HOW TO GET MORE REVIEWS

Summary:

How to find reviewers, and how to make your thread look good for reviewers.

HOW TO GET MORE REVIEWS

Zyn 01 May 2020 04:18

If you need help getting more reviews on your concept thread, try politely reaching out to individuals from the following:

Reviewers:

• The Butterfly Squad Roster list
• The IRC chatrooms (highly recommended for quick real-time feedback)
• The Reviewers' Spotlight archive

Authors:

• Use the Tag Search tool to find articles similar to what you want to achieve, and reach out to the author(s) for their advice on how to achieve that.
• Look through the Authors's Pages for someone who has written works similar to your vision.

Community:

• Offer to exchange reviews with other authors in the forums and/or chat (notify them via private message).
• Look at the discussion threads of articles that are similar to what you want to write. Reach out to users who commented on those pages.
• If you are still having trouble finding a reviewer, notify a staff member or chat operator and ask them for assistance being matched to a reviewer.

Remember to provide a direct link to your concept thread for your reviewers!

What if someone declines to give a review?

Respect their response. If you ask politely, you can ask them for recommendations for other people to contact. If you find that you are receiving a lot of declines to review, consider brushing up on the basics of conceptualization by using the resources available to authors in the "Guides for Writing" portion of the Guide Hub, or ask the IRC chatrooms for brainstorming help.

What if someone doesn't reply?

Give a reviewer a day or two to respond. If there is no reply, send them a (polite!) followup message restating your request, and noting that you will be asking others as well. Then message another reviewer. Do not spam reviewers with requests for critique.

Last edited on 11 May 2020 05:49 by Zyn Show more

Re: HOW TO GET MORE REVIEWS

Zyn 01 May 2020 04:19

For those wondering how they can give their concept the best chance at getting greenlighted¹ immediately out of the gate, here are some suggestions based on trends observed in the forums and on the mainsite:

The Background Check:

• Confirm what you have hasn't been done already. Remember, tiny differences typically aren't enough to convince the audience that the site needs a new article that effectively does the same thing. Here are two ways to check if there's something similar already:
  • The Tag Search: http://www.scp-wiki.net/tag-search and accompanying Tag List: http://05command.wikidot.com/tech-hub-tag-list
  • The Site Search: http://www.scp-wiki.net/search:site/q/ (note, oftentimes not as reliable as Google)
• Confirm what you have isn't close to something recently deleted. Just because something isn't on the site yet doesn't mean it's automatically a good idea. Check the Announcement forum: http://www.scp-wiki.net/forum/c-1113520/announcements top listing for the current Deletions announcement thread. Scroll through the recent entries a bit to check.
• Master the audience. You're writing for the audience of the SCP wiki here, so it's always going to give you a head start if you know what the audience likes.
  • Look at the discussion threads for successful recently posted articles, and the feedback on deleted works.
  • See if you can guess how the community will react after you read something.
  • Learn what gets a good reaction, and what tends to get negative reactions. Incorporate that knowledge into your writing.

The Presentation:

• Use correct grammar and punctuation. The sloppier the forum writing is, the less ready for draft writing the author looks. Also, posts that are full of simple errors are pretty distracting to reviewers and can take much longer to get through with one read.
• Be polite and professional. Authors who seem pleasant to work with tend to attract prompt attention.
• Keep it simple. Knowing which parts of your concept summary are crucial to understanding the overall article and which parts are fluff details for the draft stage is the mark of a good author. If you have a ton of extra information that the reviewer is swimming through to get to the important stuff, it doesn't really inspire confidence in the quality of the eventual draft.
• Try to have something new to excite readers. Given that there are thousands of articles on the SCP wiki and thousands of threads in the forums, reviewers are hungry for novelty and unique perspectives they have never encountered before². It doesn't have to be a big flashy epiphany, but there should be something neat or quirky or otherwise new that will make a reviewer glad they picked your thread to read.

Footnotes

1. Greenlights are given when a qualified reviewer believes a concept is ready to be drafted. For a first-time author wanting to use the draft forum, two greenlights are required. Greenlights are not required for posting to the mainsite, or seeking draft critique via wikidot private message or in the chatrooms.

2. Examples including thoughts like, "what happens if someone turns your brains to salsa and eats it?" from Salsa Hammer or "what if a driver's hand signal could prevent road rage?" from Share the Road

Re: HOW TO GET MORE REVIEWS

Zyn 01 May 2020 04:27

If you are confused about any of these forum guidelines, please use the Questions Desk forum. Make a new thread there to seek clarification.