Are Review Swaps Allowed?

Jace

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I've started posting my webnovel to ScribbleHub after a user here recommended it as a friendly platform to post my work. I uploaded my backlog in one go to catch this site up with my other platforms and within minutes it got a few 1-star ratings, presumably by people who disliked how I cluttered up the latest updates section. I see their point and I wouldn't have uploaded so many if I'd know the latest updates section doesn't work as it does on RoyalRoad.

I want to offset this by doing a few honest review swaps so the rating reflects people's opinions of the story. Even if the rated average remains the same, I'd feel better knowing the score is an honest reflection of the story's contents.

So I have two questions:

1) Are review swap requests allowed in this forum?

2) If yes, what are the rules regarding review swaps? For example, on Royal Road you're not supposed to write an advanced review unless you've read at least 10k words and the reviews have to be honest (so no asking for 5 star reviews).
 
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Sairren

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I believe that they are allowed, and I don't mind trying my hand at giving you a review. Though I'd like to uphold my side of the bargain before having you review mine, if that's alright.
 

Snusmumriken

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1) as far as I can tell there is nothing against it.

2) SH isn't as strict with reviews as RR either so far, or in general. Reviews themselves aren't as prominently displayed either. It is your rating and activity that matters more to be visible here.

I've taken a gander at your story. Even though I am not particularly into reading new stories myself since my mind is busy with my own worldbuilding. I did find your writing pretty decent (and definitely above the average here) So I had no reasons just giving you 5 stars from the few chapters I've read so far.

The only point of confusion for me was the age of Esther, especially in the first chapter. She appears and acts rather young. Is the story mostly YA oriented?
 
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Jace

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.
I believe that they are allowed, and I don't mind trying my hand at giving you a review. Though I'd like to uphold my side of the bargain before having you review mine, if that's alright.
I definitely won't say no! Your series looks interesting and I'd love to give it a review.
The only point of confusion for me was the age of Esther, especially in the first chapter. She appears and acts rather young. Is the story mostly YA oriented?
In chapter 1 and 2, she's 16. From chapter 3 onwards, she's 21. It's aimed at an adult/ new adult audience but the events of the first two chapters are integral to her character arc and journey, so I couldn't skip them without affecting the story.

Thank you both for replying!
 

Snusmumriken

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In chapter 1 and 2, she's 16. From chapter 3 onwards, she's 21. It's aimed at an adult/ new adult audience but the events of the first two chapters are integral to her character arc and journey, so I couldn't skip them without affecting the story.
Perhaps it was me, I glanced ahead just to check later and the characters not to say they are bad - they aren't. but they felt too...obvious if I could say that? I went to take a look into the second verse and the situation with Edyta was clear cut in the matter of a single chapter. Perhaps you are mostly concentrating on action rather than suspense, or maybe there is more afterwards, which isn't posted yet. But I felt like she was presented as an antagonist too quickly? too obviously?

It's hard to explain but it felt like I didn't need to guess at all - the necessary information was given to me in easily digestible form.

Granted if that was your intention - hats off - it was very clear and without any lack of ambiguity.
 

Jace

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Thank you, this is the type of critique I've been looking for since I started posting my work. Honestly, I'd love to have a more complex relationship between the two characters, but I struggled to fit it in. If I ever return for some rewrites, I'll definitely try to make her antagonism more ambiguous.
 

Snusmumriken

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Thank you, this is the type of critique I've been looking for since I started posting my work. Honestly, I'd love to have a more complex relationship between the two characters, but I struggled to fit it in. If I ever return for some rewrites, I'll definitely try to make her antagonism more ambiguous.
No problem, I had some experience in the past working as a content editor, so these things are what I look at first and foremost. I'll try to look at your story again later when I finish my current chapter and my head isn't stuffed with junk.
 

K5Rakitan

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They are allowed. Personally, I prefer sites with a point system like writing.com when it comes to reviews.
 

Sairren

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Thank you both for replying!
Gave your first "chapter" a read, as well as posted a review for you. I'm not much of a reader, but I think that it does have potential. And I did think the main character was much younger than stated.
 

BenJepheneT

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are review swaps allowed

man we get so many review swap threads per week that it's become a bubonic plague on its own
 

LinXueLian

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(all 3 of the 0 star ratings arrived within 10 minutes of posting 60k worth of words and the 2 star rating doesn't match the 4-5 star ratings I have on RoyalRoad and Inkitt).
Hmmmm. If it helps, the lowest rating a person can give on this site is 1 star and no lower than that - so if your novel has zero stars, it likely just means nobody has rated it yet. I'm not too sure about the two-star one though - has the rater posted a comment or review explaining it? It might help if they did.

So I have two questions:

1) Are review swap requests allowed in this forum?

2) If yes, what are the rules regarding review swaps? For example, on Royal Road you're not supposed to write an advanced review unless you've read at least 10k words and the reviews have to be honest (so no asking for 5 star reviews).
To answer your question, I think review swaps are allowed - it's just that very few people here do them. What I mean is most people just post a thread asking for feedback for their work, but you as the author are no obliged to look at their work and give them a review as well. But if you like, you can make a thread requesting for an honest review with a promise that you'll review their work in turn. It might get you more interested reviewers!

We don't particularly have strict rules about reviewing or rating here. You can technically ask for high ratings.... it's just that you risk being side-eyed for it lol :blob_happy: I remember this one user who was ranting about low ratings all the time or something and they got verbally chewed out for it by some other users in their profile comments... It's a lot of drama for nothing, so while you can do it, I wouldn't recommend it!
 

Jace

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Hmmmm. If it helps, the lowest rating a person can give on this site is 1 star and no lower than that
This was my mistake, I meant 1-star ratings, not 0-star. I've corrected it in the main post, thank you!
I'm not too sure about the two-star one though - has the rater posted a comment or review explaining it? It might help if they did.
I meant it had a 2-star overall average (from two 1-star ratings and one 5-star rating).
What I mean is most people just post a thread asking for feedback for their work, but you as the author are no obliged to look at their work and give them a review as well. But if you like, you can make a thread requesting for an honest review with a promise that you'll review their work in turn. It might get you more interested reviewers!
Thank you for all the clarification. Joining a new platform is always daunting, and I don't want to end up stepping on anyone's toes since the social 'rules' and norms are always a little different.
 

LinXueLian

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This was my mistake, I meant 1-star ratings, not 0-star. I've corrected it in the main post, thank you!

I meant it had a 2-star overall average (from two 1-star ratings and one 5-star rating).

Thank you for all the clarification. Joining a new platform is always daunting, and I don't want to end up stepping on anyone's toes since the social 'rules' and norms are always a little different.
Aaah. I see. I'm sorry you were bombed with these. I'm not sure why you've gotten these low ratings, but hopefully as you post more chapters, it'll pick up on ratings. Good luck!
 

BenJepheneT

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This was my mistake, I meant 1-star ratings, not 0-star. I've corrected it in the main post, thank you!

I meant it had a 2-star overall average (from two 1-star ratings and one 5-star rating).

Thank you for all the clarification. Joining a new platform is always daunting, and I don't want to end up stepping on anyone's toes since the social 'rules' and norms are always a little different.
it's a common occurrence that people with more time than they deserve usually come here and carpet bomb new stories with one star reviews. there's no good way to counter this other than to report to the moderators or consistently growing a readerbase a.k.a writing more
 
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