Reason for rule against requiring reviews

[Gamecrazy500]

Before I start let me just say that I am being 100% genuine. I am not trying to spite the archive, I really am curious as to why this rule exists.

A few months ago I wrote a few stories. After the first one had hundreds of hits but no reviews I decided to include a note in the bottom of the second story that basically said I wasn't sure how my fics were going over and would only post a second chapter if I got enough people reviewing. A week or so later I was surprised to find a message saying my story would be hidden because of the message. Apparently it is against the rules to "hold a story hostage to reviews" and the reason it isn't allowed is because people get upset. Now this to me doesn't make sense.

Why would the simple action of someone getting "upset" be enough to deny the author the right to ask his fans for something as simple as a review? It's not like I was demanding money. It was my story and frankly I was going to take this action weather or not it was stated. At least this way the readers knew what I was going or not going to do and could make an informed choice to review or not review that would directly affect me posting a second chapter or not. I would just like to know what the reasoning was for disallowing this type of statement.

[BronxWench]

We walk a fine line between the needs of the authors and the needs of the readers. While your intention was simply to be honest about your desire for reviews, and while you would probably not have posted chapters without reviews even if you hadn't stated it, the very crux was equating publishing chapters with receiving reviews.

We've had authors who demand a certain number of reviews before they will post the next chapter. We've had authors ask for a certain type of review. We've had authors use polls, or question/answer formats to generate reviews. That's because a larger number of reviews attracts more readers.

However, readers also don't want to be told that they MUST review to see content. They view that as a form of blackmail, and we get extremely incensed emails from irate readers. Some readers don't want to take the time to log in to leave a review, or can't log in because their college or university won't grant access to an adult site. Some readers are afraid to review because they've gotten a bad reaction from another author.

We don't mind an author asking for reviews. In fact, at the bottom of every monthly newsletter, we remind readers to review. Feel free to ask for reviews. What we won't permit is the second half of what you did. It's not an informed choice when the actions of others affects the outcome, since Reader A might review, but if no one else reviews, no new chapter is posted. Don't make it a trade: reviews for chapters. That's not a request any longer. It's a demand, and no matter how we turn that one around and look at it, the coercion is simply not something we can permit.

I hope this clarifies our position, and our reasoning behind the rule.