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wilmon91 
Forum Senior Member
Joined: August 15 2009
Location: Sweden
Status: Offline
Points: 698
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 Topic: Posting reviews
Posted: July 06 2012 at 15:10 |
Hi!
I have some questions regarding posting reviews that maybe someone who controls the posting of reviews could answer.
I posted a review some months ago, and it was a great surprise that there was no preview button, and no way of changing text style into bold for example, which would really create a better looking text, especially if it's a very long text.
My very long review was immediately posted, and the result was that some lines of text came out wrong, and there was a lot of question mark signs that appeared maybe due to some special formatted letters that couldn't be shown.
I would have liked to mark text in italics or bold, and even use colors to mark specific songs.
When you are about to rate an album there's a text saying that posting a review is strongly adviced (or something like that). That's why I haven't rated any album. But to me , reviewing an album is a big project. It's not just scribbling down a few thoughts and impressions. That would be called a "comment". If it is so strongly encouraged, how can it be that the conditions for posting are so bad? You can't even preview the text!?
I have written a lengthy review of a Tony Banks album. But I won't post it if I can't preview the text. I 'd also like to be able use bold text and stuff....
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Epignosis
Special Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator
Joined: December 30 2007
Location: Raeford, NC
Status: Offline
Points: 32524
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Posted: July 06 2012 at 15:14 |
First, you can edit your review. 
The question marks are, as you say, specially formatted characters (if you wrote in Word, some of the characters are auto-formatted in a way that makes them incompatible with PA's software). Previewing your post in Notepad may highlight any invalid characters.
While I don't use it myself, my understanding is that you can use <b> text </b> and <i> text </i> for italics in reviews.
As far as colors are concerned, I do not think that is possible.
Edited by Epignosis - July 06 2012 at 15:15
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wilmon91
Forum Senior Member
Joined: August 15 2009
Location: Sweden
Status: Offline
Points: 698
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Posted: July 06 2012 at 17:13 |
 Epignosis wrote:
First, you can edit your review. |
I have to ask....how?
Epignosis wrote:
While I don't use it myself, my understanding is that you can use <b> text </b> and <i> text </i> for italics in reviews.
As far as colors are concerned, I do not think that is possible. |
That can be a good workaround. But then it is even more important to preview the text before sending. I think PA should provide more tools when submitting a review. It's like the site says to the visitor, we want you to review, but we don't care if it will look like crap. It's contradictory.
I would have considered to use colors to highlight my own recommended songs on an album with a very large number of tracks (20-30 or more).
Edited by wilmon91 - July 06 2012 at 17:15
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Epignosis
Special Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator
Joined: December 30 2007
Location: Raeford, NC
Status: Offline
Points: 32524
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Posted: July 06 2012 at 17:16 |
wilmon91 wrote:
Epignosis wrote:
First, you can edit your review. |
I have to ask....how? |
Go to the album's page. Scroll down to the bottom, and there will be a link that says something like "Edit your reviews and ratings." Click that, and click the review you wish to edit. Edit it and save. Hope this helps!
wilmon91 wrote:
Epignosis wrote:
While I don't use it myself, my understanding is that you can use
<b> text </b> and <i> text </i> for italics in
reviews.
As far as colors are concerned, I do not think that is possible. |
That can be a good
workaround. But then it is even more important to preview the text
before sending. I think PA should provide more tools when submitting a
review. It's like the site says to the visitor, we want you to review,
but we don't care if it will look like crap. It's contradictory.
I would have
considered to use colors to highlight my own recommended songs on an
album with a very large number of tracks (20-30 or more).
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Above my pay grade. 
Edited by Epignosis - July 06 2012 at 17:18
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wilmon91
Forum Senior Member
Joined: August 15 2009
Location: Sweden
Status: Offline
Points: 698
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Posted: July 06 2012 at 17:41 |
Epignosis wrote:
wilmon91 wrote:
Epignosis wrote:
First, you can edit your review. |
I have to ask....how? |
Go to the album's page. Scroll down to the bottom, and there will be a link that says something like "Edit your reviews and ratings." Click that, and click the review you wish to edit. Edit it and save. Hope this helps! |
Thanks for the quick reply and thanks for the info!!
Why would you scroll down to the bottom of the album page? It's a secret edit function no doubt. I think it should be available on the bottom of the actual review, not the album page, and also through the member control panel . Just my opinion.
So the method is to submit the review and then make corrections and resubmit.
And PA strongly encourages everyone to write reviews....well..not very credible.
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Tapfret
Special Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator / Retired Admin
Joined: August 12 2007
Location: Bryant, Wa
Status: Offline
Points: 8581
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Posted: July 07 2012 at 18:29 |
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Ha! My reviews are littered with those punky little question marks. Made my reviews look like inquiries.
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Andy Webb
Special Collaborator
Retired Admin
Joined: June 04 2010
Location: Terria
Status: Offline
Points: 13298
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Posted: July 07 2012 at 21:59 |
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It's the em dashes that Word makes automatically mostly for me.
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Anthony H.
Prog Reviewer
Joined: April 11 2010
Location: Virginia
Status: Offline
Points: 6088
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Posted: July 07 2012 at 22:29 |
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Indeed, the review editing interface on this site is absolute garbage.
This has been brought up before. Do I see it changing anytime soon? No.
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Tapfret
Special Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator / Retired Admin
Joined: August 12 2007
Location: Bryant, Wa
Status: Offline
Points: 8581
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Posted: July 08 2012 at 00:43 |
Andy Webb wrote:
It's the em dashes that Word makes automatically mostly for me. |
Egg zackily. Its my fault for being in this weird phase of my life where I'm reading Dickens, king of dashes.
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Gerinski
Prog Reviewer
Joined: February 10 2010
Location: Barcelona Spain
Status: Offline
Points: 5154
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Posted: July 08 2012 at 01:49 |
The review writing / editing interface is indeed crap, it has been pointed out a few times before.
For editing your reviews you don't need to go to the album page, the easiest way is go to the Collaborators / Mambers Login tab in the front page, there (if you are logged in) you have a link to Edit Your Old Reviews And Ratings were all you reviews are listed, just click on the small icon on the right side of the review you want to edit, but the interface is the same as when you wrote it..
The FAQ section says this about getting paragraphs, bold font or italics:
How do I format my reviews?
If you wish to format your reviews with paragraphs use a space followed by a <p> sign followed by a space in between paragraphs when you submit the review. Alternatively, hit the return key twice. To add bold, italics or underlines to your reviews, the syntax is <b> (text in bold) </b> , <i> (text in italics) </i> , or <u> (underlined text) </u> .
It does not say how to avoid that your ellispsis are converted into a question mark though 
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Guldbamsen
Special Collaborator
Retired Admin
Joined: January 22 2009
Location: Magic Theatre
Status: Offline
Points: 23104
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Posted: July 08 2012 at 01:59 |
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I may be wrong, but I seem to remember reading that the format for reviewing is kept like this, Jurassic, because it is harder to hack. Otherwise it would be obvious to use the current box we have in the forum.
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“The Guide says there is an art to flying or rather a knack. The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss.”
- Douglas Adams
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wilmon91
Forum Senior Member
Joined: August 15 2009
Location: Sweden
Status: Offline
Points: 698
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Posted: July 08 2012 at 10:07 |
Gerinski wrote:
go to the Collaborators / Mambers Login tab in the front page, there (if you are logged in) you have a link to Edit Your Old Reviews And Ratings were all you reviews are listed, |
Okay, I didn't realize that the forum area is separate from the member area of the main site. I can see that when you log in on an album page , you see the welcome sign and the "edit old reviews" link after all. But I guess it could be a bit more clear anyway. A clearer login tab and a link to "my member page" or something, which would be the same as "edit old reviews"
I have overlooked the login on the front page, maube because it is among other tabs and not by itself, and because it says "collaborators", I just didnt take notice of it...
Guldbamsen wrote:
I may be wrong, but I seem to remember reading that the format for reviewing is kept like this, Jurassic, because it is harder to hack. Otherwise it would be obvious to use the current box we have in the forum. |
Could be, but a preview function, I think it's a must.
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Posting reviews
