It is somewhat wierd to rate a piece on something of this nature (as many have pointed out when reviewing a piece of mine on reviewing), but such is the way of this community. I also try to avoid items that have a ton of ratings and look for items that seem to be neglected, cause I know we like for all our items to be read, no matter how popular one item is or not. Ramblings aside, excellent piece here. Some specifics reagarding each point, if I may:
1) Agree completely on this point. Ok when sending an email at times to someone, but too much of it drives me nuts.
2) In poetry, my sense of punctuation is not the best. Sometimes a piece is served by not adding capitalization or punctuation to help with the poem's style; however, in any other piece I quite agree. Sometimes there are a couple of exceptions in a story to make a point, but never in non-fiction really.
3)Arrgh... spelling. I fall prey to it more when I am typing in a hurry, or use the wrong spelling for a word and it misses the spellchecker(recently, 'sight'for 'site', go figure) On the other hand, consistent spelling errors can be annoying, and I am grateful when someone points out my own errors
4)I have seen a lot of 'read and review <blah>' in descritpions. One of the easiest ways to get me to not read it. A descritpion has to draw the reader in. Not sound like we are begging.
5)The only excpetion I would make to grammar (not spelling right on purpose is inexcusable) is in the case of poems and some fiction works. Fragments to me are acceptable if they make sense, and runons can in rare exceptions. I write a lot of stream of consciousness, especially in poetry, so I will forsake a little sentence structure here and there for a point, but certainly not for any other reason.
6)Reading online is bad enough on my eyes. I agree with that. Thankfully, most authors I have read are good about this, and some so good that they break the paragraphs too often :)
7)I think that refuting a review is ok, but attacking is another matter. Perhaps the reader did not understand the piece and was working from a false assumption (then that is also the fault of the author). Sometimes the reader misses the point (guilty on a couple of occassions, and was set straight). Still, unless the reviewer was just being a jerk, a lengthy refutation is at times unnecessary. Of course, if a reviewer is just being spiteful (have had 2 of those reviews), then I just take the high road and thank them, then review them out of courtesy. Tough to do, but really makes them cranky.
8)Thank you is the best way to get me to keep coming into a person's port (so is reciprocation, but that is another matter entirely :) Usually, if someone does not respond to my review, then I will tend to avoid returning to their port. (now, I have had people be away for awhile, then blitz me with a dozen returns too)
9)Thats just not good form... whining. In a way, the plug pages seem like whining at times. I feel like if I have to plug a piece, then I am doing something wrong as an author. I do my best to attract readers by reviewing and (hopefully) being thoughtful and courteous to them in the reviews. An old Southern saying" 'You can catch more flies with honey than vinegar.' Almost always true. :)
10)I have done sponsorships, and got a lot of reads, but the return on reviews was minimal to the number of reads, so I just went back to the old standby of reviewing people into reading me (if it works, it works) I have done some things like donating to the RAOK and Lend-a-hand team forums to get some extra reviews, but I was mostly trying to help out others, since I was upgraded through various RAOKs (still trying to find out who nominated me to be yellow :)
In all, wonderful piece, hence my virtual novella in response. But, I felt better replying by point than as a whole, and it is prolly easier on the eyes. Thanks for sharing this, and I do like this type of piece, for it always evokes these types of opinions and responses. Excellent work.
Regards,
Chris |
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