Opinions. Where and why?

OmniStrata · Post by **OmniStrata** » Sat Mar 05, 2005 11:34 pm

How many of you here have recieved opinions from total strangers and yet never recieved them from close friends?

and vice versa?

All of my opinions come almost completely from people I'll never see in the real world. I tell my friends about them and they seem interested only in watching and apathy is their excuse. Hmm....

So just wondering, does anyone here have friends who gave up ops? [people in real life included, people you never met can be friends but I want people who you know in person as part of this counting]

I think it's that cause they're friends, I suppose they can just voice their opinion rather than give it a measurable score. [I like reading opinions, give me something to check back on.]

As for total strangers, I suppose there's a LOT of very thoughtful people out there who deserve good thank yous!

Please don't start an argument in here about op #s and what not, I'm just curious as to what you think about ops coming from total strangers vs. your real life friends.

tuathaanwarrior · Post by **tuathaanwarrior** » Sat Mar 05, 2005 11:42 pm

I dont really want opinions from my friends. They watch my video and tell me they like it and i feel good about myself. The point is that if you are getting ops from your friens, they are most likely bias. They will either give u scores too high, or they will try to avoid this by giving you very low scores.

Also, as a noob, my main goal in getting and reading ops is to find pointers and critiques on my work so that i can improve. I dont really care about scores and i have a feeling that becuase people you know in real life, can talk to you personally, they would be more likely to just give scores and very little actual feedback in an opinion.

The other problem i have is that only a couple of my friends have actually seen enough amvs to have a basis of comparison and therefore an ability to give a valid opinion. Ive only gotten 1 or 2 of my friends to join the org, and neither of them has really done anything, so i think getting ops from them would be useless in terms of improving my videos, and would somewhat unfair because of their bias.

OmniStrata · Post by **OmniStrata** » Sat Mar 05, 2005 11:52 pm

Nice thoughts, well explained.

I'd like to add to that, I recieved straight 10s from total strangers with very little wording. Does that make them biased?

But what you said makes sense. I suppose friends could be biased and either be too strict OR be too nice and then score ya crazy style. I wished my friends wouldn't be lazy and opinionate something. After all, they're my friends!

tuathaanwarrior · Post by **tuathaanwarrior** » Sun Mar 06, 2005 12:04 am

OmniStrata wrote:I'd like to add to that, I recieved straight 10s from total strangers with very little wording. Does that make them biased?

With strangers, its much more likely that the person felt teh video actually deserved straight 10s than with friends. What i meant was not that giving high/low scores w/o explanation is bias, but that i think ops without explanation are useless to me personally. In the case of my friends, i know that thats all I would get. Im prolly in the minority in this, but id much rather get a well explained opinion wiht straight fives that can help me improve than an opinion with straight 10s and no explanation, becuase the latter op doesnt do anything for me.

Beowulf · Post by **Beowulf** » Sun Mar 06, 2005 12:13 am

Some of my freinds are nice enough to consistently review most of my work while others don't. Thats about as good as it gets in my opinion. I get most of my ops from strangers but that just makes sense. If I were to have 88 online freinds who gave me ops I would need to go outside.

As for giving ops, I've pretty much given up on giving opinions in op swap and other methods because I'm tired of telling people I don't like their videos. Nothing is worse than having someone give you all 10s and praise your video as their personal motivation to get out of bed in the morning and then the next day you give thier video 4s and 5s becauses its the truth.

I see most of my creator freinds in real life often enough to have intimate conversations about their and my videos at length, which prety much negates the need for an official op.

Unless its MJ of course and I just pad his scores so he can get on the top10.

Castor Troy · Post by **Castor Troy** » Sun Mar 06, 2005 2:17 am

The majority of my ops are from strangers and maybe less than 15 from friends.

I prefer more in-your-face-at-the-moment feedback like in person, IM, chatroom, and messageboard stuff.

It's all good.

Arigatomina · Post by **Arigatomina** » Sun Mar 06, 2005 3:00 am

I used to only review videos I liked. Now, I hate reviewing vids I liked, especially if they were made by friends of mine.

I've established a sort of standard with my reviews, and I don't want to break that in two for strangers vs friends. If I enjoy a video, I don't care about technical things, I'm either blind to little editing 'slips' or else I celebrate them for not being 'perfect = bland'. Reviewing a video with that mindset, I'm likely to score high and talk about nothing but what I enjoyed. I won't go into 'things to be improved' because I know (and my friend knows) that neither of us care to see those things improved. It's like me telling the same person "you can crop those subtitles" a dozen times when we both know she won't do it, and we both know those subtitles aren't stopping me from loving the videos.

If I did reviews like that, I don't think I could ever give a review to a stranger and be of any use. What kind of person picks 'favorites' to review with complete praise - and then turns around and details every flaw for a perfect stranger? I like to pick up those "I'm new, any feedback is appreciated" videos. I enjoy reviewing those. I'd have to stop reviewing them if I reviewed the videos I like to the point of blind bias.

Out of friends or strangers, I've come to the point where I only review for strangers. I'd like to do both, but I really don't see it happening. It's just too...two-faced. I need an even balance of critical and fanboy, no matter who I'm reviewing. So if I know I'll insult my friends by pointing out flaws, I just don't review them. It's better than giving blind praise to a select few and strict schoolmarm lectures to the rest.

- - -

As for the people who review me, I get more reviews from strangers. Few of my friends here like my videos, and it would be harsh on both sides if I forced them to review things they don't want to watch. That's why I stopped doing op exchanges - I don't want to force anyone who might be a friend to watch something he probably won't like.

On the other hand, I've made friends with a lot of my reviewers, mostly in the replies and eventually outside correspondence. I've noticed that the closer I get to them, the less likely they are to review. What does that tell me? Friends don't like to review for friends unless it's a special case. I take that as natural.

godix · Post by **godix** » Sun Mar 06, 2005 3:06 am

The only review I've ever gotten from someone I knew from outside the org was from my wife. She didn't even give me all 10's. When not even your spouse will give you all 10's you know you suck.

Flint the Dwarf · Post by **Flint the Dwarf** » Sun Mar 06, 2005 4:31 am

I await the day when Godix manages to go an hour (sleep excluded) without mentioning his wife to at least one member of the Org.

On topic: I have one friend (personally, non-online) that consistently reviews my videos. He always has valid input, and I don't think his scores are affected by us being friends. Other than that, my only friends reviews (online friends) came on my first video because I begged and recalled many free ops I'd given in the past. I didn't demand, I just played the Guilt Card.

Since then the majority of ops received have been from strangers or op exchanges.

I don't really review anymore. But if I did, I would review any video to which I thought I could add something important, regardless of creator.

*inverse* · Post by ***inverse*** » Sun Mar 06, 2005 4:48 am

Arigatomina wrote:What kind of person picks 'favorites' to review with complete praise - and then turns around and details every flaw for a perfect stranger?

That's probably why I havn't given an opinion in ages - I have a hard time expressing my thoughts, so I'm never sure how people will react to them. (Like, if I sound critical, or if I sound like an obsessive freak ^^; )

Anyway, I've received a couple ops from my sister, and a few from friends; but the majority is definitely from people I don't know.