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Providing the link is easy... no programming nightmare at all. Its been discussed a few times.

There are definitely pros and cons to it.

An author might not wish public reviews associated with their work; while an author can't choose how a reviewer reviews them (public or private), we do feel they should be able to decide if that feedback is directly attached to the work. An author can "hide" a review, which does take it off the public review board... this may be more likely to occur for critical reviews if they are directly attached to work which is a disincentive to people giving that type of helpful feedback.

Also, I have to disagree with the assessment that it is helpful to view prior reviews of a work. For an author to get the best possible feedback, reviewers should give the author their own opinion, without being prejudiced by what another reviewer saw or didn't see.

Authors have a much more firm signal something is wrong or right if multiple reviewers say the same things. The possibility that someone would see a previous reviewer focused on something and then that new reviewer decides they shouldn't focus on the same thing -- even though it may have been something they were naturally drawn to point out -- is a very bad thing.

An author could receive one review saying that the cat in the story should be green, not blue. They may dismiss that as a simple matter of opinion. But if a 2nd, 3rd and 4th reviewer say the same thing (without having seen someone else point it out), the author has to stop and consider the color of the cat is far more important than they saw in their own story.

Or, from the other perspective, if the first reviewer publicly says the cat's color should be green and other reviewers read that, they are artificially focused on the cat -- do we know whether or not the color would have matter had it not been mentioned by another reviewer?

The public review system is a tool to help authors hone and refine their reviewing by seeing how other members review, the types of information and formats they give. It's also a tool for reviewers to be recognized by the community... But, in my humble opinion, each reviewer should review each piece on its own merit and not the reviews that piece has previously received.

Anything is possible. But perhaps more likely than linking public reviews, we'll eventually add a "comment" option that allows a system similar (or identical) to the current blog commenting system that allows authors to have open discussion of their work if they choose... But I think we'll likely keep this separate from the review system.


~~SM

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