Allow User Submitted Reviews

[Guest]

This was an idea that has not been implemented yet

was wondering if we can allow users to submit reviews that show up on the download pages? (and then maybe even show up on the front page)

you submit a blurb summary (say 50 words), and a link. The link goes to your blog or your forums post or whever you want. And maybe give them a chance to rate it out of 10.

there needs to be a way to delete an entry, in case some1 posts a prank.

not sure how it should look yet, I can mock it up in photoshop if you like.

anyways, itd be somewhat useful for new comers looking for games to play (somewhat useful).

and because Yorhel isn't going to implement a reviews system on VNDB until 2016 (it's very far down the to-do list).

and lastly, because empowering user content is the best.

[Ryoji]

This was an idea that has not been implemented yet

was wondering if we can allow users to submit reviews that show up on the download pages? (and then maybe even show up on the front page)

you submit a blurb summary (say 50 words), and a link. The link goes to your blog or your forums post or whever you want. And maybe give them a chance to rate it out of 10.

there needs to be a way to delete an entry, in case some1 posts a prank.

not sure how it should look yet, I can mock it up in photoshop if you like.

anyways, itd be somewhat useful for new comers looking for games to play (somewhat useful).

and because Yorhel isn't going to implement a reviews system on VNDB until 2016 (it's very far down the to-do list).

and lastly, because empowering user content is the best.

I will moderate this Aaeru once we get it going. I think having a thread in the forums would be good as well. Be able to link between the main page and the forums would be a great tool.

The reason i think also having a forum thread for reviews is that someone can read all the reviews in one place. Rather then go between each VN page to find them. I think having both would be great. Ya know?

[Guest]

yeah i think so too

i think if people want to put a review down in a thread, they should.

[Ryoji]

yeah i think so too

i think if people want to put a review down in a thread, they should.

If thats the case, we should make a Review only thread?? That would be best, as they would all be in the same place yea?

[harry_kinomoto]

The forum link idea is genius - that box where it's a space where everyone can edit should be linked directly to each VN's own individual mini-thread on the forums, so each VN has like a guestbook-type thing where people can come write whatever they want. Ie, it'll probably end up not just being a review section, with people coming in to say things like chara xyz moeeeeee <3..... although as you say it's user-generated content, so generates hype and thus not a bad thing.

For a review-specific page, I too think it may be worth moderating the reviews, to ensure we only publish the very best/most informative ones. At least until we get an active enough community such that we are guaranteed a number of reviews for each VN we post. Allowing users to rate reviews (and only 2 choices for this - helpful or not), might be good as well.

(I got this idea off Amazon.com , which imo has a pretty effective user-driven review system.)

[Ryoji]

The forum link idea is genius - that box where it's a space where everyone can edit should be linked directly to each VN's own individual mini-thread on the forums, so each VN has like a guestbook-type thing where people can come write whatever they want. Ie, it'll probably end up not just being a review section, with people coming in to say things like chara xyz moeeeeee <3..... although as you say it's user-generated content, so generates hype and thus not a bad thing.

Man i cant help but think that its a bad idea to have anyone able to write on the direct VN pages. Anyone can write anything they want at anytime?? to me that says bad idea written all over it. As i said, this is just my opinion, but man, spam is going to be an issue. If its used for reviews, i guess that would be ok if thats all its used for but I cant see just reviews being posted.

For a review-specific page, I too think it may be worth moderating the reviews, to ensure we only publish the very best/most informative ones. At least until we get an active enough community such that we are guaranteed a number of reviews for each VN we post. Allowing users to rate reviews (and only 2 choices for this - helpful or not), might be good as well.

(I got this idea off Amazon.com , which imo has a pretty effective user-driven review system.)

Ive been a proponet of making a review section in the Forums. I dont like the idea of anyone being able to write on the VN pages directly. Its asking for problems. Whereas if we have a review section in the forums, it can be moderated and implemented with the things Harry mentioned....

Allowing users to rate reviews (and only 2 choices for this - helpful or not), might be good as well.

(I got this idea off Amazon.com , which imo has a pretty effective user-driven review system.)

This is a great idea, but in the forums it can be easily implemented.

Forgive me for being paranoid, I know that you wanna make the site the best ever, but making it so anyone can make changes to said pages, just seems like your inviting problems.

I hope you understand I just want to help. Its your decision in whatever course you decide to take. Ill help no matter what.

[okami55]

Man i cant help but think that its a bad idea to have anyone able to write on the direct VN pages. Anyone can write anything they want at anytime?? to me that says bad idea written all over it. As i said, this is just my opinion, but man, spam is going to be an issue. If its used for reviews, i guess that would be ok if thats all its used for but I cant see just reviews being posted.

Ive been a proponet of making a review section in the Forums. I dont like the idea of anyone being able to write on the VN pages directly. Its asking for problems. Whereas if we have a review section in the forums, it can be moderated and implemented with the things Harry mentioned....

This is a great idea, but in the forums it can be easily implemented.

Forgive me for being paranoid, I know that you wanna make the site the best ever, but making it so anyone can make changes to said pages, just seems like your inviting problems.

I hope you understand I just want to help. Its your decision in whatever course you decide to take. Ill help no matter what.

What about having a couple of professional reviewers that are allowed to write a review on the VN pages?

[Joachim]

I think a flood part would be fun to add, but it has to be tightly controled. Informations have to be clear for the people who just want to find and get their content and be quickly done with it. You can filter the flood part by default, and people have to click on a button to get it. In my opinion though, the best solution would be to organise funny contests, for example the cutest girl, the most annoying character, and so on. Why not make a battle between heroines ! Another idea would be to only have the reviews that where the best noted as useful by users. The site need a bigger community though.

At last, I made a suggestion on the other thread to make a pre-made review form, and people just have to choose from different words to describe what they felt about the game, this way you can have statistics, and maybe even use them in advanced search to find the vns for example, wich people found had the least interesting routes, the worst art style, unbearable music and boring main character . I am ready to prepare it so people might better understand how I'm currently visualising it in my head. For the realisation of the real thing I'll just need to make a thread where people post all the keywords that are important in their experiences, good and bad, and make a summary of it.

[harry_kinomoto]

@Ryoji:

No no please don't apologise, only reason why we discuss things is because our ideas never come out perfect. By putting these out here and getting everyone's thoughts on it, perhaps we can create an even better idea together!

In any case, I hadn't properly considered the spam issue myself, so thanks for flagging it up. That being said I am tempted to say the worst of the Fuwanovel trolls have already come and gone, but if there are still going to be random posts trying to sell us dodgy pills every so often, then it's clearly still an issue,. If it does indeed end up being implemented as suggested, then clearly the comments need to be very heavily moderated for the first leg, but hopefully as the troll comments decrease in number (and hopefully they will!), we can start to scale down the moderation gradually. So yeah - definitely a risk, thus the question I ask of you all: is it a risk we're willing to take??

@Okami55:

What about having a couple of professional reviewers that are allowed to write a review on the VN pages?

Define "professional"~ No seriously though, I guess the closest thing we have to these so-called "professional" VN pple are those famous in the field: people like Micchi (blogger), Ixrec/Moogy et al (high-profile translators), Aaeru (intellectual crusader and not-so-worthless nut~), and so on. Problem is I think most of that list aren't TOO enthusiastic in wanting their name being related to Fuwanovel....not that it's much loss, mind you. All that makes a good review, imo, is a piece from someone who is genuinely enthusiastic about the medium and therefore knows how to deliver them in a way that will get both newbies and veterans of the medium to respond. And from what I've seen in the forum, there's plenty of that around!!

@Joachim:

At last, I made a suggestion on the other thread to make a pre-made review form, and people just have to choose from different words to describe what they felt about the game, this way you can have statistics, and maybe even use them in advanced search to find the vns for example, wich people found had the least interesting routes, the worst art style, unbearable music and boring main character . I am ready to prepare it so people might better understand how I'm currently visualising it in my head. For the realisation of the real thing I'll just need to make a thread where people post all the keywords that are important in their experiences, good and bad, and make a summary of it.

Yeah I think vndb has something like this going on too. It's a good alternative to the free-text reviews; though it may also complement it if implemented together.

[Ryoji]

After a rather interesting discussion with Aaeru, Ive come to the conclusion that the pros outweigh the cons. This is something that will make Fuwanovel grow into a even better home for Visual Novels. With people writing reviews, they can voice their opinions which will help people decide what VN's to try.

This is win/win. A little bit of spam is worth it. As you said Harry:

That being said I am tempted to say the worst of the Fuwanovel trolls have already come and gone, but if there are still going to be random posts trying to sell us dodgy pills every so often, then it's clearly still an issue,. If it does indeed end up being implemented as suggested, then clearly the comments need to be very heavily moderated for the first leg, but hopefully as the troll comments decrease in number (and hopefully they will!), we can start to scale down the moderation gradually.

The spam will always happen. But the positives that will come from this will be amazing. I say lets do it. Lets give the fans a way to voice their opinions!!

[Joachim]

@Joachim:

Yeah I think vndb has something like this going on too. It's a good alternative to the free-text reviews; though it may also complement it if implemented together.

Now that you told me, I just figured the tag system is working that way. Pretty handy seeing how many vns are on there .

[Tay]

Great ideas, wow! I've seen the "Guest Comment" section on the pages, and while they have lots of potential, the character limit prevents more than maybe one (even part of one) review/comment on a game. When the next person comes around, they'll have to delete all of it.

A compromise may be in order: maybe games should have a specific REVIEW/DISCUSSION page (could be reflected by an icon or tab on game page) where people can post their thoughts. Reviews will have to be moderated before published. Any discussion for the reviews can be linked back to a game-specific thread on the forums.

It's not that I'm against the guest comment section, but as it is, I have a hard time seeing how it'll be used effectively for what we intended.

EDIT: I suppose, though, that a forums-based review system really would be the easiest of all worlds. Just create a "Games" forum, and have a sub-forum for each game (initially those that Fuwa publishes) where people can post reviews/screenshots/commentary/etc.

Edited November 9, 2012 by Tay

[Guest]

hey i got ilegend to change the character limit to 500.

maybe we'll bump it to 1000 or 2000. not sure yet

also perhaps some kind of revert system. not sure yet

[Ryoji]

hey i got ilegend to change the character limit to 500.

maybe we'll bump it to 1000 or 2000. not sure yet

also perhaps some kind of revert system. not sure yet

Yeah 500 may be too low. Id go 2000 maybe. That way more people will be encouraged to post their thoughts without having to worry about running out of space or erasing other peoples posts!

[Guest]

Hey ill just summarize the explanation i gave for another person,

Basically it's a quick way for people to report information anonymously. Because in this community, information is not centralized well. in the VN scene there are a large number of fan translators scattered across the net in their own isolated circles, and they hardly talk to any1 else, and so news does not circulate. and so we rely on fans to post updates about their work when they discover them. That's how I get my news as well, ppl just share what they think is cool.

Another reason is to increase interactivity and make the pages more dynamic (It's more lively. there is a sense that there is ppl here and it's not ghost town).

Have you seen chatboxes or shoutboxes? http://www.myshoutbox.com/

The Everyone-Can-Edit field is the same as a shoutbox except u can write over other people's comments and it is completely anonymous.

The last reason is because it is just a lot of fun. People like to do stuff, they dont want to just consume. The fact that your comment gets rewritten and transformed by others means you are interacting with others. It's a type of strange unconventional communication.

So this field will be abused. because we are giving up control.

but it will only be that field, there's no other field that is like that.

basically it's to open doors to fascinating user content. It's capitalizing on your audience to generate the information.

eventually it's supposed to stream the updates onto the side here http://i.imgur.com/K6j1A.jpg

[Joachim]

Hey ill just summarize the explanation i gave for another person,

Basically it's a quick way for people to report information anonymously. Because in this community, information is not centralized well. in the VN scene there are a large number of fan translators scattered across the net in their own isolated circles, and they hardly talk to any1 else, and so news does not circulate. and so we rely on fans to post updates about their work when they discover them. That's how I get my news as well, ppl just share what they think is cool.

Another reason is to increase interactivity and make the pages more dynamic (It's more lively. there is a sense that there is ppl here and it's not ghost town).

Have you seen chatboxes or shoutboxes? http://www.myshoutbox.com/

The Everyone-Can-Edit field is the same as a shoutbox except u can write over other people's comments and it is completely anonymous.

The last reason is because it is just a lot of fun. People like to do stuff, they dont want to just consume. The fact that your comment gets rewritten and transformed by others means you are interacting with others. It's a type of strange unconventional communication.

So this field will be abused. because we are giving up control.

but it will only be that field, there's no other field that is like that.

basically it's to open doors to fascinating user content. It's capitalizing on your audience to generate the information.

eventually it's supposed to stream the updates onto the side here http://i.imgur.com/K6j1A.jpg

I agree with you, it is funnier than I thought, and at the end of the day, people can delete the trash by themselves. I think it needs a brush of fancy though, it looks quite dull at the moment. But I guess that's me being picky .