Why don't people review?

[Gieferg]

God forbid, I really hate sequel trilogy (didn';t even watch last part of it, completely lost interest after the second)

 

[SparkySywer]

Often when watching a fanedit, I don't really have much to say that hasn't already been said. Also, often any issues I have enjoying a fanedit are things the faneditor put into their edit on purpose. This is just me, though.

 

[ParanoidAndroid]

In my case, for around five years I only watched fanedits accessible without needing to PM, the lack of a personal connection (of any sort) to the editors and a general shyness kept me from leaving reviews.

Ever since finally taking the plunge and starting to interact properly with other users (after finding an edit I wanted to see that required a request), I have tried to leave reviews soon after watching as a matter of courtesy (apologies to anybody who has provided their links and not heard from me for months, I am yet to get around to viewing). I've also retroactively left a few reviews for edits I saw a while back, some requiring a rewatch while others are still clear in my mind.

On the rare occasions I have previewed works-in-progress I make it a point to be as quick as possible, only fair if you have offered your services and the editor desires feedback to work with. As with normal reviews separation of "faults" and the editor's taste can sometimes be a bit of a balancing act!

For my own edits I have followed the general approach of other people, usually a polite request that a brief review is appreciated if they have the time, bearing in mind that this is all a hobby I don't find it worth my time or energy to pester people!

 

[eternalsage]

I try to leave a review for everything I watch. I tend to do them immediately after I finish watching so its fresh. But I am working full-time, and writing nearly full-time and have several other very important life things that prevent me from watching movies as much as I want, so there tends to be long lulls between my reviews and then a flurry all at once over the course of a month or so when I finally hit the point where I have to take some me time. I have a HUGE back list of edits that I want to watch though, and I am slowly working my way through them. If you have ever sent me a link, know that it is coming.... eventually

As a huge proponent of open-source software and the mindset behind it, I totally understand the mindset of the artist who does their work for essentially free, and I know how much it means just to get a bit of recognition from the people who partake of it.

 

[GelflingHand]

At the moment, because I'm getting an "Invalid Captcha" message if I try to log into that part of the site. No problem with the forums.

 

[Móralltach]

For what it's worth I'm new to the community but I intend to endeavor to give a detailed review of everything I watch.
I've sent out some requests to watch some edits but only got messaged back for one so far, hence I only have one review.
I agree though, these are a lot of work and deserve some manner of public recognition for putting the work in.

 

[Eyepainter]

Yeah, I know how it feels! And it's not always just when it's released either. When I did my own fanedit of Episode II, I wasn't sure how it was gonna be received. I released a demo version for others to "give their thoughts and opinions" and updated my thread on originaltrilogy.com to let others know it was available. But alas, the only response I received was the sound of chirping crickets! I ended up having to "best guess" everything for Episode II. I tried again with my sequel trilogy edits (Mainly because I wanted to make sure they were consistent with each other) by releasing low quality workprints of what I'd done so far. I did get a couple of requests this time around, but I still never got any feedback! Even now, I have no idea what others think about my sequel trilogy edits!

I guess the best way to deal with lack of feedback is pretty much what ArtisDead said at the beginning of this thread: Do what you love, keep calm and carry on, and all that feel-good stuff. If I were fanediting just to be liked by a bunch of users on a forum, I would've stopped doing it by now. I'm looking back at a post I made yesterday where I got to say why I became a faneditor, and my reason was simple: I wanted to create my ideal version of a movie! That motivation to create the best version of a film ever has been worth more to me than any review ever could be.

 

[CalebScott]

To further on from others saying, you should expect those amount of reviews.
Siting examples like YouTube, or a restaurant, and how you also wouldn't expect to see as many comments per view, or ratings per customer.
I think it's different depending on the context of the community, we make these and want to share and see what people think.
I think it should be viewed more as a point of politeness here, to give back for the work someone has put in, as they're not generally getting paid for it.

 

[Gieferg]

give their thoughts and opinions" and updated my thread on originaltrilogy.com to let others know it was available. But alas, the only response I received was the sound of chirping crickets!

That's an usual response I got for any of my edits there.

 

[mnkykungfu]

I feel like this thread just exists to make people feel guilty for watching. You shouldn't.

I am 100% sure that is not the purpose of this thread. As a newer faneditor, I'm certain tremault just was trying to figure out how the community works and if there's anything she could do to get better engagement.

Yeah, ultimately nobody owes anybody anything here.

This may be technically true, but it seems like kind of a jerk move. I understand that attitude of not wanting to expect anything from anyone, but personally when I view a fanedit, I totally feel a sense of obligation to the editor. I place that on myself, but I feel like the absolute least I can do after someone has put their blood, sweat, and tears into trying to make something creative and cool is to let them know if it worked on me or not.

As a huge proponent of open-source software and the mindset behind it, I totally understand the mindset of the artist who does their work for essentially free, and I know how much it means just to get a bit of recognition from the people who partake of it.

^This. Even if I didn't totally fall in love with an edit, I try to give credit where it's due. I'll at least mention the positive points in a review, while trying not to just blow smoke at them. Who knows, maybe something I say even helps give an insight and they are inspired to make their work even better?

I sometimes think people worry about giving less-than-glowing reviews, since that's mostly what you see, but I feel like all the faneditors on this site are getting better and better and better as they go, so as long as feedback comes from a place of appreciation of the effort and process and isn't rude or dismissive, it's all beneficial to the faneditor in the end, right? (I hope )

 

[addiesin]

I am 100% sure that is not the purpose of this thread. As a newer faneditor, I'm certain tremault just was trying to figure out how the community works and if there's anything she could do to get better engagement.

This may be technically true, but it seems like kind of a jerk move. I understand that attitude of not wanting to expect anything from anyone, but personally when I view a fanedit, I totally feel a sense of obligation to the editor. I place that on myself, but I feel like the absolute least I can do after someone has put their blood, sweat, and tears into trying to make something creative and cool is to let them know if it worked on me or not.

I understand what I've posted in this thread may come across cynical, sorry for that. The thread most likely is an earnest attempt at understanding. "Why people don't review" I think this is a kind of narrow or specific question which could be stated more broadly as "why do people behave the way they do" which, to me, is not a "solvable problem", so to speak. While you can find reasons that contribute to an answer to the question, you won't change how people act overall to make a "correction". While this thread may engage and raise awareness to those who read it, its reach is limited. It would be very nice if people felt more of that sense of obligation, but a lot of the time it just won't occur to them, for reasons already stated by others in this thread.

What I'm trying to get at is I don't think it's fair to be mad at people who are excited about the idea of fan edits for things like: not knowing editors want reviews and care to hear what they think, or not knowing they even can review them somewhere considering ifdb isn't the place where they actually get the edit, or not knowing/figuring out how to leave a review, along with the other factors that have already been brought up including simple ones like getting too busy or not enjoying writing. If you want validation for your work, and you're not getting it through feedback, consider the fact that people are reaching out at all, and consuming this form of art work takes hours. To even have an audience is already a big investment of both their interests and free time.

If they're jerks, they're jerks, that's a different issue. Rude people suck, no question.

 

[mnkykungfu]

So I have an additional answer to this question, one filled with delicious irony...
I was one of the early previewers of tremault's first edit on the site, a great FanFix of Captain Marvel. I gave her a lot of personal feedback, and have been one of the biggest proponents of the fanedit ever since. But from that time to the time where it actually got approved and listed on the site was filled with delays....

I happened to check out a review of the edit today, and casually looked through to compare with mine... it was nowhere to be found. I never left a review! I couldn't believe it! So long had passed, that I just assumed that of course I had left a written review on the IFDB page, but alas, such was not the case. (I have now rectified this.)

So, new answer: maybe sometimes people don't leave reviews because they're jackasses who thought they did but then they got involved in other things while they were waiting and forgot.

 

[AtlanticCheer]

Personally, while I have managed to get out 3 decently sized reviews throughtout the 1 month i've been active on here, for some reason I find it almost physically painful to express my opinion into a coherent form. I think that there is definitely a subset of people like myself who, even though they would find posting a full or partial review satisfying, might procrastinate doing so until the heat death of the universe because they find the act of personal expression draining.

Although part of it for me is definitely my ADHD going absolutely hogwild whenever I try to focus on something for an extended period of time. Big shout-out to anyone who is dealing with the same issue on this site.

 

[Wraith]

Personally, while I have managed to get out 3 decently sized reviews throughtout the 1 month i've been active on here, for some reason I find it almost physically painful to express my opinion into a coherent form. I think that there is definitely a subset of people like myself who, even though they would find posting a full or partial review satisfying, might procrastinate doing so until the heat death of the universe because they find the act of personal expression draining.

Although part of it for me is definitely my ADHD going absolutely hogwild whenever I try to focus on something for an extended period of time. Big shout-out to anyone who is dealing with the same issue on this site.

Your comments here are more than enough in length and expressiveness to be valid as a review… there is no expectation on length or quality of prose…so I salute you sharing your challenging situation and applaud your openness…

Even one sentence and some scores would be acceptable so please do not be discouraged…we all struggle with something….feel safe here and share what you are able.

Respect to you!
W

 

[mnkykungfu]

@AtlanticCheer I agree with Wraith. It's harder for me to be succinct in writing than to just put all my thoughts out there, so I'm definitely "guilty" of writing lengthy reviews...but I would hate for that to feel like pressure for everyone to do the same. I'm sure a lot of faneditors, happy as they'd be to get an in-depth review, would also be happy (or even prefer) a review that just had a compliment or two and maybe one suggestion:
-"This was awesome! Totally replaces the theatrical cut for me."
-"I just wish there were subtitles..."
-"Thanks to the faneditor!"
That's better than radio-silence, which could leave the faneditor feeling like the viewer just didn't like the edit, and is being silent because they don't have anything positive to say. Or maybe worse yet: the edit made no impact one way or another and was forgettable.
Props to you for getting your reviews out there, even though it doesn't come naturally to you!

 

[Eyepainter]

@AtlanticCheer I agree with Wraith. It's harder for me to be succinct in writing than to just put all my thoughts out there, so I'm definitely "guilty" of writing lengthy reviews...but I would hate for that to feel like pressure for everyone to do the same. I'm sure a lot of faneditors, happy as they'd be to get an in-depth review, would also be happy (or even prefer) a review that just had a compliment or two and maybe one suggestion:
-"This was awesome! Totally replaces the theatrical cut for me."
-"I just wish there were subtitles..."
-"Thanks to the faneditor!"
That's better than radio-silence, which could leave the faneditor feeling like the viewer just didn't like the edit, and is being silent because they don't have anything positive to say. Or maybe worse yet: the edit made no impact one way or another and was forgettable.
Props to you for getting your reviews out there, even though it doesn't come naturally to you!

I'm guilty of this myself! But I feel I have a good reason to do so, because it means I did a thorough look at the edit itself instead of just winging it. Saying something like, "This edit is the best ever!" or "This edit sucks." doesn't really give enough information to me. I like this video of Roger Ebert explaining what a movie review should do, and while I sometimes fall short of following this advice myself, I think it's useful.

 

[mnkykungfu]

^Ebert was a prince. I should keep that 2nd part in mind when I write on Letterboxd. I totally don't do it for fanedit reviews though, lol.

 

[Wraith]

Jumping a tad left field, most modern reviewers think handing out a plot summary is a review….drives me mad…sure I don’t expect that they might say “evocative of Kurosawa” but give me a break.

I’m generally satisfied with the reviews I get (especially the constructive ones)…and astonished how everyone who reviewed Split Unbreakable Glass (30+) respected my request to not include spoilers…and the one reviewer who did.. flagged it and brought me close to tears it was so insightful… so, “there is balance in The Force”…

 

[Darth Kermit]

Jumping a tad left field, most modern reviewers think handing out a plot summary is a review….drives me mad…sure I don’t expect that they might say “evocative of Kurosawa” but give me a break.

Yes oh my goodness. It’s so annoying! Like I van read the synopsis when I’m about to watch it if I really want to get a hint for what it’s about, I don’t need you to summarize it. I want your thoughts on the film, things that stuck out, what it means to you, etc.

 

[Wraith]

@AtlanticCheer …here is An example in brevity…Check out @Plissken1138 review for Blueyoda’s Thing..

19 words…
Works for me…