I've noticed that even though Writing Forums emphasizes reviewing there are a lot pieces that go 'unreviewed'. I am trying to understand why, we are in this together, to help eachother improve and to congratulate each other on great pieces or published work. Anyway, that is my rant. I personally try to review at least five pieces a day from both General Fiction and Poetry, because those are my strengths.
There are a number of reasons why pieces go unreviewed. Foremost is time. Many new members drop in, post perfunctory reviews, post their own material, and leave - only dropping long enough to see if they have received praise. This adds to the volume of pieces to be reviewed, but does not add to the reviewers. Next, there are those very same writers. They expect that no one will notice that they treat the review requirement as a nuisance, to be quickly fixed with a short ambiguous sentence. But people do notice, and guess which pieces get passed over. Then there are members who post repeatedly, and hope for detailed reviews for every installment, but do little or no reviewing of others' work. They may get a following, but more often, people concentrate instead on new pieces by members who put effort into reviews. After that, there are a few - thankfully only a few - who have responded in an argumentative or belligerant manner to reviews that aren't 100% gushing with praise. Members who have put time into reviewing those members' works are unlikely to doi so again. Many serious members review what they can, and put thought into their reviews. They can't always keep up with the volume, but they do gain insight from the reviews they attempt. Still, school. work, and life intrudes, and there's never enough time to reveiew everything that gets posted. I guess this is also somewhat of a rant, but it also may explain some of the works that seem to be ignored.
I don't think it is time so much as it is a lack of knowledge. I believe that most people who frequent the forum, while perhaps being good writers themselves, are lacking when in comes to the skills necessary to review the work of another. Like Cog said, there are a lot of people out there who are only interested in praise, not honest criticism.
The purpose of the reviewing requirement, though, is to increase people's knowledge. The more you review, the more you learn to pick out, both in other peoples' work and your own. Just as no one will be a great writer on his or her first attempt, no one gives right on target reviews on the first try. I know that on the forum's actual Reviewing Team, time is the hardest constraint. We are all members with jobs or school, who have offered to be on the front line for reviewing; not because we have any special qualifications, but because we're serious about getting better at it, and about helping other writers improve their writing and reviewing skills.
Also, there are times when members aren't exactly in the best of moods, so at times they don't offer reviews as their bad mood can reflect upon the reviews offered and cause the reviews to be offensive or not very constructive. If you have any pieces that have been unreviewed PLEASE PM A REVIEWER so that we are able to take a look and offer a review. We can't cover ever post in the forum, but with help from members who notify us of unreviewed work, we are more able to make sure that every piece is reviewed .
that is the thing, people have lives outside of the forum aswell, and will only put in as much time as they want to, not how muhc they feel they should. I know personally, I try to review as much as possible, and I feel like. some times I won't review for a few days, then I'll review about 20 peices in one day. If you ever would like a review, send a PM to let me know, or any other reviewer, and more often than not we are ready and willing to help. If you post a peice that is not recieving any attention, ask for it to be reviewed personally. We are trying our best but it takes a joint effort from everyone. Heather EDIT: I would also like to add that in regards for peices going completly unreviewed, I make it my personal duty to make sure in the poetry section at the least that this does not happen, reviewing peices first that have not received any comments yet. I also know a lot of other reviewers do this, making unreviewed peices their priority.
I am pretty new. I don't review things I don't have anything to add to. For example, a lot of fantasy stuff I am just NOT into. It bores me, I don't think there is relevance, etc. Whatever...it's just my personal dislike. So for me to review someone's fantasy work is pointless...I don't really have anything to add. If I do comment on a fantasy or sci fi or whatever piece, it's generally to point out one or two things that really jumped out at me in the writing itself as odd. But overall I tend to stick with the "if you have nothing nice to say, then don't say it at all." When someting comes along that I like, or really hate, basically something that interests me...I try and review it and give a constructive review. Saying I loved it doesn't really help anyone but their ego. So I try and say what I think the strengths are, what IMO are the weaknesses, etc. I tend to stay away from grammer and spelling altogether becuase there are other people on here who do it MUCH better than me. So anyways, thought one of those "newbie" people should add their 2cents.
I am also somewhat of a newbie and the first, honest, pick-it-apart, review which I gave scared the you-know-what out of me. I thought, “Here it comes. A real reviewer is going to read what I just wrote and pone me into the substrate.” I am a grammar freak, so I stick to that. I know that many find having to correct very flawed grammar or punctuation painful to do, but not me. So that’s where I started. I am trying my best to break out of this shell and really talk about the meat of the work as I come to realize that pie fights are a no-no at wf.org. Pie fighting scared out doing any reviews at other forums. I do get that fully irked feeling, though, when I come across the itty bitty fluff review as the first review on a piece of work. I think, “Well, that piece has been ‘reviewed’ and no longer shows a 0 next to it, so a real review for this poor person may be long in coming.” If you are going to be that person who gives a fluff review to satisfy the forum’s requirement to post your own piece, don’t do it to an un-reviewed piece. Please!
