Thursday 8 March 2018

Reviewers still standing?

With the sad retirement of Chris from the ponyfic-reviewing scene, I took to wondering who was left who still published regular written reviews. I emphasise "written" because, like several other people I know, I'm not a huge fan of video reviews. They just take too long to get through; it's the same reason I don't tend to bother much with video reviews of episodes. There are only a few I can think of who still post more than once in a blue moon, and I'll list them below to help anyone reading who doesn't already know about them.

A few criteria: they must post reviews, not merely recommendations – if they only post about stories they like, they don't qualify. Nor do curated collections such as Equestria Daily, the Royal Canterlot Library and Seattle's Angels, again because you'll never find negative reviews there. (The RCL does note judges' reservations, but that's not enough.) People like Soge and JohnPerry who used to publish reviews but no longer do so don't count because if they did I'd have to include Chris, which would rather defeat the object! Finally, review groups don't count. So, we're left with:

PresentPerfect – no space in his Fimfiction username. Has posted over four thousand reviews, mostly in the single-paragraph format I use here, though I suspect him of actually thinking them out, which is an alien concept to me. Posts irregularly but very frequently. There's also the occasional much longer "vs." review, such as this one of Subjunctive. Reviews several things I generally don't, notably minifics and trollfics. Five-point rating system for general reviews: Highly Recommended, Recommended, Conditionally Recommended, Vaguely Recommended, Not Recommended. The "vs." reviews get a numerical score out of five.

City of Doors – aka Singularity Dream, creator of the indispensible Big Master Review List. The second most prolific reviewer, with almost 3,000 to his name. Again, short reviews for the most part, occasionally just a single line summarising his personal impressions. Even those can contain some striking insights, though. Review numbering and frequency can be rather inconsistent. No formal rating system.

PaulAsaran – another spaceless guy. Publishes a review post most Thursdays and now has over 700. Reviews are fairly detailed, consisting of several paragraphs, though still considerably shorter than Chris's detailed reviews were. Includes cover art, which is space-consuming but nice to look at, and occasional details about who recommended the story to him or requested its review. Five-point rating system based on bookshelves: Why Haven't You Read These Yet?, Pretty Good, Worth It, Needs Work and None.

That's about it, I think, other than that ridiculous buffoon Logan on Louder Yay. We did see the first Rinnaul reviews blog since 2015 the other day, but for now that's a one-off. Gosh, there really aren't a lot of us left, are there? If I've missed any out who fit all the criteria I outlined above then I'd be delighted to know about them. I did skim through the BMRL, but I could easily have missed someone with under 100 reviews, as such people don't get their own column in the spreadsheet.

6 comments:

  1. TSX or TSG or TSM or whatever the heck his name is posts his ongoing reviews very VERY occasionally still. c.c Probably more in the Rinnaul category right now than anything.

    I ask again, what happened to Titanium Dragon? D:

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    1. It hasn't been that long since Titanium Dragon's last review post -- it was 25th January, in fact.

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  2. Things like this make me feel like going back to writing reviews again – I can't believe my last review post was in July 2015! But almost all my pony reading nowadays is focused on RCL stuff, and I feel really awkward posting reviews for those fics.

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    1. I can understand that. On a much, much less exalted level, even if I did post minific reviews I wouldn't feel comfortable doing them for Flashfic 150 entries.

      If you ever do write reviews again, though, let me know!

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  3. A review about reviewers, interesting ;v.

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    1. Not the first time! Well, sort of: http://louderyay.blogspot.co.uk/2014/12/ponyfic-roundup-36-quis-custodiet-ipsos.html

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