In regard to the rumble, that's how it's always been. To be honest, I've been in the rumble I think twice since I've been here in two years so really it's not something you should get too upset about. And I hear you about reviews getting buried. Mine get buried two pages deep after being posted for five minutes.

Honestly, get people to follow you by following them and/or interacting with them that way people will know that you posted a review. If they vote on it it'll show up on their wall for their friends to see and the breadcrumb trail begins.

That's the best suggestion I could make to you. Either that or create one single thread for people to post in when they have a new review or two up that they want people to notice. I hope this helps! less

Having people follow you is also something that happens after they've had some sort of interaction with you on the forums as well. There are reviewers that I've followed because I stumbled upon their review or something like that, but there are plenty that I've followed and then seen reviews from that were from the forums.

I do agree that there should be a better way for newer reviewers to get noticed, but I don't think having separate rumbles is the way to do that. For starters, if there really is nobody looking at these reviews to nominate them for the regular rumble, then who's there to pick them for the "newbie" rumble? And at what point do you transition from one to the other? I really think it's best to leave it at one rumble, and go ahead and nominate newer reviewers there too. If the same amount of work is being put in by the newer reviewer and the reviewer that's been around longer, how is it not a fair competition? At least from a logic standpoint. I understand that some people vote based on who they know, but there have been plenty of "unknown" people winning rumbles in the past.

Realistically, the reviews are there to help customers decide on whether or not they want to buy a product, not for the reviewer to win gift cards for writing it or even to have it pimped everywhere. Long after the rumble they might have been eligible for has passed, people will still be reading their reviews by looking at the product page. There are other ways to get reviews noticed than just being on the community news page and in rumbles. I think having one single thread where people can share their latest reviews that they're really proud of is definitely a great idea and I have no problem with that. Otherwise I suggest just being more active in the forums and discussions. You'll get follows and people reading your reviews that way too less

Agreed, Sam.

I also want to point out that this isn't a popularity contests here at EF. No one is competing with anyone to be the "best" or "most popular." Granted, those who have been around longer are better known, but that doesn't make them "better" than anyone else here on the site. Before the points, gift cards, mentor program, and even "review pimping," there weren't as many reviewers as there are today. Our community is growing larger and larger every day and those people want to get noticed as much as you do. One way I got the word out about my reviews was by using Twitter (before Facebook ever had "pages"). Even my blog helped out tremendously to let people know about my reviews.

A lot of reviews get lost in the mix. Mine have in the recent past because there is a lot of traffic and a lot of reviews going up all at the same time. Just be patient and know that things come with time.

And I don't follow people after reading a review. I follow people after some sort of interaction with them. less

Ok, first of all no one said anything about anyone being better than anyone else. That's not what this is about.

Second of all, the help sections regarding ranking for this site expressly state that your rank is in part due to popularity.

Just trying to get everyone who works hard recognized. I have a feeling this is being taken as a diss to the reviwers who are always nominated and that isn't the case.

@Sam, I like the one thread idea very much. I suppose it would help if it was something an admin set up. less

I'd love to see more new contributors get active on the site.

It kinda bugs me to see people jump on the forums with "I have a new review!" or "I can't wait to get my package!". I understand it's exciting, but every other person on the site has the same thing going on or has been there and it just floats down to the bottom of the forums.

Getting into the mentor program to help write better reviews and being active on the forums are probably the best ways for a new contributor to get involved on the site. less

Good Monday morning everyone! I hit the forums yesterday morning and I noticed a new reviewer had to resort to creating her own thread to pimp her review. I then hit the community corner page and noticed my own review was buried six pages deep.

I am aware there is an RSS feed for all new reviews that have been posted and for obvious reasons the weekends might be a little slower. All of this aside, do you have any suggestions on how to get newer users in the spotlight.

The reason for asking is two-fold. One because rating these reviews helps improve the rating of the user in general and the second one might be a little more difficult to explain without sounding bratty. (Please don't let me sound bratty!)

In the weekly rumbles, it seems to be the same ten or so people nominated every week. Where's the love for the newbies? Should we consider having two sets of rumbles? One for the newer users and one for the more advanced users? It just doesn't seem fair to have to compete against the really advanced users when the newer users work just as hard to create a quality review. Or hey, what about this? Maybe divide it between students and advanced? What do you guys think? less

I get what you're saying, but at the same time, where are the people nominating all the other reviews? Newer reviews and reviewers make it into the rumble, and get nominated by the same people who also nominate "the same people" over and over. If you guys think more newer reviewers should be in the rumble, go ahead and nominate them. Anybody can nominate anybody but themselves, the only requirement is that the review hasn't previously won a rumble and is in the right time frame. That's seriously it. Having a second rumble won't do anything productive because now we're discriminating based on how long a reviewer has been around, or how many reviews they have, or what their rank is and I'll say again, if nobody is nominating these reviews on the rumble we currently have to begin with, who is going to be nominating them on their own special rumble?

Newbies most definitely deserve love too, but nothing happens overnight like that. Stick around, keep writing reviews, be active in the forums. All of these things will get you noticed and appreciated. And we should all be the change we want to see in the world here, if you think that not enough newer reviewers are being nominated for the rumble, then go ahead and nominate them, lol. less

You wrote:

Anybody can nominate anybody but themselves, the only requirement is that the review hasn't previously won a rumble and is in the right time frame.

Just to clarify, a reviewer can not have won the previous weeks Rumble and be eligible for the current week. This prevents someone from winning in consecutive weeks. However, they can have won the previous weeks Rumble and be nominated in the current Rumble since they would not be eligible to win until the next week. Hope that's clear as mud. less