After looking around in the AP and such, I've noticed that there aren't a lot of active reviewers. IMO, it shouldn't take that long to review a few songs with a few helpful suggestions.

Maybe that is what other new artists need. They follow older artists as an example and they will notice that nobody actively reviews. Then they will do the same. However, if all of us just reviews a couple songs per day, the community would be much stronger for the new folks.

I'm not an experienced member on this site so that's probably why I don't mind reviewing stuff at the moment, and I am in no position to tell people what to do since I'm new here, but I hope this post will help pump up other members to start reviewing again.

Thoughts?

Reviews aren't all that common around here unfortunately. You need to build up a good fanbase to get reviews, or have your song frontpaged or something. Reason being that the Audio Portal isn't such a big community. There are plenty of people who just post their music and maybe a newspost here and there, but few are the ones who post their music, review other music, post in the forums, and actively take part in the community.

There isn't much motivation to review other than doing it as a kind gesture or to get a review back in return. Clubs like the Review Request Club try to help, but one club consisting of a handful of members can only go so far.

However, being motivated to review like you are is certainly a great attitude and I wish more people had that attitude.

The AP has not changed for many years and is not about to change if ever. Sometimes if you want a review, you just need to ask for one...and not in your song description. PM is much more personal. Since the common age group in the AP is of the young teens, you may have to find another place to go to find more constructive reviews. If anything, I find one constructive review is better than a hundred one liner reviews.

At 1/27/13 01:55 PM, Step wrote: Reviews aren't all that common around here unfortunately. You need to build up a good fanbase to get reviews, or have your song frontpaged or something. Reason being that the Audio Portal isn't such a big community. There are plenty of people who just post their music and maybe a newspost here and there, but few are the ones who post their music, review other music, post in the forums, and actively take part in the community.

There isn't much motivation to review other than doing it as a kind gesture or to get a review back in return. Clubs like the Review Request Club try to help, but one club consisting of a handful of members can only go so far.

However, being motivated to review like you are is certainly a great attitude and I wish more people had that attitude.

At 1/27/13 02:15 PM, Music-story wrote:

he lives

At 1/27/13 02:15 PM, Music-story wrote: The AP has not changed for many years and is not about to change if ever. Sometimes if you want a review, you just need to ask for one...and not in your song description. PM is much more personal.

I feel like that will just annoy them. If you just review often they will come back to you eventually.

You need to build up a good fanbase to get reviews, or have your song frontpaged or something.

One of my songs has been on the page for a few days now and i've seen 0 more reviews. Just no one reviews songs any more. And as to OP, it doesn't matter if you think you are good enough to review. You dont have to tell some one what is wrong to leave a review. You can simply tell people what you liked or what stuck out in that song. Something that you listend to that would make you want to listen to more or that made it unique. Good information about what made a song good is as powerful as what makes a song bad. If you scroll down through the forum posts here and find SonicJ, he has an amazing house of information on this subject.

I ate them.

At 1/27/13 07:47 PM, sweet21 wrote: I ate them.

You fatty! D:

At 1/27/13 07:47 PM, sweet21 wrote: I ate them.

Mommy, I'm scared :'(

At 1/27/13 07:47 PM, sweet21 wrote: I ate them.

Pfft. Step and I are still here. What are you talking about?

At 1/27/13 01:30 PM, Rhoder wrote: After looking around in the AP and such, I've noticed that there aren't a lot of active reviewers. IMO, it shouldn't take that long to review a few songs with a few helpful suggestions.

Maybe that is what other new artists need. They follow older artists as an example and they will notice that nobody actively reviews. Then they will do the same. However, if all of us just reviews a couple songs per day, the community would be much stronger for the new folks.

I'm not an experienced member on this site so that's probably why I don't mind reviewing stuff at the moment, and I am in no position to tell people what to do since I'm new here, but I hope this post will help pump up other members to start reviewing again.

Thoughts?

I feel the same way. I've been trying to listen and review a few songs a day myself. We all need some form of constructive criticism not just a pat on the back to ignore the issues no matter how small they may be. Because that's what we're here for, to get better. If I wanted to make music to only get praise in return, I'd just show it to my mom. I hope to improve from any advice that I may receive from this community.

At 1/27/13 10:05 PM, DoxOfficial wrote: i review tons - i would say that once most of the active people on here get a big fanbase and see their stuff on the front page etc.. they no longer care to take a look at anyone's stuff. sad but true (notice i said "most").

laziness at its finest.

At 1/27/13 10:05 PM, DoxOfficial wrote: i review tons - i would say that once most of the active people on here get a big fanbase and see their stuff on the front page etc.. they no longer care to take a look at anyone's stuff. sad but true (notice i said "most").

It's sadly true, i rarely see many of the popular artists review much of anything.

I made a thread shortly before this one with the same exact subject matter and how we would improve the situation
right here . You (all of newgrounds) ARE the reviewer. The community is and always was the reviewer. A lot of people upload music and choose not to review other people songs. These same people end up soliciting their own music as well. Neither actions contribute.

Imagine, if you will, Newgrounds audio portal reviews are an imaginary Ng currency. We have this Audio portal bank, and there are people willing to hand out Ng currency (reviews). Well, long story short, a lot of people stick their hands out for reviews, and don't put anything back in the back in them selves. Too many people, infact.

There is not a review crew that spends the day only perusing NG audio for reviewing purposes, that is a contribution everyone should make.

I review stuff every now and then, but a lot of people simply don't put any effort in "selling" their music: the descriptions are often short and non-informative, and / or they just dump their song in the Audio Advertisements Thread without putting some effort in the post itself. If you (meaning folks in general) want your stuff reviewed, be a nice guy and make it atleast somewhat appealing to do so: writing good reviews takes both effort and time from the reviewer's side as well.

At 1/30/13 02:40 AM, EagleGuard wrote: I review stuff every now and then...

This guy's reviews are incredible. :D

I enjoy reviewing pieces that leave an impact on me.

Video game, menu, loading screen, or looping pieces (techno I'm okay with occasionally) are ones that do not impact me so much; there seems to be more of these than anything else in the A.P..

At 1/30/13 03:36 PM, FooRight wrote:

Video game, menu, loading screen, or looping pieces (techno I'm okay with occasionally) are ones that do not impact me so much; there seems to be more of these than anything else in the A.P..

Look at the demographics of NG and that should explain it.

At 1/30/13 05:08 PM, Envy wrote: Look at the demographics of NG and that should explain it.

It's not an explanation I myself am looking for, but is one that those who made this thread need to know about to stop the confusion of "Where are the reviewers?"

Personally I would review a lot more if I thought I was qualified to criticize some of the excellent material on here. I'm still learning the ropes myself and I've been absent quite a lot. I guess since you brought up this thread however I could muster up a few reviews.

At 1/30/13 10:10 PM, Mushraven wrote: Personally I would review a lot more if I thought I was qualified to criticize some of the excellent material on here. I'm still learning the ropes myself and I've been absent quite a lot. I guess since you brought up this thread however I could muster up a few reviews.

Hey! Don't worry, reviewing helps you learn, actually. Besides, commenting on what you like is as important as what you don't like.

To be honest, I reviewed a ton before I actually was very good... it helped me get some friends AND taught me to understand what I used more deeply! :)

When I first started out posting music on newgrounds in 2008, I used to receive decent number of reviews per song with no name recognition, it gradually dropped down over the years, and then suddenly after the redesign they almost died out completely.

At 1/31/13 12:44 AM, krssvr wrote: When I first started out posting music on newgrounds in 2008, I used to receive decent number of reviews per song with no name recognition, it gradually dropped down over the years, and then suddenly after the redesign they almost died out completely.

maybe it was the redesign then?

At 1/27/13 10:05 PM, DoxOfficial wrote: i review tons - i would say that once most of the active people on here get a big fanbase and see their stuff on the front page etc.. they no longer care to take a look at anyone's stuff. sad but true (notice i said "most").

I never cared to look at anyone's stuff. Is a perk of not taking my anti-psychotics.

I'll review on request sometimes though.

At 1/30/13 12:36 PM, Ectohelix wrote: This guy's reviews are incredible. :D

Ha, you flatter me! Anyway, as has been suggested before on this forum, perhaps we need some kind of positive reinforcement / reward system to motivate people to leave more reviews?

Thing is, enforcement isn't necessarily going to move anyone to leave a review. If anything, it'll turn them off from reviewing completely. Reviews are meant to be what they're meant to be -- voluntary, out of the listener's ears and heart/mind.

Someone suggested in the Audio Adverts thread once that for every piece of audio we submit, we review five before us. Now granted, some of us are less versed in some genres (I wouldn't review hip-hop or dubstep, for example), but we can at least try to look back and tackle what we know, and if need be, look further back. I've taken up that idea ever since.

If everyone did this, then we'd have loads of reviews in no time.

At 1/31/13 07:54 AM, TroisNyxEtienne wrote: Thing is, enforcement isn't necessarily going to move anyone to leave a review.

Not enforcement, but reinforcement, meaning we reward people for leaving good reviews. For example, if the creator rates a review as 'helpful', then the one that left that review might get more voting power in return. Another idea is to have awards like 'reviewer of the month'.

I think that a lot of people at newgrounds definitely need some incentive to make reviews, and specially good ones.
I try to make reviews every time i can, and even though i know that my reviews are not so great as they should be (because i still lack experience in music...) i think that its important to make them anyway.
That's my way of thanking others for making good reviews of my songs too.
Its important to help our mates around here like we would like to be helped.
If newgrounds is a community its imperative to help and welcome everyone.
Reviews are very important to learn new things and grow as an artist, so maybe a new review system would be nice to motivate people to do more and more reviews.

Cheers everyone!

At 1/31/13 11:03 AM, Elitistinen wrote: I value reviews more than downloads or views. I would read through them many times before I decide to reply back

I admit that I write reviews that many on here can consider as crap. I like to make things short and quick, putting all the positive points and negative points, if have.

At least you have some of them, lol.
What gets me angry is when someone download the track and doesn't review, or people who have no physical time to listen the track and they vote 0 (I just uploaded a new track, in 1 minute there were already some votes...)

At 1/31/13 11:54 AM, Lachi wrote: What gets me angry is when someone download the track and doesn't review

Don't get angry at that, instead, look at it this way: someone appreciated your song so much that he / she downloaded it. In this case a download means someone liked it.

they vote 0 (I just uploaded a new track, in 1 minute there were already some votes...)

While not related to reviewing, it is a well-known problem. There have been threads about this before, yet no solutions have been implemented.