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Hey yo, I hope everyone's doing ok. I don't know if this suggestion has been made before or if this is the right bit of the forum but with all the good writing competitions lately I was wondering if a reading competition was a good idea to boost writers' feedback, comments and ratings? Something like read as many stories as you can for one month, and if you can earn a Top Rater Trophy (read 50% of the stories) you get x amounts of commendations or points, if you earn a Supreme Rater Trophy (read 95% of the stories) you get x amount of goodies and if you read all the stories on the site (100%) you get some special benefit like a load of goodies or maybe awarded a trophy.

This might just mean people scan through the stories quickly without really reading them and leave a random rating so maybe there could be some rule about leaving a meaningful comment and some bonus for those that get their comments featured? I don't know if this is a good idea or not but I know, like most members, I don't read enough stories on here and it might be good to have some sort of short-term motivational project, like a reading competition, to boost the main reading reward system (points, commendations, etc).

I'm all for people with 100% trophies getting a load of goodies.

I've tried thinking of various ways to encourage more reviews. But pushing general site involvement seems the healthiest way, when you arm twist apathetic people or offer incentive they tend to just bullshit their way through it I've noticed. Points and comms and featured comments plus the already existing trophies are really all we have to offer without some coding changes specifically aimed at this.

Which I've also brainstormed on, but it's pretty far down the priority list when practically speaking we still only have Nightwatch and Killa for that. The featured comments have been pretty effective, but there's only three per game. The ability to commend comments without featuring them has been something I've wanted for years though.

At this point in things though I'd really just like to encourage everyone to be more comfortable leaving short comments on things sometimes as well. Among the people that do read regularly, there are some that seem to feel pressured to hold themselves to a standard of essay length reviews. Which means until they have time and motivation to do that the authors just gets nothing. And so the vast majority of comments written on the site are from randos who just get to the point because they're not tryharding for recognition, while the established people who count more aren't weighing in at all.

Yeah, there are lots of existing ways on the site to motivate feedback and I do worry people might just leave a random score with the ratings for the points so comments seem a priority. Increasing the number of Featured Comments to 5 might expand the existing system? Perhaps a thread in the forum like the writing threads but a reading thread or a comment on a story every day for a month thread might also help? I like the story games in need thing on the main page, perhaps a link to show all stories by ratings / comments might help identify those that have received the least feedback but that would need some coding.

It's interesting what you say about the comments - I've noticed the stories often get fantastic multi-paragraph reviews or just a line or two, it sounds like a good idea to go for a middle ground. I'm trying to find ways to motivate myself to get more active with the site again as well tbh :D

Maybe we could do something like reading duels?  I'm not sure on the visibility of the games one has read, but if the duel required leaving a comment on each one, or if the duel was to review and comment on a fixed set of games, that would be easy enough to validate manually. Some kind of scoring rubric based on fixed points to touch on in the review to give some baseline of "quality" would allow for scoring by the judge.

I second this idea, though I'm not sure how well it'd catch on

Coincidentally, a few weeks ago, I brainstormed a 'review competition' where interested members would sign up and be assigned to a random group*.The idea is to write the most 'good' comments in a month. This would follow a tier-list, and even though I don't know what the fairest number of points to award for each is, I'm thinking of something like this:

Small comment (a few lines): 1 point
Commendation-worthy comment: 10 points
Featured comment: 20 points

Everyday, I would update two leaderboards: one for the top 10 individuals, and the other for the total points of each group. A mod/ unbiased person would decide which comments are 'commendation-worthy'. Then at the end of the month/ whenever we choose to end this, the winners would get pointless points, pride, and potentially a trophy**. I'm thinking top 3 or top 5 prizes for the individual ranking (depending on how many people join), but for groups, only the winning one would get... whatever the grand prize is. I haven't decided yet though it's probably more points.

The rationale behind adding a 'group' system is for there to be an extra layer of incentive. I'm counting on the active members to tag and annoy the less-active ones in their group.

Extra chaos: If this idea lasts for several weeks, I'm thinking that the winning group at the end of each week will get to 'swap' one of their members with another group. This allows for sabotage and strategy. It also prevent people from losing momentum halfway, especially if there are mini-contests within this contest*.

Extra extra chaos: If any member remains the top reviewer for 3 consecutive days, they will get special abilities. For example, this might mean being able to force a group of their choice to only write reviews for a specific genre. If we somehow run this review competition, feel free to suggest ideas that will make things interesting.

*The groups would only be edited if it's extremely unfair (e.g. a group with mostly noobs who have never written a comment)
**Of course, this is all just a rough idea at the moment, but it could be a prize if a trophy-holder is willing to give their personal trophy to the winner/ the blue trophy for site contributions
***Mini-contest idea: a storygame is selected by an impartial person (maybe a well-known story like Eternal, or a newer one that hasn't received enough comments). Then, everyone tries to write the best review for that specific story in 24 or 48 hours. Authors of the top 3 reviews (the only ones who will receive the featured slot) will be granted points for themselves and their group.

So, let me know what you all think! Would you participate in something like this? It's more of an idea than a plan rn, but if there are lots of interested individuals, I might see if I can run this/ trick other members into helping me host it. Also, feel free to give implementation ideas if you have any.

The posting masterful as always from the poster. The post itself is dense with content and it kept me entertained until the very end. I couldn't help but be enthralled by the thought that is so neatly and wonderfully put in this post.

I have to say that I enjoyed every minute of this post. I'm tempted to say that the poster has outdone themselves. I would like to thank them for yet another wonderful read, I eagerly anticipate the next post that they may create. Be it some inspired sequel to this post or something completely different altogether.

At this point I think that it is safe to say that it is only right for me to look foward to their next post. The level of care and attention to detail that the poster places into each of the posts is always a treat to read and enjoy.

Thank you for creating this amazing post and thanks to the poster once again, for writing wonderful and enthralling posts.

Wonderful comment, mizal.

I dare say, it's one of the best comments. What you just did has once again proven to us all, why you have rose to the position that you are in on this site. With this comment, you have shown poise, maturity, and the markings of an excellent contributor on this very site. It's safe to say, this is a comment that can stand the test of time.

Why?

Because you've shown us all that every word, every single letter that has been typed out, it means something to you. And when something means something to the creator, it becomes infectious, but in a good way. Since you cared about this comment, I in turn care about it it. I have no issues just going up to a new user perhaps, and directing to a comment like this and saying:

If you want to make something of great quality, do it like this. Show you are passionate, that you mean every word, but do not only do it for the praise, but do it because you believe in it.

That I feel, is the mark of a great comment, or a great commenter.

mizal has proven with this comment that she is that kind of person.

Truly, if we could enshrine comments, do something that prevents such comments from being lost in time. This very comment would be first in my ballot. It made me laugh, cry, and smile, all at the same time. My cat is looking at me like I am crazy now, but I guess that's because I felt so much emotion from reading this very comment in this thread.

 

Thank you.

I love that!

This sounds like a good idea :)

When are you publishing Magellan 5?

It's a good framework to start from.  I would think that you might want to adjust the amount of points for commended and features reviews just a bit (Maybe to 5/10).  You don't want them so high that someone getting one just blows out anyone else trying to compete.  

RE: minicontests - In addition to the top review, you could also do time trials, something like most reviews of X length within Y hours 

Having some kind of trophy or something would be cool as a reward, especially if they are longer form contests (3-6 months in duration).

I think it's a great idea! The one thing I would suggest is adjusting the points for storygame size and/or wordcount. It's easy to write a 600 word review on a 1/8 length game, so without some adjustment for length, I can see this turning into a competition focused on thoroughly analyzing 500-word quiz games.

To incentivize participation, maybe the top reviewers get one of their games centered for the selected-game mini-game you described? That way authors who want their games reviewed will have the incentive to review a lot of games.

That would kinda discourage me from participating. I don't think I can cope with the fact that my most read game still is "it's a boy" or that it will get even more reads if I did more reviews.

This would let you potentially select one of your other games as the focus of a minigame or something to try to supplant IAB in that roster for you.

I do like the idea of a sliding scale of points based on game length and difficulty.

 

We can make it so that you could choose any one you wanted to. Most people probably would want it to be their own game, but if you didn't want to you could choose some new storygame that has barley any ratings yet or something like that. 

I would participate. I agree with the idea of adjusting points based on story length. Otherwise everyone would review the shortest stories on the site.

What about a formula of Story Length (1-8) +1 point per 100 words in review (minimum of one, maximum of 3).  This total would be multiplied by 2 if commended, or by 3 if  featured?

So something like eternal would be worth up to 11 points base, or 33 if it was became a featured comment.

Do we want to revive this idea for the upcoming end of the Gone Fishin' Contest?

You sound insane. I'm not reading a single thing and no one can make me.

Reading? What's that? Never heard of it. 

As this is the first contest I've passed on since my return to the site, I am planning to churn through all the entries at the end. I'm down to participate