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nod1v1ng View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (3) Thanks(3)   Quote nod1v1ng Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 28 Jul 2020 at 9:33am

As everyone has said, there's always a taper in participation. And for some folks, the very next weekend was screenplay, then the next was micro. So even people who promised to return might be slow if they are busy. Usually, the week or so before the next round there is an upswing of activity again.

If you drop a review on someone who already has 4 pages of comments, it might take them a while to get back to you as well. Most people will start their return reviews from the top. It's easy to do a bunch of micro returns in a day. It's slower for flash--I always read each story twice before commenting, so it take more time. Short story takes even longer!

Leaving reviews for people who are more active in the forums is likely to up the probability of getting a return. The higher number of "points" under a user's name means they are an active user (points correlate to how many posts they have made.)

Getting on the Master List early and having the link to your forum post in your signature help.

Another point - if people are relying on email notifications to let them know they have new reviews, that can be an issue. You'll see a note on the email that says: There may also be other replies, but you will not receive any more notifications until you visit the forum again.

A lot of people miss this and don't log in and then stop getting notifications. Then they show up to the forums a week later and are surprised to find a whole bunch of reviews they didn't know were there! 

Still, bottom line is the more you review the more likely you will find people who will return. Many folks find that the longer they hang around here they find a group of writers who are good at returning, whose work they admire, and whose reviews are helpful and they seek those writers out first....



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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote MuffinMom Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 28 Jul 2020 at 11:21am
Originally posted by DanielleDahl DanielleDahl wrote:

I posted late too and have zero feedback :(
I will definitely review anyone who is so kind as to read mine lol! 

I'll go check yours out, either tonight or tomorrow!
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote MuffinMom Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 28 Jul 2020 at 11:22am
Originally posted by kolohe kolohe wrote:

I do find that there's an initial sort of "feeding frenzy" when everyone is first able to post with a big taper after that. I've generally had very good luck with people returning my reviews, but I end up tending to leave more than I receive (I think on average I do at least 30 reviews for other each round, sometimes more if I can make the time). I've never tracked the exact return rate though.

Now I'm intrigued and am heading to read your flash though! Smile


**EDIT: okay so I got curious and went to look. I  left somewhere in the neighborhood of 55 reviews on other stories for round one of flash, and I've received around 40 reviews on my story. I do have particular forum members whose stories I actively seek out because A) I think they're very talented and like to see what they come up with, and B) I know they're very active on the forums, which boosts the likelihood of getting a response. So that might skew my numbers a little bit.


Thanks for reading mine! I think you're right - being late to the party was part of my problem. I'm looking forward to reading yours!
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote MuffinMom Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 28 Jul 2020 at 11:24am
Originally posted by nod1v1ng nod1v1ng wrote:


As everyone has said, there's always a taper in participation. And for some folks, the very next weekend was screenplay, then the next was micro. So even people who promised to return might be slow if they are busy. Usually, the week or so before the next round there is an upswing of activity again.

If you drop a review on someone who already has 4 pages of comments, it might take them a while to get back to you as well. Most people will start their return reviews from the top. It's easy to do a bunch of micro returns in a day. It's slower for flash--I always read each story twice before commenting, so it take more time. Short story takes even longer!

Leaving reviews for people who are more active in the forums is likely to up the probability of getting a return. The higher number of "points" under a user's name means they are an active user (points correlate to how many posts they have made.)

Getting on the Master List early and having the link to your forum post in your signature help.

Another point - if people are relying on email notifications to let them know they have new reviews, that can be an issue. You'll see a note on the email that says: There may also be other replies, but you will not receive any more notifications until you visit the forum again.

A lot of people miss this and don't log in and then stop getting notifications. Then they show up to the forums a week later and are surprised to find a whole bunch of reviews they didn't know were there! 

Still, bottom line is the more you review the more likely you will find people who will return. Many folks find that the longer they hang around here they find a group of writers who are good at returning, whose work they admire, and whose reviews are helpful and they seek those writers out first....




All great points. I think you're exactly right on every single one of them.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote MuffinMom Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 28 Jul 2020 at 11:25am
Originally posted by sdre017 sdre017 wrote:

I'm happy to reciprocate reads! :)

I'll give yours a read sometime tonight or tomorrow! Looking forward to it.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (2) Thanks(2)   Quote Seacore Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 29 Jul 2020 at 2:02am
I think one factor is this archaic forum build.

There are far more advanced forum builds out there that are more user friendly and intuitive, including methods of prompting users when their story has been reviewed. Yes, some of that functionality exists here, but it's buried and hard to use.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (1) Thanks(1)   Quote jennifer.quail Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 29 Jul 2020 at 9:35am
Originally posted by Seacore Seacore wrote:

I think one factor is this archaic forum build.

There are far more advanced forum builds out there that are more user friendly and intuitive, including methods of prompting users when their story has been reviewed. Yes, some of that functionality exists here, but it's buried and hard to use.

I don't think notifications are a problem (you can do that if you want on this software, not that I ever do on this or any forum as notifications are incredibly annoying) but the search function, coding, and even its ability to handle traffic is laughably archaic. When I started doing this contests the first thing I noticed was "Wow, this is running software I remember websites with forums using back when I was in grad school with dial-up." 
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (2) Thanks(2)   Quote nixie Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 29 Jul 2020 at 2:48pm
Originally posted by Seacore Seacore wrote:

I think one factor is this archaic forum build.

There are far more advanced forum builds out there that are more user friendly and intuitive, including methods of prompting users when their story has been reviewed. Yes, some of that functionality exists here, but it's buried and hard to use.

Free software / get what you pay for.

That said - it's worth remember that we aren't paying for this forum, either - it's a courtesy thing that NYCM provides, and then gives us permanent access to. So - *we're getting what *we paid for too ;)

That said Flarum is out in beta, and i keep hoping... (cuz omg the ability to tag your post with group, challenge, genre, object would eliminate Master Lists forever....)
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote MuffinMom Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 29 Jul 2020 at 6:20pm
Originally posted by DanielleDahl DanielleDahl wrote:

I posted late too and have zero feedback :(
I will definitely review anyone who is so kind as to read mine lol! 

I'm trying to find your story, and I did a search on your username, but I haven't found it. If you can post it to this thread or IM it to me, I'd still love to review it!
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (2) Thanks(2)   Quote Seacore Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 29 Jul 2020 at 8:14pm
Originally posted by nixie nixie wrote:

Originally posted by Seacore Seacore wrote:

I think one factor is this archaic forum build.

There are far more advanced forum builds out there that are more user friendly and intuitive, including methods of prompting users when their story has been reviewed. Yes, some of that functionality exists here, but it's buried and hard to use.

Free software / get what you pay for.

That said - it's worth remember that we aren't paying for this forum, either - it's a courtesy thing that NYCM provides, and then gives us permanent access to. So - *we're getting what *we paid for too ;)

That said Flarum is out in beta, and i keep hoping... (cuz omg the ability to tag your post with group, challenge, genre, object would eliminate Master Lists forever....)

The case that we aren't paying for the forum doesn't hold much water given the expense and size of this competition. A small fraction of the fees could be easily invested into better infrastructure.
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