Young Writers Society

I think we should have a theme every few months. Like, maybe in May, we can have an Avengers theme or something like that, because of the new movie. Or something like that every 3 or so months.

Some individual prizes might be cool too. Like, if you're the top reviewer, you get 1000 points. And, if you're the second top reviewer, you get 900 points. So, the top ten reviewers get something. Maybe base it off word count too? That might have a cool sense of competition, along with the glory of winning. That way, if your team loses, but you did your best and were the top reviewer of the site, you would get a lot of glory -- and some more points! Not just a loser after all!

Snoink wrote:

Increase the number of points you can earn on Review Day (once upon a time, you could earn twice as much on Review Days)

I like it.

Change up the site's colors just for Review Day.

Yeah!

What if the winning team got to pick the color of YWS for the next review day? I dunno. Adds some stakes.

I second the motion(s).

I don't really think individual prizes in points should be a thing, First, where would they come from? Also, being top reviewer would already give 3000 or so points, depending on review amounts.

Zhia wrote:I don't really think individual prizes in points should be a thing, First, where would they come from? Also, being top reviewer would already give 3000 or so points, depending on review amounts.

I'm kind of agreeing with the last part of this, that the point amounts should be a little bit more than 1k for the top reviewer -- maybe 2k for top, 1.75k for second, 1.5k for third, then 1k and down by 100s so that the 10th place reward isn't just 100 points, too?

I think it's interesting, because points would actually be a substantial reward for the top reviewers, and it doesn't necessarily involve roping up people to do reward reviews—so it's not a trophy, which would be there forever, but it's something they might actually be able to get some use out of.

Just new team colors. Please. Please. Please. Every month. New colors. I can't stress that enough.

I like the idea of switching up numbers of teams, but I don't want us to pick our own teams for reasons already mentioned.

I second switching the colors. There's only so many red and blue-related names you can have. I'd also really like to do themes.

I don't know about point prizes for top reviewer...if we do them, they should definitely be for top typist, not the most number of reviews, because the one thing I dislike about Review Day is that so many of the reviews are really short and basically say "I liked it."

I think there should be a prize, but I'm not sure what. Points seems like the simplest option, but I know that I already have more points than I ever feel like I'm going to use, and it is true that the top typists already get like 3k points during Review Day.

Themes would be cool! One that pops into my mind is Romeo and Juliet, and the teams could be Montague and Capulet (I'm reading it right now, so I just happened to think of it).

Changing up the colors is also a good idea. Maybe whatever team is in the lead can have their color be the background or something. But I'm not sure how easy that is to do.

I think the four teams would be fun, but it does make the themes harder.

I'm not sure about picking your teams, because I feel like we'll end up with unfairly balanced teams.

Increasing points would be alright, but it's not the most important thing. I'm neutral about that.

The one I like the most is themes, but a bit more themed than the Poke-review day. With that one, we really just got Pokemon themed congratulations after we did a review, and not much more.

Astronaut wrote:The one I like the most is themes, but a bit more themed than the Poke-review day. With that one, we really just got Pokemon themed congratulations after we did a review, and not much more.

Actually, there was also a Pokemon-themed reviewing challenge being held during said Review Day, which I know definitely helped because it gave me a solid goal to work towards. Not to mention, because the theme was something I was interested in, I was really hyped to participate and discuss and think about Pokemon.

So, a side note: If we do more themes, I support the idea of more themed challenges during Review Day. I know they'd take a bit to get set up, but just an optional Review Day challenge every 3 months or so might help.

I remember when we had a goal on review day, and I think that really pushed us to review more.

I do like the idea of having themed Review days more often. Maybe even have the option to make the teams earlier and have each team get rallied up for the weekend.


Alternatively, a Dune themed Review day would really, really spice things up..

Well, if we add some pepper, cinnamon, sage, paprika -- wait, not those type of spices? Oh.

Hmm, $5 for every 50 words sounds good too -- that's not a real option? Oh.

Themes sound like a really cool idea, and that would honestly motivate me more than anything else. (Such as Harry Potter, Hunger Games, Harry Potter, Percy Jackson, Harry Potter, Avengers, Harry Potter, Harry Potter, etc.) Maybe bi-monthly? So six themed Review Days in a year.

I think the four teams would be fun, but it does make the themes harder.

Hogwarts houses.

Switching up the number of teams sounds good. *nods*

Also, I am all for increasing points on Review Day. That sounds awesome. But as Meandbooks said, it should be for the top typist.

Having the winning team chose the colors of YWS for the next Review Day sounds cool, as long as the colors are reasonable. (No bright neon colors that would hurt people's eyes.)

Maybe on review day, the more reviews your write, the greater the point value you get from your reviews? Like after 10 reviews, your points double, after 20, they triple, or something like that. I'm just not sure how hard that would be to implement.

Also, Harry Potter.

Thanks everyone for weighing in so far! Here are my thoughts on what's been said up this point:

- Individual point prizes: I'm not sure this will actually increase reviews, but there's certainly no harm in trying it. Plus, it's one of those things that takes very little effort to set up.

Regarding the size, 3,000 for the top person, 1,500 for second, and 1,000 for third should do I think. In any case, it's not so much the prize that matters as it is just the recognition.

As for determining who the top 3 are, I think we should just go by total points earned. There's disadvantages to doing that, but I think there are bigger disadvantages to doing it any other way. If you go by total reviews, then you run the very real risk of rewarding a spammer. You could go by the number of characters typed, but the top typers tend to be the top typers because they quoted large sections of the work.

- Number of teams: We'll try it out with 3 teams for the month of May. The default names will be something nondescript so that people stop feeling beholden to choosing a name based on the color. Maybe teams Y, W, and S?

- Goal: The goal will be put back into the header. I think @Auxiira and @StellaThomas are right that it helps; makes it seem more like we're collectively working together.

- Double points: So far, no one pooh-poohed this idea, which kinda surprised me. However, I do think it's something that would help, particularly as the cost to post a work is 350 points now, and it's not going back down to 250 anytime soon.

- Changing colors: I don't like the idea of having the winning team pick the colors for the next Review Day. I rather like to have it such that there's a specific Review Day template so that when you visit that day, you know there's a Review Day going on.

As to what that specific Review Day template will be, I'm not sure yet. It might just be a logo change.

- Themes: For May, I'd like to skip doing any specific theme just because I'd like to see what the results are of the other changes. But for June we'll do something.

- Incremental point counts for reviews: @Paracosm's idea is a really intriguing one. For May, I'd like to try the double points for every review first, but if that leads to too much spamming or otherwise doesn't work, I'd like to give the incremental point counts for reviews a try.

- Black names for reviewers on Review Day: This is something I just now thought of, but what if after you write a review on Review Day, your username turns black for the rest of the day? This would not pertain to anyone who already has a colored name (e.g., moderators), but it could be a neat incentive for registered members.

tldr; Here are the proposed changes:
- Reward points to the top 3
- Keep teams as they are, but add a third one
- Put goal back in header
- Double the points you can earn per review
- Some kind of Review Day template
- Black usernames for reviewers

If I skipped something, let me know! Also, feel free to add more ideas, or to disagree with any of the above. Nothing is set in stone until May 24.

Themes would be so much fun! The Pokemon review day was one of the best review days I remember. Maybe instead of just the Avengers, though, we could do a general superhero theme? Just a thought.