Oh I see! I’d been panicking for days because I thought I’d missed the rule that author reviews had to be in a locked thread or something, lol
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It used to be a rule and isn’t anymore, and some of us just struggle to accept change, lol.
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I thought I remembered it being different last year; just checked that sheet, and non-private author reviews were differentiated from private ones. IFComp 2023 Reviews - Google Sheets
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There are no rules for where the authors can post their reviews, it’s more of a thing that people do on the Forum. (If you want your thread being moved to the Author section, let me know and I’ll do that for you).
This was part of the OG spreadsheet (Autumn’s), which differentiated between authors and non-author reviews. I think authors could at that point post public reviews, but still stayed in the Author’s section? Anyways, Non-Author is much longer than Public on the GoogleSheet.
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There’s no formal rule but yeah, often authors post their reviews in the special authors-only part of the forum - which I’m just flagging to make sure you know about, since in years that I’ve entered it’s been a lot of fun to hang out and chat there regardless of where reviews wind up going!
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But isn’t part of the point of the spreadsheet that if someone wants to read all the reviews for a game, they can easily open them from there? Not differentiating between private and non-private makes that really annoying… (and last year, at least, they were differentiated: IFComp 2024 is live ! + Review Spreadsheet + Game-Threads Index - #43 by alyshkalia)
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I’m happy for it to be put wherever is most appropriate! Apologies for the confusion, I’m a relative newcomer and not fully aware of all the forum conventions yet haha
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Only on the link itself. The stats for the Public column was still:
=SUMPRODUCT(not(isblank(E18:18)), if(REGEXMATCH(E$1:$1,"[aA]uthor"),0,1))
(it doesn’t count for authors reviews, even if anyone could read it)
No worries at all! Your thread is fine where it is, and will also be fine in the Author-section only. 
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One of the forum conventions is that we go off into discussions of procedure at the drop of a hat; don’t worry about it 
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@alyshkalia Updated all the relevant links to indicate when they are in the Private Author Forum section.
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Seabass is also an author, so that column should be moved over!
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I also interpreted “public” as the opposite of “private”, and thought it made a lot of sense that way 
on top of that I thought that authors were forbidden to publicly review other entries — it’s good to have these misconceptions rectified!
(I’ll probably still keep my own planned reviews in the private forum anyway, as my aim is to give other authors some feedback rather than inform the general playerbase, but I might sprinkle comments into the discussion threads when I can!)
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A question I’ve been grappling with for a few days now: is it better to post critical reviews, versus not at all?
I typically only review things I enjoy, because I find it more fulfilling to spotlight games I think are deserving of praise and hopefully more attention from player eyes- but it is IFComp… If there were ever an event to dabble in being a bit more constructively critical, it would be this one, of the main events.
I’ve very much so enjoyed some games from the competition, and have filled in my ballot happily- with a wide range in scores, the lowest being a 1, the highest being a 9, subject to finalized tweaking to balance the games within their played set: the average score being about a 6 or 7 at the moment. But I’m unsure if it would be welcome to post some thoughts on some of the games that didn’t work for me, or that did in some respects and fell down at other points… It’s not my usual style.
Anyways, thoughts appreciated on the matter, if people are game to share.
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I can only speak for myself here, and others might disagree, but I go into this competition with the expectation that my game is going to be reviewed and these reviews will probably include critique! If I didn’t want to read negative feedback I’d probably avoid the forum altogether, rather than expect reviewers not to respond honestly if they disliked my work.
For me, even though it’s not always nice or comfortable to read, honest critical feedback makes me a better writer and designer, so I welcome the opportunity to receive it. I want to get better at what I do and criticism is a necessary part of that.
Obviously it’s not especially helpful if the criticism is just negative without being constructive (i.e. saying ‘this was terrible and I hated it’ without the reviewer saying why), but that’s something I’ve personally never come across on this forum. I think the standard of reviewing is really high and people on the whole put a lot of effort into making their critique helpful to the author.
Interested to hear other people’s views on the subject as I think it’s a really good question!
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If you’re comfortable, I think it’s totally appropriate. I’m too unsure of my own views to criticize, myself.
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Some people have an “I only post positive reviews about games that I enjoyed” approach. Which seems well-intentioned but misguided to me. If such a reviewer never mentions your game, then the silence itself speaks volumes. You’re left to wonder, What did I do wrong? And you can populate the silence with all sorts of self-tormenting answers to that question.
Not that anyone has to post critical reviews, or positive reviews, or any reviews. But this is why I personally try to write a little something about every game I play (on the private author forum, that is; I try to step lightly in the public forum during the comp).
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I’ve only entered IFComp as an author a couple of times (this year and 2018), but have been a judge since the very beginning, and a reviewer for many years. I tend to give honest but critical where appropriate reviews. I certainly expect critical reviews as a contestant. And would be sad if people censor too much.
This year I am not promising to review all the games I play. But those I do review will get critical feedback where appropriate, as well as praise. Aiming throughout for fair and constructive comments. But again I may choose not to write reviews for some games. I won’t reveal my scores.
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My stance has always been that you can’t grow as a writer if no one ever tells you what’s not working. I also find that the more criticism you get on a particular piece, the easier it is to triangulate what’s actually a problem and why, vs. what’s just one person misreading stuff or not vibing with what you’re doing.
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When I decided to enter the competition, I did it mainly to get opinions: for me, a review that says ‘I don’t like it because…’ is much more interesting than one that simply says ‘Nice!’
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Bring it on, I can take it!
(well I may cry a little, but only when nobody’s looking)
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