Rewarding extra points to the best reviewers?

Hey, Sol!

We were able to buy credits with the previous site. Has that been done did away with?

Also, regarding Norm's comment above, there might be another way to reward authors who attract reviews through their brilliant writing. What if, for every review, they get a percentage of their credits back? This is regarding the credits it takes to publish. Say, each review garners the author a refund 10%. Thus, ten reviews and the author recoups the cost of posting. I hardly ever see ten reviews on my own stuff, but even a little back in my account would help tremendously (for me, anyway; I can hardly keep a credit in my account, but as a result some of my posts earn a reviewer over 5 credits!). And this way the author earns the credits, so it's all on him or her. Unless the author has a large following, this would still require reviews to get credits to post, preserving the site's original idea. And of course you can always limit the amount of credits back to the cost of publishing.

Just a thought.

Time ago, I also suggested that points can be transferred from one author to another, which is exactly what is proposed lines above by "donating" points to one's best reviews. The groups in our competitor site, Scribophile, use to organise contests where points are the prize. You pay your entrance fee with points (which are used for the prize). I like the idea of contests within groups just for the fun of it, aside from the contests Sol organises with cash prizes. I like the idea of giving points as prize because, while some authors have a good deal of them, others are short, mainly if one is publishing new chapters or more than one story at a time.

But... alas! Points cannot be transferred.

Kiss,

Gacela

I really see no benefit to donating points within the current system, but should you wish to give them away it's a pretty simple procedure without changing the format of tnbw. Simply post stories with the maximum word and credit levels and tell those you wish to reward to simply paste in a review requiring no effort and grab the points. You don't even have to use real stories, just post a bunch of gibberish or copy and paste something to create the credit potential. Oh, but then anybody could grab the points that way you say; true, but they can grab points that way regardless of any invitation if that is their inclination.

But I do have a question as to why one would want to encourage folks to accept donated points and thereby deprive them of the secondary benefit of reviewing to gain points to publish their own works. Isn't that the whole purpose of the system? You improve your writing by reviewing and your writing improves hopefully by being reviewed. The two work hand in hand. As it is, you must review about four works of equal length to the one you publish to gain the points to publish; a sensible ratio it seems to create reviews for a broad spectrum and still make it quite easy to gain the points to publish.

It is obviously quite easy to gain points to publish and create an excess or else all these points wouldn't be available to donate or sell as the case might be. Yes, it does take time to do the reviews, but not nearly as much time as it takes to create the story to publish and it seems logical that giving away free points would diminish the total pool of reviewers for that greater effort. I mean why review if you get the points for free even if for past efforts. Giving away points lessens the value of the reviewer as well as the incentive of the reviewer in my opinion. The more appropriate response to reward a good reviewer would be to give them more reviews than you receive since that is the ultimate goal of authors on this site, to get reviews to improve their work.

Well, that's my free points. And yes, I have more than I'll probably ever use also, but wouldn't want to deprive others of the education and relationships from whence they came. Take care. Vern

I agree that merely donating points can become problematic. That's why I suggested the alternative. That way it's not dependent on an exchange- it's just rewarding an author when things are done the normal way here. For authors like me, some of my posts require over twenty credits. I can hardly keep credits in my account. The reward for reviewing some of my posts are substantial sometimes. I rarely see other postings with such substantial credit rewards for the time and effort involved in a review (and people who get my reviews know I do spend time on them). I just think writing material that attracts a good core of reviewers should reward the author in some small way. Particular authors like me who can't hardly keep a credit in my bank. (How the hell do so many of you accumulate hundreds of credits? How many reviews do you do an hour?)

Perhaps for novel publishings, if a reviewer reviews each submission, then maybe there can be an exchange perhaps. A reward for 'sticking through it all'. I'd be happy to go for something like that. Of course, I ain't got doodly in my credit bank, so rewards from me might be slow in being doled out.

Also, anyone know of a way to run a search on posts using the credit reward? If not, then, Sol, is there a way to make the credit reward for a review visible in the list of material for review? That way those of us pressed for time can find credit-rich posts? It still takes time and attention to review those, of course, but sometimes I'm just 1.5 credits from publishing and need just one more review to get that. Be nice to see at a glance possible candidates, rather than having to click on the item to check. I'd rather do one 1.5 credit review, than two .8 reviews, when I'm pressed for time.

Post shorter chapters? What are you, mad? Nay, I say! Nay!

Actually, if I write the next story I have in mind, the chapters will definitely be shorter. Just the nature of the beast, I think. Reviewers who have read them long chapters have said they were long, but they couldn't really find places to cut. Just have to say what I needs to say.

Anyway, taking a break for a bit. Will still do reviews (and maybe build up a pile o' creds) but won't be posting for a while. And I'll be traveling soon, so I may not be on the site for a few days, either.

And... four thousand? WTF! You should post a trilogy and see if you can without doing a single review to fund it.

I've been here since 2008, Dags. That helps!

I've got 1300.  My publishing has slowed as I learn of more skills that I need to learn, and I'm way behind on reviews, too.  But at some point I'm going to need those points, x3.

I've posted 8 novels on TNBW and am working on my ninth, so it's not for the lack of posting I've accumulated the points. 

What helped me collect points when I first joined TNBW was reading whole novels. If you don't mind me suggesting this, find a novel you like on here, there are lots to choose from, and read and review the whole thing.
It also helps to have a reviewing relationship with people, they review you, you review them.
Hope this helps.