To go along with the new reviews system, Rafe and I have been discussing how to manage it. We've come up with this. There'll be one main 'Editor/Oversee-er' (which would be me), along with 3 'Senior Reviewers' who'll help all the other reviewers with style, edit the reviews (where needed), talk to the companies, post reviews and keep everything ship shape.
What we need know is 2-3 people willing to help out with review management. Preferabbly with a 9210, 7650 and (in the near future) a P800 between the three of them.
Note that ANYONE can still review apps and games, these volunteers are only to help co-ordinate everything.
A bit off topic, but I am in contact with the company that makes the Sierra Engine. I am reviewing their project. If I finish it, should I post it here for someone to check?
Im in progress of doing a review of Call Manager www.virtualware.it
Just to let you know 😃
Waiting for the new review system.
The theory is that all reviews would go through the Reviews Board for editing / fwd to companies / posting. Perhpas a new "Reviewers" Forum area is needed so it can be discussed wit h the non-admin reviewers?
For the moment (ONLY) email 'em to me.
would it be easier if I/Rafe extend the review system with a extra flag to make it go public?
Just something that prevents users browsing the siteto view it in the listings, but in the system so companies can read it online as can we and can be edited online?
Hmmm...
I like the flag idea anyway, no matter what we use for editing.
As to editing online... it's not for me (The Psion Netbook won't access AAS from a London Underground Tube Train) but it would be for some people. But I can see it working. Hey we're flexible - I'll go with the online hiddne idea. In which case can we add "Editorial Notes" as a field?
BTW how would companies see the draft? They get a special login? Hmm... that needs thinking about.
I dont understand where companies are involved? Why should they see a draft?
As a courtesy we send a completed review to the relevant Author or Company before we post it so they can read it over.
we can prevent reviews to appear on general lists by using a flag.
but we could still link to the review like review.php?id=15 or something. So the companies could see the review in it's final state like it will be viewed on aas. Don't think we'll need security settings for something like this ...
I did not subsribe to the reviewer team because I am a very bussy person, and I cannot say I`ll do it, but I can try.
For the Companies, I would create another Forum within AAS, especialy for Companies, with a special UserName and Password, that allow them to see that forum, made coments, announce programz....
Ideea is like the secret ADMIN is showned only if you log in Corectley, with your username and password.
How do you like this ideea?
[quote="TheSpecialBoy"]I did not subsribe to the reviewer team because I am a very bussy person, and I cannot say I`ll do it, but I can try.
For the Companies, I would create another Forum within AAS, especialy for Companies, with a special UserName and Password, that allow them to see that forum, made coments, announce programz....
Ideea is like the secret ADMIN is showned only if you log in Corectley, with your username and password.
How do you like this ideea?[/quote]
I like it, but I'm not sure how companies would respond to something like this. For example mail is faster to announce, second I don't think they would like other companies to see their discussions about a review or something.
As in a "Companies can talk directly to the Admin team?" I like it.
As to the volunteering, SpeicalBoy (and anyone else) can still write reviews, thats not a problem (and I'd encourage it) but some people to help with the rest of the leg work will help immensly.
[quote="Ewan-FreEPOC"]As in a "Companies can talk directly to the Admin team?" I like it.
As to the volunteering, SpeicalBoy (and anyone else) can still write reviews, thats not a problem (and I'd encourage it) but some people to help with the rest of the leg work will help immensly.[/quote]
You can count on me 1/2, I never got 1 hour of english lessons, so the exprimation it is not quite english...if I might say.
Here I am, count on me.
As the ADMIN-Companies forum, I think it is the best solution i can put out at the moment. I had a good experience with between, reviewing their cosmic fighter, so I assume I can manage it a litle.
I am not so special, or am I wrong? Hmm, it`s up to you to decide that. :agrue:
I've been thinking about this.
I think it wouod be easier enough to as Dazler says have a flag set that shows or doesn't show reviews as appropriate.
There can be an address to see reviews that overides this setting but this would not be public. This could be sent to comapnies etc. so they could see what it looked like in its final state - however it will have various extra features like send e-mail to review, comments etc.
It should be quite possible to add an editorial comments field to the review as well. I thought about a way to implement this which I think will work quite well. It should allow multiple comment about any one given review. In addition it might be possible to automate the sending of an e-mail to a company informing them of a review.
I think creating an admin forum specifically for reviews is also a good idea.
One thing to bare in mind however is that some companies are still going to want to do this by e-mail.
On a side note lettin companies look at reviews grew out of companies approaching us directly and asking for a review. It also means if we make any horrific mistakes they get caught. Reviewers should note that you can ignore whatever a company might say about your review, we stress the importance of not bowing to company demands (unless say you say an app doesn't have a function when it does) - it a system that benefots both sides (in theory).
I'll be styudying this in more depth once the server move is complete (hopefully going to happen some time today).
And to remind you, the companies do have the right to put a paragraph at the end of a review stating their case if they want it - this is limited to 206 words (for historical reasons that will not become readily apparent here), and will be clearly labelled as "XXXX Replies..." or something similar.
So yes, if you want to say "This app is crap" then away you go and do it, we'll stand behind you (ducking if need be? - Rafe).
Oh yeah forgot about that.
It woudl be easy to add another field to the database that allows this sort of thing, i.e. developer can add it themseleves or writer or whatever.
Just have to work oput my way round Dazler's excellent scripting.
Rafe
Suffering a similar issue to Ewan, it's hard to connect a 9210 to the net when I'm under the English Channel on my way to work. Needless to be said I'm easy to be called on for reviews and help.
[quote="SwitchBlade"]Suffering a similar issue to Ewan, it's hard to connect a 9210 to the net when I'm under the English Channel on my way to work. Needless to be said I'm easy to be called on for reviews and help.[/quote]
And if we provide a easy access? like mail?
like reviews get posted and a bunch of people get it in the mail from the website...
so you can update it and repost it when available..
Brilliant!
As I am not english, put this in american 😉
Do we need the Temporary reviews to be seen by companies, or just the final version?
I mean does the companies need to see the progress for the reviews of their products, or we just need theyr OK before making it public?
Nope, just the final draft - the version that will be posted. Intermediate copies flying between editors and reviewers stay within AAS.
[quote="Dazler"][quote="SwitchBlade"]Suffering a similar issue to Ewan, it's hard to connect a 9210 to the net when I'm under the English Channel on my way to work. Needless to be said I'm easy to be called on for reviews and help.[/quote]
And if we provide a easy access? like mail?
like reviews get posted and a bunch of people get it in the mail from the website...
so you can update it and repost it when available..[/quote]
Pencil me in as a maybe,I've got some other commitments (😉) cropping up at the mo, so it's dependant on my free time after.
I will help just tell me what to do!
I am not sure that I am qualified...but assuming you are still looking for volunteers, I also offer my services to help out where I can. Like everyone else, my biggest constraint is time - this is further exacerbated by periods out of the country. I don't have p800 / 7650 so this would limit me to 9210 apps. I am not great on games, but could probably help out in most other areas. If you find someone else better qualified to help on the 9210 side then don't worry about offending me - you won't !