Welcome for In-Depth Reviews

Welcome to the "Invalid Item" !

Please don’t be alarmed by all of this, it’s just my way of keeping track of everyone who said they wanted to participate.

The contest is about to start so I’ve moved all my writing over to have access for everyone in this group. I figured that since I have so many items in my port and much of it is under passkeys, this was the easiest and fastest way to prepare everything for everyone taking part.

So, let’s start off…

First, I want to say thank you to all of you and I hope you enjoy your task for this next month.

It all begins tomorrow, June 1st, but I’ll open things up today if you wish to start reading. Remember, reviews need to be posted in the forum for them to count – makes it easier for me than going through over 100 mail messages at the end of the round. Your goal is to make them as in-depth as possible, and you have until midnight June 30th.
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The rules are simple : Review anything and everything of the written word that you can find within my port, and give the most in-depth, helpful and honest reviews on a consistent basis to get the GPs and win the badges.

I have some things in my port that are very rough and probably need lots of work. I have other pieces I’ve tried to edit several times. Everything is up for grabs. Remember even if you can’t find grammatical things wrong, telling about the flow, if it evoked emotions, places that you really loved or really hated, places where more description could be desired – all of this is extremely helpful. So it’s not all about the grammar.

Your Perks for giving me all your insight :

Every person in this contest will receive GPs for each block of 10 reviews that are done, in increasing increments starting at 500 GPs. (ie: 10 reviews 500, 20 reviews 1k, and so on.) That’s not to say that if you really wow me with a review that you won’t get a bonus, because you could.

Everyone who completes at least 10 reviews will be put into a drawing for a free custom made sig. I'll be giving out three custom made sigs to three lucky people via virtual dice at the end of the month.

The person who completes the most in-depth, helpful and honest reviews on a consistent basis will receive a merit badge for reviewing.

The person who finds and reports the most grammatical errors will receive a merit badge for editing. If there is a tie or it becomes too difficult to discern, I will give a second in-depth reviewing badge or another that I feel is fitting instead.

Anyone ambitious enough to review EVERY item in my port (that means every entry in every book and all other items as well - except for what's in the OFF LIMITS section below) will receive a merit badge for reading, a Port Raid by me of 10 items or more, and an addition 5,000 GP's. Granted I’m not trying to tell you don’t try this, only point out that I think it near impossible given that I don’t want fluff reviews and I figure I have well over 100 items that qualify for review within this contest. At least ½ your reviews have to be what I consider to be the standard for a 'general' in-depth review. Remember I'm scoring on a scale of 1 to 5, where 3 is average. This sort of average will generally get you a minimal bonus from the in-depth review group. Since I know several of the members on the committee, I know in general what they look for.

Note that I'm active in a number of different things here on WDC so don't be surprised if you thought you cleaned out one of my folders or book items only to find a new entry or added short story/poem a few days later. I will make a cut-off, anything I add after June 25 won't count as an item you must review if you're going for the 'everything' points listed above. I'll also make them easy to find. Anything I add this month will show up via a link the forum, just above the posts.

Reminders:

This is not a contest trying to find who can tell me the most often how great my stuff is. Please remember, Be Honest!! If you don't like a certain story, tell me that you don't -- just be sure to tell me why. I'm not seeking praise here, I seeking honest, insightful and well-thought-out constructive criticism.

You must review a minimum of 10 items in my port to qualify for any GPs, Merit Badges, or the sig drawning.


Reviews need to be posted to this forum to qualify.

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Reviews MUST be at least 250 characters long – the longer the better. I encourage you to make them public. What better incentive to make sure your reviews are in-depth? Remember, you can receive review rewards from anyone who reads your public review. I'm not going to stop you from having access to these extra goodies in return for great reviews! Not to mention, I have enough items in my port that if you really go at it, you WILL make the top 100 for the month!

What's OFF LIMITS
Yeah – you knew there had to be one of those didn't you?

Images are off limits, if you want to review them to get additional daily GPs from the system that's fine, but don't put them in the forum, because frankly – I don't see how anyone can give what I consider an in-depth review of an image. You can say your thoughts & suggestions, but it's an image guys, chances are I'm not going to do anything to it to 'improve' it because it's there for added 'flavor'.


Additional Pointers:

When reviewing a book item – to be able to put multiple reviews into a book (rather than the 2nd/3rd & so on being emails):
At the top of the page you will see your rating score for the item. Next to it is <clear>. If you click on this, it will remove your previous rating and allow you to post another review to the public page. So feel free to do this for each and every chapter if you’d like. It then allows you to give your feel (rating) by chapter giving me an idea of what’s good and what’s not.

When doing a book chapter put at the top of your review the name of the book & the chapter #. Some of the stuff I haven’t looked at for awhile so I have a hard time pinpointing right away when I read your reviews – this will just help me to mark down what exactly you’ve done.

Remember the more detail you give the better. Commenting on things that don’t sound right, parts that are confusing for you or parts you loved/hated helps to give more depth and insight even when you can’t find anything grammatical. More detail also means a higher score for you; a possible bonus from me, and possible bonuses from others who read your reviews on the public page.

You might even find yourself lucky and I pop in your port to hit you up with a review or two. No promises though… but it’s a thought. I have commitments to get out of the way first, and then I’ll go perusing the ports to see what I can find.



My final words: Again, I want to thank you for taking the time to do this contest – and I hope that you have fun. I look forward to reading all your reviews and all your thoughts. If something comes up and you end up not being able to participate that's fine. I fully understand that things do happen in the real world. If this is the case, feel free to enter this contest again at a later date by either signing up again, or dropping me a message (either in the forum or by mail) that things have come up but would like to be included for another round at a later date. It by no means puts you under any obligation for a later time. When I get around to the next round, I mail anyone who voiced interest prior, to see if they are still interested.

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