OK, there is a fair amount of confusion surrounding the proper way to review splits, due to the way they work on the site. This will change with V2.0, but until then please follow these directions, or you will find your split reviews getting rejected.

1. If you are reviewing a split, you must review the entire split. Do not review one band's contribution but not another's. This also goes for splits between some combination of metal and non-metal bands. It does often happen that material which was at one time released on a split is later released separately as an EP or demo; in this case submit your review for that separate release, which should have its own entry (if it doesn't, report it).

2. Write one review that deals with all elements of the split, and submit that same review for all bands that participated. For example, if you were to review the Death Metal split, you would write a single review that covers all eight tracks. Then, you would submit that review separately on the Running Wild page, the Hellhammer page, the Dark Avenger page, and the Helloween page. The mods will know you are reviewing a split and will award points accordingly - even though you are submitting a review 2+ times, it will count as one review as far as points go. If one or more of the bands featured on the split aren't metal and don't have entries on the Archives, write the review taking all parts of the split into account, even though you will only submit it for the bands we have listed.

3. As an extension of 2, only use one title and one score that takes all parts of the split into account. Do not have separate scores for each submission. You are certainly allowed to include your own scores for each part of the split within the body of the review, but only use one overall score.

If you follow all of those rules, and your review meets our other rules and standards, you should have no problem getting it accepted. Yes, it's cumbersome, but once you get the hang of it it's no big deal. It will be a lot simpler when V2.0 comes out. Until then, happy reviewing!

Awesome, that means I did it correctly. Also, my review is on that page! Thanks failsafe!

on III.
Fix all old splits or let them remain the way they are?

Actually we're still figuring that out. There are a LOT of split reviews that would need to be fixed if we were to make this retroactive.

Well, what we can fix now ... should be fixed NOW. I'll edit mine in the next few days.

I couldn't be more pleased with the standards that have now been set and the fact that standards have been set itself.

All users should fix them.

Yeah, me too. This is really something that should've been codified a long time ago. Things are sort of a mess now because of it.

We're going to let users fix their own reviews based on this, so we're not going to immediately go all gung-ho nuking any existing review that doesn't exactly fit these new guidelines. However, from how I understand the way splits will work as one release for all bands in V2.0, all reviews that don't conform to the guidelines won't survive the transition.

What about split albums with only one entry? Should they receive the 'average' rating of all bands on the split as well? I have one without a rating for one band ... that is why I am asking.

How about splits where one part has pretty much gone missing. I can remember one split EP with a DM band starting with the letter C where only their side of the split is even able to be found on the internet, with the other contributor's side vanishing into obscurity. Obviously, I guess tracking down an actual copy would be theoretically possible, but would this be a special case, or just a case of tough luck.

I'd say you should review all bands. Reviewing one band would be like reviewing half of an album.

Yeah, I would be inclined to say tough luck. Imagine if you could only find 4 out of 8 tracks of a normal metal album - you wouldn't expect to be able to review that, even if that was all that was left of it.


Agreed. If you can't buy the parts of the split separately as EPs or whatever, you should review them all, even if one or more of the bands on the split isn't metal. I have updated the the OP.

Are you implying that V2 is possibly something that will be affecting our reviews in the near future, necesitating this pre-emptive rule change?

"Near future" in the geological sense, sure. But yeah, getting things ready for V2.0 is certainly one of the reasons behind this, and the readier we are the better. Let me tell you, even after this sifting through those split reviews on D-Day V2.0 is NOT going to be pretty.

Um...quick question. There's been some talking about fixing splits, but there are still plenty of splits with reviews submitted for one band and noth the other. For example, the two reviews for the Sapthuran/Leviathan split here on the Leviathan page haven't even been submitted for the Sapthuran page. I understand that you would want the user who submitted them to the Leviathan page to resubmit them to the Sapthuran page as well, but chances are that neither of them are active on the archive anymore.

We'll deal with those in v2.

Can I take this thread down? I take it that it's no longer relevant?