Quality Rating Guidelines

These are the quality ratings guidelines I've thought of so far.

Guppy Policy

Anyone who comments on a review like a guppy (ex. "OMG your reviews are awesome!") should get at least a warning.

Troll Policy

Anyone who comments on a review in a trollish manner (ex. "This game sucks, and you suck for thinking otherwise.") would of been better off not commenting at all.

Replying to a Comment

All comments have a "reply code" box containing the BBCode to link to that specific comment. Simply copy that code into your comment, and write your reply after it.

If you use the code given exactly as it is, it'll notify the person replied to.

Bad Commenting

Review comments can be reported and subsequently nullified for several reasons, including but not limited to the comment being:

• junk (ex. nothing written, nothing but punctuation, unintelligible, etc.)
• inflammatory (ex. profanity, insults, trolling, etc.)
• irrelevant (ex. "I think they should of used Bruce Campbell to voice the main character")

Rewriting a Review

The only way to write a new review for a game you've already reviewed is to either edit or abandon the original.

Abandoning a Review

NOTE: The abandon review button is an image of a skull.

You can abandon a review if you do not want it to factor into your personal notability and average review credibility.

Review Requests

Adding a game to your library allows other users to request a review of that game from you. This is simply a metric so you can determine what your fans want the most of from you at the moment. Review requests are not factored into any other aspect of the system, and only you can see the number of requests that have been made.

You can also set up email notification (default is 'off') when the number of requests for a game you have exceeds a certain number.

Reviewer Integrity and Review Credibility

All reviewers have an "integrity rating" which starts at 100 (and cannot go any higher).

Various actions can change a reviewer's integrity rating.

Possible Secret Word System

Normally, your favorites feed URL ends in your user ID and is accessible from your public profile. This is called "sharing" your favorites.

I'm considering allowing users to make their favorites RSS feed "secret" by setting a "secret word".

"My Favorites"

Users can mark games or reviewers as "favorites".

Marking a game as a "favorite" will tell the system to notify you whenever that game gets reviewed.

Editing a Report

A report draft can be edited by clicking on the "edit" button next to the relevant report in the "My Reports" section of your user control panel.

Creating a Report

Although Bombing Reports, Reviewer Abuse Reports, and Comment Abuse Reports can all be sent directly from the review or comment in question, you can also create one from scratch by clicking the "Create Report" button in the My Reports section of your user control panel.

Rescinding a Report

While a report is still "new", the reporter can rescind the report by editing it. Editing a report changes it to a "draft".

The reporter can delete a report permanently by clicking the "delete" button on the "Edit Report" screen (can only be done while the report is either an unsent draft or sent but "new").

"My Reports"

All Mod Abuse Reports, Reviewer Abuse Reports, Comment Abuse Reports, and Bombing Reports are saved to the "My Reports" section of your user control panel. Reports not written by you but involve you are also visible in "My Reports".

Reporting a Bombing

NOTE: The report bombing button is an image of a bomb.
NOTE: A "# of votes / # of comments in the last 24 hours" meter is shown next to the "report bombing" button and should be used to help determine if a bombing has occurred.

"Bombing" refers to comment and/or approval/disapproval spamming of a review.

Reporting Comment Abuse

NOTE: The report comment abuse button is an image of a red speech bubble.

Individual comments on reviews can be reported by clicking on the "report comment abuse" button next to the offending comment.

Reporting Reviewer Abuse

NOTE: The report reviewer abuse button is an image of a quill.

Users can report reviewers which violate the Reviewer Terms of Service to the site administrators.

Reporting Mod Abuse

NOTE: The report mod abuse button is an image of a gavel.

Users can report mods which violate the Moderator Terms of Service to the site administrators.

"My Reviews"

Reviews you write are listed in the "My Reviews" section of your user profile.

Requesting a Quality Rating

When a review is initially posted, a quality rating request is sent to the site staff. Quality rating requests are also sent when when a review is edited.

If it's been a week since a quality rating request was sent, a reviewer can get the quality rating request more attention by clicking the "buzz quality rating request" button on their reviews page (after which you must wait another week to buzz it again).

Approval Rating a Review

If you have a game in your library, you can approval rate reviews of that game.

To approval rate a review, go to the bottom of the review, select how much you approve of the review from the "Approval Rate" drop-box, and click "Rate". Approval Ratings range from "Strongly Agree" to "Strongly Disagree". You can only approval rate once per review.

NOTE: Abusing the approval rating system can result in disciplinary action.

Commenting on a Review

All users can comment on a review regardless if they have the game being reviewed or not in their game library. To comment on a review, fill in the comment box at the bottom of the review and click "comment".

NOTE: Abusing the comment box can result in disciplinary action.

Editing a Review

When a new review is written, it can be either "saved" as a draft or "posted" to the public. Drafts are not visible to the public.

While drafting a review...

• you can discard the draft by clicking the "discard" button.
• you can save your progress by clicking the "save" button.
• you can preview what the review will look like by clicking the "preview" button.

When a posted review is opened, edited, and then saved as a draft, a copy is made which is attached to the original. This "draft copy" keeps the original review publicly accessible while allowing you to edit the draft copy. Reposting a review is called "editing" the review.

Creating a Review

First, the game must already be in the system (see "Requesting a Game" for more info).

Second, you must add that game to your library (see "Adding a Game" for more info).

After adding the game to your library, go to the game's page and click the "write review" button. Alternatively, you can go to your game library and click the "write review" button next to the game you're wanting to review.

Adding a Game

You must add a game to your game library to allow yourself to write a review for it. Additionally, adding a game to your library will allow other users to request a review of that game from you. First, the game must already be in the system (see "Requesting a Game" for more info). Then you must go to that game's page and click the "add game" button.

Requesting a Game

If you're not sure if a game has been added, try searching for it using the search bar. Users can request a game at any time by clicking on the "request game" button in the left sidebar. The Game Request form simply asks for the URL of the game on metacritic or gamerankings.

Searching for a Game

In the left sidebar of every page is a search bar.
NOTE: We will use Google's "custom search" service for this feature.
Type your query into the search bar and click "Search".

There's no need to make the search bar any more complex than that.

Browsing for a Game

On the Reviewer Planet homepage, click the link in the left sidebar appropriate to the game you're browsing for. Browsing options include:

Possible Temporary/Permanent Review Process

When it comes to reviews, there are generally two types:

• Temporary Reviews: Written while the reviewer wants to get word out as fast as they possibly can about what they currently think about the game after only a short time playing it.
  
• Permanent Reviews: Written once the reviewer's had time to completely analyze the game to their own personal satisfaction.

Once a permanent review is written, the temporary review is locked and the permanent review takes its place.

Possible Ad Revenue System

Websites cost money to build and maintain. Although I (the web designer) can afford to give the site a more than decent web hosting on my own dime, as the site becomes more popular, that won't be the case. Therefore, ads may need to be put in at some point.

Possible Moderation System

I'm running into some indecision on to what extent the moderator system should be anonymous and could use some input.

Basic rundown of how the site works

Any user can write a review on any game. Reviewers don't get much attention unless they're "notable". "Notability" has to be acquired and maintained in order to be noticed. "Notability" is determined based on how many reviews you've written, how many of those reviews have been rated for quality, and the average of those quality ratings. Additionally, having a high "credibility" based on publicly-made approval ratings on your reviews gives you extra clout.

Site Philosophy

Reviewer Planet currently uses a bottom-up community-based review structure.
As such, it's impossible to try and enforce numerical or alphabetical scores because everyone has their own bias.

Why make this site?

Reviewer Planet is my attempt to solve some of the issues with game reviews. Thing is, I don't want to actually build the site until I'm sure I've got it right. Unlike a lot of amateur web developers, I want to make sure the website is what gamers and amateur game reviewers want before I start building the site.