This is current to November 26 2004 but keep in mind the system can and does occasionally change.
At A Glance Author Uberkitty Contact [email protected] IAM Uberkitty When N/A I've been reviewing and submitting experience to BME for several months now and have found that at this point many people ask me questions about how everything works. While I admit many people have reviewed far longer than I have and I'm sure that only Don and glider know how the entire system works I can at least offer some advise and answer some simple questions.
Submitting Experiences
When you submitted an experience to BME it is added to the bottom of the experience queue. (To get to the queue first sign into IAM. On the main page click on the "Help IAM" link then "Review Experiences") Several volunteers from IAM will read it and vote for it to be accepted, featured, or denied. After enough votes accumulate it will pass moderation and be taken off the queue. Whether it is accepted, featured, or denied is based on the majority vote.
If it has been denied an email will be sent immediately containing comments so that you will know how to improve your submission so you can send it in again with a better chance of acceptance.
If it is approved an email will be sent at the time of the next experience update containing a membership to BME, a link to the experience, and any comments that reviewers left for you.
Experiences that get featured get special perks. These are considered recommended reads (usually for interesting subject mater or above average writing, or a combination of both.) They are denoted by red stars and listed as "recently recommend" within their section. They also usually end up linked on the main BME page. In addition to the standard membership featured experiences will also be given four coupons good for one month each of IAM in the acceptance email.
Other Notes:
Because of the way the system works if you have an IAM page you can check the queue to see how many reviews your experience has. If it is no longer in the queue and you haven't received a denial email you can rest assured that it has been accepted and will be in the next experience update.
You can extend your IAM page with a E2 or Full membership here or add time to a page with a coupon here.
The most common reason an experience is denied is because of capitalization problems (correct capitalization is required) or because it uses netslang such as "lol" "bf" or "cuz" which is not allowed. This article has more detailed writing tips.
It is best to only submit one experience at a time and wait for it to be added to BME before submitting another. If more than one is added to BME in a single update you risk not getting the email containing your membership, comments, and possibly coupons.
Reviewing Experiences
Anyone who has an IAM page can review experiences. It's a wonderful way to help out BME and it too comes with perks. Every time you review 500 experiences you have the option of getting coupons for IAM or a free shirt not available anywhere else.
To get started click on "Help IAM" and it will give you to option of reviewing experiences. Just use your IAM name and password. First READ THIS. It contains most of the information you need to get started.
Start slowly and be sure to go back and check your log to see where you disagreed with the majority. It can take a while to get used to figuring everything out since most people are overly harsh or overly accepting when they first begin.
Notes:
Try writing something helpful to BME in the acceptance box without being repetitive. Rating the experience on a scale of 1 to 10 and explaining why it deserves that rating can be helpful. When denying an experience be sure your comment to the author will be helpful to them instead of insulting.
You can vote on your own experiences but you won't be able to tell when it passes moderation.
Your vote weight will start out at 0 and it determines how much your vote counts. (The majority vote that determines if an experience is accepted or denied is based off the weight of the votes, not the number of voters. So it's possible for a few people with high vote weights to outvote more people with low vote weights) A weight of 100 equals one vote. Things like low comment repetition and voting with the majority will increase the weight and conversely high comment repetition and voting against the majority will cause it to decrease. It usually doesn't start to stabilize until after you've voted 100 times so don't worry about it being so low in the beginning.
The number of reviews needed to get free shirts or coupons is based on the number of correct votes, not the number of total votes. You can see the number of correct votes you've cast at the bottom of your log.
You should also know the karma points don't work like money. You don't "spend" them on shirts and coupons, the number is never reduced. So if you have 1000 correct votes you can get both the 500 shirt and the 1000 shirt.
Any questions can be posted in the reviewing forums here and here. You don't need to post the same thing in both though, most people don't read just one.
Good luck and happy reviewing!