First of all, all of us know that age and location is usually a pretty good indication of who wrote the piece. Sometimes we can narrow it down to 1 to 3 people and I know I have slanted my reviews towards my feelings for the author I suspect wrote it based on those two demographics.

I think all demographic information should not appear to be a true blind queue.

Second of all, I just discovered that I can search for an item by title and I can find who wrote it. As long as I don’t click on the searched item returned, I can still review it. I knew this before (see tips on how to skip items for reviews). But I just hit me that I can use it this way as well. To verify or to find out who the author is before I do the review. This is a major issue against Blind Reviewing. It takes time to do, but some will do it. Especially if they mean to be mean.

The only reason I realized this because I was accused today of being on a vendetta against a reviewer who gave me a critical (negative but not insulting) review. Not true, but he said it is easy to find out which pieces he submitted and review them with the intent of trashing his work. I gave him a negative review for a piece as part of the blind review process. It just so happens that it was his.

As I defended myself against of what I thought was an absurd charge claiming Blind Queue, I realize he has a point, I can easily have checked to see if it was a piece written by him.

So this needs to be fixed. I don’t want to be a liar. I want the blind queue to be truly blind. I don’t want to defend myself on that basis while realizing that I can be called a liar because the possiblity does exist that I am.

Third, If I go to someone’s page I can write down all the titles of their pieces not marked as private and just wait for them to appear in the queue to do what he accuses me. I don’t think there any safeguard that can be placed against this, but it is also a problem.

Thanks!

Well my bad. It seems my tip and the related tips on how to skip an item to review have been deleted from the forums. I haven’t been to that forum for awhile now and didn’t notice.

I guess Urbis didn’t want to people to know that bit of info…. sorry!

Yeah, that’s always been the case and we’ve thought of taking the top review queue items out of title search. We’ll likely reconsider doing this.

I’m digging up an old topic, but I’m actually interested in people’s thoughts about what my sister said above. Right now you can search for a item you see in the queue and see who wrote it (however, if you click on the item to read reviews, we won’t let you review it). We’re considering removing items from search results if they’re in your review queue. Thoughts?

Yes please

If it won’t slow down the page, then sure.
Speed and stability are most important, and no one is going to cry if we don’t get this feature (though it sounds cool and fair)

Of course, than you’d have to remove those items from ‘happening now’, because I always see somebody reviewing same pieces as me, because they’re on top of the queue for many folks.
And that doesn’t sound right somehow…

The “What’s Happening Now” serves no purpose for me. I don’t see why it’s useful to any Urbis users actually, but I have been called solipsist before.

I too would like to see queue items taken out of the search “pool”. I don’t see it’s purpose. Again, possible solipsism.

The items on the homepage serve a marketing purpose, mostly. When new users come to the site, they see how active everyone is, and sign up.

That said, the homepage will eventually change to show top items and reviewers.

Ah, I guess that makes sense. I do like the new homepage, though I miss guessing at who the caricatures were. I vaguely remember an Angelina Jolie, a Joe Strummer, Isaac Newton, and this one guy wearing a hat—it looked like he had faces on both sides. Strange stuff.

Change is good.