The Critique Society

[mdk]

So as we've learned from the first gigantic batch of entries for RPGC, sometimes, critiquing can take a lot of effort. Reviews are probably the most important part of this (or almost any) contest, and I'd like to facilitate them a little bit if I can.... now unfortunately I can't make them easier to WRITE, because any effort towards accomplishing that would also take away from the value of the critique. But I thought maybe we could do something to make sure reviews are a little easier to RECEIVE -- and it's a simple method, that requires just a little bit of coordination by readers.

As it stands, by default, we like to read things from the top and work our way down. That puts all the emphasis on the order in which I post things -- whoever is lucky enough to get posted first gets like a dozen critiques, and whoever winds up at the end is left waiting for weeks. I can mix up the order a little but there's only so much I can do -- someone's going to be first, someone's going to be last, that's how text works. If we're going to help writers get more exposure, it can't come from my end -- that's not a problem I'm equipped to fix. We could simply have a few people start from the bottom -- but then the people in the middle become the new class in waiting. And granted -- that's only a big problem if we have a large batch of entries, but I'm kind of hoping that we always have a large batch of entries.

So, what I thought was, what if people who are committed to critiquing had a place to coordinate with each other? Thus, the Critique Society. This thread is meant as a tool to help people who don't have time to write thirty in-depth reviews, to organize, and make sure that their efforts are going to good use. How you approach that is totally up to you -- wanna pair up with someone and alternate even-odd numbers? Maybe you're planning on doing everybody anyway, but you need somebody extra-mean to offset your glowing praise? Perhaps there's one story that you think deserves lots of attention, but you're only comfortable talking about grammar, and you want a plot-specialist to help you offer another perspective? Maybe you just have a certain method of structuring your critiques that you'd like to share, so that it's out in the open and others can use it?

Basically, you can come here and talk about what you're doing on the review front, and team up with other readers to plan your efforts more deliberately. If you want.

[RomanAria]

Well... This would take some work. But it could be doable. Number the entries, say, #1 to #28 like we had in this contest. Group reviewers into teams of four.
Team Member A starts at the top and does odd reviews first, so, #1, #3, #5 and so on. Once those are finished xe does the even reviews in the same pattern.
Team Member B starts at the bottom and does odd reviews first, so #27, #25, #23 and so on. Once those are finished xe does the even reviews in the same pattern.
Team Member C starts at the top and does evens first, #2, #4, #6... Then does the odd reviews in the same pattern.
Team Member D starts at the bottom and does evens first, #28, #26, #24... And then does the odd reviews in the same pattern.
Thus, every reviewer only needs to do seven entries for each person to get a review, and that can be done in one or two sittings with minimal stress. And each contestant will ultimately get four reviews.
Just a thought. It's a bit late to implement for this contest, but I'd be down for doing it with the other people who are operating #2.

[Ellri]

Not really sure about the best way to solve this particular quandary, but perhaps having each contest last a shorter time before vote would result in slightly fewer entries per contest? While it is only lovely to have a flood of entries for a contest, it is harder to finish one contest with such numbers.

Alternatively, one could have each contest operate in "rounds"... Say, ten entries per round. If a theme is especially popular, you have more rounds for it, say up to three or four rounds. Perhaps top three from each should go on to "theme finale"?

Having shorter rounds might make things go faster. It's far easier to pick the best of ten than to pick the best of fifty.

Of course the above might be overly convoluted.

Part of the reason for the suggestions above, beyond the obvious of wanting to make this easier, is that we're looking forward to other contests, as we'd love to participate, but theme #1 was not something that sparked our muse.

[mdk]

Came across a lengthy guide to hardcore critiquing like a mean jerk -- while still being helpful. Figured I'd share --it's not my work or my method, but it's pretty handy anyway.

part one

part two

part three isn't done yet apparently, but I'll link it when it is.

[RomanAria]

@mdk Hmm. Send that out to everyone on the RPGC staff. There's some good stuff in there. (I don't feel like we need to change our review styles, but it certainly gives us things to look for when we *think* our reviews are done.)