Comments on: The Rights and Wrongs of Negative Reviews

By: Tim Hall

Tim Hall — Mon, 25 Jan 2016 10:10:45 +0000

But as you and I know, Bob, RH went well beyond vitriolic reviews and was guilty of stalking and harassing authors. That’s not just the line Ian Gttings crossed, but several more lines beyond that.

SF fandom has the problem that so many of her enablers and supporters are still repected members of the community.

By: Colum Paget

Colum Paget — Mon, 25 Jan 2016 09:54:31 +0000

I get a bit wary of invoking she-who-must-not-be-named in terms of mere negative reviews. ‘negative reviews’ can mean just someone saying ‘I didn’t like this’, which is fine. At the next level we’ve got the kind of review that says ‘person X is a ******’, which is not a review at all, its’ a personal attack. Some number of levels up the fruitcake we have someone like requires_hate, who manipulates an entire community to their own ends through a campaign of hatred. RH was much more than just a negative reviewer, and I do wonder if it’s fair to either RH or Mr Gittins to conflate them. Mr Gittins reviews may sometimes cross a line, but I suspect he’s a long way from really implementing the kind of reign-of-terror that RH commanded in her heyday.

By: Tim Hall

Tim Hall — Fri, 22 Jan 2016 19:52:22 +0000

I’ve got an equivalent rule for support bands, it’s how you feel at the very moment they announce “and this is our last song”. That feeling never lies.

By: Chuk

Chuk — Fri, 22 Jan 2016 17:57:46 +0000

I like your golden rule of reviewing. I often like your reviews even though I am not really a fan of most prog, and I can read the review while thinking “I probably would not have enjoyed that show.”

By: Ian Redfearn

Ian Redfearn — Thu, 21 Jan 2016 17:18:15 +0000

Very well said. One of the things that really annoys me with a lot of reviews (both in the printed and electronic press) is the lack of understanding of the product under review. For example, I want a Steve Hackett review to tell me that as a fan it was good, bad or indifferent. Highlight the positives and negatives. Then add a layer that gives me an insight as a non fan. The same with movies, for example is the latest Avengers movie a good movie for its genre, a movie that breaks out of the genre to a wider audience or is it poor within its own space. I am not interested in a review that tells me that it is awful compared to the latest art house film exposing the myth of love through decaying flowers. Critique the movie, gig,track within the context of the work.

Apologies for any grammatical errors in this, it was typed on a mobile phone whilst travelling between Euston and Crewe on a bouncy Virgin train.