Official Reviews

1) Yes, we need separate forums for "Official Reviews" and "Member Reviews." This establishes the line between official site opinion and member opinion.

2) Here's my take on the whole "request" matter: They should send out an open request to all the moderators and administrators. Each of us will read the review (in its entirety), and will decide whether or not the review is substantial and informative enough to be posted as an Official Review (majority rule). Seem's like the best solution. A member posting their review in the "Official Reviews" forums without said review being approved should be strictly prohibited.

If such an organization isn't possible (i.e., all the mods can't get their opinion of the review within the first three days of the request being sent), then we should assign one or two mods with this duty of reviewing the reviews (to expedite the process). I personally prefer the power of the analysis of likely Official Reviews to be in the hands of two or less, especially with the influx of games coming out on a monthly basis.

On the flip side, if we mods seem to like a review that a member has posted in the "Member Reviews" forum, then we can simply notify the author of said review that we would like to feature their review as an official one.

3) Criteria? Well, I can think of a few things... It should be thorough and should be coherent. Grammar is especially important. If we are going to consider these reviews official, they have to look and sound professional like reviews on the larger gaming websites.

When an official review is posted, we should also link to reviews (of the same game relating to the aforementioned official review) posted by members in the review and have a small excerpt from their review, as well as the ratings. This, in effect, would create a sort of "Community Opinion" effect. Also, it allows for more public advertisement of our member reviews if they are mentioned in the same area as the official review. Maybe even a section on the front page listing the latest member reviews. We should try to stress the TouchDS Community as much as possible.

Note that this should apply to ANY review posted as official. It's not limited to member-submitted official reviews.

4) Frequency would be depenant on the amount of games coming out. Generally, if we can have one new review every two weeks or so, we'll be in good shape (although 1 new review every week is optimal). To allow such a frequency, though, we'll need to be dependant on our community as well as ourselves (mods). It's much easier to share the workload amongst a group of people who volunteer rather than being dependant on a few people to review all the games coming out.

This also helps if a member obtains an obscure title that isn't "popular." If they write a member review and it is up to par, we can request to use their review as an official review, seeing as how an obscure title wouldn't be immediately reviewable by the majority of the community (Such as Trauma Centre as opposed to Mario Kart, where only a few to one people/person will have Trauma Centre, and the majority of the members will have Mario Kart).

Sorry to be so lengthy in my recommendations. I just felt that I should get the point (and, in turn, my opinion) across.

[Euan]

OK, so can I now send the review to all the mod members (look at it yourself), and can you please rate if it's good enough to be in the official review section.

I wouldn't exactly describe what I did as "plain wrong", if we are not allowed to do what I did, then we shouldn't be able to post a topic in the official review section. Can I also ask why Chuddy said that we are able to "submit reviews" if you guys are saying that we can't?

Also, to add to your point DSD, I appreciate that your say their should be a mod team - do none of you (like I posted in "improvements"), that by posting in a moderated board where all our topics are checked before they go up that I was getting permission by doing it?

[ShadowMarth]

Your second paragraph:
You can't post there. That's why it doesn't... I think he meant submit to him or a mod, not just try to post them there.

Third:
Sure, but that wasn't your job to decide.

[Euan]

No it wasn't my job to decide, that's why it's t heir job. I posted it for a moderator to check it, they could have easily rejected.

Maybe I'm not allowed to post this, but since you are all claiming I'm breaking rules - Chuddy, the admin, confirmed that you are allowed to submit reviews and there's nothing in the rulebook to suggest that you can't submit a review.

[chuddy_2001uk]

Hey members.

Right, everyone has got this very wrong.

It doesn't say in the rulebooks that members cannot submit reviews straight to the official review page. Therefore Euan had the right to do so, and he did. Allen, I am led to believe, approved the review making us (mormon, DSdude and myself) emmune for any blame.

From now on, I will make sure that at least two members of staff have to approve of the review to make it official until it gets published. Members that I have given a specific task to fulfil will have thier reviews automatically made official.

[touchds]

Originally Posted by chuddy_2001uk

Hey members.

Right, everyone has got this very wrong.

It doesn't say in the rulebooks that members cannot submit reviews straight to the official review page. Therefore Euan had the right to do so, and he did. Allen, I am led to believe, approved the review making us (mormon, DSdude and myself) emmune for any blame.

From now on, I will make sure that at least two members of staff have to approve of the review to make it official until it gets published. Members that I have given a specific task to fulfil will have thier reviews automatically made official.

Yes, lets keep the process the same. Members can submit to the official review forum, and mods/admin can look at it for review there.
The first mod/admin adds a comment like 'Fail' or 'Pass', then whoever the second mod/admin to look at it adds his comment. If that makes two passes then it is approved. If its two fails it gets moved to the members review.

This sound ok?

[Euan]

I think that's a very good idea, guys. It creates more official reviews (possibly) while also hopefully maintaining your high standards.

I also think if you are going to do a fail/pass system, those who fail, without being too harsh, mention what they could do to improve it to make it a pass, which in turn would maybe help the writer, too.

Right OK now that's been cleared up, I apologise to Shadowmarth, didn't mean to get in a big argument but I felt strongly about my case and I'm not trying to change the site beyond my power. I'm putting forward suggestions, just as other people are with suggestions for new boards etc. Although I THINK it will work better, maybe Chuddy and Allen don't, that's up to them. I think I deserve an apology too since in the end, I didn't really do anything wrong.

[ShadowMarth]

Although I don't agree that you did absolutely nothing wrong, I accept your apology, and apologize for arguing like that.

[Euan]

Well yeah, maybe I'm not immune from blame, but technically it wasn't against the rules. Everyone's learnt their lesson, and it seems everyone has been made aware of submitting reviews - get posting, everyone ;)!

[chuddy_2001uk]

...and on a slightly better note, Bignds has stepped up to the challenge of writing a review for American Sk8land DS. I'm making it official.