Should there be a Reviews forum?

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Here's my ideal solution to do what's being discussed. Poster makes a post in the review forum. Poster is now the only person who can post in that thread. Upon completion of a post a new thread is created in the main forum labeled a discussion thread. That thread is now appended to the begining and end of each post in the thread in the review forum.

Sound about right?

Yeah, except it's done analog
 
Does the forum software even allow “privately owned” threads?

Not that I'm aware of. And I think that would be a ridiculous hassle for Endless and Apparition to try and set up


But we could do it backwards from what I previously suggested - have a forum no one can post to except mods, and when a review is posted in another forum, we could take just that review and create it as a stand alone post in this forum. bit more work for the mods (though not something I'd personally mind), but it may discourage some people from posting reviews.
 
If you posted your review in a hypothetical review sub forum and your post included a link to a discussion thread on the main board, you'd get all the fun of people telling you you're wrong and keep the review forum clean. Win win.
 
I think negative reviews or partially negative reviews are necessary as long as they can do 2 things:

1. Give specific criticisms, not just crap on the product. Things like 'the psionic combat system makes it very unlikely to do more pt damage than you spend making the attack, making it pointless." not just "this is the crappiest, most ill thought out book ever."
2. Harsh on the product, not the creator. You don't need to bring up aspects of the creator's life are other things they've done that also suck.
Yes this is extremely important. I am perfectly fine with criticism so long as it is a legit issue and not an ad hominem attack. In fact, I would be severely disappointed if criticism were not allowed. Criticism should use clear and specific language instead of vague accusations and hyperbole.

Honestly I don't think see the need for a separate review forum unless Pubbers are banging out multiple reviews a week.
 
I was never a fan of adding more forums if it confused people. Much like the d20 forum RPGnet uses or the “story games” forum el Punjedo uses.

Now if we added a front page with reviews, that’s different. But that’s a whole lotta work. I should define “lotta work”. It’s not a lot of work from a technical aspect. It’d just be something like Wordpress, which is what a lot of blogs use. Where the work comes in is getting a dedicated group of people to post reviews on a timely basis. It’s basically like adding a second staff for the site.
 
I can't imagine a form entitled "Reviews" confusing anyone?

But to cut down on forums it could be combined with the Resources forum....Reviews & Resources
 
I can't imagine a form entitled "Reviews" confusing anyone?

But to cut down on forums it could be combined with the Resources forum....Reviews & Resources
It only would because some people would still post reviews in the main forum.
 
I think this might mean that reviews get a bit more notice and discussion on the site than they otherwise would. On TBP, reviews stand alone in a different part of the site. Each has its own thread to 'discuss this review' but IME these don't generate many posts or much discussion. If they were incorporated into the forums that are already busier--which is what Tristram is talking about, I think--then maybe the reviews would get more attention. Of course, this would require the author of the review to create the linked thread on the other forum on this site.
Exactly. It's not so much that the reviews subforum is a ghetto, but that discussions of reviews so quickly turn into general discussions of the product and maybe it's game line. So you could have a general discussion on the quieter reviews forum... or in the more populated general discussion forum.
My preference would be no rating numbers at all. Read the text of the review.
Yep. If the text isn't enough to help someone make a more informed decision, then the text isn't doing it's job; the purpose of a review isn't to say "buy this" or "don't", it's to tell someone why they might want to consider buying it (Or not).
 
If you're going to force me to disallow replies and aren't going to let me post in the main forum instead, honestly I just won't post any reviews on here. I might be the only one that feels strongly enough about that though.

So instead of having a thread on the main forum, you want to post a thread on the main forum or you wont post any reviews?
 
So instead of having a thread on the main forum, you want to post a thread on the main forum or you wont post any reviews?
Not necessarily. I don't care about location; I care about whether I can have discussion. I don't like the feeling of monologuing into the void. I want the possibility of back and forth. So it's not some big drama thing. Just that if that isn't possible here I think a blog would be a better option for me.

Obviously I'd see how it plays out in practice, but I worry that separating the two is going to make discussion less likely.
 
It is how RPGnet originated.
 
Not necessarily. I don't care about location; I care about whether I can have discussion. I don't like the feeling of monologuing into the void. I want the possibility of back and forth. So it's not some big drama thing. Just that if that isn't possible here I think a blog would be a better option for me.

Obviously I'd see how it plays out in practice, but I worry that separating the two is going to make discussion less likely.
So I see your point. Can I suggest whatever we try people just give it an honest try and see what happens. If a separate discussion thread try it out and see how it works. If a single merged discussion and review combined try it and see if it creates a more distracting environment.
 
What about using a REVIEW tag, like the HOT tag that was implemented? That way reviews could be posted in the main forum, and they could be searched for, found, and discussed, but they wouldn't take up any more "space" than other threads currently do.

That is doable. I can make it so people can tag it themselves.
 
What about using a REVIEW tag, like the HOT tag that was implemented? That way reviews could be posted in the main forum, and they could be searched for, found, and discussed, but they wouldn't take up any more "space" than other threads currently do.


I don't like that at all.
 
So I see your point. Can I suggest whatever we try people just give it an honest try and see what happens. If a separate discussion thread try it out and see how it works. If a single merged discussion and review combined try it and see if it creates a more distracting environment.
That’s a good idea. Make the review forum. When someone posts a review, they create a discussion for it in the Main Forum, maybe using the Review tag like Ladybird suggested, but for the discussion thread, and in their review, they link to the discussion thread.

So we’ll have a place where people can easily find reviews, long reviews won’t get derailed, and we’ll all be able to discuss the reviews freely in the main forum.

Then we see how it goes and adjust from there.

TristramEvans TristramEvans make it so. Use your Zweihander review as an example.
 
Maybe people don’t want to go through all the steps to do that?
 
TristramEvans TristramEvans make it so. Use your Zweihander review as an example.

Ultimately it's Endless's call, but if this is really about people being too lazy to start two threads, then I'd go back to my suggestion that people post reviews in the main forum as normal, but at some point the mods (or just me, if it's really that much of a bother) can create a thread in the reviews forum that just contains the review as a longterm resource.
 
I'd be in favor of this only if you could opt out of it. In the few reviews I wrote over on the TBP, I found it really difficult to settle on a numerical rating, especially for 'style' or however they framed it.

As for some of the other issues, if I understand TristramEvans TristramEvans correctly, the idea would be a separate forum for reviews--and nothing but reviews. Any discussion of the review would happen in a separate, but linked, thread over in the Roleplaying Games or the Board and Miniatures Games forum, depending on what was being reviewed.

I think this might mean that reviews get a bit more notice and discussion on the site than they otherwise would. On TBP, reviews stand alone in a different part of the site. Each has its own thread to 'discuss this review' but IME these don't generate many posts or much discussion. If they were incorporated into the forums that are already busier--which is what Tristram is talking about, I think--then maybe the reviews would get more attention. Of course, this would require the author of the review to create the linked thread on the other forum on this site.

Another viable approach might be to handle the reviews the way that the Gaming Resources forum currently works. That is, the reviewer uploads the critique as a text file and the forum is actually for discussion of the review. The initial post could be the reviewer's capsule summary--maybe with those numerical ratings S Silent Green mentioned--with the link to the full review. That system might not generate a lot of comments or interest in the reviews, though.

As a former music and film writer I detest rating systems, I don't mind if others used one but I'd definitely opt out myself.
 
As a former music and film writer I detest rating systems, I don't mind if others used one but I'd definitely opt out myself.
Likewise. I don't know about you, but when I've had to use one I just write the review and decide on a number that vaguely fits without any thought on the latter.
 
If you're going to force me to disallow replies and aren't going to let me post in the main forum instead, honestly I just won't post any reviews on here. I might be the only one that feels strongly enough about that though.
Your review goes in the Review Forum and the discussion thread in the Main Forum. No one’s talking about disallowing discussion.
 
Your review goes in the Review Forum and the discussion thread in the Main Forum. No one’s talking about disallowing discussion.
In which case people who want to respond to it are going to need to open up a separate thread and cut and paste over there. I'm dubious that will get the same engagement. (And the lack of engagement with TBP reviews is a good example of that).
 
Cut and paste? What? No, there's simply two threads started for the review. Anyone who wants to reply, just replies.
So the review thread would just be automatically duplicated twice? If that's the case, yep, that addresses my concerns. :smile:
 
So the review thread would just be automatically duplicated twice? If that's the case, yep, that addresses my concerns. :smile:

There’s no automatic anything. The person who posts the review has to post another thread in main or someone else does it for them.
 
Would a Latest Review feature, similar to the ones we already have for posts and resources, fix some of the shouting into the void issues? That would keep the latest handful of reviews constantly on front page.
 
Not sure about the value of having a separate review forum when a tag works just as well for anyone doing a search.

Then again, I generally don’t read reviews - I prefer to read discussions about a game as it gives me a better sense where the pain points are and what most people find fun about it.

Though that has its problems, too. Back on TBP, I almost put Skywalker Skywalker on my ignore list because his posts about various RPGs kept selling me on games that I knew my players would probably never get around to wanting to play, but which sounded so cool that I ended up buying them anyway. But I digress.
 
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