NOTE: This is a very text-heavy post but I think it’s important that it be posted for everyone to see who may want a review!

Yesterday I launched my new regular feature: seller / shop reviews. I am very happy with the response and so wanted to use today’s post to discuss what my plans are for these posts, and what I am looking to add moving forward. Ultimately, my goal is not only to use this blog as a means of promoting myself and my thoughts, but also to help other creative individuals think differently about their work, their self-promotion and how to support positive interaction in an ever-growing field of creative peers! Let’s look at how I am proposing to do that, starting with the reviews.

It’s common for new artisans to seek input into their works, both as a sort of self-validation of themselves as artists (”Hey, look at me! I create too!”)  and as a means of seeking continual improvement (”My work really improved when Bob suggested I use paints other than just the clear medium!”). These are appropriate and further the confidence and abilities of the artisan. There are also times when an artisan is looking for input as a means of self-promotion. This can come about because they do not understand any other way of promoting, as a way of using helplessness as a lure, and sometimes because they believe that no one will find anything to fault thus allowing them to bask in the glow of adoring peers.

Conversely, other artisans will provide input upon request, but for the most part this input is almost always superficial. Why? There are multiple potential reasons: a lack of confidence in their ability to judge another’s work, a desire not to offend, the fear that an honest commentary could be perceived as an attack, or that non-glowing commentary will result in anything but non-glowing commentary for themselves. It’s understandable, but it does little good to the artisans involved if they aren’t being 100% honest with each other.

There IS a cottage industry growing where ‘brutal honesty’ is being put forth and people are responding to this. Some are not prepared to hear such brutal honesty in the way it’s presented and so take offense despite having requested it. Some listen and then disregard the feedback immediately and others look for the positive, embrace it and ignore the rest. There are also many who will take it to heart and use it for positive change. Personally, I think that the best reviews and critiques are those that are completely honest, but deliver their message in a constructive and useful way that the individual being critiqued can act upon.

Ultimately, it seems to have become de rigueur for critiques and reviews to be used as a form of self-promotion for everybody involved. There’s nothing wrong with this and I believe it’s tacitly understood by everybody. But in the way it’s handled in a number of sites today, it becomes very hard to follow and many are spending more time on reviews and asking for critiques than they are spending actually producing their art!  Thus (and I know this was the long route to getting to this point), my approach to reviews that will be used on this site.

The goal of my reviews is twofold: first, honestly, is to draw people to my blog in the hopes that they will find me interesting and want to return (let’s be honest here - that is always the first goal of any blog); and secondly, to provide honest, useful feedback to those being reviewed. But in my eyes, it’s not sufficient to just have my single set of eyes providing commentary. One opinion in a sea of blogs and forum posts is hard to associate with others. Posting in forums tends to be fractured as individuals add their own requests and critique others. Thus my approach is to pick 2 individuals / shops to review each week and make them the focus. To try and get more eyeballs on their shop and creations, those who want to be reviewed themselves must provide at least one piece of constructive commentary on the subject of the review or on my blog. Between the two, there should be at least one piece of constructive commentary a person can make!

I believe this to be good for everybody because:

1. As the blog owner, it draws people to my blog, which is good for me
2. As the subject of a review, you will receive not just my review, but constructive commentary from a number of your peers
3. As a commenter, you have the potential to be reviewed yourself and thus receive the benefit in #2 yourself AND
4. People may click on your link and find their way to your site, thus you get the joy of additional views of your shop and/or creations

I think that’s a fair deal since the only one who has to pay anything for this is the guy paying for the server. I may, of course, be biased on that point!

So here are the official rules of my reviews:

1. I will be completely honest and provide constructive feedback in any review that I give and I ask that commenters do the same
2. Shameless self-promoters who comment will have their comments deleted as the focus is meant to be on the subject of the review, not on YOU, and whatever views you get will come from your link
3. To be considered for a review, you must ask to be reviewed in your comment AFTER you have made your constructive comment so that the focus again stays on the constructive commentary
4. The request for a review must be in the most current review thread as, when I go to do the next review, that is where I will be looking and do not want to go through multiple threads
5. I will only be picking one commenter to be in the next review thus to be considered for a review, you may need to comment on multiple reviews before you are chosen
6. If you are being reviewed, you open yourself up to the potential of hearing feedback you may not like so you need to remember that you requested to be reviewed so if you do not like it, no whining; abuse will result in the review being deleted and while you may think that benefits you, eyeballs looking to comment may have a different opinion and getting those eyeballs is better than none from here at all
7. Finally, to try and keep a level playing field, I will not repeat a review for at least a year thus there will be no favorites

I believe those to be fair rules and will be posting the link to them at the end of each review. The suggestion was made to simplify things and add a ‘Review Me’ button to the blog, and while that would be user-friendly, it defeats my reason for having people comment.

While I know this was a long post, I appreciate your hanging in here. I would love to hear your feedback on my approach and rules and will consider any feedback carefully. Please do NOT post a request for a review in THIS post. I hope to see you here again soon!