First of all Dawn should read an excellent essay about "How to Review" that a certain JunoMagic just posted and SSPed just about everywhere.
Dawn read this essay the day it was posted in Juno's LJ. ;)
And then... what does it mean if a story passes HASA's review? Nothing much.
That is not what I am worried about. If it didn't pass, I think I'd be disappointed but not much. It is far worse, from me, to get a harsh opinion from a writer I know and respect than an anonymous reviewer. I am more concerned with whether or not I can overcome my disagreement with forcing stories to pass review before archiving in order to submit my own work there. (And this is not just HASA...that is the convenient example as it is the "review" archive I visit the most and the one I am specifically considering at the moment.)
The reviews at HASA are not intended to help the author, they are only meant to keep up a certain standard in the public archive.
And that is exactly why I have a problem with such processes.
A certain standard of what? Quality? I am sorry, but I am not nervy enough to assume that my opinion is any judge of quality. I have my opinions, yes, and I willing give them in betas and reviews (not for archiving), but I cannot judge "quality" and I do not think that anyone else can either.
I might think that a purple-haired, unicorn-riding OFC who marries Legolas and fries Sauron with her Magick Eye Lasers (tm) is poor quality, but doubtlessly, there are other readers who would find this a fun and entertaining story and would find my character-based, psychology-infused babblings to be incredibly unexciting and bland.
I have no problem with the offering of opinions, but I do have a problem when a group of people takes it upon themselves to place a label of "quality" on a piece of writing.
re 2: I'm sorry if I have to destroy some illusions there...
I'm not sure what illusions you think you are destroying. I was being very sarcastic in that point.
re 4: HASA review cannot be compared to standardized admission tests.
I am not attempting to compare HASA review to standardized tests. I am attempting to compare my opinions on both as things with which I do not agree but might do simply because the opposite results in more harm to me than good and does nothing to further my point.
Do I disagree with standardized tests for university admission? I do. But to refuse to take them, who am I hurting? Only myself. The folks who run the SAT and GRE in the U.S. sure don't care whether I show up or not.
Do I disagree with forcing a story through quality control before publishing it? Again, I do. But am I accomplishing anything by refusing to put my work there? To remove the sarcasm from point #2 since my sarcasm obviously wasn't blatant enough, I do not think that any archive would care--nor am I prideful enough to think that they should care--that I am not submitting my work there. So what is accomplished? Again...nothing.
And at least HASA has no discriminating, prejudiced and biased submission guidelines like SoA and OSA.
I haven't spent much time in these places, so I'm curious what these standards are. That they don't accept slash? Just curious. :)
I really don't understand what your psychological problem with reviewing is - you do beta-work, after all.
I have no problem with reviewing. I have a problem with people who believe that their opinions count as a suitable judgement of quality or not and do not call acceptance into such an archive for what it is--x people's opinions--and instead try to pass such judgement off as an indicator of quality.
And again - would the review by a robot be fairer? By a thing that does not know anything about life as a human being?
That is not what I am saying. I am saying that I do not think that quality can be based off of anyone's opinion, human, robot, monkey, or Elf.
Sorry for the rant, but I'm rather involved in the problem of how to review at the moment!
Please don't be sorry. Dawn's LJ is never a rant-free zone. Quite the opposite in fact. ;)
no subject
Dawn read this essay the day it was posted in Juno's LJ. ;)
And then... what does it mean if a story passes HASA's review? Nothing much.
That is not what I am worried about. If it didn't pass, I think I'd be disappointed but not much. It is far worse, from me, to get a harsh opinion from a writer I know and respect than an anonymous reviewer. I am more concerned with whether or not I can overcome my disagreement with forcing stories to pass review before archiving in order to submit my own work there. (And this is not just HASA...that is the convenient example as it is the "review" archive I visit the most and the one I am specifically considering at the moment.)
The reviews at HASA are not intended to help the author, they are only meant to keep up a certain standard in the public archive.
And that is exactly why I have a problem with such processes.
A certain standard of what? Quality? I am sorry, but I am not nervy enough to assume that my opinion is any judge of quality. I have my opinions, yes, and I willing give them in betas and reviews (not for archiving), but I cannot judge "quality" and I do not think that anyone else can either.
I might think that a purple-haired, unicorn-riding OFC who marries Legolas and fries Sauron with her Magick Eye Lasers (tm) is poor quality, but doubtlessly, there are other readers who would find this a fun and entertaining story and would find my character-based, psychology-infused babblings to be incredibly unexciting and bland.
I have no problem with the offering of opinions, but I do have a problem when a group of people takes it upon themselves to place a label of "quality" on a piece of writing.
re 2: I'm sorry if I have to destroy some illusions there...
I'm not sure what illusions you think you are destroying. I was being very sarcastic in that point.
re 4: HASA review cannot be compared to standardized admission tests.
I am not attempting to compare HASA review to standardized tests. I am attempting to compare my opinions on both as things with which I do not agree but might do simply because the opposite results in more harm to me than good and does nothing to further my point.
Do I disagree with standardized tests for university admission? I do. But to refuse to take them, who am I hurting? Only myself. The folks who run the SAT and GRE in the U.S. sure don't care whether I show up or not.
Do I disagree with forcing a story through quality control before publishing it? Again, I do. But am I accomplishing anything by refusing to put my work there? To remove the sarcasm from point #2 since my sarcasm obviously wasn't blatant enough, I do not think that any archive would care--nor am I prideful enough to think that they should care--that I am not submitting my work there. So what is accomplished? Again...nothing.
And at least HASA has no discriminating, prejudiced and biased submission guidelines like SoA and OSA.
I haven't spent much time in these places, so I'm curious what these standards are. That they don't accept slash? Just curious. :)
I really don't understand what your psychological problem with reviewing is - you do beta-work, after all.
I have no problem with reviewing. I have a problem with people who believe that their opinions count as a suitable judgement of quality or not and do not call acceptance into such an archive for what it is--x people's opinions--and instead try to pass such judgement off as an indicator of quality.
And again - would the review by a robot be fairer? By a thing that does not know anything about life as a human being?
That is not what I am saying. I am saying that I do not think that quality can be based off of anyone's opinion, human, robot, monkey, or Elf.
Sorry for the rant, but I'm rather involved in the problem of how to review at the moment!
Please don't be sorry. Dawn's LJ is never a rant-free zone. Quite the opposite in fact. ;)