Dual Comment Swap Features

@ dru can fly!
I agree. And hopefully having the second review option would mean that only the people who want reviews and will write good quality comments will use it, and the ones who don't want to receive or write those ones will use the other comment swap. I think it could be really beneficial.

@ MistressOfInsanity
But no one forces you to read the first chapter. Quite a few people pick a random one, or the last one, and write their comment about that. That being said, I too get a bit frustrated when people only review the first chapter, despite me asking them to pick a random one in the summary. I don't really know if anything can be done about that, though.

However, I think having a rule where the reviewer must look at later chapters for their comment to count would be potentially bad. What if the summary sounded great and you start reading from the start and get hooked? You want to read the whole thing, and therefore don't want to skip ahead to the ending and ruin anything. But to make the comment count, and to beat the 24 hour time limit, you have to do so.

I also think a genre tag system and higher word/character count will help people to leave better comments, so people will be more satisfied with the comment swap feature.

@ darkfallenangel
Yeah, some people are good and pick a random chapter but for the ones that don't.

I didn't think about them getting hooked! Oops. If that were the case, then maybe they could simply state that they have read up to a certain point? I'm just thinking it should be used as a rough guideline to avoid the one-chapter wonders.

But maybe a 48 hour time limit would be better for a review anyway? If basic comment swap gets 24 hours, then you'd expect something more in-depth to require more time.

@ MistressOfInsanity
Perhaps with the review swap having a higher word count, you would need to read more to give meet the word count. That being said, that would probably just mean you get comments about chapter one and two, but then again it might be a case of what I said earlier to dru: it might encourage the right people to use it, so quality will probably increase anyway, which also means there might be more people who pick random chapters using it. Or maybe it just has to be a criteria of the review swap, to pick a random chapter to review.

Well it could be a good idea. Maybe everyone just needs to put a quick note in their summary saying what chapters to review (or not to review) and people just need to follow that. I don't know.

It could be. I know I'd only use it when I have sufficient time to actually write out a good comment, but that doesn't mean everyone else will. It could be a bit frustrating if you wanted to skip the story though (for personal reasons), having to wait two days instead of just one.

@ darkfallenangel
All very true. I suppose we've just got to see what happens with the updated comment swap. It should give a much better basis for a review option.

I think I'm just being idealist in hoping to give all the bad eggs a kick in the bum for their potential spoiling of a wonderful feature. But I think having more guidelines, not rules, would help. Again, this is all stuff that will need evaluating with the updated swap.

Same. I only used to use comment swap on the basis of having time to do it but I think with the genres and things you'd be more likely to require more time if you really liked a story, and wanted to give a really thorough feedback, of course, than coming across something you don't want to read? Do you know if we're going to have trigger warnings on the updated swap?

@ MistressOfInsanity
I dunno if the update will include a review kind of thing, or if it will just fix the glitches, like how me and lots of other people are stuck on one story.

I know, I'm kind of like that too. I don't know if you saw it, but a while back in this thread there was a suggestion made that there should be the guideline of having to comment about three things that didn't include grammar, spelling or the layout (though you could still comment about spelling/grammar/layout, but three other things as well). I think that would be a great start to improving the quality of comments.

No, I really don't know what Dujo's gonna do with the comment swap feature....

@ darkfallenangel
I just meant fixing it for the glitches. I'm stuck on the same story too, I share your pain.

I didn't see that, but that's a pretty cool idea. I'm thinking a tutorial needs to be done specifically about comment swap anyway, with a list of things to comment on or something. It might help some people who are scared of giving criticism or who simply don't know how to give decent feedback.

Oh okay. I just thought by chance you might've heard something in the grapevine. I've only really been looking at the Comment Swap thread recently but you seem pretty clued up on it all xD Do you think it'd be a good idea to have triggers as a tick-box or something? I know some people accept NC-17 stories because they're okay with porn/sex but there's a difference between that and something like rape.

@ MistressOfInsanity
Oh ok. I really wish it would get fixed soon...

I'm pretty sure Kurtni did one a while ago, about how to get the most out of it, or something like that. But maybe another one or two need to be done to keep on reminding people and like you said, letting them know it's okay to give con crit, and how to do it.

Yeah I've kept up to date with the comment swap thread, but that's mainly just people reporting glitches/problems/bad comments/asking questions/etc. I know what you mean, and I think it's a good idea too. I think things like rape, slash, suicide/depression, eating disorders, and other things of the like, have all been suggested in the comment swap thread to be triggers, and I hope some sort of check-box thing does happen for it. It'll just help people to leave better comments, since they don't have to read things they're uncomfortable with, even though the 24 hour limit will help with that.

@ darkfallenangel
Me too. I only managed to do five swaps before it glitched on me. It was ridiculous.

Ah, yeah, I think I know the one. You probably can't see anymore if you've got the glitch like me but it'd be cool if when you go to sign up for comment swap, it came up with a link to the article on it. Sort of like the coloured ones we get at the top of our My Mibba page when there's an important update. I'll have a look tomorrow at Kurtni's article though and have a look at what she said, and take note of anything she might've missed :)

Definitely. Again, you're right about the time limit helping but for those who don't want to have to wait. I mean I'm not sure if I agree that slash is an acceptable 'trigger' as such, like I've seen a few people suggest in the comment swap thread, but as a whole, yeah, a checkbox wouldn't go amiss.

@ MistressOfInsanity
Haha I did way more than that, but it stopped when I needed feedback on a new story, so that was pretty crappy....

Yes, that would be great, actually. And any other tutorials/articles written about how to give con crit and stuff like that could be added to the side (or wherever) as well so people can always easily access them, and know they exist.

Maybe trigger isn't the best word, but I know that some people refuse to read slash (and/or femslash), whether that be for personal reasons or religious reasons or something else, so I think they should have the option to not receive those stories.

The only issue I see with selecting tags and swapping stories of similar length is the time delay it would present. There are a lot more one shots submitted to the swap, for example, than longer, chaptered stories, so users who submit chaptered stories may have to wait quite awhile before someone is even assigned their story to comment on. Users are not required to read the whole story anyways, so it puts authors with long stories at an unnecessary disadvantage.

And as far as content restrictions go, I think users who dislike reading about mature subjects need to lower their rating and not accept anything about PG-13, which is something they can already do now. If they still end up with something they don't like, they can wait for the 24 time period to pass (or, for right now, contact a story editor and let them know why they cannot comment).

@ MistressOfInsanity
Some people put a note in the summary. "Attention users here for comment swap, please read and comment newer chapters." It's worth a try.

@ dru can fly!
I'm one of those. It didn't work. At all. I would love to keep trying it out and see if it was just the people that happened to get the story, but it's broken for me...

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An issue with just lowering the rating that I've had is that I'm not uncomfortable reading about all mature subjects, just a few. When I was comment swapping I wondered if I was missing out on some good writing because my ratings were set low.

Perhaps when submitting a story you can choose what chapter you want to receive a comment on, and that's where the person who receives it gets directed to.

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Either that, or we could have the option to write a quick message to the person who receives it. There would could ask them to comment on a specific chapter and know that they'll see the message (and hopefully do it).

I don't like the idea of being able to decide what type of stories you'd like to read. People are already complaining about the wait and that would only lengthen it.

@ KatieMosing
How do you mean? Do you mean specific tags like "Twilight" or less specific like "Movie" or something else?

@ darkfallenangel
More Twilight than movie, but I don't even think movie would be a good idea. Different genres like comedy and such barely get noticed and comment swap is a way for them to get noticed, but adding tags and genres will take that away.

@ KatieMosing
I personally think it would even out, with some people choosing specific tags (e.g. Movie or Comedy, depending on what sort of tags are used) and some people not selecting anything because they don't care what they read.

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I think that if the Random Button idea was implemented, then the comment swap feature could turn into a more review swap feature without having two separate features (one review and one comment). Anyone who was looking just for something new to read could simply use the Random Button without having to worry about being forced to leave a comment or anything. And then those who want comments with some feedback can use the comment swap.

darkfallenangel:

@ KatieMosing
I think that if the Random Button idea was implemented, then the comment swap feature could turn into a more review swap feature without having two separate features (one review and one comment). Anyone who was looking just for something new to read could simply use the Random Button without having to worry about being forced to leave a comment or anything. And then those who want comments with some feedback can use the comment swap.

i totally agree with that i think one of the biggest weaknesses of the comment swap is that you cant not read the story it gives you. you have to read and comment in order to get another story and it gets time but on the other hand it has to be that way to make sure that everybody on the comment swap gets feedback so i think the best idea is to add the random button
i think that way the number of people who go to comment swap but dont actually read the stories will decrease

@ ninewsh
Exactly. I think it will be beneficial for everyone, but I still think there should be more rules for the comment swap to ensure that there are quality comments being given out.