Lizzardis' lesson on reviewing

[Lizzardis]

I have spoken to the mods about this and they gave me the green light to make the thread, thanks to Zerok and Malachy for letting me do this!

Almost every flash that gets submitted to the portal has at least 5 reviews, maybe more depending on how good the flash animation is. Now whenever I view a flash I have a check through the reviews first, to see what other people think of the flash. I view the flash anyway but I like to get other peoples perspective on the flash.

Recently I have been noticing a large amount of very unhelpful and not very criticizing reviews. The point of reviewing is to give feedback on the flash and say how the user who submitted the flash, can make it better. If they can make it better that is. However I have come across some reviews which are not criticizing and some which are unhelpful, sometimes being abusive.
Now this thread is not about me complaining about the numbers of abusive/unhelpful reviews, this thread is about how we can improve reviews put on flashes from you guys, by doing simple things to make your reviews look and sound a lot better!

I will explain a good way to structure your review which is easy to remember and easy to read.
I structure my reviews like this;

Good points:-
Explain what you liked about the flash in some short bullet points. E.G. The scenes went together well, the music tied in well etc

Bad Points:-
What you disliked about the flash, E.G the music wasn't that good for the flash, the scenes were jittery etc

Overall:-
How many stars you are going to give the flash, and what you are going to vote.

<Something supportive here>
Like well done/Keep it up, Come on you can do better, better luck next time, I think you need to do some more learning etc

Using that structure for your flash reviews allows you to give supportive yet criticizing feedback and also allows you to express that OK yeah maybe the flash is rubbish, but at least you didn't go out and say "Crap!" "Never make this again!" or something like that.

If we all did that then there would be no bad comments and no unhelpful reviews.
Next time you are about to review a flash saying "Crap!" Think back to this thread and think back to this review structure. You can say a lot in one sentence....You can say a lot more in a paragraph!

[MrCrawford]

Good guide, but it coulda done without the mondo TL;DR on the top. Just go straight into it or people just won't pay attention, man.

[LordZeebmork]

or I can only review movies by people on my msn contacts list and always leave a score of 10 and a review full of inside jokes and filler

I like that idea better

also fuckers stop trying to get my 0-score text walls deleted, I'll just repost them if they get dicked and get even more hilarious hate mail out of them

[Killing-joke]

I like this, its a nice way to teach people. Unfortunately I learnt the hard way myself a few months back.
And started to read the reviews that people rated as helpful, and learnt this trade.
The guide needs to be kept alive somehow, so new users can read this and gain from it.

[LordZeebmork]

At 3/15/09 08:19 PM, Killing-joke wrote: And started to read the reviews that people rated as helpful, and learnt this trade.

pffffff. if you learn that way, all you learn is to give a 10 to everything on the top 50 and repeat the same cocksucking one-liners in every review you write.

isn't this shithole great?

[Killing-joke]

Nah, I also found the reviews club and started readoing some of theirs, were pretty cool, the length at which they wrote.

[Lizzardis]

At 3/15/09 07:11 PM, MrCrawford wrote: Good guide, but it coulda done without the mondo TL;DR on the top. Just go straight into it or people just won't pay attention, man.

Yeah I could have done that. I would have rather do it like this thought because then people HAVE to read it. Where as with a TL;DR then people only read that but and then this thread becomes a pile of people asking questions.

I would rather they just read the text.

At 3/15/09 08:19 PM, Killing-joke wrote: I like this, its a nice way to teach people. Unfortunately I learnt the hard way myself a few months back.
And started to read the reviews that people rated as helpful, and learnt this trade.
The guide needs to be kept alive somehow, so new users can read this and gain from it.

That would be nice. I would like this to be kept alive because I like that people can learn from this and can benefit from it.
I'm glad you liked it. I just wish that some other users would actually take this into account instead of just ignoring it.
I like to help people learn, I also like to make things easier for people.

[Haggard]

A nice guide that can help users who are new to reviewing to write better (and more helpful) reviews.

Actually, I use a similair pattern when I write my reviews and I know other users who also have adopted this review style. So, it has been verified to be a very good system. So come on people, use it! ;)

[sirtom93]

Nice one, this will be useful.

[Ejit]

At 3/15/09 06:40 PM, Lizzardis wrote: I have spoken to the mods about this and they gave me the green light to make the thread, thanks to Zerok and Malachy for letting me do this!

Yeah, you're still not getting modded.

this pathetic

[dx5231]

If more people saw this there would be less crappy reviews on the portal.

[Objection]

At 3/16/09 01:43 PM, Ejit wrote:

At 3/15/09 06:40 PM, Lizzardis wrote: I have spoken to the mods about this and they gave me the green light to make the thread, thanks to Zerok and Malachy for letting me do this!

Yeah, you're still not getting modded.

What makes you think he wants to be modded? Maybe he is just trying to be genuinely helpful.

[Spirosgod]

ALSO
The GOOD and the BAD points is just a way to make a helpful review, there is also another way, which I have been following lately...

Firstly tell to the author how much you liked the movie and why.
e.g. Wow! Great movie! It was definately the most funny flash I have ever seen!
Then tell him about the:
Art, Animation, Sounds/Voice Acting/Songs used, The whole idea, The best part of the movie, The length etc etc
And then some things he could improve, but that's mostly a review for a GOOD flash so you rarely will find something he could improve on...

OR
A review for a crappy flash,mostly for a game:
Firsty what you liked from the crap he made, or just tell him how much little effort he put etc etc...
THEN, start listing the improvements he could have done to make his game better.
E.g.
1) Add more weapons, playing with the same god damn sword and pistol every time gets boring very fast...
2) Add more futures, like, DEATHMATCH etc etc.
3) Add more power up, like FIRE LORD [LOL OMFG WTF]
And the list goes on...

I hope I contributed to this thread...

[life]

At 3/16/09 02:03 PM, j00bie wrote: lol

lol it's j00bie

[portalwarpedJP]

that's a very good guide. if only you made it three months ago, i wouldn't have the few useless reviews i have. try to tell this thread for those noobs that keep doing that. good luck!

no cocksucking I SWEAR.

[RohantheBarbarian]

Very well written and helpful Lizzardis, you've obviously invested a lot of time and effort into writing this. If I may, I'd just like to leave a few links here which you may find of interest, maybe to make amendments or a refined version of the guide you've done, oreven help out anyone wo reads this further:

- Corky52's Guide to Writing Helpful Reviews
- AnalPenguinFarming's reviews best reviews on Newgrounds IMO, might be worth looking at as an example.
- My flash which deals with writing good reviews, amongst other things (lol @ shameless plug):

Being a Helpful NG'er, by RohantheBarbarian Type: Game Rating: Ages 13+

[Lizzardis]

At 3/16/09 01:41 PM, Haggard wrote: A nice guide that can help users who are new to reviewing to write better (and more helpful) reviews.

Actually, I use a similair pattern when I write my reviews and I know other users who also have adopted this review style. So, it has been verified to be a very good system. So come on people, use it! ;)

Cheers thanks for the support. I can see your reviews are generally helpful and I like that. I use this style because it is easy to read and you can say a lot in it even if it is only just bullet points. I'm glad some other users use a layed out/structured reviewing guide.

At 3/16/09 01:43 PM, Ejit wrote: Yeah, you're still not getting modded.

Who said I want to get modded? I want to help new users and some other users get and make better reviews that's all. I hardly think making a thread about reviewing is going to get me mod status.

At 3/16/09 02:01 PM, Spirosgod wrote: I hope I contributed to this thread...

You have! They are some very good points, if you can think of any more just post them in here. Same goes to everyone else!

At 3/16/09 02:08 PM, portalwarpedJP wrote: Try to tell this thread for those noobs that keep doing that. good luck!

Thats the whole point of this thread. You can also take my advice and that of other in this thread. I hope more users will note this thread and hopefully take into account on what it says.

At 3/16/09 02:08 PM, RohantheBarbarian wrote: Very well written and helpful Lizzardis, you've obviously invested a lot of time and effort into writing this. If I may, I'd just like to leave a few links here which you may find of interest

Thanks very much for contributing. I like the fact that more users would like to give a helping hand in giving tips to other users.
Thanks for the comment, its much appreciated. The links you gave were very helpful. Any more you see post them.

[Lizzardis]

I'd also like to add:

I have been seeing threads on general where users are complaining about their reviews being known as 'useless.'
I would just like to say that your reviews being voted as useless is, I may say intimidating, but it is fine. It does not effect your reviews in ANYWAY WHAT-SO-EVER! They are almost useless and doesn't count for anything. It may just be a few users hitting the '-' button on every review. Yours just may have the most '-'. Does it really matter?

However, this thread is a solution. If you take into account what I said and what users have said, your reviews will be voted 'useful' as I said before this doesn't count for anything but it makes you feel good that people like what your review contains.

I hope that this thread helps multiple users.

[SuperMarioBrosS]

Also, under bad points, the user should give an idea on how to make the bad points into good points. (Like if the background is crap, the user should suggest a better background.) The flash will never be perfect, but it may have a chance to get a lot of exposure in the long run (hopefully not turd of the week) thanks to helpful critics (NG users).

Also, isn't that the outline that most users follow when writing useful reviews?

Bullets make the review a bit choppy if you ask me (unless if there are 2+ sentences in each bullet). Smooth sentences are key. If I used bullets, I'd make the list and then explain each point under the list in a full paragraph (this goes for both positive & negative aspects). I don't mean that each point gets it's own paragraph; the paragraph should address all the points. One paragraph addressing the positive points and another paragraph addressing negative points and how they can be improved.

What someone's going to vote should be confidential and there is no point on showing what the review score will be since it's already listed.

You should also add an 'idea' section so that a user can give an author an idea to use in his/her next flash. This can be optional though.

Hopefully I'm contributing here and not making useless posts...

[SuperMarioBrosS]

At 3/16/09 04:08 PM, Lizzardis wrote: I'd also like to add:

I have been seeing threads on general where users are complaining about their reviews being known as 'useless.'
I would just like to say that your reviews being voted as useless is, I may say intimidating, but it is fine. It does not effect your reviews in ANYWAY WHAT-SO-EVER! They are almost useless and doesn't count for anything. It may just be a few users hitting the '-' button on every review. Yours just may have the most '-'. Does it really matter?

However, this thread is a solution. If you take into account what I said and what users have said, your reviews will be voted 'useful' as I said before this doesn't count for anything but it makes you feel good that people like what your review contains.

I hope that this thread helps multiple users.

Rating system, even though it works finely, is flawed and is completely useless. Ignore what other users say. If the review contains criticism and/or an author being thankful for the review, then that's all it matters.

[Lizzardis]

At 3/17/09 07:52 PM, SuperMarioBrosS wrote: Also, under bad points, the user should give an idea on how to make the bad points into good points. (Like if the background is crap, the user should suggest a better background.)

Yeah I can totally agree with you. Thats why I have added something to the review structure that I use. I've added an 'improvements' section.

In this section I will comment on improvements the user could make, without sounding like I am insulting him by saying his "background is rubbish" or something.

Also, isn't that the outline that most users follow when writing useful reviews?

Probably yes. This thread is just for the users who do not follow the outline, so that they can learn to write helpful reviews using this or a structure like it.

What someone's going to vote should be confidential and there is no point on showing what the review score will be since it's already listed.

Well I don't think so. Some users may like the idea of knowing what people voted, so that if I show that I voted 0-2 then maybe they will think "Oh right....He doesn't like it....How could I improve on it?"
Also, some users may not look at the number of stars I gave them because when they check through the reviews they may just put it in what date they were made.

Thats why its in my review.

Hopefully I'm contributing here and not making useless posts...

Na it's not a useless post. very helpful in-fact. Thank you for contributing to this thread. I'm sure it can help many users.

Sorry for the bump. Some stuff had to be answered.

[The-Great-One]

I must say that this certainly is a good guide, although I prefer my own, this is certainly something for beginners to use wisely. Kudos to you Lizzardis.

[Maximus]

At 3/16/09 01:42 PM, sirtom93 wrote: Nice one, this will be useful.

It would be useful.

IF YOU WERN'T IN TROUBLE WITH THE POLICE LOLOLOLOLOLOOLOL

[Sensationalism]

At 3/30/09 04:52 AM, maximuspower wrote:

At 3/16/09 01:42 PM, sirtom93 wrote: Nice one, this will be useful.

It would be useful.

IF YOU WERN'T IN TROUBLE WITH THE POLICE LOLOLOLOLOLOOLOL

LOLOLOOLOLOLOL

Needed more.

[foshiznay]

Actually, I've been looking for something like this to give people some constructive criticism in a review, thanks for making it. It's also amazing that you got the MODs to green light this too...

[Lorkas]

Sorry, but I don't see who'd need a lesson on reviewing. It's like posting a guide how to read.

[Lizzardis]

At 3/30/09 06:41 AM, Lorkas wrote: Sorry, but I don't see who'd need a lesson on reviewing. It's like posting a guide how to read.

Well then what's the point in clicking the thread that clearly states "Lizzardis' lesson on reviewing!" if you don't need it?

This is for the people who do need it.

Thank you all for the advice given in this thread and thanks for all of the thank you's you guys have given me!

[The-Great-One]

I have been asked by Lizzardis to add this News Post to his thread. Since it contains his guidelines.

[Twilight]

At 3/30/09 04:52 AM, Maximus wrote:

At 3/16/09 01:42 PM, sirtom93 wrote: Nice one, this will be useful.

It would be useful.

IF YOU WERN'T IN TROUBLE WITH THE POLICE LOLOLOLOLOLOOLOL

Lol

You're a dick.

[Lizzardis]

OK so. After a few months of this thread being dormant, I decided to bump it back up to page one because I would like to a few things and just link to this thread and its challenge.

Also I would just like to point out, THIS THREAD IS NOT ABOUT ABUSIVE REVIEWS! If you would like to comment on abusive reviews please read Malachy's Review answers 1.0 AND THEN Review answers 2.0.

It is true that the state of reviews are declining. I'm seeing more and more one lined reviews, some 2 worded reviews and some reviewers who just vote 0 and leave some crappy sentence like "Just plain rubbish"

So, I've decided to up the anti. Here I will give another detailed explanation of how a good review can be organised. I do hope this helps multiple people and I hope they take on board this advice. You can also refer to The-Great-One's newspost because that gives a lot of good points on what you can make your review about.

OK so, we will start with explaining what will go in the section and then I will give some examples:

~~~Good Points~~~
(In here you will give points on what good things you saw/heard throughout the flash, doesn't have to be a paragraph just a quick couple of lines.)
~ The storyline was amazing
~ The scenes were smooth
~ The characters and dialogue were terrific!
~ Etc...

Then you could explain the bad points of the flash:

~~~Bad Points~~~
(In here you should explain the bad points of the flash and what you disliked about it overall. Remember: If the flash doesn't load THAT ISN'T A BAD POINT! It may just be your internet connection, so give the artist a quick PM about it!)
~ The flash was a bit choppy
~ I found the voices quite hard to hear
~ Too repetitive
Etc...

Then comes the improvements working along side the Bad points:

~~~Improvements~~~
(A bit self explanatory. This works with the Bad Points section, any bad points you find you explain them here. So I will go off the bad points above)
~ Maybe you could have a go at learning a bit more of flash and learn how to make it a little less choppy
~ I think you should invest in a new microphone because I think that will help in the qualities of the voices
~ Maybe add some more scenes or a twist of some sort or maybe add more moves to make it less repetitive

~~~Other Comments~~~
(In this section you will comment on the flash as a whole adding details about how it would do, if people would like it and your views on it)
~ I really liked this flash, I thought it was excellent!
~ It was very helpful and I think that it will help people like myself and even other users who have only just started

The finally you could bring the review to a close by doing the overall, this part is only optional because people could think that this part was useless but I will include it anyway.

~~~Overall~~~
(Just include what you gave the flash and what you voted, again this is optional because the user can just see what you put for your review score and he doesn't really want to know what you voted. I thought it just brings the review to a close.)
~ I will give you 9/10 stars and I'm voting 5!

Now you could put some support for the artist by saying something nice to them.

Well done!/ Keep it up!

Then I just put my user name

Lizzardis

So, that brings my lesson to a close. I hope that you will have learned a lot from this and I'm glad I could be of service, I'd just like to thank you for reading this!

P.S Mods, I'm sorry for repeating myself but I didn't want to bump this for no at all reason and the more my point is said the more it goes into peoples minds!