Opinion Responses

trythil · Post by **trythil** » Sun Feb 08, 2004 8:05 pm

I don't know about all this "popular creator" vs. "newbie" stuff, but I reply to opinions on my own time. I don't know why some people believe that editors of any skill level have an obligation to answer every opinion.

If the opinion contains something interesting, I'll probably comment on it when I have something to say. If there's nothing of interest in the opinion I'll most likely not say anything, because I have nothing to say.

Kaji01 · Post by **Kaji01** » Sun Feb 08, 2004 8:08 pm

Maybe I'm not looking in the right places, but try as I may I can't find the top ten that people keep referring to...Anyone mind pointing it out?

Zarxrax · Post by **Zarxrax** » Sun Feb 08, 2004 8:13 pm

Tryhill I think you hit it right on the nose. I think the ability to leave responses to opinions is there for the creator to answer questions that the reviewer had, or coment on something that the reviewer said that you might happen to disagree with. While its certainly a nice gesture to say thanks or whatever for someone giving you a thoughtfull opinion, I don't think people should really expect it. And if people don't even give a thoughtfull opinion in the first place, then I certainly don't think they should expect any sort of response in return. Sure, I'm glad that they took some time out of their life to leave a comment on my measely little video, but when you have nothing to say, why put on a front?

Wonka · Post by **Wonka** » Sun Feb 08, 2004 8:20 pm

AbsoluteDestiny wrote:I try to give responses as often as I can but sometimes I get behind and have to catch up.

I was up to date a few months ago but I need to do more replies now.

omg AD you must think that the lowly reviewers who only act as subordinates in your plans of inflating your own ego by making your numbers better aren’t worthy of your response you damned bastard because thats the only explanation possible EVER omg!

Anyway, I try to respond to all ops I receive. The only things that slow me down are:

a. I am pressed for time and want to respond in great detail (whenever the reviewer has gone into any aspects, both negative and positive, in great detail).

b. I'm trying to figure out something to say other than "Thank you so much for the review, I really appreciate it" (which I do whole heartedly, I just don’t want people to feel that I'm simply giving them a cookie cutter response.)

mexicanjunior · Post by **mexicanjunior** » Sun Feb 08, 2004 8:22 pm

Zarxrax wrote:Sure, I'm glad that they took some time out of their life to leave a comment on my measely little video, but when you have nothing to say, why put on a front?

To give the reviewer the courtesy to know you actually read and cared about their review? To each his own I guess, I like being able to let the reviewer know I appreciated the time they took to give me some feedback but that's just me.

Arigatomina · Post by **Arigatomina** » Sun Feb 08, 2004 10:53 pm

godix wrote:I noticed something about this thread which on after thought should have been obvious to begin with. The popular creaters who have dozens of opinions on their videos tend to not reply (or reply after a very long time) while those of us who have less than a dozen opinions amoung all our videos take the time to reply. This is a generalization of course, there are plenty of popular creators who reply and plenty of newbies who don't.

Exactly. I for one reply much more now that I have hundreds of reviews than I did back when I first started and was lucky to get one review per month. I simply didn't see it as something you replied to unless the person asked a question. To me, it was like getting reviews for fanfiction, or having people sign a guestbook to leave feedback - I only email them in response if they ask a question or have some sort of misunderstanding.

Now I reply to them because I write my own - and I know how much effort some people put into those reviews and that those people are trying to be helpful. But I still see many reviews as a "thanks for making a video I enjoyed watching" message. There's something odd about thanking a person for thanking you - it makes me feel uncomfortable - rather like begging for reviews (in fanfiction *or* amvs). It just reminds me of the old "if you want more, then review this" or "I won't do more unless I get so many reviews" - it degrades the reviewers and undermines the 'I create for myself' ideal.

But there's no middleground, and I see that now. Either you don't thank people for thanking you and others see you as uncaring and pompous, or you thank everyone and it looks like you're desparately seeking approval (or pretending to be grateful for something you take for granted - hence the 'canned' responses).

I guess this makes sense, despite their best intentions I'm sure the popular creators get an 'oh yet another opinion, ho-hum' attitude while the less popular are still shocked someone downloaded it much less oped it.

I think this only works for those who get over 50 reviews for the same video - a video they no longer like themselves and wish other people would stop watching in favor of their new favorites.

Look at it this way - the more reviews you get, the faster you have to come up with creative replies to those reviews. The people who get one review every few weeks have plenty of time to reply to them. But really...I can't see those people desparate for reviews really swooning over a 2 line review in which someone says "it would have been good if you'd used a different anime and song, but it sucked."

Just keep in mind, the more reviews a person gets, the more spam reviews a person gets, the more flames and reviews for the sole purpose of lowering other people's scores. Saying someone who gets a lot of reviews is ungrateful for not replying to them all is pretending that every review is one that *deserves* a reply. I may be thankful that someone took the time to watch my vid, but I will never thank a person for taking the time to flame that vid. I'll never understand why people think a majority of reviews are good ones (let alone useful ones) unless I just get an unusual ammount of flames...

It's possible.

All told this thread has re-enforced something I've started developing anyway, once a vid hits 8 ops and can appear in the top 10 it's not worth the effort to op it anymore. The creators who get this are better than me anyway so I don't have much to say and there's no tangible benifit to more than 8 ops.

Attitudes like that annoy me to no end. Why think that? Numbers don't determine how 'good' an editor is or what that editor might be able to learn from you. And there's a lot more to reviews than just teaching others to be better creators. There's no tangible benefit to having more than 8 ops? What, once a person gets feedback from 8 people suddenly he doesn't care if anyone else liked or hated his video? So back when all you needed were 3 reviews, was the limit 3? All you need is the number of people to get listed on some ranking chart and suddenly you don't care anymore? People keep saying this, but I don't believe it.

Anyway, remind me not to review anything of yours - if it's not worth the effort to type up one sentence telling someone if you liked or disliked their video (which you already spent perhaps hours downloading), then it's not worth the effort for me to write up a review either.

madbunny · Post by **madbunny** » Mon Feb 09, 2004 12:30 am

Arigatomyna mentioned something about the 'cold calculated' op.

Sometimes that can be a good thing, IF (a big if) the person knows what the heck they are talking about. In my case, I teach a class, I see AMV's almost every single day. Being a school teacher, it's hard for me to not write an OP like I'm grading someones paper. I just try not to act TOO godlike in the process and be honest. It's good to know that it wasn't received like a slap in the face by the creator.

If you look at people Like Absolute Destiny, Ermac (would you say that they basically wrote the book that the vast majority of people on the site use for quality?) It's pretty hard to find items that they can improve upon. Basically you either like the video or not. I see these guys (and girls Arigatomyna) in the forums constantly helping people out, that in itself is more than just an op can do.

Yes, I know there is a large group of people out there that fit into the same category, I didn't just want to have a huge ass list of people in a post.

Flint the Dwarf · Post by **Flint the Dwarf** » Mon Feb 09, 2004 12:38 am

Well Madbunny, to address the bit about creators like Ermac and AD; they can improve. Even their videos are not perfect. Especially not AD's, he's had to use Caldwell for his good videos. O.o

Arigatomyna wrote:There's something odd about thanking a person for thanking you - it makes me feel uncomfortable - rather like begging for reviews (in fanfiction *or* amvs).

Well, you aren't thanking them for thanking you. You're thanking them for watching your video... at least I am. I'm thrilled when someone watches my video and even just notifies me. I'm not a highly sought after creator. I appreciate that someone even just took the time to watch my video, much less review it. However, I can't very well go around asking people if they watched my videos just so I can thank them. So I thank the ones that review my videos, because I'm sure they watched it (though in some cases, I wonder what they were watching <.<).

madbunny · Post by **madbunny** » Mon Feb 09, 2004 12:51 am

flint_the_dwarf wrote:Well Madbunny, to address the bit about creators like Ermac and AD; they can improve. Even their videos are not perfect. Especially not AD's, he's had to use Caldwell for his good videos. O.o

Hmm, point taken. I wasn't trying to say that they are perfect so much as to say that the skills of the top animators (so to speak) are typically at a level of technical proficiency not yet attained by the majority of users on the site.

godix · Post by **godix** » Mon Feb 09, 2004 2:03 am

And there's a lot more to reviews than just teaching others to be better creators.

The star system is there to rate how well you liked the video so reviews aren't for that. Hmmm, I'm drawing a blank here, other than trying to point out specifics of what the person can improve or what you thought were their strong points what else is there to reviews?

What, once a person gets feedback from 8 people suddenly he doesn't care if anyone else liked or hated his video?

I doubt it, I imagine those with more than 8 reviews still pay attention to the star rating. How does this relate to ops though?

Anyway, remind me not to review anything of yours - if it's not worth the effort to type up one sentence telling someone if you liked or disliked their video (which you already spent perhaps hours downloading)
, then it's not worth the effort for me to write up a review either.

Hey Arigatomyna, just a reminder to not op anything of mine. If you only give one sentance like/dislike it type reviews then I don't need it.

Don't get me wrong, I do appreciate (and respond) to any op and I'm glad some people have enjoyed my videos. However they've already told me that with their star rating, I'm sure people have better things to do than go out of their way just to tell me that yet again. If you (or anyone reading this for that matter) have nothing more to say than that then save yourself some effort, just click the appropriate star and move on. On the other hand if someone tells me how I can improve then I keep it in mind next time I load premiere and hopefully make my next video better because of it. That's the type of op I try to leave and really enjoy recieving. I still don't see the point of any other type.