New site feature: social review comments

Windhawk wrote: Personally I'm in favor of this. It makes interacting with the presumed reading audience easier, basically, and for me that is a positive addition. If it will be used, apart from on the most popular albums, is another case entirely I guess. But it is a proven success story outside of music sites, that leads to if not more traffic then at least invites to more involvement. That's all good in my book.

I will monitor / moderate alone at first and if we like it and it's popular I can add moderator to help.

At the very least, we should have the option to turn it on and off.

But I'm definitely with Jim and the others who don't like the idea, if only for avoiding the `You gave me 3 stars, you obviously hated it, please don't say bad things about my album' arguments (which I've had a few private messages about), and the other issue, just plain good old fashioned sarcastic internet snark!

Yeah...this seems like quite an unnecessary "upgrade".

Once I suggested to have a "Thanks" button near each review and the "thanks counter" to indicate that at least some people read it.

Somebody suggested a thumbs up or thumbs down in another thread.  The problem is they can be used to validate or invalidate a viewpoint without the person using the function having to justify their own stance.  I'd actually prefer the comments section.  It can be more interactive and meaningful if used properly by both reviewer and reader.  I don't give a damn about trolls or intolerant fanboys and I'd welcome legitimate criticism even if it basically takes my review(s) apart.  

^ I think it was a shame that the review of the month competition ceased.

Personally, I think one of the main problems is there are too many albums without any reviews whatsoever - even very good ones. Nowadays, with the availability of streaming, it is much easier for people who are so inclined to review albums without having to shell out for them, and without resorting to illegal means. Maybe having a weekly competition for Best Review of a previously unreviewed album might be a good idea. It would encourage people to branch out and explore, and give bands or solo artists a lot of much-needed exposure.

rogerthat wrote: Somebody suggested a thumbs up or thumbs down in another thread.  The problem is they can be used to validate or invalidate a viewpoint without the person using the function having to justify their own stance.  I'd actually prefer the comments section.  It can be more interactive and meaningful if used properly by both reviewer and reader.  I don't give a damn about trolls or intolerant fanboys and I'd welcome legitimate criticism even if it basically takes my review(s) apart.

Angelo wrote: First of, those who want to learn about how their reviews are received (that would be me), without having to dig through a forum thread of umpteen pages, will get their feedback if people see a need to provide it. Feedback through the 'report review' and 'I like your review' threads is way to indirect, and if you look closely, you'll see that only a small part of our community uses these threads - which makes it feel as if they are only there to hug each other (no offence, just stating facts).

The thing is we still don't know how how would you get notified about these social comments, at least I didn't see any info about notifications, so at the moment going through recent posts on 2-3 threads in the forum is easier than checking out links to dozens of your own reviews which you would have to keep an eye on if someone commented on them. I don't know how would notifications work with the current system, getting a pm, mail or something from facebook seems like a bit of a long roundabout way of doing it, checking one or two webpages before you actually get to look at it on PA.

If PA had the same system like JMA/MMA along with internal login, then it would make more sense since those sites also have a feedback on the side called 'Site Interactions' which show who commented on a review recently or made something like that 'Shout' for example (which would be ok for people who don't visit the forums cause they could also post on the album page errors instead of looking for our 'Errors And Omissions' thread, everything can be reported at the place where you found the error/comment). I mean if the point is to make it more comfortable for the audience that doesn't go to the forums then JMA/MMA layouts are fine and people can mingle on the site with other people using review pages and even those fancier member pages without going to the forums but as it is on PA, I don't know how beneficial it is.