The anti-fanboys

harmonium.ro wrote: Dude, relax, he was talking about those who come here only to leave low ratings in order to manipulate the charts.

To write reviews is an art.

Oh, and about it having homosexual connotations, it's not uncommon for homosexual traits to come out in fanboys, I think.  They might worship certain men (say Petrucci) so much that they queerly fantasize about the man.  I certainly see self-professed fanboys playfully playing with homo-eroticism, but there's probably some truth behind statements such as "I want to get into such and such male musician's pants" from professed heterosexuals.  I've never been a real fanboy, or a rent boy for that matter, so I don't know. 

Green Shield Stamp wrote: Can someone explain for me what is meant by the term fanboy?  It is obviously pejorative - but why fanboy and not fanman? Does it carry connotations of immaturity?  Is being a fan negative? Does it carry slight homosexual connotations? I see the term used a lot in Prog Archives and often wonder what is meant by it.

Raff wrote: Mr ProgFreak wrote: ^ Different people use different rating scales ... and even in reviews people use adjectives like "good", "great" or "average" with different meanings. One person might call an album "good" and it's a recommendation, while another person might use the word "good" as a euphemism for "nice try, but not quite". I'll reiterate my point: Ratings, reviews, tags ... whether they mean something to you depends mostly on whether you know the person who submitted them. And, by extension, the more ratings are submitted for any item, the more likely will the resulting average be useful, since the different strategies that people use will "even out". That is true, but review sites do not always have a faithful readership. Internet surfing is not always about visiting the same site over and over again (though it may be for the likes of us), but often about visiting sites occasionally just in order to find a particular piece of information. Personally, though I visit a couple of review sites quite regularly, I have not really had the opportunity to get acquainted with the different reviewers and their individual styles - among other factors, those sites don't work like PA, where each and every reviewer has a personal page.

Wait, you mean there are other sites on the internet besides Progarchives?  Why would anyone have any desire to visit them? 

I try to point out negatives about even my most favorite albums (try to see it from other perspectives.......like Pawn Hearts, which is a 5 star album for me, I can still admit that Hammill's voice is an acquired taste and that some may be immediately turned off by it).  I also try to point out positives about even my least favorite albums (things like good production quality, or that the musicians are obviously very skilled, or things along those lines).  I actually have the most difficulty with negative reviews because if I don't like an album at all, I'm not likely to listen to it enough times to get to know it well.  I give every album at least 2 or 3 listens, usually more if there is anything about it I like.  But that often is not enough to give an informative detailed review about.  My early progarchives reviews make me cringe, as they are not informative, very short, and really offer very little insight to the average listener.  I've tried to improve that and as a result, I very rarely write reviews anymore

Overall though, I agree with the balanced notion.  Be informative, give your opinion, and leave the rest up to the reader.

Unfortunately, there are no rules of that review should be 500+ words (the more, the better I think, but when there's nothing to say, should I say less, or not say anything at all ?), or obey law that you write a review to help others, not for yourself (but even this can't be enforced).

Paulo has unique skill. He made all these posts in this thread to few lines. Of course, I think that it's your opinion, not taken from others, but it looks nice and ironically, to have this in one short post. This is exception, sometimes a lot of words can be worse, so less is more saying goes a long way.

Raff, my clappie is frozen before he can clapped. He doesn't move. Of course, this can be caused by animated objects turned off, but what if he's not supposed, or even not allowed to clap ? What in this case ? ;-)

To summarize these words in my way, a people here and their opinions can be divided to few groups:

1)rate objectively, with little, or no own feelings

2)rate 1/2 from each

3)rate how you feel this album, because others will know what's bad about it from your point of view.

pmendes wrote: Although I haven't done a review and don't consider myself that qualified to do it, I believe (IMHO) a good review should be a balance between personal taste and objective appreciation of the album quality. In fact objective appreciation should probably be the most important factor, because a review is made for others to read and it's probably easy to recognize quality even if it's not your cup of tea... But if one is reading reviews to decide on getting an album or not, I would say the best review would be to listen to it if you can (easier today with the Internet). Or at least to follow a reviewer you trust... Cheers, Paulo

Such words of wisdom deserve a clappie, and a very warm welcome to PA! This is exactly how I see the 'art' of reviewing. However, I believe you are being too modest (though I believe humility is a very good thing) - most of the people who review albums, including the so-called 'professionals', are not exactly 'qualified', if not by being music lovers. I know I am not - I do like to write, and I write reasonably well, but I am not a musician, and my approach to music is impressionistic rather than technical. So, I think you should give it a try - you might become one of the best reviewers around!

He thrusts his fists against the posts and still insists he sees the ghosts.

By the way, my knock at ratings was not directed at you personally Mr. ProgFreak.  I think you devised a pretty decent scale.  And for those that prefer to do ratings and not reviews there's probably no better place to be when it comes to prog.