sorry, but i couldnt find anywhere to ask this question/discuss this. (the most appropraite placess were all locked).


in order to contribute to this fantastic resource in a more effective way, i tend to review albums that havent been reviewed yet, in order to expand the knowledge base. mostly i do fairly obscure NWOBHM or classic metal, so peole might have a bit more info then is available on the bands page.

ive been thinking, just having read up on the points system, that perhaps more points could be allocated to reviews (if decent) that focus on unreviewed material. i dont see much point on revieweing something thats already been done 5 or more times, although some albums certainly warrant it. i feel this might encourage a bit more expansion of our knowledge base here, with more info out there on bands people stumble across, without getting into "giving away too much point" territory.

im thinknig a humble increase, of 1 or 2 points only, perhaps on the point total for the review. e.g 5 point review base score gets 2 extra points for reviewing an unreviewed album. possibly even another point or 2 if the band has no reviewed material yet?

is this something you guys have discussed before?

mods: please allow a tiny bit of discussion on this, or simply respond to this yourself before locking?

I think that this has actually been discussed before, I believe we came to conclusion that it risks an opportunity for people to write a lot of fairly useless reviews. Why write a 5 point review if you can get the same points for a paragraph and a half on some obscure demo?

It's not a bad idea, but it doesn't really serve a purpose.

yeah but dont the mods filter out crap reviews anyway? if its crap, even if its on un-reviwed material, it should still be rejected. i considered your point before posting this, but then came to my mentioned conclusion.
anyone mods care to add?

Unless I feel I have to, I usually keep virgin records for the review challenge unless, of course, someone reviews it before a challenge, then I will do one myself. I couldn't see myself actively seeking out virgins unless it was for a review challenge.

The point is to stop the problem before it occurs. We already get many reviews for unreviewed albums as it is. There doesn't need to be much of an extra "incentive" because anyone who is doing good reviews does them for the sake of the review and not the point, in the first place. The only thing it would contribute to is an increase in those would seek to 'profit' from such a policy.

yeah i guess. i never really cared about points or anything, in fact i only just checked them recently for the first time. was just pondering if you guys actually were interested in getting reviews for unreviewed stuff more than stuff like WASP, or S.O.D. for example, because shit like thats alread been done heaps. i get new bands/albums all the time, and always look em up on here. if i notice its not reviewed yet, i prefer write a review on it, than a classic that i would love to write about, but already has like 10 reviews.

but fair enough, if youve already discussed it....

Well, I would say that we, as a collective archival community, do prefer to have reviews from unreviewed albums... so long as they are still good reviews. It's encourage by myself and many others, in fact. Also, we have annual (sometimes bi-annual) "review challenges" to see who can crank out the most "virgin reviews" within a set time period. Of course we still maintain that those reviews be good quality to be accepted, and for the participants to not focus on quantity.

yes, as i think ive recieved some comments to this effect in correspondence from you or one of your colleague's regarding my reviews (which to this date, have all been 'virgin'). well i guess since im not in it for the points (although i feel the term "metal newbie" may not adequately reflect myself in real life ( ) i guess i'll stick to writing reviews on unreviewed stuff for a) the pleasure of it, and b) contributing to the resource. but i guess being rewarded for this ethos would be nice

PS: i just submitted a review for an unreviewed German band. if someone could read and approve it, it might take me above the 100 pt mark now!!! (being as though i just checked my 'points' for the first time this morning and its somewhere around there)

I agree with the OP, but only if in turn reviews for previously unreviewed albums are held to the same standards as reviews for previously reviewed albums.

^^

yeah, thats why i kinda don't really see the problem. i don't really see it creating an overwhelming 'flood' of too many reviews to get through for the mods/whoever. and i dont really see how it would result in more crap quality being let through the screening process. a shit review is a shit review. the mods are pretty good at keeping crap off the site.

It's not a matter of there being a flood of shitty reviews that would be on the archives, it's a matter of the review queue containing more of them than usual, providing the mods with more work causing more of s delay to get things accepted. We work for free here as it is and while we do take the responsibility seriously and try to work the best we can, we'd also like to have the signal to noise ratio at the lowest we can help. At least that's how I feel.

Why not employ more mods then? Trustworthy people and the like.

The discussion to add new mods is a continuous one in the GHQ. We are always looking out for people, and many names are always being brought up and talked about.

fair enough. i can understand that.if that is the will of the mods...

keen to get onboard this 'Virgin' Contest. yes, i chose my words carefully, and i stick by them.


when is the next one?/can i be pointed in the direction of the previous locked contest threads???

Usually they are headed up by Sean16. They happen once--or twice--a year. There's no set date. Usually there's one in the summer and one during christmas break, when people have more free time.

It's shifted, recently, to May and November.

That's good to know. There must be an awful lot of work behind the scenes, so the more helpers the merrier (also means my reviews get accepted sooner).

I read suggestions that there will be a challenge in May, so next month. That was stated after the last challenge and recently, but I forget where and I forget who said it. *Helpful* Looks like ThrashingMad beat me to it ... Bastard.

I'm looking forward the next one, I don't go to school until next autumn so I have plenty of free time. Well I work 39 hours or so a week but it may be during my vacation week hoping it not to be during the Maryland death fest. I have plenty of virgins to review - even reviewed some I should not have - and it will help me gain some writing skills. I can definitely see a difference. hell I was so embarrassed by my first review I deleted it. As my barbatos one which I wrote while being drunk. Well it was not that bad, salvageable for parts but a little incoherent and had to much stupid parts.

^^^ yeah im looking forward to it. i think ive written 4 reviews in one night before. i was up at uni and trying to avoid my assignments. plus i had four cold beers in my bag. ive got a list of stuff ive noted hasnt been reviewed. so i can fall back on that. hopefully the mods dont tighten up security so to speak, more than they have it now, on reviews. out of interest what is the review period and what was the record for accepted submissions?

This might be of interest to you:

http://www.metal-archives.com/board/vie ... hp?t=44074

It's not an unreasonable idea, and I'll grant that it would be likely to enhance Archival comprehensiveness in at least a small way, but I personally concur with rexxz in thinking that the incentive would be most likely to appeal to a sort that we would rather not have focusing on reviews, and I also suspect that its net effect would be rather small...I don't think that 2-4 extra points will convince many people that one's time is better spent in acknowledging an unknown Slovakian doomthrash band than in saying how great Reign in Blood is for the umpteenth time. While it is true that the way in which submitted reviews have always portioned out amongst all available bands here is and has always been monolithically imbalanced, and something to change this would probably be welcomed by most of us who work the review queue (and perhaps a few of those who read reviews as a hobby), the fact is that bringing this about would most likely require placing a strong limit on what can be submitted (ala a review cap, as mentioned elsewhere recently), which is liable to require certain compromises of the site's "user-driven" character.

Hum, seems like it's time for a new Virgin Reviews Challenge. 'Will make a thread about it today.

As strange as it may sound as I often review virgins anyway (even outside of the Challenges) I don't think awarding more points for virgins would be a good idea. It would only reinforce the points-oriented mind of some contributors resulting in more barely acceptable reviews as some pointed before. Of course I've been a veteran for years now so I may care less for points than some other users, but still.

^^ and above. i guess im starting to see where you guys are coming from. can't say i envy who ever has to wade through torrents of ridiculous reviews (a la the assigned thread for shite reviews: Crappy Diem) just to get to a handful of decent ones.

are there really people who are so hungry for points, theyd just try and review shit continuosly to get 'em? retarded! has this contest started?

Muloc7253 suggested this years ago and the mods didn't like the idea.