README! Tips on how to write your review! (albums, members)

[Guybrush]

This is an update of sleepy jack's old thread, http://www.musicbanter.com/album-rev...e-posting.html.

If you wanna write a review, thanks a lot - every new album review is a contribution to the site. However, we'd like for our reviews to uphold some kind of standard. Here are some tips that can help you make your review better :



Tip #1 : Use BBCodes

BBCodes will help you make your album review look neat, pretty and structured. Aside from the bold, italics and underline codes, codes like "indent" or "quote" can help make quotations stand out. "List" will make it easy to post nice tracklists, "youtube" might help you add videos for sampling and codes like "size" and "colour" can help you make headers in your review like the red text above this paragraph.

BBCodes are accessible by buttons around the box into which you write your post. You can also write them manually. To learn more about BBCodes, read : Music Banter - BB Code List



Tip #2 : Remember Release Year / Album Art / Track List etc.

Aside from the name of the album and the artist/band behind it, release year is essential. Other near-essentials that will help your review look professional and informative is album art. Album art is usually easy to find for example on the album's wikipedia page or with a simple google image search. A track list can also be nice to have and if you don't wanna write it up yourself, they can usually also be found on albums' wikipedia pages or elsewhere on the net.



Tip #3 : Write a Review

Of course, this should be self-explanatory, but there are the occasional rotten apples that do not seem to get that an album review should be more than a short paragraph saying the "album is great you should get it". Just how you write it is of course up to you, but some things to keep in mind could be :

• Structure - Maybe you wanna make sure you don't mix all your info up. You could start with an introduction of the band, how you got into them then carry on with the review. Organized info makes it easier for readers to find what they're after.
• Language - This is hard for many of us. You could try to write your review in a way that makes it entertaining to read. Colourful descriptions and lush metaphors might help.
• Grammar - Very few of us are perfect, but if your grammar is horrible it will make your review look bad.

Put simply - when you write a review, make an effort.

If you're still uncertain of how to write your review, I strongly suggest you check out some of the threads in this forum or in the editor's pick and members journal forums for inspiration.



Tip #4 : Rate the album

To help us understand how much you like (or dislike) it, you may wanna rate your album at the end. You can do so however you want. Some examples are : 4/6, 769/800 or 7.5/10.



Tip #5 : Name Your Thread

Be descriptive and informative. "Best album ever" is a bad name for a thread. Something along the lines of "Artist - Album (Release Year)" would be much better, for example :

http://www.musicbanter.com/album-rev...et-2002-a.html

Tip #6 : Add Your Review to the Album Reviews Index

When your review thread is no longer getting any posts, it will eventually disappear from the first page, then get more and more buried in new threads. To help preserve the value of your album review and make it easier for people to come across, you should add it to the Album Reviews Index.

To do so is simple. Just visit the thread and leave a post with a link to your review in it. If you're able, try and stick to this format :

[ url=address.to.your/review ]Artist - Album (Release Year)[ /URL ] [ i ]~ By YourUserName[ /i ]

Just remove the spaces inside the brackets to make it look right. F. ex :

The Libertines - Up the Bracket (2002) ~ By TheCellarTapes

If you want more readers, you should also consider writing about your latest review in the Musicbanter News Feed Thread. And that's it!



.. Or that's all I could think of. If you can think of something important to add, leave a post here.