EN World Gamestore - Review Question

[madelf]

Rpgnow has linked Rpg.net reviews last year sometime, if memory serves.

Here, check out my book Synergy Artifacts on rpgnow.com. scroll down to the user reviews.

Notice that under Rpgnow user reviews, there are rpg.net reviews too. The link was made a while ago.

So, if you post on Rpg.net, you are also posting for rpgnow.com.

I don't see anything wrong with it. So there you go.

(this is handled automatically between Rpg.net and rpgnow)

~Le

Huh. I never noticed that.

Still, I see a minor difference between a link to an outside review, and a review reproduced right on the store page. The link at RPGnow actually sends you to a different page (at RPGnet) to read the review. A link to a review is slightly different than incorporating the actual review. A quibble? Perhaps. Either way, I'd also be in support of a reviewer who wanted his reviews removed from RPGnet due to their use by RPGnow. Now, to be clear, I don't think there's anything "wrong with it" or that it's an Evil Thing for either store to use the reviews, I just think the reviewer should have some choice in where their review appears (if it matters to them for whatever reasons of their own), unless they have chosen to give up that choice.

If you try to have your own reviews removed from rpg.net, I would curious to see what they say.

I imagine they'd have them talk to RPGnow. And then it would depend on the rights assigned. Unless RPGnow has the rights to use the reviewers work in that way, there wouldn't be much to say. If RPGnow does have such rights, then the reviewer would be out of luck. Either way it doesn't mean the reviewer can't make the request, or register his displeasure at the way his review is being used.

I'm not sure where you got the impression that my point was "he posted it, therefore he should have expected it to be used by others against his intentions." That was not what I said.

Sorry, I should have been clearer. I was quoting you, but (while responding to you) I was also attempting to explain my own motivation in posting. There was a general tone, from multiple posters, that seemed to say something along the lines of "You posted it online, what did you expect? Of course people are going to use it any way they want to." and it was that tone, rather than any particular post, that I have been trying to address.

You see, I don't think that expectation is valid in a situation like this. The acceptance of people grabbing whatever they want "because it's the internet" is, of course, widespread; and when it's just some guy doing it for personal use, I don't see it as an issue. But when a business starts doing it, then it becomes an issue, and that "of course it'll happen" dismissive-ness is misplaced. It shouldn't be "expected" that a business will do that.

So it was more of an additional comment, or emphasis, than a true disagreement, if that makes any sense (probably doesn't).

 

[Greylock]

Tossing this out there as a "what if", and because it has happened to me...

[First want to point out that I think all reviews intended as reviews are valid for commercial and non-commercial uses.]

I've had a remark I made on this forum regarding a product I once used, with my nom-de-plum attached, placed prominently as a product endorsement. Not a review, but a remark in a post. Pasted right at the intro page of the product. And without my permission or a query from the owner of the "offending" website. It took me forever and an age to get said owner to completely wipe my remarks.

How does this fare in the cut'n paste world? How would others react?

 

[madelf]

How does this fare in the cut'n paste world? How would others react?

I'd react exactly as I have in the case above. If a business is using something you have written, then they need your permission, and they should be getting it in advance if it's in any way possible to contact you. If you ask for it to be removed (and there hasn't been a transfer of rights giving up your control) then they need to remove it ASAP. More or less the same situation for non-business - though I'd be more inclined to not worry about the permission in advance bit (since they're not profiting from the person's work), but they still need to remove it immediately if asked.

 

[TheLe]

Still, I see a minor difference between a link to an outside review, and a review reproduced right on the store page. The link at RPGnow actually sends you to a different page (at RPGnet) to read the review. A link to a review is slightly different than incorporating the actual review. A quibble? Perhaps. Either way, I'd also be in support of a reviewer who wanted his reviews removed from RPGnet due to their use by RPGnow. Now, to be clear, I don't think there's anything "wrong with it" or that it's an Evil Thing for either store to use the reviews, I just think the reviewer should have some choice in where their review appears (if it matters to them for whatever reasons of their own), unless they have chosen to give up that choice.

Definitely a quibble, because the intent is the same. The store itself uses a review that someone wrote who did not inted to have it at the store.

What ENworld and Rpgnow is doing is the same thing. I don't understand how you can object to one and not the other. No matter what the understanding is at rpg.net (I have written some reviews myself), I would argue that 90% of the people submitting reviews there have no idea that it will be linked directly to Rpgnow.com. The reviewer has no choice where it will be displayed (for all you know, rpg.net might link their reviews to porn sites too).

~Le

 

[madelf]

Definitely a quibble, because the intent is the same. The store itself uses a review that someone wrote who did not inted to have it at the store.

What ENworld and Rpgnow is doing is the same thing. I don't understand how you can object to one and not the other. No matter what the understanding is at rpg.net (I have written some reviews myself), I would argue that 90% of the people submitting reviews there have no idea that it will be linked directly to Rpgnow.com. The reviewer has no choice where it will be displayed (for all you know, rpg.net might link their reviews to porn sites too).

~Le

But I don't object to either one.

I don't have a problem with ENWorld Game Store using the reviews and I don't have a problem with RPGnow using the reviews. I just support the right of the guy writing the review to have a say in how it's used, if he chooses. If a condition of posting the review is giving away the right to choose where and how it will be used, then all is good. He already chose.

"I understand and support the guy asking to have his reviews removed," does not equate to, "ENWorld Game Store doesn't have the right to use any of those reviews." Okay? Clear now? I only said the first, not the second.

 

[DaveStebbins]

I agree with madelf that a link to a review on another site seems more professional (to me) than co-opting all the past reviews done for the community and incorporating them into the new web store pages. But that's only because I know that most of the reviews were done before the store was a reality. As time goes on, it won't bother me at all. I haven't looked at enough products to know, are there links to reviews on other sites, or are only local, EN World, reviews considered? Would it be difficult to make it so that I could set a preference to link to reviews instead of having them in-line?

But then, I also see a little irony in the post titled "New Features at the EN World Game Store" being right below the sticky which says "NOTE: e-publishing Forum NOT for Press Releases." I realize the 'new features' post is supposed to be news, but the title reads alot like a publicity note to me.

-Dave

 

[Twin Rose]

But then, I also see a little irony in the post titled "New Features at the EN World Game Store" being right below the sticky which says "NOTE: e-publishing Forum NOT for Press Releases." I realize the 'new features' post is supposed to be news, but the title reads alot like a publicity note to me.

It was actually a query for feedback, just had to make the title exciting. Currently, the "messageboard" link on the store itself comes right to the e-publishing Forum, so it's assumed that anyone visiting the store externally comes to this forum for information.