You're The Critic!

[Haunted Denver]

Some of you may have already noticed that there's been a pretty exciting change to Haunted Denver this year!

If you visit the review page on Haunted Denver, you'll see that visitors are now able to submit their score and review for the haunted houses they have visited.

Agree or Disagree with a critic's review, post your own.

Please have some understanding as we launch this new Haunted Denver feature, right now it's sort of a free for all, you enter your overall score, and comments. In the future we will try to format it in a manner very similar to the critics reviews. Right now when you post your score/review the score will tabulate automatically, however, the comments will not until they are moderated, that way we can prevent spam and haunt bashing with no basis. If you're comment is moderated as construcitve, they will get posted, if not, not only will they not get posted, but your score will also get deleted. Constructive comments are what we are loooking for, tell people what you liked and what you didn't, not just the standard, it sucked! Comments with no intelligent thought behind them will not make it on the site.

***So here's what you need to know, the closer you post your comments to the HD format, the more likely they'll stick around when the final changes/alterations are made. Submit your comments in HD rating format, your scores in each of the four HD categories, then your pros and cons. Your overall score should be the average of your 4 category scores.

You will also notice, once you submit a review for a house, that's it, you can only do it once. They're are some pretty amazing back end security features that have been worked on extensively to avoid anyone reviewing/rating over and over again. IP tracking and such, even if you vote from your different computers, we're going to find out, and none of your reviews will be counted.

Bear with us, this is a work in progress, and really a soft launch of this feature, we hope to have all the bugs worked out by the time the haunt season gets into full swing!

Peace.

Haunted Denver

[Luv2BScared]

Nice!!! Can't wait to see what the reader reviews are!!

[Hellraiser15]

Awesome. Just finished writing my reviews for 13th street manor and primitive fear. Cool feature.. I really like it.

[WelchWitch]

Sorry all its going to be a ramble.... I feel the need to speak up alittlle with all that is going on here at Haunted Denver. Let me say one thing so I don't catch any crap on the side, these are my thoughts and I am not mentioning any one house or person. That is my disclaimer!


I just looked over this and I think it is very nice. If it works it should be something that hopefully wont be geared to one place and work nicely to maintain the "unbias" atmosphere that Rob started. This is Haunted Denver not Haunted "one house" It will be nice to see how everyone does fairly and not be tainted or controlled. I have to admit, I am concerned about that, or was more at one point of that issue, it will be nice to hopefully prove me and others wrong on that concern. With the hard work of the critics all these years they are owed that. If I wanted to be a member of a Haunted House site, I would join it, but I have been a member of this Haunted Denver for a few years because I want to be open to all and want to learn about all haunts and the industry itself as a whole. When one haunt does well and wins every year, it gets discouraging to post as a long term regular, because you figure why, it doesn't matter. This way we can open it up to all, to really have a voice in what we feel and like or dislike with out the fear of threats on the side to only speak one way or do things only one way to better suit the ones who want to control. That is what the critis have always tried their very best to do. To maintain that will make their hard work pay off.

With that said, I think its sad we have only a couple of houses that post and talk and that we don't hear more from the other houses. Some pay money to be featured but yet don't post or say anything about themselves. Even if they don't pay, it would be nice to see and learn more on the forums from them. Again this is called "Haunted Denver" The forums are open to all to discuss freely and with maturity.

I personally have always tryed to be open to all and not be just "cram" one house down anyone throats as so many here do. Yes I support who I work for, if it be one house or another, I would be stupid not too. I may like some houses more then others. I may dislike others for whatever reason, but that is what makes this site so good, and should remain open to all and not just "haunted one house". All the Haunted houses have always earned my respct and deserve to be heard as much as anyone else. It will be personally refreshing to see this area be used by all and get a real feel for the industry as a whole. Maybe get a real people choice winner that I feel we haven't had in 3 years. So many things are said in the background, so many things are controlled, the "politics" of Halloween is what I call it, but now we can have something that will show truely what is felt. I do like and agree with the idea of some administrating on this section. 2 years ago Scream Park got slammed by alot of people because we advertised that we received a "perfect 10" score from haunted denver. But as you see now, that same tactic is being used on other house sites with no comments being said about it. So you can for sure see who is who here already. So to fairly control the reviews is good because it will hopefully "weed" out some of that crap.

Let us all work hard to make this place not look like a joke and a waste and use this section to properly score each haunt like the cricitis do and let evryone have a chance to see what Haunted Denver is all about. If we don't this place will become "haunted one house' and that won't help them at all.

Ok....whew, I am flying off my perch.

[SChaser783]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (WelchWitch @ Sep 27 2008, 12:24 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}> (index.php?act=findpost&pid=4856)</div>
2 years ago Scream Park got slammed by alot of people because we advertised that we received a "perfect 10" score from haunted denver. But as you see now, that same tactic is being used on other house sites with no comments being said about it.[/b]


Maybe I&#39;ll chime in here. I have no problem with anyone saying that they were rated #1 by Haunted Denver, or received a 10 star rating. The problem I have is a certain haunted, that shall remain nameless and only be referred to as one of a group of several haunted houses in the South Metro area, clearly states on their answering service that they are Denver&#39;s #1 rated haunted house 3 years in a row. Deceiving statements like this are what bother me, not people promoting what scores they actually got on Haunted Denver.

[case.file]

hmmm there are some good points being slung around the fourm

[Hellraiser15]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Tye @ Sep 27 2008, 12:27 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}> (index.php?act=findpost&pid=4859)</div>
Maybe I&#39;ll chime in here. I have no problem with anyone saying that they were rated #1 by Haunted Denver, or received a 10 star rating. The problem I have is a certain haunted, that shall remain nameless and only be referred to as one of a group of several haunted houses in the South Metro area, clearly states on their answering service that they are Denver&#39;s #1 rated haunted house 3 years in a row. Deceiving statements like this are what bother me, not people promoting what scores they actually got on Haunted Denver.[/b]

I agree. The problem is, anyone can make their own rating site and call it the best and give themselves top score. I&#39;ve been coming to HD for 4,5,maybe 6 years now(i cant remember) because i&#39;ve always thought they were the most un-bias website around. Problem is, now that these public review sheets are up on HD, People from other haunts can post tons of, This ones the best! perfect 10! Im not sure, but I belive we had this sort of problem on the boards last year. This is only my second year as an OL&#39;er but I can spot False reviews when i see &#39;em. As long as a score is gained fairly, I have no problem in someone advertising it. I know that the critics team has always been an Independent group and i really do like that. I remember browsing over the applictations and seeing a section for past haunt experience and I liked that. The goal Of this site has always been to provide un-biaas reviews that aren&#39;t tainted by companies that own haunts owning the sites.(this is not a shot at chris. I think he did a great job last year) Without sites like HD the whole industry would be mis-construed and I have always loved that someone cared enough to provide no Bull$h!@t reviews to people. Props to you HD and all you do. Please keep up the great work.

[lovcowboy22]

I&#39;m really excited about this feature. I usually have a good impression of all the haunts and now there is a moderated way for people to post what they think! Great Idea guys!

[Big Perm]

Too much to say in so little time so I&#39;ll either edit this or expand on it later when I have more than 13 minutes to do so. Good points by all but I, obviously, gots more to say on this. Stay tuned tomorrow.

[Luv2BScared]

I agree about the politics of Halloween. I truly wish that they would simply drop out of the industry, but unfortunately they probably will not.

That being said, I am happy to see this new feature as I think it will allow some interesting new perspective on the Denver haunts that we will all enjoy seeing. I feel like it will fully round out the critics reviews and give every user a much broader perspective. I do hope that it is monitored closely to prevent any one from somehow stuffing the ballot box so to speak. My hope is that everyone, readers and those affiliated with haunts alike, will use this tool correctly so as to provide accurate numbers and representations.
If I were a haunt owner, I would see the reviews by the critics and members as an opportunity to see what my strengths and weaknesses were. To find out what&#39;s working for my haunt and what&#39;s not. That is how we grow in anything we do personally or professionally.
I would love to see people from all of the houses jump in here with us and have some fun. There is so much that can be gained from everyone coming together and sharing ideas and opinions. We can strive for and encourage that and hope that they come.

It will be a lot of fun this year to see how the critic&#39;s reviews compare to the user reviews. It will be interesting to see if we all generally look for the same things in a haunt. As team lead for the critics this year, I am working hard to ensure that the team continues to maintain the integrity and character that HD was built on. We are an independant group and we will continue to be so, in order to maintain a fair and unbiased review process.
I&#39;ll be anxiously awaiting the reader reviews, I think they will be enlightening and entertaining!!!

[Big Perm]

I had a lot more to say on this but I&#39;m not going to anymore because it&#39;s not worth wasting my time. Here&#39;s the simple truth of the matter the way I see it:

If I want to know what&#39;s good I&#39;m supposed to trust the critics and some I agree with, some I don&#39;t. Some of the regular October Lounge users will give good input and give me a good idea of what I&#39;m missing from some of the attractions I didn&#39;t get to see or won&#39;t be able to see. I also think that most of the regular users can pretty much be trusted because there&#39;s no motive that we aren&#39;t already aware of, there&#39;s nothing to gain and we&#39;re going to be the only ones that read their reviews.

Now that&#39;s not entirely true some other people would read it and I think an alternate opinion is valuable for the people that want one but if I want to know if a movie is good I&#39;ll ask a friend, I&#39;ll read a review and base my conclusion off their track record and if I typically agree. Same thing for haunted houses: I&#39;m not going to go to Spider Mansion because Tiffany, 15, Morrison, said "it&#39;s like, totally scarey!" (I added the "e" on purpose).

It&#39;ll mostly be self-governing for the simple fact that if someone comes on here (or multiple someones) posting hugely positive reviews on how amazingly awesome CarnEvil is we&#39;ll all know that they&#39;ve either been employed by said attraction or simply full of $#!t. I just don&#39;t want to bring the peoples choice back or see this turn into it&#39;s equivalent like the pissing contest between Field of Corpses and Scream Park 2 years ago as to who hires the most actors. I don&#39;t think that&#39;s likely though because it&#39;s easy to cast a vote, it&#39;s tougher to write a review and I think we&#39;ll all disregard the "I liked it, it&#39;s the best" reviews.

More than I wanted to say really but I hope you agree.

[Luv2BScared]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Big Perm @ Sep 28 2008, 10:20 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}> (index.php?act=findpost&pid=4882)</div>
I had a lot more to say on this but I&#39;m not going to anymore because it&#39;s not worth wasting my time. Here&#39;s the simple truth of the matter the way I see it:

If I want to know what&#39;s good I&#39;m supposed to trust the critics and some I agree with, some I don&#39;t. Some of the regular October Lounge users will give good input and give me a good idea of what I&#39;m missing from some of the attractions I didn&#39;t get to see or won&#39;t be able to see. I also think that most of the regular users can pretty much be trusted because there&#39;s no motive that we aren&#39;t already aware of, there&#39;s nothing to gain and we&#39;re going to be the only ones that read their reviews.

I agree with that...and I think if everyone knew what the critic preferences were that would help. What I like in a haunt may not be what you like, but Victoria&#39;s preferences may be right up your alley.
Now that&#39;s not entirely true some other people would read it and I think an alternate opinion is valuable for the people that want one but if I want to know if a movie is good I&#39;ll ask a friend, I&#39;ll read a review and base my conclusion off their track record and if I typically agree. Same thing for haunted houses: I&#39;m not going to go to Spider Mansion because Tiffany, 15, Morrison, said "it&#39;s like, totally scarey!" (I added the "e" on purpose).

It&#39;ll mostly be self-governing for the simple fact that if someone comes on here (or multiple someones) posting hugely positive reviews on how amazingly awesome CarnEvil is we&#39;ll all know that they&#39;ve either been employed by said attraction or simply full of $#!t. I just don&#39;t want to bring the peoples choice back or see this turn into it&#39;s equivalent like the pissing contest between Field of Corpses and Scream Park 2 years ago as to who hires the most actors. I don&#39;t think that&#39;s likely though because it&#39;s easy to cast a vote, it&#39;s tougher to write a review and I think we&#39;ll all disregard the "I liked it, it&#39;s the best" reviews.

Yes, we will all be able to tell if it&#39;s merely somone just trying to cast a vote for the sake of trying to acheive number one. Someone who has been to a haunt will be able to write a good review and point out pros and cons and not just, "OMG this is the BEST". I am looking forward to reading the reviews though.

More than I wanted to say really but I hope you agree.[/b]

[Hellraiser15]

well good news for me because i wrote quite a bit more than, "it rules!" in my reviews

oh and one more thing, does anyone find it strikingly odd that somone gave asylum a perfect 10 and said "It rules" with the date of review being 1 day before it was even open?

[Big Perm]

Are you serious? http://www.octoberlounge.com/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/ohmy.gif

I have to look at that stuff now.

[Luv2BScared]

Yeah Hellraiser, those will be the kind of "Reviews" that we will just ignore...obviously. There&#39;s that "Self governing" thing that Perm was talking about. That didn&#39;t take long to surface.

[WelchWitch]

Hmmmmmmm. Very great catch Hell!!! We can learn alot of differant things from this spot. Both postive and negative.

[Big Perm]

Just checked, in addition to that are:

Haunted Mansion - 10 (opens tonight)
Spider Mansion - 10 (opens Friday 3rd)
Terror in the Corn - 8 (opens Friday 3rd)


Nicely done, tools. At least wait until they&#39;re open!

[Luv2BScared]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Big Perm @ Sep 28 2008, 11:02 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}> (index.php?act=findpost&pid=4893)</div>
Just checked, in addition to that are:

Haunted Mansion - 10 (opens tonight)
Spider Mansion - 10 (opens Friday 3rd)
Terror in the Corn - 8 (opens Friday 3rd)
Nicely done, tools. At least wait until they&#39;re open![/b]

Good grief!! So much for looking forward to that.....sigh.

[WelchWitch]

That was fun while it lasted. Just disregard what I worte earlier, it didn&#39;t help. Thats too bad it was agreat idea.

[Luv2BScared]

The glamour is gone....you know it&#39;s too bad that people feel like they have to kink the numbers. How do they think they will benefit from that? The numbers won&#39;t be a true reflection, so they become useless. It&#39;s like using the answer key for a test...sure you got 100% on the test, but you&#39;re still dumber than a bag of hammers because you didn&#39;t study and learn anything.
Shame people do that...really it is.

[VickiDanger]

Doesn&#39;t it suck when great things get ruined by ignorance...? I think the critic bios will help people decide which critic he/she agrees with the most, which should help people decide which haunts to go see. I think they will be up soon, right Kris?

I am anxious to read some reader reviews despite the issues already discussed. Like anything else, sifting out the b.s. is necessary.

[case.file]

I love how i can change things on here so when i say somthing stupid i can fix it lol but good point welch wich

[WelchWitch]

Not sure what you mean Case, but keep in mind not everyone here is ignorant and knows alot more then one may think. Nothing bliss about that..

[case.file]

I dont know i herd it on a movie once but i think im just going to deleate this accout because everything is just going way to crazy . I love the oc but i think im just going to have to let it go so this is my last post.

[Luv2BScared]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (VickiDanger @ Sep 28 2008, 05:36 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}> (index.php?act=findpost&pid=4914)</div>
Doesn&#39;t it suck when great things get ruined by ignorance...? I think the critic bios will help people decide which critic he/she agrees with the most, which should help people decide which haunts to go see. I think they will be up soon, right Kris?

I am anxious to read some reader reviews despite the issues already discussed. Like anything else, sifting out the b.s. is necessary.[/b]

Yeah, it stinks when things get botched up by ignorance or someone&#39;s motivation to gain something. Makes it hard for those of us who are trying to do the right thing.....ahhhhhhhh, human nature. Now there&#39;s a theme for a haunt...it could have all the low down, underhanded, rotten things the human race will do in an effort to win the game. Nothing scarier than that!!

I do want to read the REAL reader reviews once they go up.

Bios should go up soon...waiting for 2 more to come in then we can roll with it.

[VickiDanger]

Alright Case, lets try to work out our differences...afterall, it is Halloween season:) I sent you an email, hope to hear back from you.

[Luv2BScared]

I&#39;m set to have an awesome season...that&#39;s it!

[Big Perm]

I checked with Haunted Denver about the bogus reviews and was told that they were tests to make sure they work (I&#39;m not sure if that was specific for the Asylum or if all of them were tests) that just hadn&#39;t been deleted.

Good to know that people are smarter than that.

[WelchWitch]

I see another small glitch to work on with this. On Asylum reader review, they give the house a 9 excellent, but on the main page before entering into the actual review it gives it a 10 perfect.

I know this is petty, but we need to make this something we can trust and right now it takes too much brain power to weed through the BS.

Lets try to show that we are trying atleast to be fair and open to all haunts.

[Big Perm]

*Please see my prior post on this thread.

[SChaser783]

Welch, it looks like you are looking at the reader review score so far. FOC also has the same thing. I think its coming from people that vote a star rating but don&#39;t actually put in a comment.

[WelchWitch]

Oh...Tye ok. That would make sense then. However maybe they could show that. Have one comment showing the 9 then another comment section showing just the star. That way there is no room for dispute. As an accountant, my pennies have to add up exactly. Sorry

Perm, yes I see your post and that is good. This is something can go with the test. We need to make sure all adds up not just the review it self. Just trying to help.


I was just trying to figure it all out and make sure I am ready to read them once they all start coming in.

Thanks guys.

[Big Perm]

Witch, I have a suspicion that you will probably need to take about a day and a half sick time to sit back after the season and read them all once they get rolling in a week or so. Once the floodgates open I don&#39;t think they&#39;ll let up until early November and it&#39;ll be a chore keeping up with OL posts without the reviews!

[Haunted Denver]

Top Ten Conspiracy Theories

10. The Philadelphia Experiment
9. Pearl Harbor Was Allowed to Happen
8. Apollo Moon Landing Hoax
7. Jewish World Domination
6. Princess Diana was Murdered by the Royal Family
5. Global Warming is a Fraud
4. John F. Kennedy&#39;s Assasination
3. UFO Recovered at Roswell
2. 9/11 was Planned by the US Government
1. Haunted Denver is Rigged

[That one guy]

I knew it!! You are a bunch of unscrupulous bastards!! Not only is HD rigged it is responsible for the other nine items on the list!!

[Haunted Denver]

Our last post is there to give certain people something else to spend their time considering.

Now that everyone has jumped to their conclusion, let me refer you back to our original post on this topic.

"Please have some understanding as we launch this new Haunted Denver feature, right now it&#39;s sort of a free for all, you enter your overall score, and comments. In the future we will try to format it in a manner very similar to the critics reviews."

The scores and comments that were posted before the season started were primarily those of the software programmers, who were testing the system.

Bugs are being worked out continuously to make sure everything will be running smoothly when the season gets into full swing.

Any reviews/scores from people that were made before the season started, including the test reviews, have been removed.

Relax everyone, it&#39;s going to be ok!

Peace.

[loves2scare]

Hey, new here, been a fan of haunts for many years...glad the 2008 season is upon us!!! http://www.octoberlounge.com/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif anyways i was looking through the "you be the critic" section and i noticed you all have all of the haunts but three are missing??? The three that are missing is 13th Dooor, The Curse of the Slaughterhouse Gulch and The Butcher...Why do you not have these three listed??? Just curious because from what i have read you guys seem to be a great place for haunt goers, such as myself, to read what we, the audience, has to say...thansk everyone and Happy 2008 Season!!!

[Luv2BScared]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (That one guy @ Sep 29 2008, 11:33 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}> (index.php?act=findpost&pid=4944)</div>
I knew it!! You are a bunch of unscrupulous bastards!! Not only is HD rigged it is responsible for the other nine items on the list!![/b]

Actually, the UFO&#39;s at Roswell was me..... http://www.octoberlounge.com/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/rolleyes.gif

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Haunted Denver @ Sep 29 2008, 11:52 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}> (index.php?act=findpost&pid=4945)</div>
Our last post is there to give certain people something else to spend their time considering.

Now that everyone has jumped to their conclusion, let me refer you back to our original post on this topic.

"Please have some understanding as we launch this new Haunted Denver feature, right now it&#39;s sort of a free for all, you enter your overall score, and comments. In the future we will try to format it in a manner very similar to the critics reviews."

The scores and comments that were posted before the season started were primarily those of the software programmers, who were testing the system.

Bugs are being worked out continuously to make sure everything will be running smoothly when the season gets into full swing.

Any reviews/scores from people that were made before the season started, including the test reviews, have been removed.

Relax everyone, it&#39;s going to be ok!

Peace.[/b]

Ahhhh.....relief!!! Now I can gear up to enjoy reader reviews again!!!!

[Hellraiser15]

My reader reviews are up! go read them...NOW!!!

[Luv2BScared]

Was that you that wrote those short reviews??? I hope not...I&#39;ve been waiting for yours since Friday..

[Hellraiser15]

they werent as short when I wrote them. I wrote them in paragraphs. They must have gotten compressed. Ill write better and longer ones once the forums on the boards are up and as I go to more haunts

[Luv2BScared]

But yours weren&#39;t the one liners were they??

[Hellraiser15]

NO! They were at least seven lines each. they&#39;re under primitive fear an 13th street manor

[Big Perm]

Hellraiser, I don&#39;t know if you can edit them but if you can go back and try to put <pre></pre> tags around the entire thing (beginning and end). See if that helps.

[Luv2BScared]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (hellraiser15 @ Sep 29 2008, 08:30 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}> (index.php?act=findpost&pid=4986)</div>
NO! They were at least seven lines each. they&#39;re under primitive fear an 13th street manor[/b]


Whew!!! I&#39;m glad your reviews weren&#39;t the one liners...I liked what you wrote!!

[Hellraiser15]

thank you! yeah id never write one-liners.(except i probably did last year) but i promise i wont this year

[Luv2BScared]

Good deal! I&#39;d have to throw pies at you if you did!! Any plans to hit houses this weekend?

[scarecrow]

Anyone make it to scare fair last year? Is it running this year?Is it worth the drive to greeley?

[case.file]

I cant wate to go to a hunt so i can make a couple of revews yeeahhh so any one go to any good one eary or get any sneek peeks ? just wondering because you should e mail me so details ..

[Big Perm]

Scarecrow, I didn&#39;t make it up there last year although I know some people that did and they seemed to like it.

[Luv2BScared]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (scarecrow @ Oct 1 2008, 10:24 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}> (index.php?act=findpost&pid=5025)</div>
Anyone make it to scare fair last year? Is it running this year?Is it worth the drive to greeley?[/b]

I never made it either Scarecrow. I looked for info on it this year but couldn&#39;t find anything. Let me know if you find something out about it.

[SChaser783]

I don&#39;t think Scare Fair is operating this year.

[Hellraiser15]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Luv2BScared @ Oct 1 2008, 06:13 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}> (index.php?act=findpost&pid=5023)</div>
Good deal! I&#39;d have to throw pies at you if you did!! Any plans to hit houses this weekend?[/b]

Yep! Im am FOR SURE hitting brutal planet this saturday. I might hit one on friday but i dont know which one. Ive got the homecoming football game that night and would like to go to one close to Trailblazer stadium. any suggestions?

[Luv2BScared]

Sounds fun....I want to go to all the houses, NOW!! And my suggestions...go to all of them!!!

[Hellraiser15]

Good suggestion. I think im gonna go to HFOS. but that could change. well see

[Luv2BScared]

I always hit every house at least twice every season. My favorites I hit 3 times....I have an illness!!

[Haunted Denver]

Ok, have noticed a couple things, one for sure, houses that are open yet cannot be reviewed. Several reviews came in for houses that have not opened, with people acting like they have been through them this year.

Haunt owners/operators/actors - really?

[milkunits]

Let me look http://www.octoberlounge.com/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif

I want this thing to be fair http://www.octoberlounge.com/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif

I will make sure we are good to go over at our house http://www.octoberlounge.com/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif

*tucks tail between legs and goes to the review section

[Shade]

Just wanted to say that I *LOVE* the idea of people being able to post their own reviews. I always wanted to implement that function but lacked the resources to get it done. That was actually the original idea behind having the October Lounge, because I knew that a message board would at least let people voice their own opinions. Very glad to see that now there are both. Well done.

[Luv2BScared]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Shade @ Oct 4 2008, 11:56 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}> (index.php?act=findpost&pid=5120)</div>
Just wanted to say that I *LOVE* the idea of people being able to post their own reviews. I always wanted to implement that function but lacked the resources to get it done. That was actually the original idea behind having the October Lounge, because I knew that a message board would at least let people voice their own opinions. Very glad to see that now there are both. Well done.[/b]

It&#39;s a great idea....we&#39;ll see how it all goes. I hope it gets used as it was intended

[Shade]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Luv2BScared @ Oct 4 2008, 11:31 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}> (index.php?act=findpost&pid=5129)</div>
It&#39;s a great idea....we&#39;ll see how it all goes. I hope it gets used as it was intended[/b]
What? Surely you&#39;re not suggesting that overzealous haunt employees would go crazy posting 10-star reviews of their own haunts and trashing the competition, are you? Wouldn&#39;t there be some sort of historical precedent to indicate that such a thing might happen? Lord knows everything that&#39;s been posted to the October Lounge over the years has been deeply rooted in facts and objectivity. http://www.octoberlounge.com/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/laugh.gif

[Luv2BScared]

ROFLMAO......oh NO, that would never, ever happen!!

[Big Perm]

Rob, seeing as it&#39;s Sunday morning your word will be my gospel. Nicely done, dude, nicely done!

[Luv2BScared]

He&#39;s always had such a nice way with words, wouldn&#39;t you say?

[Big Perm]

No argument here. I&#39;m still laughing about what he said too.

[Luv2BScared]

Me too!! It was good for a giggle this morning for sure!

[Hellraiser15]

well my review of brutal planet is up! go and read

[senatordan]

Hellraiser? I can&#39;t find your Brutal Planet review? Sent you a PM.

[Luv2BScared]

Actually, you sent the PM to me. User reviews are on Haunted Denver in the reviews section.

[Hellraiser15]

thats weird. I did get the PM. it must have sent it to both of us for some reason

[Luv2BScared]

Funny...well hopefully your review was found.

[Haunted Denver]

Allright a couple guidelines to go over again.

If you make a review that says "you suck" etc. etc. it&#39;s not going to make it on the site, come on folks be creative. State something specifically you liked or didn&#39;t, that is a helpful review to our users on Haunted Denver. The same reason our critics list pros and cons.

Also, the system is tracking IP addresses and cross referencing to the OL. If you are bashing a haunt, and pumping up another, you are going to be found out, and your reviews will be deleted.

Not that this is happening or anything.

Also finding it quite interesting how many people seem to have been to so many haunts already, submitting several low reviews for the haunts that they have been to, and one with a 10 for a specific haunt.

Once again, be careful, we do know what&#39;s going on and who some of you are.

We will make this a useful tool to our users and the haunts, we will make sure this happens.

[SChaser783]

Can we also monitor the reviews for people who have been through this year? I have read at least one review that said they hadn&#39;t been this year but that their review was based on last season.

[Luv2BScared]

What&#39;s the point of posting a review for last season??

[SChaser783]

Exactly, but one of the Asylum&#39;s reviews is from last year, and I thought I saw another one as well.

[Haunted Denver]

Looks like those got missed, both have been removed, thanks for paying attention.

[Haunted Denver]

So first off, we&#39;ve moved this topic into the hangout, since it&#39;s gotten a bit of traffic.

Here&#39;s just some of the latest from the visitor reviews on HD.

Is screampark open? They&#39;ve received a 10 review from someon who claims to have been through, although we received some mixed information, we didn&#39;t think they were open till Friday now.

A review from an IP that resolves to a user with "Field of Corpses" in their OL user name states "best ever!!!!!!", haunt owners, watch your actors.

Also, the visitor reviews is not a place to promote your haunt, it is, as it says for "visitor reviews" not promotion, not pumping up your reviews with your actors. There is a rather lengthy promotion of a haunt, from someone who says they are a character there, with of course a score of 10.

As we&#39;ve said before, we&#39;re committed to making this a good thing, we will not allow it to get out of hand.

[Shade]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Haunted Denver @ Oct 7 2008, 08:03 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}> (index.php?act=findpost&pid=5225)</div>
As we&#39;ve said before, we&#39;re committed to making this a good thing, we will not allow it to get out of hand.[/b]
Sounds like a full time job. Now you know why I used to suck so bad at returning phone calls in October. Oh, who am I kidding. I always sucked at returning phone calls.

[Luv2BScared]

You&#39;re not alone in that. I am the WORST about returning calls!

[VickiDanger]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Shade @ Oct 7 2008, 04:39 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}> (index.php?act=findpost&pid=5234)</div>
Sounds like a full time job. Now you know why I used to suck so bad at returning phone calls in October. Oh, who am I kidding. I always sucked at returning phone calls.[/b]


Yes you do... http://www.octoberlounge.com/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif

[Chris]

Here&#39;s something interesting I noticed.

The Asylum and 13th Floor have received more visitor reviews than any of the other haunted houses.

Now, I know what you&#39;re thinking, stop a second and read some of the reviews, very mixed responses. Which is usually the case at a haunted house, you can&#39;t scare everyone all of the time, you can scare many, but if not at least entertain them.

I know what you&#39;re thinking again, stop a second (a second time), I&#39;m not complaining. What I&#39;m getting at, is as a haunt operator if you&#39;re willing to wade through some of the bull, you can get some good feedback.

I&#39;m liking the visitor reviews, and look forward to reading them as the month goes on, what does everyone else think?

Chris

[WelchWitch]

I think it is sooooooooooooo funny when you can clearly see what is crap and what isn&#39;t. I trust the reviews more when they are honest then this is awesome perfect 10. I also think that if you say there is something wrong, that shouldn&#39;t give them a perfect 10. Give them more a 9 or something, that way they have a good true idea of what to fix for next year to be a PERFECT 10. Maybe my idea of what perfect means isn&#39;t what they think, but I am somewhat edumacated http://www.octoberlounge.com/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/wacko.gif . If you want to really slam them and give them a 3, say why and what they can do to improve. You may have 4 comments saying something constructive to then 3 posts in a row saying they are the best perfect 10 and that&#39;s it. Actors and staff should be a little more blended in when they are trying to hide how bad they suck or not suck. If they are great then awesome, but if they suck, adding air freshener doesn&#39;t hide the fart smell.

Chris you can draw the picture as many times as you want to try to tell everyone how to do this professionally, but unless they passed the 3rd grade and have actually some maturity and not be afraid of other haunts, good or bad, you are just wasting your breath my dear.

We have people here who feel the only way for readers to really see who is who, they must pee in the water enough times to make sure we smell their piss first. The funny thing is that when they get to their haunt all they smell is farts and urine!!!! http://www.octoberlounge.com/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/ohmy.gif

[SChaser783]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (WelchWitch @ Oct 13 2008, 12:47 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}> (index.php?act=findpost&pid=5312)</div>
We have people here who feel the only way for readers to really see who is who, they must pee in the water enough times to make sure we smell their piss first. The funny thing is that when they get to their haunt all they smell is farts and urine!!!! http://www.octoberlounge.com/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/ohmy.gif[/b]

That explains why its been so quiet on the OL lately.

[Chris]

Witch,

I am known to be fairly sarcastic, however, I&#39;m not when I ask you this.

Can you please explain what you mean?

If you mean that haunt staff/actors are pumping up some haunts (pissing in the water) and slamming others, that&#39;s kind of what I was referring to earlier. But like I said, some of the posts are good, and you can learn from them. Not everyone will write well thought out reviews like the critics, but they can still give you a good idea of what people like and what they don&#39;t.

Here&#39;s what I think will probably happen, as the season progresses and more haunt goers frequent HD, we will get better reviews from the public, and not as many from folks affiliated with haunts. Eventually the people who are posting will have their IP&#39;s tracked and blocked so some of this behavior can be limited. That&#39;s what I meant when I said I was looking forward to reading reviews in the future.

All things aside, as the internet matures, I&#39;m sure you see on the various sites you visit that visitors are commenting on the content, some good, some bad, but it&#39;s the way things have been going. HD is trying to stay at the forefront by adding visitor reviews. It may not work perfectly, but you&#39;ve gotta start somewhere. We&#39;re blazing a trail, we&#39;ll see how it goes.

You should see some of the reviews that haven&#39;t made it on the site, 3rd grade would definitely kick these people&#39;s tails.

Chris

[WelchWitch]

No problem Chris,

I am agreeing with you. I am repeating what you said but in my own little way.

I will make this general. If I see one house who isn&#39;t by the reviews doing well with visitors to all of the sudden have a perfect 10. I know it is the house of some level adding to the review. I agree we will have to sort through all the crap to get to the meat on the bone. I just think it is funny that people do that to try to make their house something that may or may not be true. If you want to disclose that hey I am an actor there and I think this, then ok, no problem. I am cool with that. I think actors should be able to post. Disclosing that helps understand that it is a true comment and not just a slam or whatever.

I am glad you are "weeding" through all the crap. But I know you can only do so much. People will always find ways to run around the rules. I also agree that we need to wait to see the overall performance of each house. It will be more apparent at that time, who did well and who just farted...lol.

My last point mentioned was to just say that those that try to amp up their stuff will only look more silly in the long run if they can&#39;t deliver what they promise.

I think the section can be a really good way to get to the facts of and for each house. I look forward to seeing it be worked out with all the kinks. I just have to giggle, because they should at least try to be more blended and look more real.

Does that make sense? http://www.octoberlounge.com/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/blink.gif

[Luv2BScared]

I think with time, people will actually use the board to post legitimate reviews and add constructive criticism as well as give kudos for the good stuff. Once that begins to happen regularly we can easily weed out the fakes as their reviews will just plain stink. Gotta take the bad with the good.

[admin]

There have been several visitor reviews that have come in pumping up a certain house and trashing select others. The IP addresses have been tracked, and interesting to find although not matching exactly, they all resolve to the same service type, provider, and area. This will not be tolerated, if this continues to happen, the reviews will be deleted, and the service provider, type, and area will be provided for everyone here on the boards.

[Scarica]

I think human intervention is going to be the way to go with regards to weeding out the crap. Keep in mind that some service providers lump a bunch of people in one area into one IP address...I believe AOL does this (does anyone USE AOL anymore?)...also, you don&#39;t have to be at your computer to log on. I&#39;m often traveling around viewing and posting. If 4 friends all go to the same college computer lab (or library) and one works for a haunt and trashes another haunt, but his friend had a legit review, the IP alone would make them look like the same person.

That being said, I think it&#39;s in the reviewer&#39;s best interest to make a good argument either way for or against a haunt, put in some well though out pros and cons, and it will be easier for the unlucky soul who gets to weed through these posts and approve them. Like Chris says, it will become more obvious who&#39;s doing what, based on what&#39;s been written and it should work out fairly well. Like the rest of the intarwebs, take everything with a grain of salt and use the information that seems most plausible.

Today&#39;s intarweb safety lesson has been sponsored by The Google.

[Luv2BScared]

What is the solution? HD really shouldn&#39;t have to police the reviews constantly like this....we&#39;re all grown for crying out loud. I would hope that everyone would act with integrity and character.
So, how do we fix this so that it is fair to every haunt owner?? Should HD put every review up here for everyone to see and vote on whether it seems legitimate or not? If we vote yes, it stands, no it goes away...
I don&#39;t know what the answer is, does anyone else have ideas on what we as the OL community can do to eliminate bogus reviews?
This is a great idea and the hope is that the average haunt visitor will come here and post their reviews for haunts. We need to work together and brainstorm to come up with ideas to make this what it is meant to be. A place for visitor feedback, good and bad to give the haunt owners the input they need and want.

Ideas??

[Scarica]

Hey Luv!

The problem is we&#39;re NOT all grown up here...not necessarily an age thing...maybe a mentality thing. I think it&#39;s about as good as you can get in an open forum where you can remain anonymous and hide behind your keyboard. The internet is what it is...a great place for community, information, interaction, and knowledge...it&#39;s also full of people who will use it to their advantage or as a place to spew hate and disinformation...because they can.

I think the reviews will be a mix of legit and not-so-legit information and most people will be able to weed out the bad crap. If I&#39;m looking at a review that says, "It was no good. The actors didn&#39;t scare me. Don&#39;t go here," it doesn&#39;t really matter if it&#39;s a legit review or not...it gives me no information, there&#39;s no insight, and I&#39;ll probably just ignore it. I&#39;m looking for REAL information in a review...specifics. If you say, "It was WAAAY too gory" and proceed to tell me (in detail) the gory bits...I&#39;ll decide if that sounds cool or not. "Cool. Gore. I&#39;m in," or, "Ewww...I think I&#39;ll pass."

Many of us here ARE grown up and can decide for ourselves what we&#39;ll listen to. I&#39;m not going to look at a bunch of stars and think, "Oh...only 7 stars...guess I&#39;ll skip it." This system is about as good as it can be.

[Big Perm]

Well that and part of the problem is what a good friend of mine (who can step up and take credit for this if they want to) when describing October Lounge to someone else:

"It&#39;s where a bunch of people who work for a haunted house go to to post about everything and pretend they&#39;re not affiliated with one of them."

It&#39;s pretty easy to see what&#39;s legitimate and what&#39;s not. Personally, I&#39;m not stressed about it because I&#39;ve been on Ebay enough to pay no attention to the "Grate Sellr, Exelant, A+++++++++" comments. While I would like to see it as a more useful tool for the casual fan that may occasionally check out OL or simply just goes to HD to pick out a destination for people like us it&#39;ll either be a thin layer of sh!t that we can see right through or have enough substance that we can still disagree with.

[BPFX]

perhaps make it a members only function?
the animminty of the system is a issue, people tend to spout off, one way or another, and its hard to wade threw the muck to find gems of infor
take the BP reviews
hellrazor wrote a less then happy review of BP, the only reastion we know is because he said it was his review (and it was the first one).
but becuase i knew WHO it was I could look @ his option of outher haunts, and of BP last year.
this allows us to take his complaint sericurs, and try to see why he felt he had a group of 15 when the largest we have sent all year is 10, and why he only "saw" 3 actors out of 20 something
if I couldn&#39;t have checked up on him i would have blown his feed back off as what he "experienced" was so diffrent form realty, ie he would have been put in the same catorgy as rewiew #2, the kids made the wrong choise between gowing down the dark scary hall way or threw the door with the brightly light fire exit sign.

another though would be to expand the scores to the hd review format (props, actors, sets, etc)

[Luv2BScared]

You can definitely tell the legit reviews from the bogus ones and we can weed through them ourselves. Legit reviews would include details, good and bad and it is obvious when someone clearly hasn&#39;t been to a haunt based on what they write.

So, what are we all saying here? We just have to take the user reviews with a grain of salt? I think we should personally visit every person that wants to post a review and run them through a grueling 5 hour interview, background check, reference check and then MAYBE let them post...hahahhaha

[WelchWitch]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div>
I think we should personally visit every person that wants to post a review and run them through a grueling 5 hour interview, background check, reference check and then MAYBE let them post...hahahhaha[/b]

We are doing that now Luv.

I have changed my mind on this.

So maybe we should stop screening them and let the floodgates open. We are no soup kitchen nazis or Review gods. I am sure we can find better things to do with our time then reading if a review is worthy to be posted or not posted. Just let all the crap come out regardless of who it is for and let it be shown and then we can go through it with a grain of salt. I would rather be the one who decides what is worthy to read and believe in then someone else who may have a different vibe and may or may not read it a different way. Another problem I hear we have it some normal reader who doesn&#39;t work for a house or knows a house posts and maybe gets screened and the post is removed. How is that person going to know it got removed. They might just think they did something wrong on completing the post and then may get back in and repost it again thinking they are at fault to only then be treated like they are an actor and are now slamming or boosting the haunt, It is a no win situation. We in this industry need to learn how to take bad with the good. We all can&#39;t be perfect every year.

I better stop now before I say too much. Sorry for the rant.

[Luv2BScared]

No, I agree completely WW. Every haunt wants to be the best every year, but that is impossible unless of course, you have an endless supply of money and staff available.....then maybe.
We should just stop policing the reviews, let them come in as they are and we can decide for ourselves what is garbage and what&#39;s not. Even with the legit reviews, I may agree with one and you don&#39;t. That&#39;s what makes us individuals and diverse and we need that.

Chris? What do you think? Should we just let them rip and take it all with a grain of salt??

[Haunted Denver]

Let em rip, we&#39;ll see what happens.

[Luv2BScared]

It will be a good way to test the water and see what happens and what may need to happen to make it fair to all the haunt owners.

[Chris]

I could be wrong here, but I&#39;m going to throw this out there.

As I browsed some of the visitor reviews, I realized I found myself scrolling through the screen and quickly browsing the scores, and skimming the comments.

I made me think. I&#39;m a fan of sites like metacritic, where all of the critics scores for a movie are blended (Haunted Denver does this), and also averages the user reviews (Haunted Denver now does this). When I visit metacritic, I don&#39;t read every review word for word, and if I see generally positive comments, I realize that a majority of people agree on something, even if there are a few who think the opposite.

I guess my concern over keeping the visitor reviews on the right track, overshadowed how people will probably use this feature, much the same way I view metacritic. Like some have said, take the good with the bad.

This is probably the way most of the "user driven" information on the internet is viewed, I may have lost sight of that for a minute.

Another interesting thing, is that the majority of haunts are having scores of 8.0 for visitor reviews. So I guess as long as people submit 10&#39;s and then bash with 2,3, or 4, in the end it looks like the average is going to be around 8.0. So even though some of the reviews are bashing, overall, doesn&#39;t look like it&#39;s going to have much of an effect, if something is rated Very Good, chances are someone will see that, click on it and browse the reviews, much the same way I did this morning, and how I typically use other sites.

Chris

[hauntfreak156]

hah, i was looking through the revies and on three different houses someone posted reviews saying how the actors were trying to ask her for her number.

whoever did that must have no life, going to post bs reviews about actors asking them for their number.

[Luv2BScared]

Funny!! Must be one very attractive gal to get actors to break character in not one, but three haunts!!

[WelchWitch]

She is the industry lot lizard. She is someone who can be bought with scares for a good time. During the off season you can see her at most of the local cementaries or your local coroner office. However aside from Halloween, her second busiest time of the year and when she makes alot of money is when the circus is in town. Something about those midgets and clowns really gets the customers stirred up.

[Luv2BScared]

OMG!!!!! http://www.octoberlounge.com/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/blink.gif