suggestion

[Thalia-is-Crazy]

Sizeable reviews might be useful and interesting to read,
But I think having shortened versions appear on review pages might encourage shy members with less to say to at least rate and say *SOMETHING* within the 40 word minimum, without feeling like they're not making a valuable enough contribution.

Sure, maybe you big shots don't care about the little people,
But I'm posting this suggestion because even though I've posted a load of short reviews, I've always felt bad about it, sometimes to the point of not wanted to post, simply because other people have much more intelligent things to say.

I feel like I'm too stupid for my opinion to matter because I can't really point out anything new or interesting about the material.

I post anyways, because I'm also too stupid to care.
But not everyone is as stupid as I am,

So to encourage people to speak up (even if it's not six paragraphs)
I think long reviews should be expandable
rather than appearing on review pages whole.
That way contributors won't feel they're taking away from the site by writing a short paragraph about what they love or hate.

The people KeyFrame has to worry about,
the people who post
"OMG so awesome"
or
"OMG teh SUXORZ"
are going to post their single lines regardless of anything, so this won't affect them.

Also it might clean up review pages,
having the minimum number of lines be the max number showing before you click on "read more" or "expand" or whatever.

I don't think longer reviews take away from the content of the site.
They add to it,
but it does make the community seem a bit inaccessible to 'outsiders'

I would know, because....well, I am one. XD

Does that make any sense to anyone but me?

[athena]

hehe, so really what you're saying is we're all too smart for our own good. :)

I'll admit that the sheer quality of the reviews--the breadth and depth of some of them--has astounded me over the years. I wish I could say it was planned, but it has seemed to come together almost by accident... Keyframe seems to attract reviewers that have something truly substantial to say... I would even go so far as to say, moreso even than the big sites like IMDb et al.

So you'll appreciate that it's not exactly a trend I want to mess with...

At the same time, I do recognize how that might seem intimidating to the outsider and I don't think we want that either. Keyframe should feel like an inclusive community and we should be able to do that without sacrificing quality.


Before I say anything more, I'm going to give the floor over to the regulars with the... shall we say, "substantial" reviews... and ask them what they think of your suggestion since it is their reviews that will be the most impacted...

[lupercal]

Sure, maybe you big shots don't care about the little people

Huh? Am I a bigshot? Who doesn't care? How did I get that?


Anyway I do think a minimum word count is a good idea, though I'm not married to 40 words in particular.

imdb has a minimum for its reviews (it also gives the option of a vote with no review), and it's 10 or 15 lines, which is a lot more than 40 words. Actually I think it's somewhat too much. But anyway, I thought from what you wrote in the thread below that you thought the 40 words thing was a good idea.

I mean, how many are forty words? How long is a 40 word review going to look? Well about as long as this paragraph, which as it happens is exactly 40 words in length. So how's that? Not intimidating, surely.

Maybe you could make it 30 words.

That would mean a review could be exactly this long and still satisfy the minimum word count. That has to be ok, doesn't it? Only three lines worth of text.

I mean, hey, this forum post is as long as many of my reviews :) So I don't buy the 'too stupid thing'. In this thread you've articulated a point of view at 300 words length.



I don't think longer reviews take away from the content of the site.
They add to it,
but it does make the community seem a bit inaccessible to 'outsiders'

I would know, because....well, I am one. XD

Does that make any sense to anyone but me?

Yeah, it makes sense. And... I guess I can understand how you feel, because the idea of sort of bringing someone's attention to when their post is getting too long makes ME feel like I'm doing something wrong. So, I don't want to get into any arguments about it if I can help it, but since Athena's asking, I don't like the idea of sort of mentally penalising someone for writing too much (I mean, maybe if they wrote an honours degree or something), and I support the minimum word count (not nescessarily that specific minimum word count, but some sort of minimum).

I just don't think that 40 words or 30 words or whichever is beyond the capacity of anybody who has an opinion on a movie, and I know you're not stupid, so that doesn't fly. I agree that if something has been said before, it's no reason not to say something similar again. For a start, I doubt most people read right down to the bottom of the page; probably just the top few reviews.

I mean, there's no way to tell without trying it, and I'm surprised it makes you feel 'too stupid'. I mean, I assume the prompt would be worded in such a way that it made the writer feel good about expanding their thought son the subject, rather than bad for not writing enough.

Like I said, I don't want to get into a disagreement, but if opinions are wanted, that's mine - and if I upset you in some way with any of this post, it was unintentional.

Loop

(I also don't think you're an 'outsider', but I understabnd that's largely a state of mind, as I've felt like an outsider plenty of places, with no way of measuring whether I actually am)