Recently a CritiqueBrainz user has been posting truncated reviews, with a ‘read more’ link to a external website containing the full review. There is no reason to believe that this has been done in bad faith (be kind!) but it does raise the question of if we, as a community, want to allow these partial reviews on CritiqueBrainz.
If the community agrees that it is not useful, these reviews would be disallowed under the MetaBrainz Code of Conduct #9: “Do not abuse or game any of our projects…” [e.g. to generate clicks/traffic]
But, in that case, we would also update the CritiqueBrainz guidelines to specifically mention that this is disallowed, to make it as clear as possible.
To get the discussion started, some intial cons of allowing these reviews, that I can think of, or were brought up by others:
- It can, confusingly, mean just a part of a review is creative commons
- It is prone to link rot/may eventually link users to sites that no longer exist
- Do we moderate content on external sites (e.g. allow linking to a site that has content that does not abide by our CoC)
- Partial reviews may end up hiding reviews that have been written entirely for CB/open source
Some pros, off the top of my dome:
- More reviews on CB! We don’t have that many reviews, and a snippet should usually be better than nothing. The examples that caused this post are very good, imo.
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It would help if the review snippets on CritiqueBrainz would be able to stand on their own. Like if it is a one or two paragraph summary of the review with relevant information (including the verdict), but with a more in-depth analysis on the external website.
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I think in the case @mfmeulenbelt suggests this could indeed even be allowed, while one which is just a teaser without the real review should not.
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Hi !
Thank you for bringing my attention to this topic (… and, btw, sorry for my clumsy English)
I’m the one to blame for these reviews.
The complete reviews I wrote on CoreAndCo webzine are very long, and don’t always focus only on music (there are some private jokes sometimes too)
On the webzine, almost all my reviews end with a short summary for lazy readers - with all the relevant information (hum: “almost all the relevant information”, remember that this is for lazy readers 
)
This short summary is what I use as a review here. But I also add the link to the full review for people that could be interested into more thoughts and details.
Now you know the Who and Why 
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I think we should allow truncated reviews (as long as they’re the summary type, not the teaser type), but we should probably clarify that all review lengths are welcome (whether short, long, or extra long)
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Please tell me when / if it has been agreed : in this case I’ll write more (don’t wanna do it now if it’s removed two weeks later 
)
Thanx
It seems your reviews fall in what @reosarevok (style leader grand manitou) said would be good, but let’s see.
It’s crazy but I think I know you, IRL!
I’m Tristan. 
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Yes Tristan, I recognized you through your avatar. And told BT about that coincidence haha.
Say hello to Hieu btw
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Hi @cglaume, it looks like community consensus is to allow truncated reviews as long as they are ‘standalone’, rather than just clickbait.
I may add something to the guidelines this week, but in the meantime feel free to keep uploading your reviews - and thank you for contributing!
P.s. it’s very weird to think of jesus2099 existing outside of MusicBrainz. I guess god is just one of us after all. Just a slob like one of us 
Just a MusicBrainz editor like one of us
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Hi @aerozol !
Great news, thanx. I’ll “fill” the database with my metalhead thoughts, then
I’ll do that later this week-end, as I’m currently working on one of these long reviews I’ll populate MusicBrainz with links to haha
By the way, sure, I think Joan Osborne actually said that jesus2099 is one of us, just a stranger on the bus tryin’ to make his way home
And as we’re also speaking about real life here, just for you (or at least the French-speaking among you) to know: I’m actually a reviewer for CoreAndCo webzine, but also for the French New Noise magazine (I won’t be able to post links to these reviews, though, as URL can’t redirect to kiosk shelves haha)
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“Vous avez dépassé votre limite de critiques par jour.”
I’ve written enough reviews for today apparently haha
Tell me if it’s ok for you
Have a nice week-end
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