Thumbs up or down on album reviews

indeed.  Young bands do need the exposure.  A complete different issue. A much larger one, one that is beyhond the scope and help of this site. Far too many bands, far too few listeners.  It is Prog Darwinism out there. I've seen great bands wither and die for lack of support. Bands with highly regarded albums including good reviews here and elsewhere. It is jungle out there for new bands. Nothing we can do about that. We catalog them.  Promote them as best we can, but in the end. ahhh.. beginning to drift way off topic.

Winnowing down the reviewer base or placing demands/restrictions on them won't do a thing to help with that. Especially as the very open review policy does little as it is to help promote them. This site's primary mission, it always has been, is not to promote them. We can't do that as much as we would like to, it is to catalog them. Give the information.  I'd love to see the site be more proactive.. always have.. but it does fly in the face of what the site is geared for, and what it does best. Something no one else does.  Provides easily found information from the biggest, to the most obscure.

An album gets reviewed here.. what happens..  it sits on the main page.. perhaps a few see it. Again, many bands and readers have realized that shift and approach these bloggers and prominent reviewers for dedicated review sites to give promos with the reasonable assumption they will be reviewed and be displayed for people to read, not merely show up here on the main page for a day .. sometimes less.. before being bounced.  I just don't see reviews being that important to the main goals of the site. Other places are being used, and rightfully so, for the mission.

Lots of references so far about PA's purported role in 'supporting new Prog bands'. As Micky points out, that has never been a function of the site and if in the course of documenting and cataloging said artists we inadvertently contribute to their material success, then that is but a happy by product of our activities. I've bought albums based solely on reading a PA review and have seldom been disappointed with my purchase (there must be countless others who do likewise, so let's not belittle the role of PA reviews in purchasing decisions for consumers at large) Raff raises a good point about the (relatively recent) availability of streaming internet audio to listen to and sample pretty much ALL music available for purchase (or is otherwise deleted) and this further leads me to posit we could implement a requirement for new members to submit their first review that of a previously unreviewed album. This wouldn't be so hard would it? - most of the music in question is out there and can be heard


Edited by ExittheLemming - January 25 2015 at 10:25

Because the quality of reviews can't hurt in terms of attracting more visitors.  I was introduced to the website, i.e, the database and not the forum.  And when a reader browses through the band's page on the website, what does he see but a bunch of reviews which might help him make a decision.  

Queen By-Tor wrote: Why change? We are what we are and I think we can all say that we love the site or else we wouldn't be here. I've only been in and out of this thread (and others similar) but my 2 cents is this: We are a public site that allows everyone to have a voice - which could be anywhere from someone loving Torman Maxt to someone thinking that CTTE is a 1 star album. Y'know what - I think that's great! We all have different voices and we already have a system in place to make louder the voices that the site collectively wants to hear more of (the collaborator system). The bold red titles always made me want to read what that person had to say when I was a mere newb to the site. I think the variety of opinion is what makes us what we are as a site and I wouldn't change it for the world. In fact, if we became as elitist as the others I might consider leaving. Prog is an acquired taste to be sure. We aren't here to critisize the new Miley Cyrus album or to try and make a couple of bucks off of 50 Cent, we're here because we love music and want to tell everyone else who is into the same kind of music so that they can broaden their own spectrum and maybe they can broaden ours. I like that we have a "I really like your review!" page. We should keep the positive up and not worry about the negative. If people had given me a couple of "thumbs down" when I was a teenager and just starting on the site I probably would have fled in terror and not gotten to learn nearly as much as I know now about the music that I hold so close to my heart. Shine on - all of you.

TORMAN MAXT???   Hell yeah!!   Thank god for the oldtimers to keep that sordid memory alive. Where is HT anyway. I haven't seen him around recently.  I'd love to know what he thinks of this idea. hah.

and let me say it....not only are you hotter than hell... you are wise beyond your years.  God I if wasn't taken I'd be all over you.

Queen By-Tor wrote: aww Micky, Well... if Raff wasn't one of my biggest inspirations when I was a newb (and now too), as well as a voice of encouragement for me in my early collaboration days - and overall just a wonderful person to have around (even if it's just forums!) - I might try and steal you away

Sheavy wrote: Having a comment section in the review permalink page (like on jma or mma) would be much more useful and meaningful than a thumbs up/thumbs down button, though sending someone a pm or using the I like your review thread works well enough.

The comments section would have to be moderated, though, because we all know what happens on the Internet when people are able to leave comments... Letting trolls run amok would do a lot of damage.

Cooee! This site besides Credited Prog Reviewers, really needs fanboy reviews (not rating manipulators, besides I don't think it's the fans that do this, I believe it's the record labels doing, some not all). An website like this to survive needs new unique visitors daily/monthly, an active forum with the same members alone is not sufficient and won't survive unless new people are felt welcome here thus new fans should feel most welcome even if their reviews are not necessary great.

Atavachron wrote: One possible comparison here would the relatively new "Thanks" button--  a perfectly fine idea at the time, but as the months have passed, we're left with some being 'Thanked' many times and some not at all.   This has, presumably, left many wonderful and helpful people 0 thanks and others with many multiple thanks.   It's a small thing but it adds up to many members wondering why their advice and forum contributions have gone unnoticed and unappreciated, all of which could've been avoided by not having such a stupid vanity feature.

Well said. I haven't been thanked by anyone (not that I particularly care), and it took me a while to understand what those "points" under my avatar were about. This smacks a little bit too much of Facebook to me, which is not a good thing - seen as I deleted my account seven months ago, and have no intention whatsoever of opening a new one.

Atavachron wrote: One possible comparison here would the relatively new "Thanks" button--  a perfectly fine idea at the time, but as the months have passed, we're left with some being 'Thanked' many times and some not at all.   This has, presumably, left many wonderful and helpful people 0 thanks and others with many multiple thanks.   It's a small thing but it adds up to many members wondering why their advice and forum contributions have gone unnoticed and unappreciated, all of which could've been avoided by not having such a stupid vanity feature.

hahahha..   nice! Yeah, I don't think I've been thanked once either, then again I really can't say either way. I've never thought to check once I found out you couldn't like your own posts

It seems to me to be a relatively harmless feature..
stupid? perhaps..
vanity? oh no doubt

but one not likely to discourage people from participating. Now a possible comparison to the notion being discussed here would be giving the forumites the ability to give thumbs down to posts. A forum f**k You button if you will.  Don't think for a SECOND that feature would go ignored and unused like the thanks has.   The negative sides of human nature can't be forgotten.  It is easier.. always has been, to say something negative than it has something positive.  Easy to destroy or criticize than to create or praise.  Hell, it is often more fun I'll admit haha.  The forum would never be stupid enough to give the forum the ability to rate negatively people's posts, only a few select nut-jobs like me would enjoy it and strive to get as many as we could, everyone else? Well we know how that would turn out.  Same notions as singling out people's reviews and either by thumbs down or the even more insipid idea of allowing direct posted comments ON them.  Bad ideas all the way around man.

micky wrote: The forum would never be stupid enough to give the forum the ability to rate negatively people's posts, only a few select nut-jobs like me would enjoy it and strive to get as many as we could, everyone else?