Suggestion to Improve Reviews Received

One flaw in the ointment is obvious, Bobbie. This has happened to me on several offings of my own. The first few chapters get quite a few in-line reviews, which is a good thing, pointing out things I should know better to have written down. However, as I progress (and learn from those reviews by not allowing the misteaks to creep into my chopters) there is a receding amount of flaws to point out (hopefully). Thus we have fewer in-line reviews.

There is also a requirement to find 5 points you wish to review in-line. There have been a few times I start out with an in-line review, find less than 5, and cancel out to opt for a normal review of 50 words or more. It never seemed fair to me to make questionable points simply to add up to five.

Like you, if I find a story I wish to follow all the way through, it could very well be that I "catch up" by reading, say, three chapters and then commenting (with 50 words or more) as a regular review of the third chapter instead of in-line.

There was another thread somewhere in this forum with a similar suggestion but I'll be darned if I can find it.

Bill

Just taking a break from unpacking and saw this. Potential changes to the points system was hashed out in great detail about a year ago if I remember correctly. Sol eventually reviewed all the suggestions and felt that most of the suggestions would have added too much coding complexity and may not fix the real problem, which is that people drift off the site for a variety of reasons (life intrudes), some returning much later, others not. For my Connor story, I've only had four people finish the story so far, although a few more are now working their way through it.

Sol did say he was open to the idea of people being able to give each other points as gifts. That would allow me to put up a story and tell potential readers that I'll give them, say, ten points for every tenth chapter they finish, or in your case, you could offer fifty points if they read the whole thing. Of course, those points would have to come from your own stash, and not everyone has as many points as us old-timers.

A potential solution to the latter problem is to allow members to buy points (for cold hard cash) to gift to others on the site. I think it could add a little revenue for the site, and if someone is serious about getting their novels workshopped, then one would think they'd be willing to spend a few bucks to give points to their best reviewers. I'd gladly spend $10-$20 per reviewer to give points to each of my best reviewers who finish the book. This was one of the suggestions that Sol considered back during our previous discussion on the topic.

I still think a few minor points system enhancements like those mentioned above could have an impact in keeping reviewers, so I definitely recommend continuing to push for some since it's a pain point for most people on the site, although not everyone agrees if those changes would work.

Of course, we won't know if we don't try some of them, especially the easier ones.

I return now to my boxes and box cutters. And, Bobbie, I will review you as soon as I return to the site on a regular basis. I don't want to fall behind.

Dirk

I like the idea of gifting points. I think there might be a way to initially test this without complex coding. Let me think through this We did allow people to buy points at one point and it was a relatively successful experiment. Gifting would just take that one step further.

- Sol

I think gifting points is good and would welcome it as an option. However, I can see a potential problem. Say I offer 30 points as a bonus for anyone who reviews all the chapters of my posted book. If I end up with more readers than I have points to cover the bonuses I owe, then I have to default on the offer? Or will there be a way for me to purchase points to gift if I come up short? I personally am sitting on over 900 points at the moment which will last a considerable time if all I'm using them for is posting my own work. But they could go quickly if I offer nice chunks as reward bonuses and a whole lot of people chime in on reviews, expecting to get that bonus when they're done.

Am I over thinking it or is this a potential problem that would need to be addressed before starting a reward program?

Bobbie

I think the best way to gift points is for Sol to do it - for new members. Give them enough points to post a few chapters, then they’re on their own. You get points by reviewing. Duh. And the more you review, besides points accumulated, the more reviewers you get. I’ve posted ten novels here, chapter by chapter, and have over 4000 points, even though the points I got from reviewing a chapter amounted to about 1/5, on the average, what it cost me to post one. That creates the reviewing incentive, and integrity - and reputation as a reviewer - keeps those reviews meaningful to the recipient rather than being fly-bys. Sol could perhaps award more points per review (not sure what algorithm he uses now), to bring that fraction down a bit, but the system has worked for me over the years.