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~ Introduction ~
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Cleaning up NG and Whistle Points Part 2: Flagging Abusive Reviews

In order to prevent users from bringing in non-abusive reviews into Part 2, here is a guide into finding abusive reviews.

NOTE: This has been created SOLELY based on EXPERIENCE of flagging reviews. Also keep in mind that while most of the things explained here apply in flash, audio AND art reviews, some of them do not apply to art or audio reviews.

Also note that this guide can be used for flagging abusive reviews AND writing good reviews. If you don't break any of those rules listed (ie. if you follow the rules to make it non-abusive) then you got yourself a good review. Sure it doesn't help your organize your review, but it will at the very least add a barrier around your review to protect it from deletion. Break any of those rules and you leave a hole in the barrier which exposes it to deletion. Think of it like that. Part 5 has a guide on how to write good reviews, but also check here to make sure the review you're about to submit doesn't break the review guidelines and make your review subject to deletion.

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~ Review Guidelines ~
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Here are the review guidelines: Review Guidelines

Below is the guidelines listed with explanations.

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~ Do NOT Insult the Author ~
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Stay on the topic of the submission and do not make personal remarks or insults towards the author. This is a big offense. Telling artists "You suck!", "You should go kill yourself!", or "You are gay!" will get you banned and you may lose your account. Without our contributors Newgrounds wouldn't be what it is, so we take seriously any insults directed at them by reviewers.

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Pretty self-explanatory. If you ever see a review that shouts an insult to the author, it's abusive, regardless of the rest of the review. Flag it up! Examples include: Jump off a bridge, please shoot yourself, you are a faggot, etc. No matter how helpful the review is, if it insults the author, flag it.

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~ DO NOT make TONS of Crappy Reviews & Seeing Review Helpfulness ~
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~ Do NOT make TONS and TONS of Crappy Reviews ~

Do not post TONS and TONS of crappy reviews just to get high in the rankings. If we catch someone doing this we will delete all their reviews - wouldn't that be a pain in the ass? Take your time and write a sincere review for every movie you wish to critique. Make sure your review is relative to the submission. Reviews that are found to offer no benefit to the author may be deleted.

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If you ever see a user posting TONS of shitty reviews, PM a review moderator and let them know. Don't flag them because individually because they are probably not abusive (depending on the reviews) and review moderators see one review at a time. You can easily expect a garbage whistle if you flag them individually. Also, making tons of crappy reviews results in a review ban. It's not worth it.

~ Destructive Weapon to Use when Flagging ~

Review that are found to offer no benefit to the author may be deleted.

The underlined sentence, in that guideline, however, is CRITICAL. Put yourself in place of the author. Read the reviews and think about this question: Is this review beneficial to me? If the answer is yes, then the review is not abusive. If the answer is no, then the review is abusive. If you use this question as a weapon, MOST of the reviews in NG would be gone. Keep the answer general though. Don't be too specific. If someone said 'I hated it', one author may find it useful while another won't give a shit. Try to keep it general. Think what the majority of the authors would feel if someone left a review like that. Like when a geometry problem says to draw an angle, don't draw a right angle since a right angle can throw you off in the problem. Similarly, don't go too specific saying "Well one author may find it helpful because people may hate his/her work whereas other authors will find it useless since it doesn't give advice" because (1) you may flag a non-abusive review and (2) you will miss A LOT of abusive reviews. Beware though that saying "Good work" is NOT abusive. Even if you think it's useless, Tom Fulp thinks it's not abusive since it provides encouragement to the author.

~ Moderating Low-score Reviews ~

Be sure that a lowly-scored review gives good advice. Saying 'work on your flash skills' or 'get some more practice' is useless advice (in fact, saying that is abusive as a matter of fact) while saying something like 'Change the background' or 'Get rid of this glitch/bug' is useful advice. Also, saying 'I didn't like it' with nothing else is also abusive. Be specific; it really helps to do so. General advice such as "Put more effort into your flash" is useless (and abusive if it's just that and nothing more).

Criticizing the author's work without giving criticism/advice is abusive. Example is saying 'This game is shit' with nothing more.

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~ Promoting Crap is PROHIBITED ~
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Do not use the review space for the purpose of promoting things. Stick to reviewing the movies - we don't want to hear about how great your website is. Also, posting links to websites that reward you for sending hits is prohibited; we will delete your account for the first offense with no warning. Posting unrelated links is also prohibited and will result in a ban.

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This one is also self-explanatory. If a user promotes his/her website, flag it up! However, be careful. Check and see if the website is REALLY unrelated. Sometimes users place a link to a flash tutorial not on NG. Then, in that case, do not flag it. Normally this is rare, but there will always be a lazy user that thinks it's safe to promote his/her website when in reality, it actually is not.

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~ Flooding the Review Body ~
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Do not flood the review title or body. Examples would be long strings of characters or words with no breaks or repeating words or phrases over and over. Do not submit images made from text and characters, as this will also get you banned.

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ASCII art is abusive and repeatedly do it in a number of reviews and you will be banned. Flooding the body with characters (at least 3 or more lines) is abusive regardless of score. This is normally found in highly scored flashes since people sometimes write 'AWESOME!!!!!!!' with the exclamation points flooding like 2 or more lines.

There are also images made with these characters (most notably a hand raising the middle finger). These are also abusive.

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~ Do NOT say "BLAM THIS" ~
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~ Saying "BLAM THIS" or other similar phrases is Abusive ~

Do not use reviews to express your feelings that the entry should be BLAMMED. If you post "BLAM this" or something similar you will be banned. Use the review option to tell the author how they can improve their work.

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Another self-explanatory rule. Say 'BLAM THIS PIECE OF SHIT' and your review will be deleted. HOWEVER, if you say 'BLAM THIS' and give lots of constructive criticism, then moderators will very likely leave it up there. This is often seldom, but just in case if there is a review like that, then don't flag it to stay safe. If there is something like 'BLAM!' or 'I WANT THIS TO BE BLAMMED', then flag it.

~ Do not try to smartass around this rule ~

Saying 'How did this pass judgment?', 'Why didn't this get blammed?', 'I'm surprised that this passed judgment.', 'I'm surprise this was not blammed.', 'I blammed' or any of that type is also abusive.

~ Read the Review Properly before Flagging ~

Be sure that you read the sentence properly. Saying 'I am glad this wasn't blammed' is NOT abusive.

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~ Do NOT Address Other People's Reviews ~
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Do not use the review field to address other user's reviews you didn't agree with. You are to be reviewing the submission, not other people's reviews.

Again, self-explanatory. However, there are exceptions to this rule as listed below:

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~ Exceptions ~

This unclear guideline can go either way:

~ Abusive ~

- Addressing other people's reviews without mentioning the submission is abusive, regardless of the score.

- Agreeing with another person that is going against the author is abusive.

- Disagreeing with others' criticism WITHOUT adding your own IS abusive.

- JUST saying "I agree with what <insert user name> said" without anything else is abusive. It's a pure "Review Count +1" review. It also falls under "Posting TONS of crappy reviews" even if it's just one review.

~ Non-Abusive ~

- Supporting the author against another person is NOT abusive. Note that your review CANNOT be 100% disagreeing with the other person. In fact, it shouldn't even make up 10% of the review. If it does, then it's abusive whether or not the reviewer supports the author. Just 1 sentence saying "<insert user name>, you're wrong; this flash is awesome" is fine.

- Agreeing with another person's review while making your own review

~ Borderline ~

- Supporting someone else for their criticism can go either way (like saying 'I agree with the criticism <insert name> said'). Best advice, don't flag these. If the person supports the other person's criticism AND adds some of his own criticism, then it is NOT abusive.

- Disagreeing with others' criticism and adding your own can also go either way.

~ Final Notice ~

When reviewing, it's best not to address other reviews. When flagging, use the tips above.

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~ Do NOT say something is Stolen ~
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If you believe an entry is stolen, do not comment about it in your review. If you are wrong, you may convince other users that the entry is stolen and you may cause a legitimate entry to receive an unfairly low score, or have the whistle blown on it. Use the whistle option, if available, to flag the entry as stolen when you believe that is the case. If there is no whistle option available (the entry is no longer under judgment) contact Wade with as many details as you can about the stolen Flash and where you think it was stolen from.

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A HUGE amount of reviews violate this guideline. Saying something is stolen is DOWNRIGHT abusive. Contact Wade if the flash/audio is stolen and include precise information like where the flash came from, what user stole the flash, date submitted, etc. Better yet, if you see a movie that is stolen AND it's under judgment, go report it to Part 2 or (if it passed judgment) post it in Part 8.

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~ No Complaining about Front Page ~
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If you think a submission doesn't belong on the front page of the site or shouldn't be featured in special sections of the site, keep it to yourself. The submissions on the front page and in special sections of the site are put there manually, meaning someone on our staff liked the submission. Keep your focus on how the person who submitted might improve their work.

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NEWSFLASH: Typo error. 'Sholdn't' is misspelled. It's missing a 'u'. *EDIT* Now I fixed it but the typo still remains.

Yeah, saying 'how was this front paged' or 'how did this shit get front page' is abusive. However, like saying 'BLAM THIS', if you provide lots of constructive criticism, the moderators will very likely leave it alone. However, this is extremely seldom since artists that create animations that make it to the top 50 probably don't need your constructive criticism. So pretty much your review has a 99.99% chance of being deleted.

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~ A Reminder in the Review Box ~
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A reminder you get when you are writing a review:

If you are giving this submission a low score, please offer constructive criticism that will be useful to the artist. The review space is not a place for you to act like a total asshole. If your review is found to be mean, offensive, or generally not helpful, you will be banned and your account may be terminated. NOTE: Any attempt to promote an outside, unrelated website in this space will result in the deletion of your user account.

A nice summary of the review guidelines. It still misses some points like 'do not say if the entry has been stolen' so check back the review guidelines often in case if you're not sure what you are writing/flagging.

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~ Other Information ~
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There are PLENTY of unwritten review guidelines in Newgrounds. Here are all of them:

~ Whistle Point Gain/Loss ~

Ratio from whistle points gained or lost is not 1:1. If you flag a non-abusive review, you will be punished SEVERELY with a large amount of points taken away. It will take several reviews' worth of whistle points to negate/heal the damage caused by flagging a non-abusive review.

~ Review Flagging Process ~

Flagging a review is NOT an instant process. If you flag something as non-abusive, it will take a long time until many people also flagged it as non-abusive. If you flag something as abusive, then chances are that people also flagged it and therefore may come to a moderator's attention. It can still take awhile though, so be patient. If you have a garbage whistle, you will not have any effect in flagging. So if you flag something, you add 0 weight to it. The higher the level your whistle is, the faster the review you flagged will come up to a moderator's attention.

There aren't any expiration dates to your flags. You can flag a review like 5 years ago and it may have been dealt with today if you had a poor whistle back then or you flagged something incorrectly.

~ Point Loss/Gain ~

Note that you gain more negative whistle points if you flag something as non-abusive than positive points if you whistle something as abusive.

~ Finding Abusive Reviews ~

Abusive reviews shouldn't be too hard to find, although some are difficult. Most, but not all of the time, you should recognize an abusive review once you see it. Now this line Malachy made makes absolutely no sense when I flag reviews: "Abusive review should scream "I AM ABUSIVE!" to you. If it takes more than .12 seconds to decide, then it's not worth it." I have flagged reviews that took 20 seconds to decide if the review is abusive. Those reviews get deleted at the end. If a review mod says "Abusive review should scream at you 'I AM ABUSIVE' instantly", then they are giving you bullshit and don't fall for it. Quickly flagging stuff can cause mis-flagging which can hurt you. This is the WORST piece of advice a review mod can give since it absolutely has no elaboration to it. While it does have some truth, don't get that wrong, following it 100% will make you miss like 50% of the abusive reviews.

~ The Garbage Whistle ~

Garbage whistle is NOT the bottom of the dump. You can still receive positive or negative points. However, if you continue to get negative, then you must have pretty bad luck to do so. IF you got a garbage whistle RECENTLY (like a day ago), then you're not far away from the normal level and may need to flag a few reviews until you get the normal again.

~ Targeting Reviews ~

Try to target recent reviews. Don't go searching for old reviews because chances are that it won't be deleted and you would have wasted your time. You won't lose whistle points, but you would have wasted your time. If you want to help out authors, the site AND your whistle, then seek for the new reviews. Turd of the Week normally has abusive reviews. It is a very rich source of whistle points.

~ Whistle Point Statistics ~

There are no true statistics about how many whistle points you need to level up, how many points you receive for each review deleted, how many points you lost or any of that stuff. Only the administrators know that stuff and can see user and moderators' whistle points. If anyone says some statistics, then they are talking out of their ass and you should ignore them or correct them. Not even the review moderators know, let alone a user. So far, Tom Fulp said it takes 50 reviews to go to bronze, but after that the rest is still a secret. It DOES take, however, around 800 reviews to get to deity.

~ Clearing flags with/without penalty ~

Also, it is interesting to note that just because you flagged something incorrectly doesn't mean that you will lose whistle points. Review moderators have the ability to clear the flags WITHOUT the penalty. They normally use that feature when users flag really old reviews OR if a review isn't abusive but they can see how people have seen it as abusive.

~ 10-star useless reviews ~

REVIEWS VOTED 10 ARE USUALLY NOT ABUSIVE! If someone says 'Good work' and nothing more, it is not abusive since it offers encouragement to the author.

~ Putting in the wrong score ~

Saying that you loved the flash but leaving a score of 0 is abusive. It may be an accident, but flag it up regardless. Users have tried very tricky stuff like that. They praise the submission while trying to lower the average review score so that the submission doesn't win Underdog of the Week or (more likely) Review Crew's Pick.

~ Reviews in a different Language ~

If a review is written in a different language, then it's abusive. Flag it up. HOWEVER, if the author's response to that review is in the SAME language, then DO NOT flag it!

However, if like 1 or 2 sentences or a few words are in a different language, then it may be left on the site. Regardless, stay away from these types of reviews especially if they are rated 10.

~ Reviewing without watching ~

If someone didn't watch a movie, and they left a review, then it IS abusive regardless of the score.

~ Saying that something should be whistled ~

Saying that a movie should be whistled or deleted is abusive since it is equal to saying 'BLAM THIS!'.

~ One-word reviews ~

One word reviews are abusive. If someone wrote 'I lol'd', then flag it. Generally speaking, though, read the review title since the review title is normally more than 1 word.

~ Copying another person's review ~

Copying someone else's review IS abusive! However, PM a review moderator before flagging them and get their confirmation. Review moderators see only 1 review, not the nearby reviews.

~ Complaining about Top 50 ~

Saying 'Why is this in the Top 50' is same as 'How did this get front page?' and should be flagged.

~ Abusive Author's Response ~

DO NOT FLAG A REVIEW JUST BECAUSE THE AUTHOR'S RESPONSE IS ABUSIVE! YOU WILL LOSE WHISTLE POINTS!

~ Discouraging the Author ~

Discouraging an author like saying 'Please stop already' is abusive and should be flagged.

~ Complaints about the movie ~

If someone says 'it lags a lot' or 'didn't load' or 'couldn't finish it' and everyone else could watch the thing entirely, then that review is abusive. If everyone else also says it didn't load or it lags, then don't flag it.

~ Game skill issues ~

If someone says 'this game is too hard' or 'I don't get the controls' or something very similar, then it is abusive. Just because someone is shit at a game doesn't mean that it deserves a low score. Deliver That Fulp got many of those types of reviews. The same thing applies with games with medals. If you can't get a medal, then don't let that impact your review score.

~ Personal Opinions/Fanboyism ~

Do not let your personal opinions get in your way of reviewing the submission. If you are a Mario fan and you watch a Mario vs Sonic flash and Sonic wins, then do not review it as a 0 because Mario lost. The author won't give a shit. Review only the quality of the submission. Opinions are fine as long as it doesn't hurt the score too much (like a 1 point deduction that Mario died is fine). If it hurts the score too much, (like '0 because Mario died'), then it is abusive.

~ YouTube ~

Do not say that something belongs on YouTube or something similar. The author has a right to submit whatever he/she wants as long as the submission doesn't violate the submission guidelines. Saying something like this is abusive.

~ Low-score reviews ~

If you hate a submission, then do not rate it lowly with no feedback. If you decide to rate the submission low, provide some constructive criticism to help the author improve. Low score reviews aren't always useless. If you say you hated the flash, gave a low score and no advice, then that is abusive & useless to the author. The amount of constructive criticism a reviewer should give depends on the review score. Generally speaking, there should be more criticism if you rate a flash 0 than when you rate a flash like a 4. Higher score should generally have less constructive criticism. As long as the review has constructive criticism, then it is not abusive.

~ Author's Opinions or Beliefs ~

Do not let the author's opinion let you affect your review score. For example, if the author likes Sonic a lot and hates Mario a lot, and made a Mario vs Sonic flash where Mario dies, then do not say 'Sonic fanboy' or 'Mario hater' and give a 0. It's just like your personal opinions influencing the review score. Review on quality. Your are to be reviewing the submission, not the author. Reviewing the author because of his/her opinions is abusive.

~ External Score Deduction ~

Do not let the 'no music' or 'no sound' facts interfere your review score. Be sure your speakers are on. If others complain about no sound, then include it. If not, don't include it or else it is flaggable.

~ No reason Reviews ~

Do not say '5/5, 10/10 because you told me to give you that' or something similar. It is abusive since it doesn't mention the flash at all.

~ Watch and critique ~

Watch the entire thing and then critique. This is one thing that will piss authors off. The intro may be crappy, but the middle of the flash may be good. If the intro is good but the middle and end is crappy, watch the entire thing and let the 'quality of crap' affect the review score. If you can't bear watching the entire submission, don't bother reviewing. It's as abusive as saying 'didn't even watch' or 'didn't even watch for 30 seconds' or something like that. Now IF you have stopped watching at the NEAR end of the flash, you can pretty much critique, but watch the entire thing just to be safe.

~ Asking The Author Questions ~

Normally reviews asking authors questions are deleted, but if it's asked in a positive way (like asking "Where did you get the music from?") will not warrant deletion. Just PM the author when asking those questions.

~ Feeding the Troll ~

Do not review a spam submission with no feedback. You can get a ban for feeding the troll in there.

~ Saying the Author should be banned or deleted ~

This is also equal to saying "BLAM THIS".

~ Leaving Chain Reviews ~

Don't do this. You will get in BIG trouble for doing this.

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~ More Resources ~
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Review Guidelines
The Review Guidelines.

Review Answers Part 1

Review Answers Part 2

Post a question in this thread and a review moderator will answer. Read Part 1 thoroughly because for some reason, it got locked. Ask the question(s) in Part 2.

Now with all of this being said, go find some abusive reviews and post them in Part 2 of the guide. Link is above.

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~ Complete List of Review Moderators ~
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Note that some of them moderate more than one section of the site. The information in parenthesis next to their name shows you the other sections of the site they moderate. If there is no parenthesis, then that means that those mods only moderate reviews. Also note that if there is the word "demodded" in parenthesis next to the name, then that means that that mod has been demodded and is no longer a mod. The demodded user CAN still answer any review/flagging questions you have so their names and PM links have still been left here. It's best if you contact a mod that does NOT moderate any other section of the site so that you can get a quick answer from him/her.

36Holla (BBS/Forum mod) ~ Send a PM ~
absent (BBS/Forum mod) ~ Send a PM ~
AllReligiousDrunk (Audio mod) ~ Send a PM ~
aviewaskewed (BBS/Forum mod) ~ Send a PM ~
BlueHippo (Art & BBS/Forum mod) ~ Send a PM ~
Canas ~ Send a PM ~
CaptainBob (Audio, Icon & BBS/Forum mod) ~ Send a PM ~
Coop83 ~ Send a PM ~
deckheadtottie ~ Send a PM ~
Evark (Demodded) ~ Send a PM ~
FIGMENTUM (BBS/Forum mod) ~ Send a PM ~
idle (BBS/Forum mod) ~ Send a PM ~
Jercurpac (BBS/Forum mod) ~ Send a PM ~
Jonas (Art, Audio & BBS/Forum mod) ~ Send a PM ~
kidray76 ~ Send a PM ~
life (Icon mod) ~ Send a PM ~
Malachy (BBS/Forum mod) ~ Send a PM ~
NEVR (BBS/Forum mod) ~ Send a PM ~
RageVI (Audio, Icon & BBS/Forum mod) ~ Send a PM ~
ramagi (BBS/Forum & Icon mod) ~ Send a PM ~
Sanjay (BBS/Forum mod) ~ Send a PM ~
Seamonky ~ Send a PM ~
SevenSeize (BBS/Forum mod) ~ Send a PM ~
ShitOnAStick ~ Send a PM ~
Stormwarden ~ Send a PM ~
Streakydesign ~ Send a PM ~
The-Swain (Review mod) ~ Send a PM ~
tigerkitty ~ Send a PM ~
UberBarista (Audio, Icon & BBS/Forum mod) ~ Send a PM ~
WavyGravy (BR) ~ Send a PM ~
Zendra (Kartoffels) (Review mod) ~ Send a PM ~

You can PM any of these mods or ask me a question. If you ask me a question, be sure you ask in the correct part in the guide so that those who are collecting tips don't get themselves confused. Art, Audio and Flash reviews have different aspects that make them abusive.

Updated: 09/27/09 2:24 PM Log in to comment! | Share this!