The Review Initiative

[Penguiduck]

Some of you might have already heard about this. Some of you might not have.

Either way, my dear friend perfect-to-stay and I are starting something called the Review Initiative.

We have a dream. We dream that every author will receive the reviews that she deserves. We dream that everyone who favorites a story or reads it regularly will leave a review. Just one review.

We're not asking for much -- reviews don't have to be as long as essays, and we're certainly not asking reader to review every chapter. We just want authors to feel appreciated, to hear how much people enjoy their hard work. Authors who post their stories on Luna are not compensated in any way. What they do is a labor of love and passion, and they should be acknowledged and thanked.

In the realm of fiction, feedback is incredibly important. Even if the review is only a few sentences in length, it can be very thoughtful and inspiring. For those who want to review but don't know what to say, here is a tutorial I made a while back called Why Writers Value Reviews and How to Write Them.

With that said, we hope that one day, there will be no more ghost readers, that everyone will simply take five minutes of her day to leave a nice review for the authors.

Please join our mission, and spread the word!

Below, we have a series of banners to offer you. Feel free to put them in your forum, profile, or author's notes, and invite others to do the same.

If you want to put a banner in your profile that will direct to this forum post when clicked, use the code below. For "IMAGE URL" use whatever banner image url you like the best.

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<a href="http://forums.lunaescence.com/viewtopic.php?f=95&t=1656" target="_blank"><img src="IMAGE URL" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

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http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y75/shootnstar/ReviewInitiative1.png

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By perfect-to-stay:

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By Kerrigan Sheehan

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http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y75/shootnstar/ReviewShuriken.png

If you are graphic-savvy and would like to contribute to our collection of banners, please feel free to submit! ^_^

Feel free to post any comments, suggestions, or banner contributions here. Keep checking back for updates!

[Penguiduck]

Please keep in mind, that there may be some authors out there who do not particularly like receiving reviews, and would prefer not to receive reviews because of the Review Initiative. If you are one of these authors, feel free to let me know, and I'll put your name here so readers know that you'd rather not take part.

Kerrigan Sheehan

[PromisesToKeep]

Hey there!

My luna name is WhimsicalWanderer and I just wanted to ask if there was a specific way to use the banners? I tried to use one of them and it wouldn't show up on my profile. I just copy and pasted it, so I'm not sure what went wrong. =/

[Kerrigan Sheehan]

I can answer this one...you're going to need the image tags up at the top. You need to replace "IMAGE URL" with the URL in the box of the one you want.

[Penguiduck]

KS is right. You can't just use the image url. You need the code to go with it.

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<a href="http://forums.lunaescence.com/viewtopic.php?f=95&t=1656" target="_blank"><img src="IMAGE URL" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

For IMAGE URL you paste in the url of the banner you like best. Keep the quotes in there.

So, for example, if you like the first banner, you would copy and paste this exact code into your profile:

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<a href="http://forums.lunaescence.com/viewtopic.php?f=95&t=1656" target="_blank"><img src="http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y75/shootnstar/ReviewInitiative1.png" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

[PromisesToKeep]

Ah! I see, I knew there was a code somewhere but I just did the image for some reason. ^^U My bad lol thank you!

[Ayame]

I don't have any stories posted yet, but I just wanted to say that I love the banners you made, and I hope many people will take part in this awesome initiative! I definitely will try to review everything I read from now on, so you're already having some success!

[Chellendora]

I already review everything that I read, so I absolutely love this idea and support it fully.

[dark_wing19]

Agreed! I think this is a wonderful idea! I used to be a ghost reader, but slowly I'm going back through all my favorites and reviewing those first. Generally, everything I read now I try to review on. The only time I stray away from reviewing is when the story is rediculously popular and already has a ton of reviews (unless I started reading it from the beginning, then I continue to review as updates come), or if the piece is incredibly short. I don't feel right leaving two sentence reviews. :/ I just....don't.

But I think this is a fabulous idea! And I will certainly be taking part! For now, I think I'm going to use one of the given banners, but I might be submitting some myself in the future. ^^ Maybe anyways. Sadly, I do not own photoshop, but I can work wonders in paint! xD

[UP2L8]

What a great idea! I'm snagging one of your banners, and solemnly vow to review everything I read from now on. I do generally leave reviews most of the time, but have been guilty of laziness on some occasions, which isn't fair to the author who put so much effort into their work just for the shear creative pleasure. Everyone deserves to be appreciated.

[dream_catcher5113]

I know that it's been months since someone posted here, and I'll probably be branded as a necro and burned at the stake but I like this idea! :3
From now on, I'll review everything I read :3
Though not necessarily signed because sometimes I do get too lazy to scroll up and log in XDD
Would you mind if I use one of the banners?

[Kerrigan Sheehan]

Don't worry about reviving old threads like this one. Reviving an old fic trade signup would be impolite...reviving something in the Coffee House (or forum games, for that matter...) is par for the course, especially since people use their author forums to post their plot bunnies and (sometimes) fic updates. If anything, this particular thread needs regular bumping. As for the banners, Pengui's permission is given in the original post. Donated banners, although not by Pengui, were given to her with permission for people to use them. In other words, she wants you to use the banners. (And she even hosted them all on her photobucket, provided the URLs, and provided the HTML up top for people who aren't super familiar with how to post linked images.)

[Penguiduck]

Oh, yes! Please feel free to use the banners in whatever way you'd like. ^_^ As KS said, we want you to use the banners because that's how we promote our cause.

[Konekochan07]

I'm bumping this just because. When Penguiduck first put this in the author's note of one of her many stories I read, I started to go back to some of my favorites that I may not have reviewed and checked if I did or not. I understand this annoyance of having lots of hits and a few people favoriting my stories, but there's 1 or 2 reviews and it may have multiple chapters. Even just one shots should get reviewed. How else am I to know that I'm reaching my audience with it?

But I loved this idea the moment read about it, so I figured I'd help out. I love the banner with the Ravens on it, by the way, just because of certain family ties. Anyways, I hope this becomes widespread. Authors need more feedback if we're ever to be sure our work is worth it. ~Koneko

[Kerrigan Sheehan]

Even just one shots should get reviewed.

So true. One shots definitely deserve more love, especially because they only have one chance to be "new content," as opposed to a drabble book or novel that gets more chances to be in the Most Recent list. Personally, I feel more reason to review a one shot than a new (middle) chapter of a novel, since it's kind of hard to have a full opinion on something that's not finished yet. (Yes...I like reviewing other people's stuff when reading for pleasure. I'm just shy about having my stuff reviewed. I guess I'm just odd like that.) Drabble books and round robins are a bit of an exception there, obviously.