Why do people feel guilty about not reviewing?

Every now and then, I get a message from a member pretty much apologizing for not reviewing. This is silly, but for every message I do receive, there's ten more people out there exactly like that. So why do some feel guilty about not reviewing?

Of course, if you're posting new literary works but not reviewing others, then you probably should feel guilty. But most of the messages I receive are from people who haven't posted anything in at least a month.

So guys, don't feel guilty. If you do, you're being ridiculous (unless you're posting new literary works!).

Lastly, any ideas on how to make reviewing more fun or at least easier? Any unnecessary obstacles you feel as a reviewer? The less burdensome YWS makes it to review, the more reviews there'll be after all.

Well one thing that I have noticed a lot in reviews is people that "nit pick" throughout an entire piece. I think that it can be really helpful, but for the reviewer it's really time consuming. Instead of trying to pick out every sentence that needs work, or has a grammar error, I will choose one sentence and then post links to various articles or areas in the KB. It's easier than trying to find every minor spelling error/grammar mistake and the writer still gets the information that they need.

This especially works if someone has a repeated grammar error, if they have made it once, and you've already pointed it out once, you probably don't need to repeat yourself

Another thing that I think a lot of people forget about when reviewing is the ability to link to an article. I typically don't go into long tangents about something like describing a literary technique or flaw in characterization, instead I link them to things in the KB that will cover whatever I am trying to explain. (often times better than I can when I am trying to explain things in a review)

Also, I think that it gets the KB more exposure, which is always a good thing.

I have also noticed that a lot of people forget that reviews purely on content can be just as beneficial as a really indepth review can be

I think that's all I've got xD

Those people want to clutter up your PM box, of course!

But yeah. If they feel that guilty to spend time to send you a PM about it, why not do a review instead?

I say come up with a generic response!

Dear So-and-so:

If you're feeling guilty enough to send this, why not try your hand at a little speed reviewing?

I know what you're thinking... speed reviewing? What's that?

Simple! It's the newest, craziest fad of YWS!

Simply put, you read through the shortest story or poem, tell people your general thoughts about it, and move on to the next one! Do little games for yourself to make it more interesting. Can you write a thorough critique in ten minutes? Five minutes? See how helpful you can be!

You can do this! Remember, the fate of YWS falls on your shoulders.

Don't let it down.

I often feel guilty for not reviewing, and for turning down review requests, and generally not being as much help as I could be. I'm a good reviewer and I kind of feel obliged to use that to help people - the more obviously clueless the writer and badly-written the story, the more I feel like I ought to help them. I've also been lucky in the reviews I've received in the past (not here but elsewhere) and I need to pay that forward.

I'd love to help everybody, or even just everybody who asks, but I can't.

I've felt guilty for not reviewing before, but that's when I was purple and it was part of the job...

Mostly, for me, it's all outside forces. I'll read a work and get really... ranty about it, but I know I'm being too hard on the work because I'm tired/have just spent five hours working on homework/just got back from class/am probably missing something because of the factors listed above. I might have time to review but I'm not in the mindset for it, so I figure I'll do more harm than good. And if I do review when I'm on break, I don't like how I didn't have time to polish the review up so that it was nice and coherent.

As for Tiff's point about the KB, I find it's actually pretty rare to find advice in a review that's in an article. The articles usually cover a broad scope, and sometimes a work only covers part of that scope. The only time I'll really link an article is if the issue is more mechanical (description, pacing, grammar, an aspect of the story like beginnings or climaxes, ect) and not so much content. I find content issues for the works I review are a bit too specific to link to an article. (Like, I've only ever seen the issue once or twice)

I've only felt guilty about not reviewing when it has been a request I missed/ didn't have the time to do or occasionally when someone has reviewed my work and I've not done anything for a while I'll feel a twinge of guilt.

I don't know, maybe it's because there is so much emphasis put on reviewing? For instance, if you review, you'll get more reviews. If you review, you'll be an active, contributing member. And when you don't fulfill those things, you feel like a lazy, non-contributing member of YWS.

I feel guilty when I forget about a request and it takes forever for me to get to something I promised I'd take a look at, but that's because I feel like I owe something to the writer themselves, and not necessarily my YWS duties.

And I agree with Rosey about the KB thing. Unless it's a grammar issue, most of the time I prefer to give advice directly to the author. That way, I can personalize it a bit and show them where in their story exactly they're making the mistake, instead of just general advice that they might not know what to do with. But, a lot of times I just forget that the KB is there, so that could be part of it.

I feel guilty about it sometimes because when I joined up, I saw that I couldn't just post all my work and leave. Reviewing is a big part of this site, and it only seems right to do so. Also, it feels bad when you're like me and just review 5-10 pieces in an instant, as apposed to doing, say, one review minimum every day?

Lol, I don't feel guilty.


Edit:

I guess that is extraordinarily unhelpful. I blame the works posted really. I review if I feel motivated to review. I'm usually motivated by the pieces, and lately, I'm really not.
But I don't think it's anything to feel bad about. As for the focus on reviewing. I beg to differ, I think this site is pretty lax on that focus. There is no one yelling at anyone if they don't review. People can spend their entire time in the Lounge or Randomness forum and really, no one cares.

So, if you people feel guilty, then review. There are really no two ways at it.

Kamas

Kamas wrote:So, if you people feel guilty, then review. There are really no two ways at it.

Hear, hear. I would've thought that would be obvious, no?

The times that I link in the KB are typically for something grammar related, or there are a few great articles on description/imagery and I utilize them when I can. I link to articles when the issue is broad and the article can go into more detail than I can. When the issue is pretty specific, then I give the one on one advice. But I think that the articles really can be helpful

Thank you all for your comments. I just wanted to make it clear that if you're not posting new literary works, then it's absolutely ridiculous to feel guilty for not reviewing. On the other hand, if you are posting new literary works but not reviewing, then you should absolutely feel guilty if not ashamed.

On linking to articles: In my experience, it's extremely rare that an author needs only to improve on a very narrow aspect. If that's true, then the author should be attempting to get their work published. The rest of the time, articles going over broad aspects are very helpful to the author. Linking to them often achieves more than critiquing.

On linking to articles: In my experience, it's extremely rare that an author needs only to improve on a very narrow aspect. If that's true, then the author should be attempting to get their work published. The rest of the time, articles going over broad aspects are very helpful to the author. Linking to them often achieves more than critiquing.

Guess that's just my experience, haha.

What I find's best when linking an article is to give a bit of an introduction to the topic in how it applies to the work, then giving the article. That way, the author isn't faced with a bunch of information they don't know what to do with.

I feel pressure more than guilt most of the time.

And yes no YWSer has ever shouted at me and been like review, review, review! But there are other ways you can pressure people than just shouting at them.

I'm just not good at reviews and I don't really enjoy doing them. I do them though because it's only fair and I have to. Ok I kind of enjoy photography reviews but I was trained to pick apart photos and film lol

I'm not blaming any particular YWSer but there is this constant thing of putting people down who have less reviews or not as good a ratio and this is probably where that guilt springs from. Most of the time it is all in good fun or just for competition but sometimes it can really make people feel bad. I don't think there is anyway you will get around it though Nate because there will always be that culture of reviewing and reviewing loads on YWS because that's how this site works. So there will always be people who feel guilty.

It's interesting that most people who have commented on this thread are people who are prolific reviewers and enjoy doing it.

But I suppose you will all just tell me to review and then it will be done with