Forums: Officially becoming Official, but why is it official?

Umm....ok?

??? What is the point behind this thread? To complain about the snootiness of those who have Official stamps? I hardly kissed any ass to earn mine, I just straight forwardly asked for it from an admin after stating my case, and was given one. This wasn't until I was near a hundred well received reviews from my peers, so I felt I earned it. Not about to apologize or feel bad about that because you've suddenly got a stick up your ass over those who have one.

It's not about supremacy, it's about recognition of quality writing. Your review of Black Swan was excellently written, and if you had a dozen more of those up your sleeve, I'd be the first person on this site promoting you to the admins that you should get the red stamp as well. But you keep retreating into these defensive moods, and passive aggressively bashing people, that it's hard to support you. I'll chalk that up to you being young and impassioned for the wrong reasons.

Totally unnecessary forum thread, dude.

And thanks a lot for deleting your initial comment on this thread. Now I look crazy lol.

Well, this is an odd forum topic. Personally, I don't care if I get an Official Stamp or not. While I feel that my work is definitely qualified, I don't write enough reviews, and once law school starts, I may not even be around MW that much. So getting one doesn't mean all that much to me. However, I would like to know the reasons behind how one gets a stamp. It seems odd that the only qualification would be as @dan1 said, which is if you do enough quality reviews. What is enough? @slysnide has around 250 quality reviews, @narrator has many as well, and I myself have 40. What else is part of the criteria? Is it what the MW admins like? Or is it because people bring themselves to the attention of the admins? A clear outlay of what MW looks for when doling out the little red stamps would be nice for those that have asked how they can get them.

I have no idea who created this or why @dan1's upset because the guy DELETED HIS COMMENT! Uggh...

Anywho, as far as being "official" goes, it really doesn't mean anything anymore because our reviews don't show up on the homepage, and quite frankly, I'm tired of tagging people just so people see my "official" reviews.

So, I won't be tagging anyone anymore. If you want to read my reviews, come to my page every so often.

At this point ,I'd rather be surprised than ask for it. Focus more on the quality of my reviews

@dan1 Who created this forum? A user we know of, or just some random newbie. For a second, I though Josh created the forum lol

@ejk1 I asked once a LONG TIME ago, then months later my Soul Surfer review was posted and the red stamp was there.

@corey I thought Josh created it as well for a few minutes. If I was to guess, I would say @Zak-Lee-Ferguson did because his post after @dan1 sounds a little like a mea culpa. Whatever the case, I don't think this is that big of a deal, but I do believe MW could clear this up very easily by telling the users how they select Officials. This way those with sour grapes can see why they aren't official.

@ejk1 Brian once said it takes a lot of dedication to the site, but many other users with the stamp have been dedicated already for years now.

@corey Well that's what I mean. @slysnide has hundreds of reviews, and comments on many stories every day. She isn't a reviewer. Yet, I read reviews of some people on this site, and they are good writers, don't get me wrong, but some of them have a percentage of reviews Sly has. Others may have more reviews, but very rarely do they comment on stories. So I'm just wondering how Sly isn't an Official, when clearly she has shown great dedication to the site.

@ejk1 I agree. This is technically my third account. I've been around since 2007 and I think the admins know that. You, Sly, @moviegeek, and @diaigma all deserve your stamps.

@corey Well, they do. I don't care about getting one. It wouldn't be right if I got one, and write one every few months, which is what will probably happen in a few weeks.

This confusion could have been solved if the forum code still deleted a whole thread when the initial poster deleted his/her first post.

@corey - appreciated, man. Thanks, though I've been so busy lately, I don't know when I'll pump reviews out on a regular basis again. If @movieweb feels like I deserve the red stamp, I'll be honored to uphold it. I'll leave that decision up to them. Until then, I'll contribute as best I can.

If everyone deletes their own post the forum well go away, i think.

@shuabert But i do agree.

@ejk1@corey It was Zak Ferguson's forum. He deleted his post because he felt it was unnecessary after @dan1's comment. I feel that the "Official" stamp is neat and everything. But I wish it was a more of an honor... by that I mean I wish someone could truly feel like they've earned the stamp. Not just that it was tacked on unexpectedly to one of their reviews. I would set up different guidelines to see it happen.

1) The user needs to have written at least 75 full-length reviews. I get tired of seeing users with 20 reviews who've earned the stamp so quickly, yet I've written 195 (granted, only 185 are full-length) and none here. (I would actually say 100 reviews, but I know that many users only review theatrical releases so that would take much too long.)

2) Long doesn't mean good. And since it's hard to just tell a user they aren't a very good writer, the user who wishes to earn the stamp needs to petition to other users to get at least 10 other people on their side. That way, it's not just a no-name person who has no site activity getting a stamp. I believe an official user for MW needs to be a USER more than a REVIEWER. That's what this site is about after all. Getting other users doesn't mean creating 10 different fake accounts to vouch for you :P Get the active users who actually read the reviews section.

3) Enough pestering. Let your work speak for yourself. If you truly are a professional writer, you won't need to bug the MW team to let you be official. Post a request to MW once. If you really, really want to be official and you've requested once to MW already and nothing has happened, go to different users. Ask the ones you trust to go over your reviews and point out what they feel to be errors. It will be a humbling experience, but I can GUARANTEE that it will make you a better writer. It will also prove to the administration that you want to work for the Official Stamp, and not that you just feel "entitled" to it. Also, if you ask other users, you will get other people on your side to vouch for you, which is always helpful.

Keep writing though, for anyone who wants this stamp. My opinion on the topic is that your work will speak for itself. Like I told @slysnide in a review: you don't need a stamp to prove how great a writer you are. Your writing is your own official stamp. Work towards the prestige of becoming official, but realize that it really isn't the huge deal some have cracked it out to be, my respect to all official writers.

That's just some of my opinion on the topic.

@brian@movieweb On a side note, can we please get the reviews back on the home page? I feel like us users got gypped with the new site format. I feel that the great thing about MW is how it's user-based. And I know that the users who put a lot of time into their reviews, myself included, get tired of only having the people they tag read their reviews. One of my favorite things about the old format was having the most random users come onto your review and reply to your review! Because, writing reviews is, in a sense, being published. And having only your friends read it? Well, then it seems more like an e-mail :P The way it is now, I never read other people's reviews who don't tag me. I'd really like to see the reviews make their way back to the home page, maybe replacing that unnecessary box of "most rated this week". I mean, does anyone use that? :P But MW is still a great site to be on and I like that we can contact an active administration team.

@moviegeek In full agreement with your ideas, sir.

Well put, @moviegeek, well put ;)

All this confusion wouldn't have happened if Zack hadn't deleted his first comment... I knew I should have copy and pasted it.