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Joe Blevins 
"Don't I look handsome?"
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 Posted - 09/04/2008 : 01:02:30
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Let's say you have an idea for a review, but there are several slightly different ways you could phrase it. You only want one to be approved, of course. Is it acceptable to submit two or three different phrasings of the same basic joke, to give the MERPs a choice? Or would this cause all the reviews to be declined? If you're agonizing over the wording of a review, is it better simply to hash it out on the Fourum and let other users suggest the clearest and/or funniest wording?
I say this as someone who frequently* bases reviews on puns. Sometimes there are multiple ways of phrasing a review which keep the same basic pun intact.
* "frequently" is a bit of a misnomer, since I submit on average maybe one review per month nowadays. But in the past, a lot of my reviews were puns, and I agonized a bit over the wordings. |
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Whippersnapper. 
"A fourword thinking guy."
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Posted - 09/04/2008 : 01:14:43
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Surely a reviewer should choose which version he or she prefers themselves rather than expecting a MERP to do it for them? If you can't do it yourself then ask some fwfr friends their opinion.
MERPs are supposed to simply decide whether a review meets the criteria to be accepted or not, rather than to judge the quality of a review.
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Joe Blevins
"Don't I look handsome?"
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Posted - 09/04/2008 : 01:57:34
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quote:
Originally posted by Whippersnapper
Surely a reviewer which version he or she prefers themselves rather than expecting a MERP to do it for them? If you can't do it yourself then ask some fwfr friends their opinion.
MERPs are supposed to simply decide whether a review meets the criteria to be accepted or not, rather than to judge the quality of a review.
I can't read the minds of MERPs. If I could, FWFR would be a heck of a lot easier. A lot of the time, despite much discussion of why reviews are approved or declined, the process still seems arbitrary. It is possible -- nay, probable -- that a slight variation in wording might make the difference between a review being approved or declined. I'm not saying I would flood the MERPs with variations on the same joke. I'm talking about occasionally submitting two slightly different variations on the same basic joke and letting the MERP choose which one he or she prefers. Would that be considered a major breach of FWFR etiquette?
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Edited by - Joe Blevins on 09/04/2008 01:59:15 |
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w22dheartlivie 
"Kitty Lover"
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Posted - 09/04/2008 : 02:03:29
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| I don't know if it's major breach of etiquette, I hope not. I've done this a few times in the past when I couldn't decide which wording was better. MERPs may or may not see them the same way, or they might see something else in one of them that ends up with a decline. The last I recall, both were accepted. Then I had to determine for myself which way to go. |
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Whippersnapper.
"A fourword thinking guy."
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Posted - 09/04/2008 : 02:11:44
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Or they could accept the first one and then reject subsequent ones as being too similar to the accepted review.
I'd have to recommend only submitting what YOU consider to be the best review first. Then, if that's rejected you can amend it.
Either that or just PM all the versions through to MguyX with your credit card details and expect an answer within 72 hours.
Just remember not to call him Shirley. He doesn't like it. He's funny that way.
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Joe Blevins
"Don't I look handsome?"
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Posted - 09/04/2008 : 02:39:02
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I have to admit, I've done this -- simultaneously submitting two similar reviews -- in the past and felt a little funny about it. I've had it go two different ways:
(1) one wording was approved, another declined.
(2) both were approved.
When (2) happened, I disowned one of the reviews to avoid being accused of posting duplicate reviews. The third option -- both declined -- has never happened, though I have resubmitted reviews with alternate wordings of the same basic joke. That's a crap shoot, of course.
My suspicion is that besides the "official" reasons for declining reviews, there is one great big unofficial one -- the review is simply found to be lame/not clever/not funny, even though it follows the rules and is not generic or a copycat. And being "funny" is such a tricky thing because it can be affected by every single word choice. That's why I agonize sometimes over wording. There's nothing wrong with declining reviews on the basis of unfunniness. In fact, that's part of keeping the site's quality level up. But from a reviewer's standpoint, it can be difficult to guess what other people will find funny or clever. |
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Demisemicenturian
"Four ever European"
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Posted - 09/04/2008 : 02:48:25
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I wouldn't ever submit multiple reviews on the basis of the MERPs selecting the best one, as I certainly don't consider their judgment of reviews to be better than mine. However, as what is approved is so inconsistent, I frequently submit variations. I put these in strict order of my preference. Unfortunately since the new MERP came along, reviews often seem to get approved in reverse order. Then I report the approved review as being too similar to an older pending one. Very occasionally I cannot decide which form I prefer and so submit both on that basis. However, even then I am not doing so so that the MERP decides which is best. I am just putting off deciding myself.
What napper says about the MERPs' remit is unfortunately not quite true any more, since Benj has said the quality of a review affects how far it can bend the rules. |
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Demisemicenturian
"Four ever European"
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Posted - 09/04/2008 : 02:56:32
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On Joe's points, disowning a review doesn't stop the duplicate reviews being on the site, which is what matters, not whether one is 'caught'. And reviews which follow all the rules strictly are I think still supposed to be approved, no matter how unfunny.
My problem is a few grey cases where I haven't yet eliminated one review. For example, one review might be technically better, but the other seems snappier when not thought about properly. |
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Whippersnapper.
"A fourword thinking guy."
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Posted - 09/04/2008 : 03:09:33
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quote:
Originally posted by Salopian
I wouldn't ever submit multiple reviews on the basis of the MERPs selecting the best one, as I certainly don't consider their judgment of reviews to be better than mine.
Not that this should be mistaken for arrogance of course.
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Demisemicenturian
"Four ever European"
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Posted - 09/04/2008 : 04:25:59
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| Just based on my subjective experience and the objective statistics. |
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ChocolateLady
"500 Chocolate Delights"
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Posted - 09/04/2008 : 08:01:11
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quote:
Originally posted by Whippersnapper
Surely a reviewer should choose which version he or she prefers themselves rather than expecting a MERP to do it for them? If you can't do it yourself then ask some fwfr friends their opinion.
MERPs are supposed to simply decide whether a review meets the criteria to be accepted or not, rather than to judge the quality of a review.
Agreed. Sometimes I submit a couple versions of the same joke and then if the MERPs accept them all, I delete the one I think is less lame.
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Topic |
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Submitting multiple wordings of same joke?
