Encouraging folks to do more reviews

[Brottor Dankil]

As a writer of d20 products, I'm interested in hearing what people think about the stuff I write, and more interested in having word circulate when I do good work, so more people will buy the books I've written. I'm sure other authors and publishers feel the same. From my own recent work, there aren't any official reviews on either Chainmail Biknis or Lyceian Arcana. I've gotten feedback on the boards, but if someone's interested in either book, I'd like him or her to be able to see a full review.

So I'm curious, what can publishers do to encourage to folks to write reviews? In the past I tried contests, where the first 5 people to review a book would get a free copy of another product, but a few posters suggested that was unethical, since it would encourage people to write reviews without fully considering the product, and that it seemed like bribery.

Do you have any suggestions? Does anyone feel a hankering to go out and do some reviews?

If the review page was a little more user friendly, more people would WRITE reviews and more people would READ reviews. Just trying to find the product you're looking for is difficult. There are literally thousands of reviews to search through. Many times the product data is entered in an obscure way. A more standardized method of entering basic information (title, product name, product type, company name, publisher, ect.) would help. Or maybe that data needs to be "moderated" so that it gets entered correctly. I'm not saying audit the review, just the search info.

For example, try to find the reviews for Tact-Tiles by BC Product (its an accessory not a book, but the example still fits). Go to the search and type in "Tact-Tiles". Nada. You can try a bunch of different spellings for Tact-Tiles. Nada. The only way you could find it is to already know a lot about the product, in this case you would have to know the PART NUMBER ( TTK-002 ). But that defeats the purpose of the review, to have to already know a lot about the product to find the product on the review page.

Also, a process needs to be developed to change/update the search information. I've tried emailing, but I didn't get a response after two attempts so I gave up. I was going to WRITE a review to add to the reviews of others, but what was the point when nobody could find it.

-Brottor

 

[Psion]

I have no recollections of removing any of Diaglo's reviews, or having seen any by him, or heard of any other moderator removing such a review, so I can't defend such a decision.

It's standing policy on the reviews page to notify the writer to make corrections within 24 hours in the comments section; I have always adhered to this standard since its instantiation. We had no means of emailing you on the old pages so it was your responsibility to check back.

Common reasons for removing reviews are insufficient length (I think Russ said he wanted to see 300 words minimum), saying nothing substantial about the product, or using the reviews as a platform for airing personal greivances, or expressed intent to "overcompensate" for a review you disagree with. I do not apologize for any of these reasons and feel they are expedient to maintain the quality of the reviews page.

Having a staff reviewer disagree with you has never been a reason to remove a review. Trust me.

Also, there have been technical issues that have necessitated removal of reviews from the page. Sometimes a hiccup created duplicate reviews and removing them without removing the originals was iffy on the old page, and if you had reviews under the old system under a name that did not map to an ENWorld user name, there is a good chance that it got stripped off in the translation. In some of these cases, it was possible to contact the author and let them repost it, in some cases it was not.

 

[Crothian]

To be perfectly honest, Crothian, I don't think you can help with any of the reasons given in this thread...

I do what I can, I can't solve all the problems here but I have solved some.

 

[pogre]

When you go into a product's page (not a review's page), there is a little link/button below the descriptive blurb and existing reviews for "New Review". I think you won't see it if you are not logged on.
You can't review a product that doesn't have a page yet - a product that isn't in the database. For that you need to ask in Meta for the Powers That Be to enter it into the database. (I asked in general, that works too...)

Edit: The intro & FAQ for the review section could be improved. For that matter, so can the search and the scoring. It used to work fine

Thanks for the heads up!

 

[pogre]

Is there any problem with reviewing older products? I know they are not quite as valuable, but it would give me a chance to hone my reviewing skills.

 

[Crothian]

Is there any problem with reviewing older products? I know they are not quite as valuable, but it would give me a chance to hone my reviewing skills.

None whatso ever. I occasionally will whip up a review on a book I've been using for years. It is actualyl easier to write these reviews since I've been using the book in game, and really know it a lot better through years of use.

 

[Mark]

Writing reviews is hard work, especially at a site like EN World where short reviews are not really allowed in the main database; and then on top of that if you have an unpopular view of the work you'll get slapped around by everyone who doesn't agree with you. So to me the real question is "why would anyone do it in the first place?" I'm glad someone's got more guts and gumption than me or there would be no reviews to read!

Sell it, Baby! Sell it!

 

[Master of the Game]

A little shameless plug:

As I meantioned earlier, this thread has lit a fire under me, and encouraged me to write reviews myself. I've used reviews for years now to help me pick the products that I buy, and because of them I have picked up a lot of great products that I might have otherwise missed, but it never occured to me how much some writers may look forward to reviews as well. So last night I sat down and wrote my first review and posted it here a few minutes ago.

I chose to review my most recent purchase because it was fresh on my mind, but I will be doing more as time allows. If anyone is interested, and sees my review, please let me know what you think of the format I used, and let me know if I missed anything.

 

[Crothian]

I chose to review my most recent purchase because it was fresh on my mind, but I will be doing more as time allows. If anyone is interested, and sees my review, please let me know what you think of the format I used, and let me know if I missed anything.

Its a good review, thorough and well organized.

 

[Eosin the Red]

If anyone is interested, and sees my review, please let me know what you think of the format I used, and let me know if I missed anything.

Nice. I think there is a written and numerical difference in the review --- that is, reading your review gives me the idea of a 2.5 to 3.5 rating rather than your stated value of 4.5. I don't give much weight to the numbers preferring the actual written review (incidentially, I have had this problem pointed out in my own reviews so maybe I am just projecting ).

Again, really nice. Covered all the majors.