About SPEW, SPEW Rules & How To Join

[jenny b]

The Society for the Promotion of Evaluations for Writers
(by Readers)



“Better reviews make better fanfics”

Head of SPEW: Jessica/ToBeOrNotToBeAGryffindor
Vice President of SPEW: Nobody... yet!

SPEW is dedicated to leaving quality reviews - and having a lot of fun doing it. Membership comes with review requirements, a “newbie tiara” that might or might not be cursed, and a complimentary straightjacket. We are, in short, an insane but dedicated branch of the fandom.

To find links to the author pages of all our members, please visit our account at the main fanfiction site by clicking here.

For examples of the SPEW-quality reviews our current and future members should aim for, please visit our Review Archive forum by clicking here.

Review Schedule

Reviews are due once a month, and the "review schedule" is as follows:

-> Early in the new month: New Review thread and Monthly Activity threads are posted. Sign-ups for SPEW Buddies open.

-> Approximately 5 days later: Sign-ups for SPEW Buddies close and Buddies are assigned.

-> Last day of the month, Midnight EST, Review and Monthly Activity threads are closed.

Review Requirements

Every review period SPEWers must post in the review thread with:

At least three quality reviews.

OR

Two reviews and a note certifying participation in at least one of the following:

-> SPEW Buddies
-> Class Activity at Hogwarts
-> Story or Drabble Challenges
-> Review Award Committee Duties
-> Other Activities (specified in the monthly review thread)

If a SPEWer has not completed all their reviews by the time the thread has been closed, they will be contacted by the Head of SPEW and will be required to turn in their missing reviews plus one penalty review by no later than the 1st of the following month..

Monthly Activities

In addition to SPEW reviews, SPEW members are required to complete one of our monthly activities each month. The activities currently offered are:

Discussion
Drabble Challenge
Featured Author/Category/Subject

The rules for each individual activity will be addressed in the individual threads every month. Though, please note that to fulfil your monthly requirement using the Featured Author option, you must review that month's Featured Author.

Each month, to maintain membership, SPEWers must complete at least one monthly activity. Monthly activities may be completed any time between when the threads are posted, to the last day of the current month, at which point the threads will be closed and all further submissions will be considered late. Late submissions are only allowed twice, and a member can miss the monthly requirement completely only once before further action is taken (which is handed out to the discretion of the current leader of SPEW).

Current SPEW Events

AIM Chats: Neither required nor official, SPEW chats are still nearly constant, and usually quite fun.

SPEW Buddies: A good way to get to know fellow SPEWers. Participants are randomly assigned a buddy. They must review at least one story by their buddy, and are encouraged to talk about writing, life, and anything else that comes to mind.

SPEW Review Award: Within SPEW there is a committee which meets at the end of every review period, reads the reviews of their fellow SPEWers, and honours one outstanding achiever per period.

SPEW Review Most Improved Award: This award is determined by the RAC and handed out when it seems appropriate or if a member has taken great and meaningful strides to improve their reviews.

The Review Award Committee:

-> Spire/inspirations
-> Soraya/babewithbrains
-> Meg/MissMeg
-> Hannah / h_vic

[jenny b]

SPEW Rules

I. SPEW members must abide by all forum rules. They should be polite in their dealings with moderators and other authors on the forums as well as on the MNFF main site.


II. Members must post in compliance with the current review requirements.


III. Members’ reviews should include some or all of the following:

-> Grammar and/or spelling corrections.
-> Comments on writing style, canon accuracy, and character and plot development.
-> Use specific examples from the story to illustrate a point.
-> If criticism, be worded in such a way as to be helpful to the author, rather than hurtful.

Members’ reviews should NEVER include:

-> Incorrect grammar or spelling.
-> Personal insults against the author.
-> Put-downs or criticism that is unlikely to help the author.
-> Excessive use of exclamation points or a single word repeated many times.


IV. SPEW members are encouraged to be active and helpful members of the forums, posting well thought out and on topic responses to posts. Any member of SPEW found to be breaking rules or poorly representing SPEW on the forums or anywhere in the fandom is subject to disciplinary actions, including removal from SPEW.


V. If a SPEW member realises that they will be unable to hand in reviews and participate in other SPEW activities for a considerable length of time, he or she may contact the Head of SPEW and request to go on hiatus. Members on hiatus will remain in the usergroup, but will not be allowed post in the SPEW forum or participate in SPEW activities during their hiatus. They are, however, allowed in SPEWchats. They may return without reapplying.

When requesting to go on hiatus, a member must include their reasons, and also an estimation of how long they plan on being away. A hiatus will typically last for at least 2 months, and a maximum of 6. The member will contact the Head of SPEW before the planned return, which will be announced in the Babble by the Head of SPEW. If a member makes no plans to return after 6 months, they will be contacted by the Head of SPEW. If they wish to continue their hiatus, they will need to leave SPEW and may reapply at a later date (see addition 4).


VI. If a member of SPEW fails to turn any number of reviews for one or several review periods, the following applies:

Month One: The reviewer is to turn in all of their missing reviews plus one penalty review before the fifteenth day of the month of the following review period.

Month Two: The reviewer is to turn in all of their missing reviews plus two penalty reviews before the fifteenth of the month of the following review period. If a member fails to complete their missing and penalty reviews, he/she is put on probation and is required to hand in all missing reviews within the review period of the third month or else they will be fully suspended.

Missing reviews should not be posted in any review thread but always be sent straight to the Head of SPEW by PM.


VII. Any SPEW member that does not submit a monthly activity will be contacted via PM by the Head of SPEW, and be given a deadline to make-up the requirement with a late submission. The late submission date is generally within a week after the original deadline. Suspension is determined on a case per case basis by the Head of SPEW, but generally last for three months and bar the suspendee from winning the SPEW Review Award or the SPEW Review Most Improved Award or garnering any house points from SPEW activities for three months following the lifting of the suspension.

Members may use the late submission only once per calendar year; afterwards, no more opportunities will be given to make up Monthly Assignment requirements. SPEWers may miss a Monthly Assignment completely only once. After that, further failure to complete assignments will result in a removal from SPEW.


Additions:

1. If a member fails to review a SPEW Buddy within the required period, one extra penalty review will always be added irrespective of the existing number of penalty reviews. The extra penalty review will be always be written for the affected SPEW Buddy.

2. If a member fails to review their SPEW Buddies two periods in a row, penalty reviews (to be written for the SPEW Buddies) will be issued for both months, and the member may not participate in next month’s SPEW Buddy Program.

3. Any SPEW member who has been suspended due to missing reviews or breaking of SPEW or Forum rules will not be allowed to re-apply until a minimum of three months has passed since their suspension date.

4. Members who choose to leave SPEW for their own reasons and part on good terms (ie, no outstanding reviews, warnings against rule violations) may reapply at a later date, but their application procedure will be less thorough than an ordinary application (ie, number of reviews required will be less, other application questions will not need to be answered) and the reviews in their reapplication may be used towards their first months review requirements.

VIII. A new addition to SPEW will be the SPEW 'mulligan'. We here at SPEW realise that things do happen at unexpected times, and we don't wish to penalise you for that if it can be avoided. So, there will be one 'freebie' issued to each member per calendar year. This free pass allows a member to turn in their late monthly activity and/or late review(s) by the 20th (five days late), no questions asked, without any penalty or repercussion. If a member chooses to exercise this option, they must notify the Head of SPEW as soon as possible but no later than the 4th day of the following review period, which is the due date. Any reviews turned in under this rule will not be eligible to receive the SPEW Review Award or the SPEW Review Most Improved Award in the period for which the reviews/requirements were late.

If a SPEWer requests their freebie and still turns in their review within the original review period, then their free pass will still be available for them to use at a later date. If a SPEWer requests their freebie and fails to meet its deadline, then they lose the use of that free pass for either six calendar months or one year from the last date they were last issued a freebie, whichever is longer, and a penalty review will be assessed to that member as per the aforementioned rules regarding lateness.

This freebie is not eligible for use on deadlines for story exchanges or other SPEW activities outside of monthly requirements. It is also only available for SPEW Buddies if the requesting member's assigned buddy PMs the current Head of SPEW and says that it is okay with them.


IX. All SPEW members are required to take part of the Extended SPEW Rules, which can be found at the spewbusiness LiveJournal community. Community membership may be requested from the Head of SPEW. If a member does not have a LiveJournal account, he or she will contact the Head of SPEW to receive the Extended SPEW Rules by PM or e-mail.

[jenny b]

Joining SPEW

To apply for SPEW membership, please complete the following form and PM it to ToBeOrNotToBeAGryffindor. By PMing, you agree to abide by all SPEW rules and, should you be accepted, have time to devote to SPEW. Please also note that to apply, you must have at least 75 posts on the MNFF forums. If you have not got the required number of posts but would still like to apply, you have the option of asking three existing forum members with 200 posts or more to vouch for you, one of which must be a current member of SPEW. If so, please have them personally contact ToBeOrNotToBeAGryffindor about it.

Links to five reviews posted on MNFF:

We would like to see a bit of a range - some positive reviews and some more critical ones. Try not to show reviews that all point out the same problem. Try also to link to reviews written for a fairly wide variety of fics - it makes it easier for us to get a good idea of your reviewing skills. We specifically ask that none of your presented reviews are written for the same piece of fanfiction, to get a better idea of how you approach different kinds of stories. Also, please note that if we feel that we do not get a good idea of your reviewing skills from these reviews, we may ask to look at some more.

Why do you want to join SPEW?

How do you think you will benefit SPEW as a member?

This is your chance to brag a bit about yourself. What do you want us to notice about you? Why should we accept you?

Please sign your PM with the name you would like your fellow SPEWers to refer to you by, should you be accepted. You must also submit a request to join the SPEW usergroup. This will be either approved or denied depending on the outcome of your application.