sense, or overusing cliches. We were expected to grow from chapter to chapter.
Before you rose to the top of short stories for actually writing stories, not a series of 300-word non-fiction blurbs about how you went shopping with your cousin and his goldfish... yet again. You would have been roasted.
RE: Hope for Next Year
It's pretty sad when you are accused of being a vulture even with five stars when all you're doing is trying to keep an entry from going into the disqualified bin because the post doesn't comply to the contest "rules". C'est la vie!
RE: Hope for Next Year
Message edited:
I know, Gloria. I actually got a rude reply from someone I tried to warn, that what they posted wasn't right, and they could get disqualified. Basically, I was told I was wrong and a hater, because they had three other reviews from, "Better writers than you." that loved their entry. Well, long story short. They got disqualified. And surprisingly, they wrote me back and apologized. That person couldn't understand why no one else told them the truth.
RE: Hope for Next Year
That was not my experience. I was further threatened by a third person. Despite it all, I will continue to try to keep members out of the disqualified heap by letting them know when their entry is not contest compliant. I want people to win.
But you can see why people don't respond "honestly" when they are attacked for doing so.
RE: Hope for Next Year
Just carry on being honest.
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