REVIEWS & THE FRINGE
Value of Reviews:
- Public Feedback: Reviews from both press and fellow festival participants provide valuable feedback that can aid in promotion and future development.
- Influence on Attendance: Reviews help potential patrons decide which shows to attend.
Handling Reviews:
- Embrace Constructive Criticism: Use constructive reviews to improve future work. Not all feedback will be positive, and learning to handle criticism is part of the creative process.
- Respect for Opinions: We respect all opinions and cannot remove critical reviews that comply with our policy. Reviews are a reflection of the diverse experiences and perspectives of our audience.
Review Removal Policy:
- Policy Compliance: We will only remove reviews that do not comply with our reviews policy.
- No Selective Removal: We cannot selectively remove individual reviews based on their content. If necessary, we can remove all reviews from your show, but not just specific ones.
Use reviews as a tool for growth and audience engagement while understanding that not every review will be positive.
MANAGING REVIEWS
Reviews are sorted by "helpfulness" based on user feedback. Reviewers share their overall impressions, highlighting what they liked or didn’t. While there is no internal review approvals system as of now as we receive thousands and thousands of reviews per festival. Reviews can be sent for assessment against the policy below by emailing the review in question to support (please include the policy item you suspect the review of violating).
Reviews are categorized into three types:
Reviews appear on the "reviews" tab of a given show and are categorized by their "type". There are three types:
- Press Reviews are written by credentialed members of the press. The Fringe accepts applications from aspiring press and those that conform to our standards are granted credentials. These reviews appear in all three lists on the show's review page: certified reviewers, all reviewers, and all press.
- Certified Reviews are written by patrons that purchased a ticket to the performance through the website. Show producers with admin privileges can also mark a review as "certified" by clicking the certify review button on the review's page. This empowers producers to certify reviews from patrons that didn't buy a ticket through the website but did purchase/gain admission to the show via a walk-up or some other means. Certified reviews appear in two lists on the show's review page: certified reviewers and all reviewers.
- Uncertified Reviews are written by reviewers who did not purchase a ticket to the performance through the website and were not certified by the producers of the show. Uncertified reviews appear in the all reviewers list only.
The default list is certified reviewers. We do this to highlight reviews that are most likely to be legitimate from patrons who have actually seen the show.
REVIEWS POLICY
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- Affiliation: If you're affiliated with a show, you cannot review it.
- Language: No vulgar, offensive, or aggressive language is allowed.
- Misgendering: Reviews must not misgender or deadname artists. If it happens accidentally, you can submit a revised review, but the original will be removed.
- Focus: Reviews should critique the work (acting, directing, themes, etc.), not the personal or professional aspects of the individuals involved.
- Personal Info: Reviews containing personal information will be removed.
- Violence: No content inciting or implying violence is allowed.
- Discrimination: Racist, xenophobic, homophobic, transphobic, sexist, ageist, or ableist content is prohibited.
- Body Criticism: Do not comment on a participant's body (e.g., weight, height, appearance).
- Code of Conduct: All reviews must adhere to our code of conduct and terms and conditions.
- Content Issues: Overly brief or erroneous reviews will be removed. However, critical reviews that meet these guidelines will not be taken down, even if they misinterpret the work's theme.
- Producers' Rights: Producers can hide reviews from the public and opt out of press coverage. They can also request reviews be assessed for policy violations by contacting support at support@hollywoodfringe.org.