Troy1960 — Sat, 13 Nov 2004 15:02:43 +0000

I totally understand where TWF is coming from. I did not personally think about the scenarios presented. Thanks for your justification.

Abhishek Reddy — Sat, 13 Nov 2004 10:20:11 +0000

Megan is right. To expand further:

Quote: What qualifies as a review? If a person posts a useless two word response, it still counts as a post. Should it count as a review?

This would require us to scrutinise every reply to every thread in that forum. Although the mods monitor all threads, we don't necessarily analyse every post to see if it's a decent "review". By keeping it open, we'd only need to check up after the event. Takes less time, and isn't too costly to deal with.

Quote: Some people don't feel comfortable reviewing other sites or participating in general. Should they be denied help because of shyness?

Some people may have difficulties with language, say. As it is, they may post a review request without offering reviews. Once they post, they confirm their intention to participate, and we can amicably contend with whatever their problem might be. Suppose they had to post three times to ask for a review, chances are they'll be turned off it directly. Or else their only options are to either PM a staff member or to post poor critiques for others.

Forums often use this post count system to lock new/inactive members out of a "privileged" area; some section of the site that's really a reward for those who participate broadly. At TWF, the Critiques area is not simply a privilege. It's (mind the pun) a critical part of what gets and keeps people here. Pre-emptively locking people out can be a double-edged sword.

I had personally been in favour of this once, only for want of *some* solution to this issue. In hindsight, I don't think it might've been such a good idea.

Megan — Fri, 12 Nov 2004 20:48:16 +0000

It's been discussed, many times, and we have decided not to implement it for a variety of reasons. These discussions are usually about requiring a certain number of reviews in order to post in critiques. What you suggested is a slightly different issue but many of the reasons still apply.

Some of these reasons are:

What qualifies as a review? If a person posts a useless two word response, it still counts as a post. Should it count as a review?
In these discussions we were always talking about a moderator approval system, which requires more moderator time and attention
Double standard - people aren't required to have a certain number of posts before asking questions and getting help in other areas of the forums
Some people don't feel comfortable reviewing other sites or participating in general. Should they be denied help because of shyness?
Putting a restriction on a popular forum like this immediately closes a door into the community. TWF has always been an open and welcoming place and putting a restriction like this in would go against that principle.

Sure, it would be great if we could make everyone stay on here and become part of the community, but that's just not going to happen. It would also be great if everyone graciously accepted all advice given but that isn't going to happen either

I'll dig around in Mod Corner if I have some time and refresh my memory about some of the other reasons given. Some people really want to go with this but I've always been opposed.