Thread: Templates for the review section?

The review section is without a doubt my favorite part of the forum and I usually spend a lot of time browsing in there, as I'm sure a lot of us have. The main issue I have is that the quality of the review all depends on the efforts of the reviewer. While some reviews are outstanding, others are severely lacking and make me wonder why the "reviewer" even bothered.

If there were to be a template (similar to the Introduction section) with various mandatory and obvious need-to-know facts about the tracker, then it would force a standard of quality which would be delivered every time.



Thoughts?

There are a lot of reviews for the same tracker and I must say I agree with you mate.It certainly does need cleaning up,but its hard.And yes a template like that would be really nice

A rough example:

Each section would have to be filled otherwise the you won't be able to go along with your submission. I'm not sure whether it's possible or not, but the submission process would work like this: To enter the tracker level a drop option would be there with - Low level, Mid level, High level. You then simply choose the appropriate level. The same would apply to the year (or it can be entered manually). The Banner, Home, Categories, Browse, Forums, Additional Features, Rules, and Stats, will all have a browse bar each so that screens can be uploaded. The Pros, Cons, and Conclusion sections will have a text box each with a certain minimum of characters to avoid one worded or one sentence answers.

If that submission process isn't possible, then obviously everything would have to be entered manually.


Level:

Year/Version:

Logo/Banner:

Home:

Categories:

Browse:

Forums:

Additional Features:

Rules:

Stats:

Pros:

Cons:

Conclusion:

I don't understand what you mean by Year/Version.

I don't think this would be the best idea, while it would force a certain standard it would just mean that people wont be bothered to make one in the first place and the people who do, would have most likely made it that good anyway. I've only made one review but editing and joining the screens took long enough as it was.

If it wasn't mandatory but just a recommend sticky template I would be far more inclined to agree with you.

Originally Posted by flutrose

I don't understand what you mean by Year/Version.

As in the year of the tracker review or the version of the tracker. If you look at some reviews, some of them were made in 07 -08 and then there's an update review from 09. It just lets the reader know what version the tracker is that's being reviewed.

Originally Posted by thedeh

I don't think this would be the best idea, while it would force a certain standard it would just mean that people wont be bothered to make one in the first place and the people who do, would have most likely made it that good anyway. I've only made one review but editing and joining the screens took long enough as it was.

If it wasn't mandatory but just a recommend sticky template I would be far more inclined to agree with you.

That's the whole point of this proposed template - so that only those who are willing to make the necessary efforts are the ones making the reviews, while those who make bad reviews are filtered out, or would atleast have to step up their game to participate.

What's there to loose, except bad reviews?

But isn't a bad review better than no review? There is the review request sticky that you can request new reviews in if their bad... I dunno, I'm just playing devils advocate, overall I agree you you. I would love to see the section held to a higher standard.

I don't agree with the any review is better than no review view point, especially when there's posible solutions to avoid bad reviews all together. But I'm glad we can agree that we'd like to see a higher standard overall.

Any mod/admin feedback would be appreciated.

Quality control is difficult with the number of reviews coming in.

If enough people wanted there could be a committee that approved reviews before they are visible.

However there would have to be at least 5 people before i would agree. They must be reputable.