The Dink Network

Ok, I am seriously pissed right now. This could be handled via a PM, but I'd rather make it public. A while back, I wrote a review for Malachi the Jerk, which got approved without any problems. However, now I went and checked the files page, and it's suddenly gone. In the contributions page, it says it's been rejected because:

"2015-01-08: Rejected. Score does not fit review. "However, if you're looking for one of the most polished, innovative, different and overall best Quest-sized D-Mods available, this one is definitely for you." does not equal an 8.4. Unless you're saying that all other Quest-size D-Mods should be under an 8.4."

How does this even make any sense? I tell you, it takes some serious balls AND idiotism to remove one of the longest, most well-written and thought-out reviews this site has, when we barely get any new reviews these days anyway. It certainly doesn't inspire me to write any more. Hell, I didn't spend all that time writing a long-ass review just to have it deleted because somebody in the staff doesn't like the well-reasoned score I gave.

I fail to see the logic behind the rejection, anyway. It might be one of the best quest-sized D-Mods, but that doesn't mean there weren't aspects about it that I didn't enjoy. I rate D-Mods not only based on how well they are made, but also on how much fun I personally had while playing them! While I appreciate good dialogue and well-thought out bosses, that doesn't mean I can't find them frustrating, boring and unbalanced. It effects the fun-factor for my playing experience, which I think is a very good reason to rise/lower the score. And I explained my dislikes VERY thoroughly! No, there are not many quests that are as well-made as Malachi, but there are many which I found much more enjoyable. Just as the title of my review stated "Great D-Mod, just might not be for everyone". Just like Initiation. Initiation is an awesome D-Mod. However, I quite dislike it for a number of reasons, which I thought were very legitemate problems. It's the same exact case with Malachi, except I enjoyed Malachi a ton more than Initiation. And if the score for Malachi bothers you, I'll just let you know that I thought about it very long and carefully. I was actually originally going to give it an 8.0. but I figured that would have been a totally unfair score. 8.5. seemed too high, based on my personal enjoyment of the D-Mod.

So yeah, I'm pretty pissed about this. I think the review has every right to be put back up, and whoever deleted it really need to explain themselves. If it's not put back up, I doubt I'm gonna write any reviews anymore. If one of the best reviews on the site can be rejected on such light grounds, I really don't feel like doing much for this site anymore. Meanwhile, there are complete joke reviews such as Yeoldetoast's Happy Sunshine Land review, that get accepted without any problems. If my review for Malachi isn't put back up, I guess there's nothing I can do, except give a big middle finger to the staff member who rejected it, and a virtual punch in the nose.

I'm in agreement with the review acceptance. I wrote a review and I got a pretty biased response along with my rejection which I can only assume is based on how I disagree with everyone on the quality of the DMOD.

Much like how your crusade got my Stone of Balance review deleted.

Would love a revamping of the system in this regard. Would be nice to know who responded, who accepted or denied it, and an option to respond. So, I PMed redink1. Maybe we can get that.

Much like how your crusade got my Stone of Balance review deleted.

Well, I still think that review went way overboard. SoB has problems that can make it annoying at times, but you gave it a lower score than some of the most awful D-Mods have. I think the 8.4. score I gave Malachi was very well reasoned and completely fair. I'd understand the rejection had I given it a 6.0. or something.

And what's even more annoying about my review's removal, is that a staff member obviously agreed it was approve-worthy, until somebody else came along and decided to remove it, without any questioning whatsoever. Would have been fair to at least ask the site members their opinion before going and deleting it, instead of just secretly doing it because I didn't give the D-Mod the exact score they personally wanted. Fact is, my score after the reasonings I gave was completely justified.

EDIT: Basically, it appears the review was deleted based on that one, final sentence that said "However, if you're looking for one of the most polished, innovative, different and overall best Quest-sized D-Mods available, this one is definitely for you". But of course I said that. I didn't wanna bury the D-Mod. Would they have preferred and accepted it if I said "This D-Mod plain sucks with some of its aspects and isn't worth downloading unless you love the aspects I didn't"? Of course I'm not gonna say that, because I realize it's still a very good D-Mod, but I very clearly did say on multiple occasions that I thought the D-Mod's strenghts are simultaneously its weaknesses.

I rejected it, and in retrospect I did it in just about the worst way possible. I'm sorry, Skull.

I liked just about all of your review, truth be told. It just felt like the intro and conclusion didn't fit the rest of the review - the bits like "Malachi the Jerk is probably the best D-Mod released in the last four or five years" and "one of the most polished, innovative, different and overall best Quest-sized D-Mods available" didn't seem to jive with the score and the rest of the review. The score did feel appropriate in comparison to your Initiation review, but didn't align with the rest of your reviews, particularly when you gave Star Dink, STAR DINK, STAR DINK!!, a not-too-good-at-all D-Mod, an 8.7 score. 8.4 just didn't feel right. Your Star Dink review was from several years ago, but still!

So I marked it as rejected, and I had some inkling that it would surprise you someday, which is why I added the date on the front of my comment. What I should have done was either start a new forum topic or write you a PM to let you know my concerns. I didn't mean to take it off of the site forever; I was hoping you would update it to qualify some of your comments (even just saying something like "I can see why some people would think it is one of the most polished, etc").

I've seen that I acted in error, though, and the review is available again. It is one of the best reviews of a quest-sized D-Mod available, I'd give it an 8.4

Ok, thanks for clarifying, and thanks for putting it back up.

And now that we're on the topic, I'd like to take the opportunity to point out to everyone on whose file I've written a review, to not compare the score I gave on your file at all, to the score I've given to other files. For the simple reason that I'm getting older everyday, my history with Dink is getting longer, and I increase as a D-Mod developer every day. What I might have found an amazing D-Mod back in 2007, will not impress me nearly as much in 2015. Thus, the scores in my reviews really can't be compared at all, just as the English and the overall structure in them can not be. But rather than go back and rewrite all my old reviews, I've just mostly left them as they were, because it can sometimes be quite fun to go back and read how engulfed and impressed I might have found a D-Mod back in 2008, for example. I've only rewritten very few reviews, and those are because of the horrible English. So just because my review for Star Dink has a higher score than my review for Malachi, it doesn't mean I think Star Dink is a better D-Mod. It simply means that I did find Star Dink a more enjoyable and impressive experience in early 2007, when I was a rookie author, than I found Malachi the Jerk in late 2014, at which point I had finally created something that didn't suck. Hope that clears things up.

Yep, this is true for professional reviewers too, they change their scoring depending on experience, gaming evolution and review history all the time. It's not really a problem, it's merely a way to keep reviews relevant to their release frame.

Malachi the Jerk is probably the best D-Mod released in the last four or five years" and "one of the most polished, innovative, different and overall best Quest-sized D-Mods available

If you're gonna heap that much of praise on a dmod give it a ducking 9.9, not a 8 point godamn 4.

I am in agreement with whoever deleted your review, because the numbers and the review dont add up.

Yeah, but nearly all of the parts that made it innovative, different and best, also had some of the biggest flaws that a D-Mod could have. Boss battles were different, but I found them really boring. Monsters had innovative tricks, but were too easy. There was a ton of well-written dialogue that gave depth to charaters, but there was too much of it to the point it was frustrating.

It's the best D-Mod from a development stand-point. As an author, I view it as "Wow! This is a really neat thing the D-Mod just pulled off!", but as a player, the D-Mod failed "to do it for me" in many ways.

Malachi is one of the most polished D-Mods ever. It hardly contains any bugs. It is innovative with lot of its stuff, such as the boss battles. And it is in many ways different. Thus, it indeed is one of the best D-Mods. But that doesn't mean there aren't a lot of things that take away from its "best status" to me as a player.

If you're gonna heap that much of praise on a dmod give it a ducking 9.9, not a 8 point godamn 4.

So it's forbidden to get excited over a d-mod unless you declare it the greatest masterpiece ever? Oh my, I wouldn't want to be the person to go over all existing reviews to find examples of the same thing. If this was an attempt to troll or rekindle the flames, it's pretty weak.

I'd take a well written, motivated review with slightly mismatching scores (around 1-2 points variance on a scale of 10) over no review any day. I doubt we're swimming in them

I'd like to swim in reviews. That sounds fun.

You know how Newgrounds has a "review was helpful/unhelpful" button? That would be useful maybe...

Hang redman! Revolt against the king!

WC, can I pee in you?

I think being able to review and rate reviews would be nice.

I assume you're being sarcastic toast?
I do agree that there should be a helpful/unhelpful button but reviews for reviews is going a bit to far I think

As long as we can review the reviews of reviews.

I totally agree with you! (Even though this never happened to me so I don't know how to react + I'm a noob in terms of forums)

As long as we can review the reviews of reviews.

That's what forums are for, so we should have a thread for each review so we can do that.

Got reminded of that thread dedicated to removing reviews that people didn't agree on...