The GMC Reviewers Choice sub-forum launched as part of the main Game Maker Community during February of last year may be nearing an end, following apparent slowness with the acceptence of new reviewers and the flow of content.
“Truth be told, because of the lack of input in this forum, we’re considering axeing it completely” [sic] wrote GMC moderator Takagi in May of this year.
The suggestion of removing the subforum has created passionate reaction. GMC reviewer chance suggested that Reviewers Choice is the only area of the community that “represents an effort at intelligent content” claiming that other areas of the forum, specifically the Distributing Games section, are “garbage” in comparison.
Multiple budding reviewers attempting to get a chance to write for the forum have stated that the reviewing process is slow and “demotivating”.
“I’ve been trying to get a review of my own posted here for like 4 months.” orange08 said, a user attempting to contribute content.
Despite this, moderators associated with the forum insist that applications are still open to people who wish to publish their reviews. In the meantime the publishing of content remains slow, with only one review being posted this month.
After reading xot’s post, this sounds like miscommunication between members and the staff. Or just an unfortunate misunderstanding.
I applied and was accepted within a few days. And both my recent reviews were accepted within 24 hours of being posted.
So maybe the only problem is just too few members willing to write reviews.
I did read a submission from orange08 from last October and offered suggestions for where it needed to be improved. I never heard anything from him again, although Takagi may have.
I’ve only personally seen two other submissions since then and both of them were approved and posted. I’m not convinced the problems with the forum are its moderation.
It would be nice if the authors of articles critical of GMC moderation would at least attempt to contact the moderators before submitting their stories for publication.
Hello,
I personally attempted to submit a review a good month a go. After contact with numerous moderators, the submission remained entirely ignored. Takagi remaining the only moderator who was actively involving himself in the discussion around the Reviewers Choice board suggested waiting, then explained consideration of removing the subforum altogether. The issue was never resolved weeks upon weeks later, and there was no response from any moderator at all to any material or queries sent in.
There are only two moderators assigned to the forum, and I am one of them. I’m also one of the only people who could move you into the Reviewers group. I see no indication that you have ever tried to contact me for any reason. Maybe you just slipped through the cracks, maybe it was something else. I have no way of knowing.
I think something should be done about this. Perhaps when indie(Function); gets bigger, we could submit all our reviews of GM games there. I’m sure they’d love that.
indie(Function); members would also love to read through some of them, and become moderators for that section of the forum. We’d read through them and find which ones are good.
It appears there is a willing group who wish to post reviews, but the system of submission is flawed.
Perhaps some lower ranked admins can be recruited to check the quality of the reviews? Of course, this would create its own problems – finding and training them.
Sondar
There is definitely a problem with the administration of Reviewers Choice, yes. Its a shame because by now it should be a thriving resource.