I’m curious. When an author submits a review to the Urbis team for inadequacy, does that author receive a refund for the credits they spent in unlocking the review? If so, I suggest they not. It might encourage people to reject a review just to get their credits back.

Secondly, I recieved my first notice saying one of my reviews did not meet guidelines. This is not a complaint, but I feel the author of the item rejected my review simply because they didn’t agree with me. Do the reviews submitted to the Urbis team honestly get evaluated by administration? Or are they just forwarded to the reviewer? My review was rejected for “not following guidelines” and for not being “concise, constructive.” I was confused, for in the review I merely pointed out parts of the item that were unclear to me, and made suggestions on how to make it more clear. I also mentioned what I thought worked FOR the piece. And I always use words like “perhaps you could…” or “in my opinion…” or phrase my suggestion as a question so as not to sound offensive. How is that not constructive? I quote lines from the piece to be specific. How is that not concise?

Again, I am not ranting or complaining. I merely wish to understand my alleged mistakes so I avoid repeating them in the future. Even after reading the review guidelines, I am still confused as to how my review did not follow them.

Thank you for your time.

~ Dexus

Yes, the author gets their credits back, but they have to wait until the refund request is refused or accepted by our ‘review gaurdians’ (aka RGs).

So, if the writer requests the refund, the request goes to 3 different review gaurdians. Each gaurdian decides whether they consider it an acceptable review or not. If two (or all three) of the RGs decide that the review does not fit the standards, the refund is then accepted…you lose the credits for giving the review, the author gets them back.

You may pay close attention to the ‘notes to the reviewer’, if you fail to follow the author’s requests, then you can be refunded. Also, if you are quoting too much of the story, you can be penalized. I can’t be certain why your review was refunded unless I saw it and the peice you reviewed with notes to the reviewer. It sounds specific; if you really feel it was a worthy review, then dispute it, contact Steve or Steve’s_Sister and let them evaluate the situation and they can probably tell you exactly why your review wasn’t up to standards.

Hope this was helpful.

Yes, but whether a review is valid is up to 3 Review Guardians – they are users (not administration) who vote on every review sent for a refund. So you may file every review you receive for a refund but only those that RGs decide really break the guidelines will be refunded.
The “bad” thing is that the review disappears after being refunded. But if you have it saved somewhere c/p it here and we’ll discuss it.

Let’s take one of my reviews waiting for a refund:

I adore the line
“The gowns and ties stampede”
I think it’s beautiful, as is the entire last stanza.
I can’t see much wrong with this piece at all though a suggestion I do have, from numerous poetry workshops and the like, would be to break up the lines. Not all of them but a few. Each one doesn’t have to be a complete thought, unless that is what you’re going for.
I really did love this poem though!

It’s not constructive – notice no advice on how to improve it
Not specific – says to ‘break up the lines’ , but which ones and how?
Not concise – babbles about poetry workshops, quotes a line just to say he likes it

Dexus, see my comments here.

I have been in a similar boat to you Dexus—I’ve only had one review refunded and in my opinion it was a good review. I actually tried to appeal against the decision and was told (to paraphrase) “yes, your review was good and shouldn’t have been refunded.”

Which could have just been to keep me sweat, of course, but I was also told there wasn’t much they could do about it either way. Plus, when it was refunded I hadn’t actually been docked the points I gained—my pride was just a bit bruised, in the end.

It’s just one of those things that arise with systems that can only be based on opinion, and I’m sure the RG’s get it right more than they get it wrong.

Hey Dexus,
I was one of the writers who had your review refunded, but now I can’t remember what you wrote. If you have it save somewhere, I’ll be glad to discuss it (and expose myself to public scrutiny) here in this forum. I’m going on holiday in a couple of days, so we’d need to do it soon. Did I not write in the comments why I was requesting the review. I normally do this if I think the reviewer tried but just didn’t write an acceptable review.

I never ask for a refund merely because I don’t like what the reviewer said. That said, I do ask for “quite a few” refunds. Don’t laugh, you beautiful, talented and impartial RGs!