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YouWriteOn
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YouWriteOn Changes - Sept 2009Each month on YouWriteOn the Top Ten will continue to get feedback from editors for Random House & Orion. YouWriteOn will be introducing some changes to the review exchange system this month. Word Length Requirements There will be a change to the word length requirements for novel extract submissions during September 2009 and we will notify members when this is in place this month. The new submission requirements will be 5,000 to 7,000 words for novel openings, changed from 6,000 to 10,000 words. This is after consultation with our literary professionals about suitable word length requirements for novel extract submissions for feedback exchange. Number of Qualifying Reviews Members will require 8 reviews to enter the Top Ten, a more representative amount of reviews than currently required. Reading Assignments We will also be introducing some new review systems to increase reviews further. Members will be able to request up to 6 reading assignments per 24 hour period instead of 3. This increases further the range of stories to review daily. The other difference from the current system is that members will only be able to accept one reading assignment at a time on their My Page instead of accepting up to three as happens currently. The ability to accept 3 Reading Assignment at one time has in the past led to assignments being left on members’ pages and not reviewed. We feel less is more as a result. By only being able to accept one Reading Assignment at a time in the new system this aims to tackle that issue. Any assignment not accepted out of the choice of six in the new system will go straight back into the system to be reassigned for review, instead of being potentially left waiting on a member’s My Page for the story’s 4 day assignment period to time out before the story is reassigned for review as at present. Removing Reviews Members will also be able to remove one review every five reviews and will be able to view their lowest rated review. These new changes and others are planned for introduction during September, and the Top Ten Charts will not be displayed during the period that they are introduced so that members are given time to adjust their stories. YouWriteOn
This post was last edited by YouWriteOn, 01 Sep 2009, 13:50
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awrigley
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Looks good, when do the changes come into effect? Not entirely clear from the text. Andrew
Memory... What was that?
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sep4475
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Quote: YouWriteOn, Tuesday, 1 Sep 2009 13:41YouWriteOn Changes - Sept 2009Each month on YouWriteOn the Top Ten will continue to get feedback from editors for Random House & Orion. YouWriteOn will be introducing some changes to the review exchange system this month. Word Length Requirements There will be a change to the word length requirements for novel extract submissions during September 2009 and we will notify members when this is in place this month. The new submission requirements will be 5,000 to 7,000 words for novel openings, changed from 6,000 to 10,000 words. This is after consultation with our literary professionals about suitable word length requirements for novel extract submissions for feedback exchange. Number of Qualifying Reviews Members will require 8 reviews to enter the Top Ten, a more representative amount of reviews than currently required. Reading Assignments We will also be introducing some new review systems to increase reviews further. Members will be able to request up to 6 reading assignments per 24 hour period instead of 3. This increases further the range of stories to review daily. The other difference from the current system is that members will only be able to accept one reading assignment at a time on their My Page instead of accepting up to three as happens currently. The ability to accept 3 Reading Assignment at one time has in the past led to assignments being left on members’ pages and not reviewed. We feel less is more as a result. By only being able to accept one Reading Assignment at a time in the new system this aims to tackle that issue. Any assignment not accepted out of the choice of six in the new system will go straight back into the system to be reassigned for review, instead of being potentially left waiting on a member’s My Page for the story’s 4 day assignment period to time out before the story is reassigned for review as at present. Removing Reviews Members will also be able to remove one review every five reviews and will be able to view their lowest rated review. These new changes and others are planned for introduction during September, and the Top Ten Charts will not be displayed during the period that they are introduced so that members are given time to adjust their stories. YouWriteOn All sounds positive ted. Can you just confirm one thing for me? Will it be 8 reviews that you have recieved in total (ie including any you have removed) or 8 that you still have (ie after you have removed some reviews.) ie if you use all your removal's you will in fact need to have 10 reviews?
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YouWriteOn
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Thanks, changes should come in during the next week, possibly the next few days when the programmers are ready.
Re reviews, removed reviews won't count towards the total.
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pam123writing
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All sounds very positive. Look forward to the changes taking place. 
"And, in the end, the love you take / Is equal to the love you make." Lennon and McCartney 1969
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awrigley
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Quote: YouWriteOn, Tuesday, 1 Sep 2009 15:20Thanks, changes should come in during the next week, possibly the next few days when the programmers are ready. "The next few days when the programmers are ready" in web designer speak means around mid October. Hopefully, I am wrong. I presume that a story in the top ten with, say, 5 reviews gets moved off the top ten the day the changes take effect until it has, at least, has 8 reviews (excluding removed reviews) (presuming obviously that its ranking is still good enough)? Andrew
This post was last edited by awrigley, 01 Sep 2009, 16:09
Memory... What was that?
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Athene
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The new rules sound excellent. Should put an end to a lot of gripes, and remove a lot of perceived unfairness. I quite like the sound of shorter novel extracts to review. People cutting existing uploads will need to check that they haven't inadvertently cut out the answers to their reading test questions. Thanks, Ted, for listening to all the feedback from members on this subject.
Scias te fortasse Romanum esse si animal convivialissimum arbitreris esse caprum (Henricus Barbatus) my website
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YouWriteOn
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Thank you, the site's been very lucky to have so many writers participate with their stories, and always mainly in a very positive way which isn't always easy when opening your writing open to feedback. So we'll keep on trying to see what else we can do. The edit function will take to the reading test first so hopefully that will be ok in most instances. The Top Ten charts will be blanked out to just display the new changes info for a few days before and after the changes take place so as to make members aware of them, and when the charts show again they are programmed to display according to the new rules. Review exchange and ratings will continue as normal throughout the month. The aim is to introduce changes early in the month so can quickly step back into the normal review exchange for month. That's the plan anyhow, it's coinciding with the programmers, Zarr, doing some work on their servers which sounds pretty advanced. They've always been excellent though, so we'll see how the schedule goes. Every new change usually has a counter effect somewhere else so we've tried to cover as best we can, if anyone spots any issues when the changes are brought in please let me know. Ted
This post was last edited by YouWriteOn, 01 Sep 2009, 18:00
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awrigley
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The bread and butter business of whether we can get a review is all very well, necessary even. But not only does YWO wants us to read this thread but it is also necessary to read it, especially given the shortening of novel samples. Not to mention the removal of a review every 5 reviews and the highlighting of the lowest review. Andrew
Memory... What was that?
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annswinfen
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On the whole, the changes look good, but still fail to address one major problem. Many reviewers will continue to discard novel extracts in favour of short stories because a) they will still take less time to read and b) it is much easier to make a judgement about the complete entity which is a short story than to judge a novel on a short extract. It is impossible to get a real feel for structure (for example) from the first 10,000, let alone 7,000, words. Could one get any idea of the structure of An Instance of the Fingerpost from a passage of this length? And it does seem that some reviewers are telling novelists to write their novels like short stories. This hasn't really happened to me, but I've seen other cases where novelists are being urged to give things away too early or to race ahead at a pace more appropriate to the shorter form.
I've suggested to Ted a different system of awarding credits: more credits (2?) for reviewing longer pieces, as fairer to both reviewer and reviewed, given the time involved. This might mean novelists would no longer find themselves being discarded for reviews. However, this doesn't seem to have found favour.
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YouWriteOn Changes - Sept 2009
01 Sep 2009, 13:41
