Updated Reviews

The longtime goal here has been to prevent reviewing before the show has finished airing. People dislike pre-reviews quite a lot for good reasons. The ending is important. Many dramas start well but go downhill in the latter half.

We have asked for reviewing to be taken seriously and not used for promotion. The comment section suffices for promoting.

Why would you want to compete with other reviewers? I'm serious with this question. If you honestly write what you thought about a drama it should not matter at all whether other people agree or not.

People's views are always divided.

 Mu Hyul:

The longtime goal here has been to prevent reviewing before the show has finished airing. People dislike pre-reviews quite a lot for good reasons.

I don't align myself with this goal, and I'm sure there are many others like me who don't either.

 Mu Hyul:

The ending is important. Many dramas start well but go downhill in the latter half.

No, it's the journey that matters. You don't judge a show just by its ending you judge it by the entire journey it takes you on.

 Mu Hyul:

We have asked for reviewing to be taken seriously and not used for promotion. The comment section suffices for promoting.

Review and promotion are the same thing even indirectly regardless of whether your opinion is positive or negative. discussion that takes place in the comment section is, also a form of promotion or review call it whatever you want. Whether you share your thoughts in the comment section or the review section, it doesn't really matter; both platforms essentially just bury your opinion. However, compared to the comment section, it's slightly easier to access opinions through the review section because it uses a page-wise system. So the argument that you're promoting something by writing a review doesn't really hold up.

As I watch the drama, I share my thoughts in the comment section. Then, once the drama is over, I repeat those same thoughts in the review section. Doesn’t that seem redundant? It would be more efficient to use the review section as a viewing diary and record my impressions as the drama unfolds.

 Mu Hyul:

Why would you want to compete with other reviewers? I'm serious with this question.

When I posted that suggestion, I had no intention of competition, nor have I ever prioritized any kind of competition on this site. But you raised a good question, and I have a good answer. So, what’s wrong with being competitive?

 Mu Hyul:

If you honestly write what you thought about a drama it should not matter at all whether other people agree or not.

Agree or disagree is a completely different matter. Opinions are shared so that you can express your thoughts in front of others. If you don’t want anyone to hear or read your thoughts, then those thoughts shouldn’t be put out in public at all. Whether it’s in the comment section or the review section, you want people to pay attention to your opinion.

 Elisheva:

You could always use the episode reviews for your journey and thoughts as it progresses. Those are easy to find again and your final review could be saved for something more complete and reflective of the entirety. That seems a way to use the system as it exists to meet your desires.

I know that an episode-by-episode review system is available, but I prefer to share reviews in my own way. Sometimes I review one episode at a time, other times I might review 3 or even 7 episodes together. So, the standard per-episode review system doesn’t really suit my style.

I feel that the final review system offers more flexibility, which is great for people like me.

 Elisheva:

Being competitive is just being competitive. But a system which rewards those who are skilled at competing will quickly become dominated by those who are intent on competing and figuring out how to manipulate the system. I'd prefer one which offers more of a chance for those who are skilled in aspects relevant to reviews like insight and understanding.

I also like healthy competition, and I’m against any kind of system manipulation. However, removing a feature entirely just because there's a risk of system manipulation doesn't seem like the right solution especially when that feature is genuinely useful to many people.

It’s like saying someone paid to pass a competitive exam, and instead of addressing the corruption, the authorities decide to cancel the exam altogether and ban it permanently. That’s not a real solution.

 ASTER:

It’s like saying someone paid to pass a competitive exam, and instead of addressing the corruption, the authorities decide to cancel the exam altogether and ban it permanently.

That's a stretch, but whatever.

 ASTER:

I also like healthy competition, and I’m against any kind of system manipulation.

A few people receiving more opportunities for eyeballs because they update their reviews is system manipulation. (I edit some of mine, sometimes a lot if I'm trying to work out how to phrase a point clearly without spoiling, so I'd unintentionally qualify for that reward. Doesn't mean others should be notified or mine should be given additional attention. Oh, that's a way people would game this. Someone would figure out how much needed to be changed and that would become another thing for obsessive fans to obsess about.)

And of course there's no way to know how many of the likes were based solely on early opinions rather than the entire review. Likely less of a worry though, but I've certainly seen titles where viewers interpreted things very differently, which led to increasingly divergent opinions as it progressed.

Bottom line - treating reviews similarly, regardless of whether they're compiled incrementally or posted in their entirety, is fairest for the majority.

Personally I am against "on-going" reviews for a number of reasons. Review section should be limited to reviews talking about the whole show. Dropped reviews being exception (without it review section would be always leaning  more towards positive thoughts), but for me even dropped reviews should have separate list. 

Then these is an issue of questionable upvotes - which for me is the biggest issue. Just because someone upvoted a review written after 3-4 episodes, does not mean they will actually find the final version helpful and want to keep that upvote. Basically people are upvoting completely different product. 

Removing on-going reviews would also help at least partially deal with ridiculous fan wars and people wrigint 10s and 1s reviews that have little to no actual worth and information - just to "promote" or "diss" the show. 

There are many sections on mdl where people can write their thoughts about the dramas before they finish airing: forum, comment section, feeds, episode reviews. If people want to write their thoughts as they write and have easy access to then, I'd suggest making it possible to have draft reviews, just like we have with articles. 

I just honestly don't see positive sides of having on-going reviews.

Same perspective as many users : I would love if ongoing review were removed rather than enhancing it even more...I really think there are enough place on MDL to journal about feelings on a ongoing show...Users can post on feeds, on the episode page, they can directly use the notes box of the drama from their watchlist directly. 

I feel that the ongoing review (and even more people writing ongoing review on a couple episode and still marking the show as completed when the review does not at all "review" the series but rather is a first impressions) are just a competition for likes and to make sure you are "the first one" potentially aiming for a top spot on the drama page 😅😅😅...And for me it has no value / no interest. 

Of course everyone has different opinions but I think there are enough places to write about ongoing stuff and journal to leave the review space on a series for people to write about the full series when it is finished or once the series they dropped AFTER it is finished 😉

Another thing also with the filtering by "update" that would not work: what about people that are just correcting typo on their own reviews?  It happens.  Coming back years later on a review to refresh your thoughts on it and then spotting a typo, a word missing, etc and correcting it. It would made not sense for a minor correction like this to be considered as an update ^^

Just my 2 cents