55 replies to this topic

[the Battle Cat]

This new forum is for the use of posting reviews.  Anybody in the IMG Reviews group may post new topics to this forum, every review will appear as a forum topic to which anybody can reply.  If you are an IMG Writer and want to do reviews I can give you permissions to both groups.  

Let's keep the reviews alive.

[Frigidman™]

Also, eventually (hopefully) all old reviews will be crossed into here for safe keeping, so no need to dig up old reviews and post them here. Unless otherwise directed to do so.

[rampancy]

I actually just sent off a review for Braveland and Braveland Wizard to Cord, and he told me to consider posting it (and I'm assuming my review for NEO Scavenger) here. So posting privileges would be greatly appreciated!

[the Battle Cat]

rampancy, on 02 January 2015 - 05:28 AM, said:

I actually just sent off a review for Braveland and Braveland Wizard to Cord, and he told me to consider posting it (and I'm assuming my review for NEO Scavenger) here. So posting privileges would be greatly appreciated!

Yes!  Thanks for volunteering.


Who was the other guy who was talking about doing reviews?  Was that Sneaky Snake?  I forgot, sorry.  Remind me and I'll give you IMG Reviewers privs.

[Matt Diamond]

Don't we have a style guide for IMG reviewers written up somewhere? I think there used to be something. It's been so long since I was active that anything I could dig up is probably out of date, but I'll search if need be.

This is just a suggestion. I'm not saying we need to stick with old guidelines, but for new reviewers something might be better than nothing.

[the Battle Cat]

Sounds like a good idea Matt.  Nab that sucker for us please.  Any time you want to use your IMG Writers privs you can post news by hand now in the news section.  If you would rather do reviews or both I can set you up.

[Matt Diamond]

I have found a style guide from 2003 (by Jeff Wescott) and some guidelines from Ian Beck (2005). They need a little editing to remove things like schedules and editor contact information.

I'll post them in a new thread once I've done the minimal editing. Maybe tonight. If someone has something more recent, fee free to preempt.

[Matt Diamond]

Ah, I don't have the privs to start a new topic. Can someone help with that?

[the Battle Cat]

Well, you are an IMG Writer not an IMG Reviewer.  I'll give you temporary privs of a reviewer unless you want to do some reviews over time, in which case I'll make them permanent.  If you would rather do reviews than news, I'll switch you over to being an IMG Reviewer.  Nothing needs to be committed to, if you want to do both that's cool, then change later... sure, why not.  Let me know and I'll set it up.

Right now though you should be able to post a new topic to the Reviews forum.

[Frigidman™]

Is there a general 'writer' group for people who are able to do both?

[the Battle Cat]

While I was typing the post you responded to I was thinking that I should just delete the new IMG Reviewers group and give privs to both forums to the IMG Writers group.

[Frost]

That seems like the best solution by far.

[the Battle Cat]

Frost, on 06 January 2015 - 04:27 PM, said:

That seems like the best solution by far.

Says the guy who poked the Mother of All Hunters with a sharp stick.

[Frost]

the Battle Cat, on 06 January 2015 - 07:29 PM, said:

Says the guy who poked the Mother of All Hunters with a sharp stick.

Anything worth doing, is worth overdoing. (famous last words)

[Matt Diamond]

I have written many an IMG game review in my day, but I am unlikely to write a new one. But I won't rule it out completely.

Thanks for the access. I have posted the first of the two style guides. When I post the second one as a reply the forum insists on concatenating them-- I'll try again in a bit.

[the Battle Cat]

I pinned them.  The concatenation function times out after about a half hour or so.  But then you found that out yourself of course, I posted for those that don't know.

[Matt Diamond]

I have one more suggestion. I think we might be well-served by having at least one sample review in the forum to get the ball rolling and give people a format they can clone.

• It doesn't have to be new, it could be an already-published IMG review, reformatted for the forum.
  
• Whoever does it would have to decide on basic formatting, whether to put all the images at the end, that kind of thing. (Better to have one smart person come up with a reasonable baseline rather than convene a big forum discussion about it.)
  
• The sections and scoring should stick to IMG's tried and true formula.

Even with a sample review in place I'm not sure the reviews are going to come in. But it's like putting out a buffet spread-- sometimes people need to see the first person walking to the table before they join the line.

Probably worth establishing a very basic process up front. Should people claim titles that they are planning to review in advance? Should they eventually lose it if they don't deliver? Should we allow multiple reviews of the same game?

My suggested answers: we should have an ongoing forum thread for calling dibs, and seeing what reviews to look forward to. (Here? Or in a private writer's forum?) But no hard rules, no person in charge. It's just a place for well-meaning people to coordinate avoid duplicate work and stepping on each others' toes. If two people end up writing reviews of the same game, no big deal (we should be so lucky!)

Is there a private writer's forum still? Writers might like to post drafts or ask questions of fellow writers.

(Important! I'm not trying to run this show or step on anyone's toes! I'm just trying to help flesh out this idea of community reviews. If it's already in hand, or going in a completely different direction, just let me know, and don't waste time trying to save my feelings. I have no skin in this game other than wanted to see if this can possibly be made to work.)

[Frigidman™]

I was (if I can ever pull the time to do so) going to create a ditty that took all old reviews from the img db's and convert them into forum topics (back-dated). I've just been super busy, and my time is taken up. Its on my agenda though.

[the Battle Cat]

Matt Diamond, on 08 January 2015 - 10:04 PM, said:

Probably worth establishing a very basic process up front. Should people claim titles that they are planning to review in advance? Should they eventually lose it if they don't deliver? Should we allow multiple reviews of the same game?

My suggested answers: we should have an ongoing forum thread for calling dibs, and seeing what reviews to look forward to. (Here? Or in a private writer's forum?) But no hard rules, no person in charge. It's just a place for well-meaning people to coordinate avoid duplicate work and stepping on each others' toes. If two people end up writing reviews of the same game, no big deal (we should be so lucky!)

Is there a private writer's forum still? Writers might like to post drafts or ask questions of fellow writers.

(Important! I'm not trying to run this show or step on anyone's toes! I'm just trying to help flesh out this idea of community reviews. If it's already in hand, or going in a completely different direction, just let me know, and don't waste time trying to save my feelings. I have no skin in this game other than wanted to see if this can possibly be made to work.)

Duplicates of a review sounds fine to me, even preferred.  It adds balance because no two people look for the same thing in a game.  I created a private IMG Writers Forum long ago and it was so unused that we just let it die during a forum revision.  But now under these circumstances I think it's a good idea to create another one so writers can coordinate while we shake all the bugs out of the process.  The only toes I worry about stepping on are Cord's.  So far he isn't participating, when contacted by me he said he was waiting for Tuncer to give it the OK.  I don't have toes, I just want this place to be functional for the gamers who depended on the site for news and reviews and I'm open for suggestions.  If Cord isn't interested then having Writers self police seems like the next best thing, unless of course YOU would be interested if Cord bails.  Basically you would just resolve disputes and perhaps provide guidance and answer questions as an experienced news guy while we wait for Cord to decide.  That would be very helpful.

[Matt Diamond]

Your vote of confidence in my usefulness is quite heartening, but I can't give IMG the time it deserves, which is why I stopped writing reviews (and beta testing for Mac publishers for that matter.)

I'm happy to hang around and try to influence things as a sort of elder statesman, and I think you and some of the other people who were asking Tuncer to keep IMG alive also qualify for that role. I think between all of us maybe that'll be enough, particularly if things don't pick up much. If they do then we can always regroup.

> The only toes I worry about stepping on are Cord's.  So far he isn't participating [..]

There's no substitute for having actual editors, I admit. Having someone like Cord keeping an eye on the quality would be super. But what can you do. Having the news and reviews be community-run is a bit of an experiment, but I think worth trying given the situation.