Readers, do you ever regret giving a story the review you gave it?

Do you ever regret giving a story the review you did?


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    33

Anonjohn20

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I have, in my case it kind of bothers me when I leave a positive review and the author does something to mess with all the readers, such as:
1. Lock half the story behind a paywall such as Patreon or SubscribeStar (this is the one that convinced me to make this thread).
2. Not deliver on the genre/tags that were placed on the index.
3. Mislead people with their synopsis.
4. Abandon the story without any conclusion.
5. Lash out at commenters who actually like their story.

It makes me feel like I helped the author take advantage of any reader who read my review and decided to give the story a chance. I don't like to give negative reviews so I'll end up wishing I hadn't reviewed at all. None of these things are against Scribblehub's rules, however I'd like to direct other readers to something they might enjoy. Not something that'll leave them just as disappointed as it left me. In this case I'll leave the positive review I wrote, but I'm learning that reading more than a hundred chapters might not be enough to give a review, I might have to only review finished stories.
 

Tsuru

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I have, in my case it kind of bothers me when I leave a positive review and the author does something to mess with all the readers, such as:
1. Lock half the story behind a paywall such as Patreon or SubscribeStar (this is the one that convinced me to make this thread).
2. Not deliver on the genre/tags that were placed on the index.
3. Mislead people with their synopsis.
4. Abandon the story without any conclusion.
5. Lash out at commenters who actually like their story.

It makes me feel like I helped the author take advantage of any reader who read my review and decided to give the story a chance. I don't like to give negative reviews so I'll end up wishing I hadn't reviewed at all. None of these things are against Scribblehub's rules, however I'd like to direct other readers to something they might enjoy. Not something that'll leave them just as disappointed as it left me. In this case I'll leave the positive review I wrote, but I'm learning that reading more than a hundred chapters might not be enough to give a review, I might have to only review finished stories.
Yep.
Its totally normal.

Also mtlnation, (not sure if its changed now with their reworked website), you couldn't edit your review, which was annoying.
Had a review praising it, until X chaps later, there was a big bullshit happening.
 

Sergeandgreen

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Well, on most sites you can change your review or even delete it. So if you think you gave a review that was too good or too bad, then just do that. No need for regrets.
Sometimes, when i give a review early to support a story, i change it later on (even if the rating stays the same.)
 

Tsuru

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I have, in my case it kind of bothers me when I leave a positive review and the author does something to mess with all the readers, such as:
1. Lock half the story behind a paywall such as Patreon or SubscribeStar (this is the one that convinced me to make this thread).
2. Not deliver on the genre/tags that were placed on the index.
3. Mislead people with their synopsis.
4. Abandon the story without any conclusion.
5. Lash out at commenters who actually like their story.

It makes me feel like I helped the author take advantage of any reader who read my review and decided to give the story a chance. I don't like to give negative reviews so I'll end up wishing I hadn't reviewed at all. None of these things are against Scribblehub's rules, however I'd like to direct other readers to something they might enjoy. Not something that'll leave them just as disappointed as it left me. In this case I'll leave the positive review I wrote, but I'm learning that reading more than a hundred chapters might not be enough to give a review, I might have to only review finished stories.
Also ignore most of the "voters".
They are joking with you.
 

foxes

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Regretting what you've done is for criminals. If the text is in the process of being written, then the opinion about it may change. Or views may change with opinions. But why regret it?
 

Thierry_Scott

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need feedback
 

2wordsperminute

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At least here on sh, it shows what chapter you read to until you wrote the review, so that can be at least some indicator that it may no longer be a valid review whether it's good or bad.
 

QuercusMalus

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You missed 'No, I don't regret it because I'll just update my review.'

If a story tanks, I can update my review. If story was bad from the start I probably dropped it early. It would have to be pretty horrible for me to bother leaving a bad review from the get go.
 

Anonjohn20

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Well, on most sites you can change your review or even delete it. So if you think you gave a review that was too good or too bad, then just do that. No need for regrets.
Sometimes, when i give a review early to support a story, i change it later on (even if the rating stays the same.)
I think Scribblehub lets us delete it but not edit it.

EDIT: I was wrong, we can edit it.
 
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Rezcore

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Yep.

I learnt my lesson the hard way.

God, most of work is great, then comes axed end.
As a writer myself, I've not started publishing, it's understandable that endings get axed. It's hard to figure out how to end the work you've poured so much into.
 

Hans.Trondheim

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I have, in my case it kind of bothers me when I leave a positive review and the author does something to mess with all the readers, such as:
1. Lock half the story behind a paywall such as Patreon or SubscribeStar (this is the one that convinced me to make this thread).
2. Not deliver on the genre/tags that were placed on the index.
3. Mislead people with their synopsis.
4. Abandon the story without any conclusion.
5. Lash out at commenters who actually like their story.

It makes me feel like I helped the author take advantage of any reader who read my review and decided to give the story a chance. I don't like to give negative reviews so I'll end up wishing I hadn't reviewed at all. None of these things are against Scribblehub's rules, however I'd like to direct other readers to something they might enjoy. Not something that'll leave them just as disappointed as it left me. In this case I'll leave the positive review I wrote, but I'm learning that reading more than a hundred chapters might not be enough to give a review, I might have to only review finished stories.
Whenever I do reviews, I make sure the author is aware of what he/she wants to know before writing one. My feedbacks aim to help authors, rather than diss their works to favor the readers.
 

Anonjohn20

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Whenever I do reviews, I make sure the author is aware of what he/she wants to know before writing one. My feedbacks aim to help authors, rather than diss their works to favor the readers.
The overall purpose of a review article should be to provide a valuable and informative summary of a well-defined topic/area, in this case a story. It should benefit everyone, I'm not playing favorites. I also haven't dissed anybody nor was my post about dissing someone at all.
 

Hans.Trondheim

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The overall purpose of a review article should be to provide a valuable and informative summary of a well-defined topic/area, in this case a story. It should benefit everyone, I'm not playing favorites. I also haven't dissed anybody nor was my post about dissing someone at all.
Nah. For me, I just keep it simple. I want my revs to help authors rather than keep in mind the whims of the readers. As such, I rarely give revs, unless asked.

If others want their revs to help readers, tis fine with me. Just that, I don't do that way.
 

CharlesEBrown

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Have only ever done, IIRC, two (aside from stuff for classes in the distant past) and stand by both still (one was for a REALLY bad book in a bundle on Amazon and the other was for a friend who was begging for reviews at a time I could sit down and read his book and be honest, and mostly positive).

Oh forgot another, an author of webnovels gave out her second book free to anyone who promised to send her a private review and permission to take "blurbs" out of it. Was mostly positive, but I did object to her use of the word "rape" - not that she used it, just that the character who had been raped thought about it, mentioned it, and referred to it at a minimum of once every five pages and it kind of lost its punch quickly as a result (also made getting through some sections more of a slog than they needed to be).
 
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Anonjohn20

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I made this thread when a talented author locked half the story behind a paywall, despite the fact that when he started, he made no mention or indication he was going to do so (since then, he's locked half of all of his stories, not just his first one). After I edited the 5-star review and tried to change it to a 3-star review (I learned the hard way that you can change the text but not the rating, its stuck on 5 stars), I found out he's blocked me for telling other readers what he was up to. I never asked him to stop monetization; I just wanted him to be honest with his readers. Other viewers who lock their stories behind paywalls are usually kind enough to tell you in the synopsis. On the other hand, he pretends like he's not going to do it until he does it.
 

Anonjohn20

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Can you not change ratings on scribblehub? Or is this another site?
You can, unless an author blocks you from doing so. I gave the story that inspired this thread a 5-star rating and when I tried to change it to a 4-star rating I realized that the author had blocked me from commenting, rating, and reviewing his stories.
 
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