Admin: Complete Rules (revised)

[eryn_]

Real Reviews of Harry Potter Fanfiction

Finally a place where writers can actually discuss fanfiction, where the word "review" has not been perverted to mean "praise".

Sometimes things can be made even better by extra attention. Although we expect work to be self-edited and betaed, this is the place to get a critical eye when your friends and fans have been too kind to say what really needs to be said.

Remember that a Real Review is a critique and can indicate both good and bad points. Reviews are not always positive, though they should always be about the work itself.

Content advisory: Mature content may be posted here. Please use good judgment and Do NOT read things you are not mature enough to handle. Be responsible for your own actions.

Rules

Reading:

- We welcome readers. Anyone may read realreview posts.
- Heed the warnings and ratings. Do NOT read things you are not mature enough to handle. Be responsible for your own actions.
- Please do review stories you read here.

Membership and Moderation:

- You must have a LiveJournal account and be a realreview member to post.
- Non-realreview members and people without LiveJournal accounts may read your postings.
- You must have a LiveJournal account to leave a comment.
- Non-realreview members' comments are screened.
- realreview Membership is controlled. Everyone with an active LJ will be approved, but plagiarists and trolls can be removed.
- Postings may be moderated. The moderators will remove invalid and inappropriate postings. (Please contact us if you see something which needs moderator attention.)

Posting:

- We welcome new stories posted.
- Stories are the only valid user posts.
- Only post your own work.
- English-language stories only, please. (Smatterings of foreign words are fine.)
- Do not repost the same story.
- Only post things you can stand to risk being honestly (as in "we might not like it") reviewed.
- Edit and polish to the best of your ability before you post. (You will get a more useful response if reviewer's time is not wasted pointing out things you already know.) realreview is not a beta service.
- Use the template. (Template can be cut and pasted and will include bolding/formatting of header.)
- Post story behind an lj-cut, AFTER the rating/warnings.
- All pairings, 'ships, genres, and subject matter are welcome. Please give adequate notices.
- Put the story title in the subject of the post.
- This format works best for stand-alone stories/chapters. Post continuing works at the risk of minimal reviews.
- One post per day per member and a maximum of three posts per week per member.

Advice:

• If you have specific issues you want comments to address, mention that in the Notes: before the story begins.
• If you are posting the latest chapter of something, please provide links so we can see the beginning. Do not expect people to read 15 chapters of something in order to comment on a single chapter; if your chapter doesn't stand alone, provide a contextual summary as best you can.
• If you are responding to a writing challenge and the rules of the challenge directly impact the style or character choice, you might want to indicate the challenge requirements (do not expect readers to have outside knowledge of a specific sub-fandom group).

- Tags. The community policy on tags is being re-evaluated. For now, try to add the names of characters in the story, the rating, and your username as tags.

Editing:

- You are welcome to fix posting errors.
- Please do add a link to the post indicating where to find an edited version or point to a public archived version.
- Do not edit the realreview posted version in response to comments.
- If changes absolutely have to be made, they should be annotated by all of the following:

• a top note with the timestamp for changes
• striking: text to be deleted
• color change: text added

Comments:

for the reader:

• Our authors post here to get real feedback. Try to think of yourself as a theater critic watching the dress rehearsal. Point out what works and what does not work about the cast, staging, direction, play, props, etc. and tell us whether you thought the overall experience was worth reading.
• Make sure you stay away from topics outside the story itself unless they are directly related to the writing.
• It is fine if your review is long.
• It is fine to say you disliked something entirely, if you can be specific why.
• If you want to leave a rave review, be specific and that would be excellent feedback as well.
• Absolutely no personal attacks will be tolerated.

for the story author:

• Please respond to comments. It encourages dialogue when you discuss points reviewers have made. Some of the best advice comes from a back-and-forth between the author and reviewer(s).
• Try not to be defensive; it is fine to disagree, but resist the urge to refute every point.
• Reviewers will write negative things. You are not your story, so try to distance yourself before replying.
• Remember that people spend a lot of time on the reviews and appreciate that effort even if you cannot appreciate the content.

Questions? email the moderators