I admit I have been rather lax in my duties as a reviewer, I have had a busy schedule the last few weeks getting my first book ready to submit to an editor and I haven't reviewed as much as I should. However a lot of work is posted after I go to bed and by the time I wake up in the morning there are three or four reviews already, if I manage to catch one early then I review it, but if all I'm going to do is repeat what has already been said then there is not really much point. There was no reason to pm me about it too, I am aware of my not reviewing, I am also the member that didn't want stats recorded because I knew my posts would be limited in these few weeks. I work full time and I write full time, and I also do freelance editing on the side, I fit in critiques when I can, you probably noticed that I did two last night, one of yours because you requested it and somebody else's because it was new, it interested me and I got in fairly early. Sometimes I do none but then I'll get a whole heap of reviews done in a single week, I believe I did three a few weeks ago and that was to make up for my lack of activity in the past few weeks.
Obviously there's no problem if people get too busy, but volunteering to be a reviewer carries with it an obligation that you have agreed to. If you can't meet that obligation either don't volunteer, or if you already have, simply step down from the commitment. There's no point having the system if people don't actually do what they've agreed to. You can still review whatever and whenever you like without the reviewer tag, and that's probably a better situation for you. Yes, I PM'd you, very politely, because I was interested in your opinion. I didn't ask you to review my work specifically. I simply suggested that your reviews would be interesting and useful, considering your background. Yes, I noticed you posted two brief 'reviews', but without my prompt I doubt you would have bothered. I also PM'd you because I did not want to name names or point fingers in this thread. You didn't do three 'a few weeks ago.' Excluding those yesterday, you wrote one review over a month ago, and before that it seems the other reviews were written before putting up your own work in the workshop. The timezone thing is simply BS. That sounds harsh but it's true. There are many Australians here. Also, you've been logged in at 2 or 3 am in the past (sadly I'm often up that late), and you don't need to be the first reviewer or the only one. If your review will be similar or make the same points as someone else, so what? Repeating the same criticism is actually very useful, as it solidifies problem areas for the writer. Getting the same feedback from two different reviewers demonstrates that something clearly is a problem. If you really believe there is not much point, then I worry about your understanding of critique. You can also point out the reasons that you agree with another review. If your comment held any weight then all the workshop entries would only need one reply. That's just silly. And, even after all that, if you still don't like repeating an observation, find a piece of work you feel you can constructively respond to. There is no shortage of text in the workshop. The whole point of the review team is to have a group of experienced reviewers actively posting in the workshop and setting a standard for others. It's not to pick and choose when the mood strikes. The rest of the forum members do that. A core team of 'official' reviewers, like the contest admins, need to be constantly active or there is no point in the first place. It's not a vanity title. Unless you just like the pretty yellow banner. You work full time. That's great. And it's fantastic that you're so dedicated to your writing. I'm certain most here would agree that's commendable. I take great interest in your progress journal and am keen to witness your success. I work full time too (as do most people here on the forum), between 40 and 50 hours a week, write, make films, meet friends, look after a junky friend in rehab, edit hiking docos, hike, and sometimes film live bands. Amongst all that and the housework and the two clumsy cats that won't leave me alone and insist on walking on or sleeping across my keyboard, I still manage to post more reviews than you. But that's irrelevant. I didn't volunteer to be a reviewer. I didn't make that commitment. Your busy life means you cannot meet the commitment, that's fine. But don't volunteer to do something you are not able to do. Feel free to post reviews when you can. You don't need a yellow banner for that. And that's my point. And that's my problem. If you can't meet the reviewing obligations, don't be a reviewer. I understand that my position on this is all a bit silly, as who really cares? But I was taught that if I say that I'm going to do something, I have to do it. And if we don't take our commitments seriously on this site, it's just a farce.
If it has one or two responses I will submit a review. I am often reading through all of the pieces, and if it has several critiques I will read and will often add anything extra in a new post, I prefer less posts because it means I can take the hour or so it takes to write a full critique and point out things without repeating things that have been said four, five, six times already. I am getting my schedule back into working order now and I am just starting to get more time for myself, without writing. I can safely say that I can't really write after 9pm or before 5am, I definitely can't critique well. Usually if I'm up so late I'm checking in after watching a late movie and before I head off to bed. I had actually set aside time to to some critiques last night I had the other one I did bookmarked and I went and found some of yours because what I got from your message was me to have a look at your work. I looked back in the reviewer accounting thread and counted up all of my reviews I have done 8 reviews since I joined up at the end of June and it has only been 8 weeks so by my count I have kept up with the quota required by reviewers. And I am actually about to do another one, since I have scored an afternoon off, I am going to review a post I've been wanting to do all week and then I will be going to do some editing for a client before I edit my own book, no writing for me this arvo. Amanda
I'm not sure how productive it'll be to turn this thread into a witchhunt/argument/who did what, the issue has been raised, a few good ideas banded about and people should in theory be working towards correcting that, I think in general it's served its purpose, i've definitely been looking at doing some more.
