Some Tips For Next Year's Ratings

[scary]

As always, there's room for improvement. But here's my two cents, and I'm not bashing anyone or anything, I love this site and easily see the dedication and hard work that has been put into this haunt.

1. Maybe have more than one review team. That way you can spilt up the teams in geographic locations. And then maybe have one or two reviewers on all teams, that way everyone can get the same perspective. That way the amount of time being used from driving from haunt to haunt isn't quite so bad. And this way more haunts can be visited in a shorter time (more teams=less haunts per reviewer).

2. Since you guys go in for free, your mind set might, I'm not saying that it is, be different. As you go through, you think, wow this is pretty cool and the best part is I got in for free. And then you get to skip the lines, so you can't really get agrovated about the haunt as you wait in line. So here's a good idea to give all haunts and haunt goers a better review. Maybe have one or two ghost reviewers for each haunt. These people will go in with no indicating of being an HD critic (ie having to pay, waiting in line, etc.). Then they can post their review with the offical reviews, and that way the haunt goers can get a better idea of what the haunt is like.

3. Include a review for line entertainment, appearnce of entrance, and extra bonuses (such as corn maze at Murray).

4. Include some type of reward for all haunts. Best use of space, most unique, most changes, most improved, etc. It would be fun for everyone.

5. Finally, set a date for the reviews to be up. On the site say something like reviews will be posted no later than such and such a date. That way all us regular visiters won't become so frustrated.

Great job this year, and good luck next year!!

[SChaser783]

I would like to see a date put in with the reviews so that people know if it was reviewed the first night or the third weekend. Just something so that they can say hey, they were reviewed the first night but still were really good, or its the third weekend of the month and they still don't have their stuff together.

Also, maybe put a note at the top of a review if a haunt turns you away and says that they aren't ready yet even if they are open to the public. Some sort of negative impact so that attractions don't think they can do that year after year.

[Big Perm]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div>maybe put a note at the top of a review if a haunt turns you away and says that they aren't ready yet even if they are open to the public.[/b]

But then how would they get a good score? Tye, I think I'm missing your point here.

[Scarica]

We actually planned on putting the nights/dates that we went up with the reviews. I think that got lost somewhere in the rush to get the reviews up. I can post that info in the boards though...if you want.

[indeliblemind]

Hey Scary, thanks for the feed back. We're always trying to improve. Believe it or not, we're right with you on some of those suggestions, it just turns out that it's a TON of work to do in about 2 weeks.

To give you some insight, part of the reason we go in groups the way we do is so we've got a critic in every part of the group, twice over. So if a haunt does a good job of scaring people from behind, we've got a critic in the back. If they have an awesome effect that separates the group, we've got people in every position. We try to get a census opinion so we represent what the average person would think.

That said, we're totally different and I think I speak for the rest of the group when I say we're open to talking about why we reviewed the way we did. So if you have questions, hit us up on the boards or in a PM. And thanks again for the feed back!

[Luv2BScared]

And to add to that...we could have been done withour reviews in the first 2 weeks but because of haunt schedules we couldn't get into some of them. We haul tail to get to the haunts as fast as we can, and do as many as we can in a night so we can get our reviews done.
I know that in my reviews last year, I did state that a haunt was not wanting us to review them, and so did other critics...we make sure that people here know why we didn't review something.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (scary @ Oct 19 2007, 10:00 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}> (index.php?act=findpost&pid=2961)</div>As always, there's room for improvement. But here's my two cents, and I'm not bashing anyone or anything, I love this site and easily see the dedication and hard work that has been put into this haunt.

1. Maybe have more than one review team. That way you can spilt up the teams in geographic locations. And then maybe have one or two reviewers on all teams, that way everyone can get the same perspective. That way the amount of time being used from driving from haunt to haunt isn't quite so bad. And this way more haunts can be visited in a shorter time (more teams=less haunts per reviewer).

2. Since you guys go in for free, your mind set might, I'm not saying that it is, be different. As you go through, you think, wow this is pretty cool and the best part is I got in for free. And then you get to skip the lines, so you can't really get agrovated about the haunt as you wait in line. So here's a good idea to give all haunts and haunt goers a better review. Maybe have one or two ghost reviewers for each haunt. These people will go in with no indicating of being an HD critic (ie having to pay, waiting in line, etc.). Then they can post their review with the offical reviews, and that way the haunt goers can get a better idea of what the haunt is like.

3. Include a review for line entertainment, appearnce of entrance, and extra bonuses (such as corn maze at Murray).

4. Include some type of reward for all haunts. Best use of space, most unique, most changes, most improved, etc. It would be fun for everyone.

5. Finally, set a date for the reviews to be up. On the site say something like reviews will be posted no later than such and such a date. That way all us regular visiters won't become so frustrated.

Great job this year, and good luck next year!![/b]


We like to have the team go in groups, and we like to get everyone's perspective about every haunt. If we only have the opinion of one or two critics then we don't get the same well rounded reviews that we do now.

I have never thought that a haunt is better because we skip the lines, and some places this year we waited in line with everyone else. And I have never thought that because we may be seeing a haunt for free, which again doesn't always happen, like this year, that my opinion is swayed by that. I am actually less critical of a haunt when I go on my own and pay for it.

As for a best of...we have submitted out best of categories and are deciding where to post them.

A date for reviews to be up is a great idea! But, if there are problems with the site, or we can't get into a haunt that creates problems with meeting that deadline and then people are dissapointed. It's six of one, half a dozen of another.

[TheAngelInHell]

..perhaps dont come through on the opening night.......just a thought

its a nice way to challenge houses "well, you should be perfect the very first night"...but, uh....we live in freaking REALITY......just my two cents, ya know, not much, just putting it out there

[Luv2BScared]

No one likes to be reviewed on opening night, but someone has to do it every year....we try to mix it up every year. That said, a haunt should do it's best to be as good on opening night asit is every night during the season.
Haunts being a live event means they will be different every time. Speaking for myself, I take that into account when I go through.