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An official statement regarding the rating of fanfiction (from a very upset moderator)
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Vincent Belmont
Moderator
Joined: Jul 17, 2001
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 Posted: Mar 09, 2003 1:26 PM
Greetings, all,
When I first became a mod for fanfiction, things have been going smoothly since. This board has been so successful that Chad is making it one of the first boards subject to the new renovations. Congratulations.
I will be sending my ideas to Chad when I get the chance.
However, something atrocious has come to my attention. As of a couple of nights ago, a new member (or two) has come onto the fanfiction board, and proceeded to kick a bunch of people off the top ten list. These people had perfect tens, and more than 5 or 6 people rated it that way. Some of these victims are excellent writers, and long standing members of the GB communtiy...one of these victims was also....me. 
I have been going through some peoples' profiles (I'll be making this a standard procedure now), and looking at what you've been rating. I am not liking what I am seeing for a few of these profiles. There are quite a few inconsistencies in what you've been rating...you know who you are.
I'm sick of battling the bad rating war, and I'm laying down some things that some people had better get through their skulls if they want to be welcome here.
1) You are NOT Ebert or Roper (BTW, I hate both of them). You are NOT a professional critic. Do not claim that you are, and do not act like it on this board. I've seen far too many idiots come on here with a huge chip on their shoulder.
2) Do not get your friends to join the board for the sole purpose of giving your fanfics tens, and rating all others slightly lower. I hate this. Everyone else on the board hates this.
3) If you do not like the author of the fanfic, simple...DO NOT RATE HIS OR HER WORK! This board has suffered too many flame wars due to hurt feelings or immense egos.
4) If you are rating a fanfiction that is a perfect ten (because more than 5 or 6 people have rated it that way) less than a ten...you had better give a VERY good reason as to why you rated it an 8....here is a listing (subject to additions) of STUPID reasons:
*It just wasn't my "cup of tea"
*Didn't have the OGBs or the EGBs. (that is why we have the concept of "Franchises")
*Not enough protons and ghost traps. (come on! What are we, preschoolers?)
*Not familiar with the crossover series. (then how can you properly rate it?)
*I'm a tough rater...but refuse to give good reasons as to "why" (see above)
5) Do not give yourself tens, and then give everyone else lower ratings to knock them below you, or off the list completely. This pisses me off more than the rest of these reasons. This is possibly the most egotistical and asinine thing you could ever do. If I ever catch anyone doing it, I will see to it personally that you are banned!
6) If you are going to give these "tough" ratings, for the love of all that is Ghostbusters, I had better see under your profile that YOU wrote fanfiction. If you are going to skeet shoot everyones hard earned tens, then you had better have some work of your own.
I will be asking Chad about giving me the power to nix some of these bad ratings. There have been far too many victims of idiot ratings.
Everyone here is guilty of having commited one of these at one time or another. I am no exception. However, it all stops here.
Have a nice day.
_____________
*"Vincent Belmont is never late...nor is he early. He arrives PRECICELY when he means to."
*"They say one should not speak unkindly of the dead, so I say "Nice Try."
*"There are worse things out there than ghosts, goblins, demons, aliens, and things that go bump in the night....there's me...."
*"Bah. Carlos? He's half an idiot....and that's the GOOD half."
The Nightsquad Message Board
Ghostbusters: Nightsquad
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Twister
Ghosthead
Joined: Jul 16, 2001
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Posted: Mar 09, 2003 1:41 PM
That's good to hear Vince, I'm glad this will be stopped.
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~*The Greatest Meditation is a Mind That Lets Go*~
~There Are Chords in the Hearts of the Most Reckless Which Cannot be Touched Without Emotion~
Proud to be a member of Ecto Force!
Get your RGB Tapes Here!
Brighten Your Day with My Fan Fics!
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Kingpin
Ghosthead
Joined: Aug 17, 2001
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Posted: Mar 09, 2003 7:44 PM
Damn right, you hit the probverial nail on the head!
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"We have the tools, we have the talent"
The sun never sets on the British Empire...because God can't trust us in the dark! evil grin
Nightsquad gets chatting
Egon and Janine forever! Everything else is wrong
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kyleogb1983
Moderator
Joined: Jun 16, 2002
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Posted: Mar 11, 2003 12:48 AM
Right on, Vincent, I agree with all of your points that you've said and yes, I did notice that some people knocked top ten people of the list there.
I have personally have said this once before and I'll say it again. " For those who like to give bad ratings to be "Herpies", than let's see you do better."
I dont think it's fair for some people to low rate someone's hard earned work and personally, I like to rate people's things but I encourge them and I find it horrible that some members can't do that and another thing that's bad is when these people say that their going to have the biggest fan fiction ever written in GBN History, but called themselves " fair" raters but give bad or poor ratings and this is about the egotistical people.
BTW, I have never said that I was a fair rater nor a good one but I have gave people bad ratings and yes, I dont like doing it either.
_____________
Kyleogb1983, The Southern Gentleman of GBN.
" If there's a haunting in the West, you can call the Best. Ghostbusters: West Coast Division"
" Did someone call for a Doctor ?"
" Dr. Stevens, reporting for duty, Sir."
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mrshowtime3740
Ghosthead
Joined: Aug 15, 2002
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Posted: Mar 11, 2003 9:21 PM
No one could have said this better than Vincent Belmont  We're all doing our part to make this board The Friendly Ecto-Confines and all we get are people who mess it up for others. (Some, not all, and a very select few.)  Do all you can to keep this board positive.
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They call me Mr. Showtime...
"You want ratings? Watch this!!!!"
"I just want you to Carry Me Home."
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Sinister
Ghosthead
Joined: Jul 05, 2002
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Posted: Mar 12, 2003 7:24 PM
Indeed, I mean sometime it is nessacery to deliver a low rating to somehting, I hate doing it and have only dome it twice.
Now I do find it hard to rate FFs a 10, because ten means perfect, and as my father taught me once, nothing is perfect, there is ALWAYS room for improvement, therefore I only occasionally rate a ten in REALLY special circumstances where i see real depth and commitment, a fine example is Vinces The Darkness Returns!
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The resident scribe for GHOSTBUSTERS UK
GB DOOMSdAY, a crossover event unlike any other!
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gbandrew
Ghosthead
Joined: Nov 02, 2002
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Posted: Mar 12, 2003 9:51 PM
I hear ya, I have been known to do that once or twice, But it'll stop now
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"I looked at the Trap Ray"
Ghostbusters: Elm Street the ultimate Fan Fic series
This goes to all my freaks on Ghostbusters.net...Big Poppa Pump is your hook-up, Holla if ya hear me.
P.S. To all you wrestling fans I am no Fan of the nWo, Okay
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Vincent Belmont
Moderator
Joined: Jul 17, 2001
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Posted: Mar 13, 2003 2:16 AM
Sinister, I went so far as to using real addresses and places...but that didn't stop it from getting a lower rating....
...I listed all the things that tick me off above. 90% of them have happened to me.
_____________
*"Vincent Belmont is never late...nor is he early. He arrives PRECICELY when he means to."
*"They say one should not speak unkindly of the dead, so I say "Nice Try."
*"There are worse things out there than ghosts, goblins, demons, aliens, and things that go bump in the night....there's me...."
*"Bah. Carlos? He's half an idiot....and that's the GOOD half."
The Nightsquad Message Board
Ghostbusters: Nightsquad
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Kingpin
Ghosthead
Joined: Aug 17, 2001
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Posted: Mar 13, 2003 5:31 AM
This is a sort sum up of how I rate a Perfect 10:
A fanfic will receive a perfect 10 for the following reasons:
Originality
Attention to detail
Spelling/Grammer
Storyline
Character/situation/object descriptions
I believe that there are many fanfics that deserve 10s, especially ones that I know the writer has put a lot of work in (Sorry TexasGB, you know what I'm talking about! ) However there are some very poor fictions that get on because they meet the requirements, I'm sure that Vince has read some poorly written GB fics and has hated having to post them, I'm not perfect, nobody is, so I try to rate fairly about 95% of the time.
_____________
"We have the tools, we have the talent"
The sun never sets on the British Empire...because God can't trust us in the dark! evil grin
Nightsquad gets chatting
Egon and Janine forever! Everything else is wrong
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coachmcbribe
Ghosthead
Joined: Jan 11, 2003
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Posted: Mar 13, 2003 7:07 AM
Indeed i have been known in the past to give low ratings.But it is simply because i dont find them good enough.Yes i agree that we are not all professional writers or critics but if i dont like a fanfic i tell them why and try and help.I rarely give out anything above a 7, i think thats decent enough.Some of the ideas that are around here are real good and could only be wrote by true ghostbusters fans and thats encouraging.However the recent lecture given to the board was the right thing to do, but still i will give out my ratings fairly to my opinion of the quality.There will be threes and fours and there will be sevens and eights but at the end of the day its all fair.
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Master Spider
Ghosthead
Joined: Jul 20, 2001
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Posted: Mar 13, 2003 9:46 PM
I can see where coach is coming from, but what I disagree with him on is as low ratings as 3's and 4's. Something that bad would have to be so misspelled and so horrible, that it's just rediculous.
Anyway, in my opinion, the ratings system needs to be reworked all together. Let's face it, there are people who rate tens just so others won't get mad at them, or because they want to be "friends with the group" or whatever. We all know it happens. And Sinister is right, for all of these stories to have all perfect 10's, I think people need to be a little more harsh with there ratings. And not harsh in a sense of mean, but harsh in a sense of being more critical. People on here basically rate 10 for something they like, 8 for something they thought was ok, and 7 for something they didn't seem to like. I was guilty of it at one point, but then I came to see that it was rediculous.
Bottom line is, the rating system needs to be reworked. It should have more of a weighted down sense to it, like a story should only have a certain number of ratings before it can be eligible for the top 10, and then it should work like www.imdb.com's rating system. That way there'd be alot less crap coming from people.
Now I'm not a mod, and I probably won't ever be one, but when I came to this board I tried to be a model idea of what people on this section of the boards should be like, as well as doing my best to try and keep things in order with the ability of a regular member. When all this started happening, and I saw how things worked around here with wider eyes, I sort of lost the will to do any of that, and basically stopped posting in this section all together.
With GB NOMAD on its way, I can see myself heading back, but things will have to change for the better.
And basically with what I've stated above is the only way I can see it happening, because guess what, at this point, and from what I can see...we're all guilty of ratings abuse in one way or another...
_____________
It's the FINAL COUNTDOWN...
Chris: So my friend fireman carried me to the lockers....
Tom: Hahahaha sweet his name is Fireman?
N.O.M.A.D. Unplugged
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GB Freak
Ghosthead
Joined: Aug 14, 2002
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Posted: Mar 14, 2003 12:49 AM
coachmcbribe gave me an 8 and that's pretty good getting an 8 fromhim. He's pretty tough when it comes to fan fics
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Come visit Ghostbusters: Ecto Force
Please Read My First Fan Fic Ghostbusters: Helbent
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Mat
Ghosthead
Joined: Sep 04, 2002
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Posted: Mar 16, 2003 4:47 PM
I don't think I've ever rated someone elses fanfic but my ratings I give are usually high anyway, so long as the effort is/was there 
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"Father and Mother and me, Sister and Auntie C., All people like us are we, and everyone else is they, and they live over the sea, while we live over the way, but would you believe they look upon we as simply a sort of they."
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MuthaPussBucket
Ghosthead
Joined: Feb 25, 2003
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Posted: Mar 18, 2003 11:25 PM
Personally, if you can't stand the heat get out of the kitchen. Being judged by your peers is what it's all about. Censoring other people, telling them that if they don't like, don't vote on it, isn't exactly very fair. On the other hand, there's no need to be abnormally cruel.
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Of course, that's just my opinion, I could be wrong...
~Ryan
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Master Spider
Ghosthead
Joined: Jul 20, 2001
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Posted: Mar 19, 2003 2:45 PM
Which, unfortunately around here, most low ratings ARE from people being abnormally cruel... 
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It's the FINAL COUNTDOWN...
Chris: So my friend fireman carried me to the lockers....
Tom: Hahahaha sweet his name is Fireman?
N.O.M.A.D. Unplugged
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Gabriel Martin
Ghosthead
Joined: Feb 18, 2002
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Posted: Mar 31, 2003 3:50 AM
Speaking of Abnormally cruel....look at Motherpussbucket's rating for "All Roads lead to Raccoon City, Part 3"
Now let me ask you this:
"What does it say when someone bitches about guns being in a fanfic.....and hasn't even read or rated the other parts?"
I might also direct attention to all of the people kicking people off the top ten list?
I helped Vincent write that thing! I feel just as dejected as he will when he gets back on the boards!
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*"You shouldn't have done that."
*"MURDER of crows? Vincent, one more pun outta you and I'm gonna FEED you to those things!!!"
*"It's funny, isn't it Vince, women ALWAYS wanna be your buddy after they tear yer guts out..."
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