Re: reviewer guide for GNOME?

["Liam R. E. Quin" <liam holoweb net>]

On Wed, 2004-07-21 at 10:46 +1000, Jeff Waugh wrote:
> <quote who="Liam R. E. Quin">
>
> > Making a special reviewer guide also makes reviews feel special and loved,
> > and that counts for a LOT in getting a good review.
[...]


> In your donated time ;-) do you think you could find some good examples, and
> maybe kick off a checklist for items we should have in the guide? That'll
> get us cracking!

Here are some notes that may help.

Good examples are possibly best found by asking someone who works at a
magazine...


When I worked at SoftQuad we used to include
* contact info, people the reviewer can get hold of at the last minute
  to ask basic questions they should have asked sooner :-)

* screenshots, logos, any other artwork, in multiple formats

* half a page of background on the company (the gnome project in
  this case)

* a "getting started" tutorial

* a few pages that are like the release notes, but written for a
  mainly non-technical reviewer who might have little or no personal
  interest in the product other than the $300 cheque from the magazine

This last is the most important... it needs to define
* the scope: who are the intended users?  what can they do with
  this product?  why would they want it?

* how do people get it? (emphasise that it'll be included in
  Solaris, in many Linux distributions, in NetBSD, etc etc)

* what's special about it compared to other products -- e.g. why is
  the  gnome desktop better than xterm with twm that the reviewer
  had been using for 15 years :-)

* what's new?  For each new feature, a headline, and a a paragraph
  explaining why it's important.

  Example:

  Faster, and uses less memory
  Gnome 3.5 now runs in under five terabytes of main memory, and
  takes under an hour to start!  This is a five-fold improvement
  on the previous release, and means that many more people can now
  enjoy the benefits of the Gnome desktop even on machines that are
  more than a few hours old.  Of course, Gnome also runs just fine
  on modern continuously upgraded systems.  When the desktop uses
  less memory, there's more room for the user's applications.

  In other words it's a mix of ra! ra! raaah! with technical
  information stated clearly and explained.  The what's new paeg
  has a single line item for "nautilus uses less memory", but
  very few reviewers are likely to know whether that's important,
  or why, unless they are involved enough with the Gnome project
  to know that nautilus draws the desktop as well as being the
  file browser.  it is not, however, full of hype.  The press is
  generally good at detecting excessive hype.

* printed press packs with this information are very helpful.
  The reviewer might well not be online while running gnome
  (having had to boot Linux perhaps, or writing the review in
  the pub at 1am...)

  They should mention in big letters they are for the press only,
  or say "Gnome reviewer's guide" on them or something, to make
  the reporter feel valued and special and loved.  Someone who
  feels loved will write a better review every time.

A google search for "reviewer's guide" yields -
* Windows Server 2003
Netscape 6
IBM Lotus Notes and Domino6
Corel Painter
Macromedia MX
java

and many more.

http://infrasystems.com/writing-a-reviewersguide.html looks like
a good resource.

Liam