I’ve started using this website a bit more recently, and in particular reading the reviews. I love reading reviews, it helps me find otherwise hidden gems (on the old Timescales site I found many a story I otherwise wouldn’t have found through them).
However, I think there’s a few things that should be tweaked to improve the experience.
1. Filters
I think the way you can browse reviews should have filters. These don’t need to be as advanced as the rest of the sites just a simple: Stories you’ve completed, stories you’ve not completed, reviews with spoilers, and reviews without spoilers options would make navigating them a lot simpler.
2. Minimum word count
I think this is probably a controversial suggestion, but I thinks its needed. There’s some great reviews. Take this one I read earlier: Review of Warfare by MrColdStream · TARDIS Guide or, Review of Underworld by PalindromeRose · TARDIS Guide. They both offer a great depth and explain why they liked the stories. However, we also get lower-quality reviews (no flack to these, on Timescales I wrote many like that look at the my review on this page https://thetimescales.com/Story/story.php?audioid=6001). The issue with reviews like this is that they offer little more than a simple rating would. I think a minimum of say 50 - 100 words at least would improve the quality. Whilst there is obviously a place for shorter reviews, I think 50 - 100 allows for enough depth whilst also allowing people to post smaller reviews.
3. Website Order
This is the oddest suggestion but I think the latest review section should initially be at the top of the website (like in the image provided). I this this is a needed change to draw more attention to the reviews. Currently quite a few sit at 0 likes. Which is shame considering how interesting and insightful they are. We know from Timescales in the past there is an audience for reviews, so I think some minor changes would help reviews blossom on this site. Plus, if people are unhappy with this they can always customise the homepage to remove it.
Yeah, as I show, that is how I personally have it. But in my opinion it would be nice to have them pre-set to a more visible location to improve traffic towards them. As from memory, I don’t think you even get them on your home page unless you personally set them there. Although I could be misremembering there.
The new website design came with sorting options for the reviews, including spoilers first/last. That’s a bit like what you suggest there, but it’s a good point!
As for the minimum word count, this is something I remember we discussed months back when reviews were first implemented on the site. We agreed that we don’t want to have a minimum word count because sometimes you don’t have a lot to say about a story and, therefore, shouldn’t be prevented from posting a review. I do generally agree that longer reviews are a bit more useful in informing me what the reviewer thinks about a story. Maybe a sorting option/filter based on word count could work here?
As for the placement of the latest reviews, anyone can place it on top of the homepage in the customisation options. I don’t know whether having it there as default is the best move. I wouldn’t call TARDIS Guide primarily a review site, but more of a site to discover new stories and track your progress.
Personally, the way I use reviews (and I know many others here do the same) is that I read them soon after finishing something. I wouldn’t want whatever’s new on my home page, since most of them will likely be for stories I never experienced or even care about. As Coldstream said, this site is more for finding and tracking stories than reading reviews. Each person can customise it however they want, and aside from maybe adding reviews to the home page by default instead of it being opt-in, I don’t see a reason to change it.
Yeah, since I review stories myself, I don’t want others’ reviews to affect my opinions, which is why I have the scores hidden and only read reviews after I have reviewed a story myself.
But there are surely those who read reviews to potentially find a story worth their time and money, so I totally see the argument of giving reviews more visibility.
I am going to make a big list of plans that we have because some of these are already planned, and some other features will help too.
We definitely plan to have filters and things for the main “Reviews” page, that was always just a placeholder. As it now keeps track of the reviews you’ve read we can also add a “New for you” section, which I intend to have as “New reviews for stories you have completed”.
As others have said, the site isn’t primarily for reviews for most people, although it definitely can be if that is what you want to use it for… so more customisation options will be coming
But the 2.0 version has only just launched, need to let the dust settle there for a bit then work on all that is new.
Thanks for taking the time to write this though, it really shows that you care
A new function that I really really like on the new site is that you can now see the word count of reviews before opening them. Personally that’s enough for me, because I only really read reviews after completing a story, but yeah, I think being able to pick longer reviews is better than preventing shorter reviews from being written.
One thing that might attract more readers for reviews could also be badges for reading or liking reviews (and this is totally not selfish /hj). I feel like a lot of people here are really motivated by badges
I remember we discussed this earlier as well. The problem with such badges is that people might spam likes on reviews just to get them, rather than liking reviews they believe actually deserve it. But it’s a great suggestion!
I do see that point, but I feel like that wouldn’t be that big a problem. It would probably just raise the overall count of likes, but you could still see the difference between more and less liked reviews. Also the badges could be made so that you hit the highest badges pretty easily (say liking 50 or even 100 reviews, that’s just a few seasons of new who worth), so it would encourage people to check it out but not actually inflate the counts much. Or you just do badges for reading them, since that is something being tracked too
I do think it might be worth discussing again at some point, since I’m pretty sure that discussion was before I became very active on the forum at least, and a lot of people have joined since then, so the consensus might have changed. Absolutely no rush though, I’m just throwing ideas around
As far as review order… Reviews from people you follow at the top, reviews under a certain word count at the bottom, and otherwise by how recent they are?
That’s a good idea, and to highlight reviews from people you follow that you haven’t read yet (but that you’ve completed the story for) would be really useful.
