telperion1
in
mefas
ADMIN - reviewing goals
Hey guys,
This week I want to talk about review goals. Some people at MEFAwards have asked about that already, so some people may be wondering what that is all about. The basic idea is that some reviewers want to set a "target" to the number of reviews they will write. We then recognize them, both at the MEFA site themselves and by giving them a graphic they can display wherever they like.
But before we get started:
**********************************************
REMINDER - RECEIVING REVIEWS BY EMAIL
Starting on 16-July, "final" reviews will be shown on the MEFA website. Annmarwalk will also be posting the reviews to two other sites: the [mefas] LJ community and the [mefa-reviews] Yahoo group. Sign up for either one to read reviews by email or on your LJ friends page.
Reviews will *NOT* be posted to the MEFAwards Yahoo group. You need to sign up for this LJ or for the [mefa-reviews] group if you want to have them emailed to you.
**********************************************
SETTING A REVIEW GOAL - THE MECHANICS
Review goals can be set July 16-August 15. You do this by editing your profile (the same page where you can change your password or contact email). When you log in to our website, one of the first things you see is a line like
"You are logged in as user aure_enteluva. Your email address is marta.fandom@gmail.com. If this information is incorrect, please update your profile here."
and clicking on "here" takes you to the page where you can edit your profile. You can also reach this page by clicking the link under "Reviewing" to set your reviewing goal, or by clicking "Name/Password" further down the page. These links all take you to the same page. Once there, you will see a place to enter the Target number of reviews. Just enter the number of reviews you want to have as your target, and click the "Save" button at the bottom of the page. You know your goal has been set when you are taken back to the main page, with the notice that "The user data modifications were saved successfully" at the top of the page.
You can change your goal until August 15, by doing the same thing. After then, your goal can't be changed.
********************************************
CHOOSING A REVIEW GOAL
What your goal is, is largely a personal question. Each person reviews differently. If you like to read longer stories, if you are newer to the awards, or if you will have less time to devote to the MEFAs because of offline/other fannish obligations, you may want to set a lower goal. In general I encourage people to choose a goal that will stretch them but not be impossible to reach. What exactly that means will depend on the person in question.
Here are some different approaches different people take:
==> Skim the whole list of stories, and add the stories they definitely want to read to their wish list. (Just click the Wish link on the right part of the screen.) Then make your reviewing goal the same as the number of stories on your wish list.
==> Decide based on past experience on a percentage of stories you want to review. For instance, if in past years you have read about a quarter of the stories nominated, and that you liked about half of *those* well enough to review hem, do the math and figure out how many stories you expect to review. 1/4 * 1/2 = 1/8 of all the stories. Since there are 606 stories in this year's competition, that works out to a review goal of about 75 stories.
(Or, adapt this method if you want to only review a certain type of story, or only some categories. For instance, if you only want to read stories that selected "Elves" as one of their main category choices, that's 144 stories. If you thought you would read a quarter of those stories and reviewed half of what you read, your review goal would be 18.)
==> Take a review goal from a previous year, and increase it a bit. If you did 50 last year, you might try for 60, or 75. (Keep in mind, we have roughly 10% fewer stories this year than last year; you may want to adjust for that.)
Of course I did a math degree so percentages and so on make sense to me. If words like "denominator" and "transitivity" scare you more than a raiding band of uruks, some of these approaches won't work for you. That's okay; don't overthink this. Just set a goal that you think is reasonable and go for it. If it was too high or too low, you can always adjust it for future years. And there's no shame in not meeting a review goal if you set one. The only real *rule* here is that your review goal has to be at least 10. After that, whatever you choose is up to you.
************************************
WHAT REVIEWS COUNT?
Basically, the website counts the number of reviews wrote that will actually be displayed and counted for the awards. That's reviews with the status "hidden" and "final." When this count meets your review goal, you've met your goal. Congratulations! I'll talk about what happens with that, in the next section.
Draft reviews do *not* count for this, unless you switch them to final or hidden by the end of the awards.
Things get a bit more complicated if you reviewed a story that didn't compete. If you reviewed a story (status hidden or final) and that story didn't compete at all, those reviews still counts toward your review goals. These reviews won't be displayed or counted, but we want to reward you for the effort anyway. It's not your fault the story didn't compete. If the story was just nominated twice and you reviewed the version that we withdrew, Tanaqui copied your review over to the competing version. (From the website's perspective, each nomination is distinct, even if it's for the same story.)
Like I said, that's complicated. I emailed the affected members a while back, but if you have questions you can always email me.
The main point is: the website looks at *all* the reviews you've written, from the beginning of competition until now. So if you want to review fifty more stories, you should add this to the number you've already reviewed, and *that* should be your review goal.
******************************
WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU MEET YOUR GOAL?
When you meet your review goal, you will be sent an email from the site congratulating you. It will also describe what happens next. Basically:
==> you can choose a banner for those members who have met their review goals. (Link in the FAQ and in the email.) Display it wherever you are allowed to show graphics, like at LJ or other blog sites.
==> you will be listed in a list of reviewers who met their goals, along with the goal you set. This list is in the FAQs, and will be linked from the website of story winners posted at the end of the awards.
==> in the list of site users, there will be a blue ribbon by your name to recognize your reaching your goal.
All of this will happen as soon as you meet your goal. You don't have to wait until the awards are over to announce that you met your goal.
The one thing that *doesn't* happen: you don't have to stop reviewing. If your goal was 75 and you reach that mid-October, more power to you. You can keep reviewing as much as you like. In fact, I encourage it! The review goal is just a way to motivate you to review, and to recognize those people who make reviewing a priority.
*****************************************
DO YOU HAVE TO SET A GOAL?
Nope! Some people like the challenge of meeting a goal, and for them the review goal can help motivate them. But other people just want to keep up a steady reviewing pace and review as many stories as they can. Others find it hard to predict how many stories they will actually like, and don't want to pressure themselves into reviewing stories just to meet some goal. If the review goal won't help you, you can ignore it.
We won't be able to officially recognize your work as a reviewer (one of the most important ways you can get involved with the awards IMO). But if you're okay with that, and f the review goals won't help you, then it really is okay not to set a goal. Review whatever way works best for you.
*****************************************
For more information on review goals, see:
http://www.mefawards.net/MEFA2010/index.php?page=FAQreviewergoal
To set your reviewing goal, log in and go to
http://www.mefawards.net/MEFA2010/index.php?page=editPerson
*****************************************
Marta
(MEFA Admin.)
This week I want to talk about review goals. Some people at MEFAwards have asked about that already, so some people may be wondering what that is all about. The basic idea is that some reviewers want to set a "target" to the number of reviews they will write. We then recognize them, both at the MEFA site themselves and by giving them a graphic they can display wherever they like.
But before we get started:
**********************************************
REMINDER - RECEIVING REVIEWS BY EMAIL
Starting on 16-July, "final" reviews will be shown on the MEFA website. Annmarwalk will also be posting the reviews to two other sites: the [mefas] LJ community and the [mefa-reviews] Yahoo group. Sign up for either one to read reviews by email or on your LJ friends page.
Reviews will *NOT* be posted to the MEFAwards Yahoo group. You need to sign up for this LJ or for the [mefa-reviews] group if you want to have them emailed to you.
**********************************************
SETTING A REVIEW GOAL - THE MECHANICS
Review goals can be set July 16-August 15. You do this by editing your profile (the same page where you can change your password or contact email). When you log in to our website, one of the first things you see is a line like
"You are logged in as user aure_enteluva. Your email address is marta.fandom@gmail.com. If this information is incorrect, please update your profile here."
and clicking on "here" takes you to the page where you can edit your profile. You can also reach this page by clicking the link under "Reviewing" to set your reviewing goal, or by clicking "Name/Password" further down the page. These links all take you to the same page. Once there, you will see a place to enter the Target number of reviews. Just enter the number of reviews you want to have as your target, and click the "Save" button at the bottom of the page. You know your goal has been set when you are taken back to the main page, with the notice that "The user data modifications were saved successfully" at the top of the page.
You can change your goal until August 15, by doing the same thing. After then, your goal can't be changed.
********************************************
CHOOSING A REVIEW GOAL
What your goal is, is largely a personal question. Each person reviews differently. If you like to read longer stories, if you are newer to the awards, or if you will have less time to devote to the MEFAs because of offline/other fannish obligations, you may want to set a lower goal. In general I encourage people to choose a goal that will stretch them but not be impossible to reach. What exactly that means will depend on the person in question.
Here are some different approaches different people take:
==> Skim the whole list of stories, and add the stories they definitely want to read to their wish list. (Just click the Wish link on the right part of the screen.) Then make your reviewing goal the same as the number of stories on your wish list.
==> Decide based on past experience on a percentage of stories you want to review. For instance, if in past years you have read about a quarter of the stories nominated, and that you liked about half of *those* well enough to review hem, do the math and figure out how many stories you expect to review. 1/4 * 1/2 = 1/8 of all the stories. Since there are 606 stories in this year's competition, that works out to a review goal of about 75 stories.
(Or, adapt this method if you want to only review a certain type of story, or only some categories. For instance, if you only want to read stories that selected "Elves" as one of their main category choices, that's 144 stories. If you thought you would read a quarter of those stories and reviewed half of what you read, your review goal would be 18.)
==> Take a review goal from a previous year, and increase it a bit. If you did 50 last year, you might try for 60, or 75. (Keep in mind, we have roughly 10% fewer stories this year than last year; you may want to adjust for that.)
Of course I did a math degree so percentages and so on make sense to me. If words like "denominator" and "transitivity" scare you more than a raiding band of uruks, some of these approaches won't work for you. That's okay; don't overthink this. Just set a goal that you think is reasonable and go for it. If it was too high or too low, you can always adjust it for future years. And there's no shame in not meeting a review goal if you set one. The only real *rule* here is that your review goal has to be at least 10. After that, whatever you choose is up to you.
************************************
WHAT REVIEWS COUNT?
Basically, the website counts the number of reviews wrote that will actually be displayed and counted for the awards. That's reviews with the status "hidden" and "final." When this count meets your review goal, you've met your goal. Congratulations! I'll talk about what happens with that, in the next section.
Draft reviews do *not* count for this, unless you switch them to final or hidden by the end of the awards.
Things get a bit more complicated if you reviewed a story that didn't compete. If you reviewed a story (status hidden or final) and that story didn't compete at all, those reviews still counts toward your review goals. These reviews won't be displayed or counted, but we want to reward you for the effort anyway. It's not your fault the story didn't compete. If the story was just nominated twice and you reviewed the version that we withdrew, Tanaqui copied your review over to the competing version. (From the website's perspective, each nomination is distinct, even if it's for the same story.)
Like I said, that's complicated. I emailed the affected members a while back, but if you have questions you can always email me.
The main point is: the website looks at *all* the reviews you've written, from the beginning of competition until now. So if you want to review fifty more stories, you should add this to the number you've already reviewed, and *that* should be your review goal.
******************************
WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU MEET YOUR GOAL?
When you meet your review goal, you will be sent an email from the site congratulating you. It will also describe what happens next. Basically:
==> you can choose a banner for those members who have met their review goals. (Link in the FAQ and in the email.) Display it wherever you are allowed to show graphics, like at LJ or other blog sites.
==> you will be listed in a list of reviewers who met their goals, along with the goal you set. This list is in the FAQs, and will be linked from the website of story winners posted at the end of the awards.
==> in the list of site users, there will be a blue ribbon by your name to recognize your reaching your goal.
All of this will happen as soon as you meet your goal. You don't have to wait until the awards are over to announce that you met your goal.
The one thing that *doesn't* happen: you don't have to stop reviewing. If your goal was 75 and you reach that mid-October, more power to you. You can keep reviewing as much as you like. In fact, I encourage it! The review goal is just a way to motivate you to review, and to recognize those people who make reviewing a priority.
*****************************************
DO YOU HAVE TO SET A GOAL?
Nope! Some people like the challenge of meeting a goal, and for them the review goal can help motivate them. But other people just want to keep up a steady reviewing pace and review as many stories as they can. Others find it hard to predict how many stories they will actually like, and don't want to pressure themselves into reviewing stories just to meet some goal. If the review goal won't help you, you can ignore it.
We won't be able to officially recognize your work as a reviewer (one of the most important ways you can get involved with the awards IMO). But if you're okay with that, and f the review goals won't help you, then it really is okay not to set a goal. Review whatever way works best for you.
*****************************************
For more information on review goals, see:
http://www.mefawards.net/MEFA2010/index.php?page=FAQreviewergoal
To set your reviewing goal, log in and go to
http://www.mefawards.net/MEFA2010/index.php?page=editPerson
*****************************************
Marta
(MEFA Admin.)