Let's Fix It: Attention Tom
Follow up article to reviews for prose.44 total reviews
Comment from Jay Squires
The novelists can take advantage of any improvements with their prologue and first chapter. [It would be unfair to discriminate against novelists. What do you mean a novelist can take advantage of any improvements with his prologue and first chapter? There are a set of skills advanced in the writing of a novel that won't come close to being developed until after several chapters have been written. Let the novelist (I am one) work with the limitations of continuity between chapters, but don't suggest that FS should offer better or more incentives for the short works or for poetry.
Other than the above, your article makes sense. I'll check out the forum and see what others are saying.
reply by the author on 03-Aug-2014
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The novelists can take advantage of any improvements with their prologue and first chapter. [It would be unfair to discriminate against novelists. What do you mean a novelist can take advantage of any improvements with his prologue and first chapter? There are a set of skills advanced in the writing of a novel that won't come close to being developed until after several chapters have been written. Let the novelist (I am one) work with the limitations of continuity between chapters, but don't suggest that FS should offer better or more incentives for the short works or for poetry.
Other than the above, your article makes sense. I'll check out the forum and see what others are saying.
Comment Written 03-Aug-2014
reply by the author on 03-Aug-2014
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I hate that part of the piece as much as you do. I had a lot more nonsense that went with it that I just cut out because it went nowhere too. Just a lot of explanation as to why it is hard for a novelist to get reviews with no solutions at all. I write novels too and I must admit that this is the most difficult area to come up with ideas for. I like the idea of having our novels available in a kindle format for people to catch up on. But, when you run across an author that interests you and they are thirty chapters in, what do you do. I'm already hopelessly buried. To be honest, on a personal level, I am more interested in getting more reviews for my books than anything else. That for me is the most frustrating thing here. But, I see the rest of it as a start I suppose and hope that it will also aid us novelists as well. Anything that occurs to you, I am all ears. Thanks for catching that. It does stand out! mikey
Comment from kiwijenny
I so agree because I am writing a novel...I hate promoting it and getting no reviews.......because haiku poems pay the same....I am guilty of preferring the short review for the same amount of money .....fake or not it is money
God bless
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I so agree because I am writing a novel...I hate promoting it and getting no reviews.......because haiku poems pay the same....I am guilty of preferring the short review for the same amount of money .....fake or not it is money
God bless
Comment Written 03-Aug-2014
Comment from Erik McGinley
You're an ass! (Not lambast there but you don't watch the people I think)
You can't expect anyone or everyone here to give a quantitive review of prose and then penalise them for not doing so.
Personally I am just not that great at outright objective review but I do my best to review the stuff I 'get something from' on a qualitative basis.
I could review anything on this site with accuracy wrt grammar, quality etc, but I review for fun and to pass on my compliments to the people who really catch my interest.
Sometimes I review typos, grammar and style. I suspect the rest of us do tour best to do the same. Don't try to make us professional boredom freaks analysing grammar. FS will lose it's niche that way.
You do have a point on the lesser percentage for reviewers on rating prose of 2k words compared to some Haiku crap.
I'd rather read the 2k words than the 5-7-5 that bore me with its syllable count and vapid thought process.
Those 2k works take more time. Why not make it a proportional word count based rating on prose?
For more words, maybe you start at a higher start point for initial placing in the list but then you have to pay more for each bump up the list and also get a bigger bump the list?
Say you start at position 70 and a poem would start at the same place. The poem has 20 lines and your prose has 100. You have to pay 5 times more to bump yourself once, but you bump yourself 5 times further?
That said, doesn't prose already have a longer promotion time than a poem? I never really look. But I think it seemed like that at times.
Your essay on this is great reading and I obviously thought I would throw in my tuppence worth. Not that its worth a lot. But you did get my interest and I think you picked an interesting subject.
Rated 5 for excellent discursive writing. Now pick a non local subject so I can rate you 6 ;)
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You're an ass! (Not lambast there but you don't watch the people I think)
You can't expect anyone or everyone here to give a quantitive review of prose and then penalise them for not doing so.
Personally I am just not that great at outright objective review but I do my best to review the stuff I 'get something from' on a qualitative basis.
I could review anything on this site with accuracy wrt grammar, quality etc, but I review for fun and to pass on my compliments to the people who really catch my interest.
Sometimes I review typos, grammar and style. I suspect the rest of us do tour best to do the same. Don't try to make us professional boredom freaks analysing grammar. FS will lose it's niche that way.
You do have a point on the lesser percentage for reviewers on rating prose of 2k words compared to some Haiku crap.
I'd rather read the 2k words than the 5-7-5 that bore me with its syllable count and vapid thought process.
Those 2k works take more time. Why not make it a proportional word count based rating on prose?
For more words, maybe you start at a higher start point for initial placing in the list but then you have to pay more for each bump up the list and also get a bigger bump the list?
Say you start at position 70 and a poem would start at the same place. The poem has 20 lines and your prose has 100. You have to pay 5 times more to bump yourself once, but you bump yourself 5 times further?
That said, doesn't prose already have a longer promotion time than a poem? I never really look. But I think it seemed like that at times.
Your essay on this is great reading and I obviously thought I would throw in my tuppence worth. Not that its worth a lot. But you did get my interest and I think you picked an interesting subject.
Rated 5 for excellent discursive writing. Now pick a non local subject so I can rate you 6 ;)
Comment Written 03-Aug-2014
Comment from Drew Delaney
Way to go, Mike. I agree with you wholeheartedly. We all want to post and be read, and helped I might add. That is what we are here for. I did respond to your post. Thanks for attempting to make this site a better place for the prose people.
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Way to go, Mike. I agree with you wholeheartedly. We all want to post and be read, and helped I might add. That is what we are here for. I did respond to your post. Thanks for attempting to make this site a better place for the prose people.
Comment Written 03-Aug-2014
Comment from seaglass
This is some interesting brainstorming. It does make sense to reward more for reading more. The stupid haikus equal my 900 words. Then of course it's hard to come up with enough word for haiku as it requires more words to review it than are in the haiku in the first place. We'll be waiting to see if Tom addresses this.
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This is some interesting brainstorming. It does make sense to reward more for reading more. The stupid haikus equal my 900 words. Then of course it's hard to come up with enough word for haiku as it requires more words to review it than are in the haiku in the first place. We'll be waiting to see if Tom addresses this.
Comment Written 03-Aug-2014
Comment from Spitfire
Phew! My head is spinning. My personal reaction is to prose pieces short (no more than 1200 words) and feed them to readers in chunks. That gives the reader more money and the writer will get twice an many reviews. Both sides get rewarded that way.
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Phew! My head is spinning. My personal reaction is to prose pieces short (no more than 1200 words) and feed them to readers in chunks. That gives the reader more money and the writer will get twice an many reviews. Both sides get rewarded that way.
Comment Written 03-Aug-2014
Comment from l.raven
Hey you, so glad your net is back....I do agree the stories should pay more....than the poems....more goes into a story written...and I agree with some of your other ideas...I think Tom pays attention...a lot to look at in here...some great ideas...very well thought of...and very well written...Luff Linda xxoo love
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Hey you, so glad your net is back....I do agree the stories should pay more....than the poems....more goes into a story written...and I agree with some of your other ideas...I think Tom pays attention...a lot to look at in here...some great ideas...very well thought of...and very well written...Luff Linda xxoo love
Comment Written 03-Aug-2014
Comment from w.j.debi
Kudos to you for trying to improve the system. Case in point--I just reviewed a haiku that pays the same as this essay. LOL.
Perhaps on the novels and the other prose, even when not posted they could pay a bit more than one point and two cents. I hate to admit it, but sometimes I go back into someone's portfolio to catch up--especially novels--and read the inactive chapters but don't stop to write a review. I just want to make sure I have the details for when I get to the active chapter. And maybe the prose could be active a little longer. I tend to read it only on weekends when I have more time so if it posts during the week, I miss it and have to catch up.
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Kudos to you for trying to improve the system. Case in point--I just reviewed a haiku that pays the same as this essay. LOL.
Perhaps on the novels and the other prose, even when not posted they could pay a bit more than one point and two cents. I hate to admit it, but sometimes I go back into someone's portfolio to catch up--especially novels--and read the inactive chapters but don't stop to write a review. I just want to make sure I have the details for when I get to the active chapter. And maybe the prose could be active a little longer. I tend to read it only on weekends when I have more time so if it posts during the week, I miss it and have to catch up.
Comment Written 03-Aug-2014
Comment from Linda Engel
Read this with excitement. Understand the frustration. My point is still reviewing the contests, it takes a lot of time to read each entry. I hope Tom and the committee read and consider the changes members are proposing. Well written, and well expressed.
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Read this with excitement. Understand the frustration. My point is still reviewing the contests, it takes a lot of time to read each entry. I hope Tom and the committee read and consider the changes members are proposing. Well written, and well expressed.
Comment Written 03-Aug-2014
Comment from maggieadams
Thanks, Michael, we all need to speak up...thanks for getting us started. I like the proposals. I agree, too, that there is a wide disparity in reviews, too, and hope that we can deal comprehensively with improving "our" site.
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Thanks, Michael, we all need to speak up...thanks for getting us started. I like the proposals. I agree, too, that there is a wide disparity in reviews, too, and hope that we can deal comprehensively with improving "our" site.
Comment Written 03-Aug-2014
