The Review Club Forum New Rules Please Read

Okay so we're going to try something new. Any comments or questions please feel free to ask.

So we�re going to try something that gives us all a little more flexibility. Here are the new rules.

First the good news. You can review anybody you like and review as little or as much as you like. If you need a week off, take a week off. If you want to review 18 times, please most certainly do so. Instead of operating on a mandatory assignment system, we�re going to move to an incentive system.

The only limitation is that we ask you NOT review a person�s work more than once until you have reviewed everybody at least once.

Instead of a required number of reviews, we request that you keep track of who you�ve reviewed and which piece and submit that information to the admins by NO LATER than NOON on Sunday at the end of the week. Any reviews NOT submitted by NOON on Sunday will NOT BE COUNTED. You can submit them as you do them or all in one document to [email protected] or [email protected].

For the FIRST WEEK of each cycle, once we have received your review information for the week, the admins will tally number of reviews completed and rank the members in order of number of reviews, with the most completed first and least as last. Each member will be assigned a point value based on his or her place in the rankings, with the person that reviewed the most being given the most points, and so down to one point for the person that reviewed the least. If there is a tie the admins will flip a coin or draw names to resolve the tie.

For the subsequent weeks in the cycle we will tally the POINT VALUE of your reviews (not the point value that writerscafe.org gives you, but the point value associated with the people you reviewed), thus creating an incentive to review the highest ranked members first and conversely encouraging members to do more reviews to get to the position where they can take advantage of this incentive system. Again, your reviews are due on Sunday, we will tally and rank, and post the new rankings Sunday night. An example of this process is immediately below.

WEEK ONE:

Person A � 8 reviews.
Person B � 6 reviews.
Person C � 4 reviews.
Person D � 2 reviews.

WEEK TWO:

Person A worth 4 points.
Person B worth 3 points.
Person C worth 2 points.
Person D worth 1 point.

Person A reviews everyone once and gets 6 points.
Person B reviews Person A twice and everyone else once and gets 11 points.
Person C only reviews Person A and gets 4 points.
Person D reviews everyone twice and gets 18 points.

WEEK THREE:

Person D worth 4 points.
Person B worth 3 points.
Person A worth 2 points.
Person C worth 1 point.

Etc.

The quality standard for reviews remains the same. We will spot check review tallies and WILL NOT COUNT reviews that fall below the minimum standard. If you feel a review is substantially below par, please contact one of the admins.

Each cycle is five (5) weeks long. Four (4) of the weeks will follow the process outlined above. After the fourth week, the admins will tally the CUMULATIVE point totals and assign the fifth week to the person with the highest cumulative total during the cycle. That person will be the ONLY person up for review on the 5th week, as an extra incentive for consistent reviewing. We will count raw number of reviews this week to restart the rankings for the following week and strongly encourage everybody to complete at least one review this week as a thank you to the winner for four weeks of hard work.

One more thing. If you want a particular large body of work reviewed (for example you want reviews of your novel sequentially) or if you want a particular story given priority please let us know and we will note that on the list. If you want a novel reviewed, we will continue to put it as the preferred piece on the list UNTIL YOU LET US KNOW OTHERWISE. If you have specific questions or kinds of reviews you want, please put those notes in CAPS in the BODY OF THE POST. We want you all to get the feedback that will help you the most. We�re also going to leave the forum up to you. Please post threads on your own stories if you have additional questions or room for discussion, or simply want to thank the people that have reviewed you (I think most of us need to get back to that). We�re also going to start posting threads on a weekly basis that address particular topics for discussion.

That�s it. It sounds more complicated than it is. Us admins will do most of the work. The most important thing to remember is that the more you review, the more likely you are to be reviewed. By accumulating points through completion of reviews, you put yourself in a position to be a more appealing work to review for others that want a lot of reviews. We rely on you all to make this work, to complete your review tallies, and keep the group running. We think everybody needs a little more flexibility, but, at the same time, want to reward people that work hard and keep everybody helping each other.

THE ADMINS

::confused:: What gives? Was their something wrong with how things were? All these constant changes are getting a little old. I personally liked the review quota. Because one, it insured reviews, and two, It made the writers write. If the problem was getting enough people to participate why not just bring in more peeps to cover the rolling weeks off?

Hmmm...I'm certainly glad it is less complicated than it sounds. I'm about to go out and have a beer and maybe it will clear my head enough to quit scratching it so hard.

If I didn't know better, I'd think a lawyer was involved in drafting this idea. ::smile::

Also, to tag on what Anthony said, I know a couple good reviewers interested in joining our ranks if that helps in any way (or even if it doesn't, I still know them).

Yes, Brent, yes, recommendations are ALWAYS welcome. In fact, given the more flexible format, I want to send out a plea to ALL MEMBERS. We want at least one new member recommendation from each of you, if possible.

And guys, I know, change sucks, is disconcerting at the very least, but this is all a learning experience. Part of the problem is that some people aren't doing reviews always (and that references neither of you). Obviously, if this doesn't work, we'll likely go back to the old plan, but another one of the concerns we're seeing is that members are ONLY doing assigned reviews weekly and the forums are getting kinda quiet. We're a good group and WE KNOW IT. We think that, by taking the pressure off, we might actually get more participation.

But hey, tell us if we're wrong.

-cc

PS -- And what's wrong if a lawyer drafted it, huh? Give me some back up here, Rob....

OK, clarification. Starting this sunday, just review. Each review is worth one point. Keep track of who and what story. Send it to the admins. That's it.

More points = better. Always.

You'll see how the points play out next week. With a concrete example based on the actual group, it should make more sense.

And I want to reiterate, please don't review a member more than once unless you've reviewed all members once. After that, it's a free-for-all.

Let me see if I can break it down.

Next week we''re hoping to have everyone review as many stories as they want to review. For each review you do you get a point.

So by Sunday at noon, you send us an email telling us how many reviews you did. And which ones. So then we give you points at the end of the week. Okay so heres were it gets fun.

The second week and each week in the cycle you get points based off of who you review and how much THEY reviewed. So say Brent did five reviews and that puts him at the top of the heap. If you review Brent you get five points for that review.

So the fifty million dollar question here would be, "Why should I bother reviewing any one but the top person." Well mostly because you can't review the same person until you've reviewed everyone.

The next question would be, "Why bother doing reviews. I mean I can slack off." Okay here comes the cash and prizes question. Because at the end of a four-week cycle if you're at the top of the heap then you get to be the ONLY person reviewed that week. Now that top of the heap is the culmative amount of points you've scored over the past four weeks.

And secondly because I just might give out cash and prizes and you won't know until I do. And I'm not telling. How's that?

I'm sorry, but this is nuts! I understand you want reviewer participation. That is, after all, the entire point of this group. However, I feel like I'm being 'pointed' to death from the main forum already.

I don't slack on reviews that are assigned. I also review for several other groups and I don't have the time or inclination to mail in a report every weekend. It's too much work sifting through the numbers and tracking it all.

Sorry, but there's my two cents worth.

I hope we didn't give anybody the impression that you have to figure out points and rankings etc. All you need to do is keep track of who you've reviewed. The moderators get the joy of doing all the math and rankings. Does that clear things up for you Belle?

-cc

Even with points and all, I don't see how I will be able to do more than 2 or 3 reviews a week. At that pace it'll take me 5 or 6 weeks to review everyone once. Every review I do takes between 1 to 2 hours for me to do. I think the new system sucks salty rocks, big ones with fungus, but I'll give it a shot.

I'm up for giving this a shot.

The admins haven't let me down yet. Considering how much work you all put into this, I know I'm lucky your hours aren't billable.

I've also let a couple of good folks know about our little secret society here and they are supposed to get back to me if they feel like it is something they can commit to. If they are interested, I will pass along their names and you can check out their reviews.

Brent, that's awesome. Thank you, again.

As for the getting through everybody... I want to clarify that as well. That's on a weekly basis. Please only review each person once PER WEEK until you've reviewed everybody (if you do) that week. Once the next week starts, you can re-review somebody or start somewhere different. Otherwise the incentive to review the person that was the best reviewer the previous week doesn't work. Does that make sense?

-cc

Hey everyone! Okay I wanted to add my two cents in. You should all know that this is coming from me and not from the admin group, maybe because they won't agree with me, but most likley because I will word something wrong and offend at least on of you. I hope I don't, and it is an accedent if I do.

First off, I want to appologise to all of you that may be to busy to get that top spot in this new system. Anthony, I know you are a busy man, and Belle that is sure a whole lot of groups to be doing reviews for. I probably wouldn't be able to keep up all of that. With that being said, the reason fo the new system has a lot to do with inconsistant reviews, and since some of you have decided to use this word, how UNFAIR it is for some of the members to work hard, be consistant, and go above and beyond, just to be shorted in their reviews. Yes, this system is made to reward the hard working and not the lazy or busy.

It has been months since I have gotten all of the reviews I was supposed to get. I don't get mad, go on rants, or say poor things about the people who are not doing their share like some have in the past. I just move on.

I think that this might actually require people to not only put in the time they expect everyone else in the group to, but to look at their work. If folks aren't reading it because they now have a choice, well damn maybe you need to take a look at why, and not consider it a point thing but a story thing or a character thing. Christ, we are here to improve our writing, just because I am in this group does not mean that I owe anyone in this group a lick of attention unless they return it.

I guess like anything else you get what you put into it. Anyone who thinks this is a problem should be ashamed of themselves. Nothing is a free ride, and writing is most deffinatly one of those things.

I don't know I have a lot of things I will get to read now that I haven't been assigned to in the past. And i will get credit for the two extra reviews I've been doing for the last few weeks. You guys have benifited from them why can't I?

Well thats my 2 cents. Take what you will.

Gabe

One more clarification on the not reviewing a member more than once limited to the week. While this does give you the option to review the same people every week, we hope you won't do that. Instead, we'll hope you'll take in mind the point value of each member for the week (based on that member's reviewing performance the week before) in deciding who to review. That not only preserves a system of rewards for the people that do the most work, but also helps you accumulate points to rise to the top of the list (and we know that you'd like to be given preferential treatment if you did the work to be one of the top ranked members). Does that make sense?

However, we'll be watching how this actually plays out and eagerly anticipating your comments on how it works, and should allowing who can be reviewed to reset weekly lead to some people getting a disproportionate amount of reviews and others not enough, we'll definitely work on a solution to remedy that situation, perhaps by not reseting who can be reviewed on a weekly basis. Does that make sense? (I can't tell any more if I'm making sense. Brain fried or something. So tell me if I'm talking gibberish, or, worse to many of you, probably, lawyer.)

-cc

Oh, and I wanted to post an example of what the list of reviews should look like. It's really basic and shouldn't require a substantial amount of extra work.

So, for example, this would be what you'd send to me or Cameron:

Julie -- Bent Chapter One.

Belle -- Lady Gwendolyn Chapter 3.

Anthony -- Baton Cramoisi Chapter 1.

THAT'S IT. Just let us know who and what you reviewed. We'll do the rest. In fact, you can even send them as you do them, if that would be easier.

-cc

And as a reminder. If you have a preferred piece for review, please let us know so we can let everybody know that if they're going to review you, to please focus on that.

-cc

Shaking, always shaking those hands of his. Even now look at those wrinkled and sun blackened hands. Do you see those scorched dabs of pigment that looks of fly and roach dung. I cringe I tell you, simply cringe. And he wants to touch me. Oh not in the sicko way but the grandfatherly way, a warm dry grasp on the back of my neck. I don�t want to feel the pull of paper thin and paper dry skin on the youth of my skin. Won�t take it, can�t take, no I won�t. I have to do this you see. I have to stop it. And if he had the senses of his younger years, I believe he would want me to. I�ll do it because I love him. Because those dry scaly hands with hair as thin and colorless as grand daddy spider legs makes me shy and withdrawn. They make me hide you see. They make me find other things to do. And I miss his stories, and his questions. So tonight I tell you, tonight I will free him of those ghastly flat thumbs, and yellow finger nails. Tonight I will sever them from his arms. Besides, just think how great the hooks will look like for Halloween.


I�m no fool and neither is he. So it will be swift I tell you, swift and final. And yes I have the apparatus that will sever his grotesque limbs at the wrist. It rests now at the foot of my bed under a camouflage of dingy and dirty clothes. The dirtiest and smelliest I could find. Those keep the prying hands and eyes of Mother away. I fist thought of various saws and power tools. Too noisy or too slow those things. But yes, what I have will work, I�m sure of it. Blood you ask? Hah, no worries there, that too has been handled� no pun intended. Oh how I love my Google. The things stroking fingers can find out will leave you flabbergasted.


Please, I somberly beg of you, don�t think of me as mad. I may be only twelve but I know both his years and mine with him are limited. This act, this act of ridding the hideously twisted roadblock that keeps us separated, is needed. Needed so the precious few dying years of his are not wasted, not squandered by my timid stomach. I would gut myself if I could. I need his words of wisdom you see, his guidance, oh God I need so much.


Christ look! He rises. Do you not see the wrinkled rings around knots of knuckles? How misshapen they are. They look of arthritic dice don�t they? They throw nothing but snake eye�s I tell you-- worthless. Oh and look how the veins move, slither reptile like, under the fineness of his skin. Ughh, the color. I know, like infectious snot. So you see I�m not mad. Justified am I. So tonight, tonight I will do the deed.

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Confused... oh so confused....

-cc

::biggrin:: haha.. yea

I was going to reply to something that was said and then I started thinking of Poe. I've been listen to an audio book of short stories of his at work, and before I knew it I had half of a short story written in the reply box so I posted it. But that is what we are here for to write and read. Sorry for the spam ::drool::

Meh. It was cool spam, I was just a little unsure if I was supposed to be looking for hidden subtext.

-cc

Quote:


Nope but I'm sure you found a lot of edits. Whew, nasty the stuff I first write.