skyehawke dot com :: forums

So, I've never particularly been fond of the way review notifications worked at Skyehawke. I used to get an email with a link that would take me to the actual review page, but then I'd have to log in, which would take me to my user panel, and then I'd have to page back to get back to the review page, hit refresh so that the "respond" link would show up, and then respond to the review.

Yesterday I got a few review notifications in email though, and the links took me not to the reviews, but to the chapter page for the chapter being reviewed!

I thus discovered how really difficult it is to even FIND the reviews page for a given story. There's no link on each chapter page of a story to "read reviews" and there's no link from the user panel to them either. The only way to get at them that I could find was to find myself in the Author Directory, and then look at the list of stories that comes up there, and then click the tiny little number next to the word Reviews (__) to see the actual reviews.

So, couple of suggestions/questions:

1) Could email notifications please point to the reviews themselves again?

2) Overall, could a link to Read Reviews be added down there on each page next to Rate This and Review This?

3) Many other archive sites provide a way for authors to read and respond to all their reviews (on multiple stories) from one control panel or page. I'm not saying Skyehawke should necessarily mimic the others, but it so useful!! Could a link to reviews be provided from the author user panel? Even if there isn't a way to see ALL reviews, couldn't there be a "Read/Respond to Reviews" link, which would then ask you which story just as the chapter update link does?

I'm a conscientious author and try to respond to ALL reviews people make, but Skyehawke sure does make it difficult to do so.

Hi RavennaCTan,

Wow, you bring up some very valid problems. To be honest, this is the first time somebody has brought up these issues with us about the review system. (Off the top of my head, the only other user has been Aspeninthesunlight who asked about annonymous-ising the author response emails to avoid spammers from gaining access to private emails)

I hadn't realised how clunky the archive's review response system was from the viewpoint of our authors.

We'll take a look at the system as it stands, your suggestions and try to come up with a solution that will make it easier for all our users.

Is there any other problems with the review-to-story and story-to-review set up that you'd like to highlight at this point?

cheers
Tien Riu

Wow, I'm surprised I'm the first to bring this up! Well, now that i think about it, I've been using the site to archive for like two years, and yet I waited this long to bring it up...

But anyway, yes, I'd love to see a link from the User Panel that would let a given author see and respond to their reviews without having to search around for them, and for the email notifications to point to the actual review being notified about. (While we're at it, there's no link from the user panel to an author's own STORIES. This seems like a bit of an oversight, too... Instead, one has to then go to the author directory and look up one's own name and click there to get the list.)

Thank you!

Hi RavennaCTan,

I was about to say that yes there was a link from the userpanel to an authors stories then realised no, there wasn't any more -! An earlier version of the archive did have links like that, but the closest we have to it now is the "Manage Stories" page (http://archive.skyehawke.com/userpanel.php?menu=stories).

... Actually this is rather embarrasing. I didn't even think of the fact that authors would want a link to their stories in the two years since we've updated the archive.

I guess we really do need to start asking (very loudly) for our users to tell us the problems they're having with the archive.

TR

I think most people are *generally* content with the way things are so they don't complain. The things that work well about the site keep people from wanting to whine about it!

I'd say a pointed post or two in the Skyehawke LJ comm, with notes to the fandom newsletters saying you're soliciting feedback, would get you more response than just asking here in the Skyehawke forums. Put up a post and then notify "dailysnitch@gmail dot com" and "hogwarts.today@gmail dot com" so that people who aren't already watching the comm will know to have a look or put in their 2 cents.