“2012 Review”

Just kidding. While the 2010 bug is annoying, I wouldn’t consider it a make-or-break thing to have the correct year in the body of your review. Even though the “observed” date is bugged, the “entered” date does show and filters correctly. Now, if it didn’t sort via the entered date and I had to sort through three years worth of reviews…

The two most important words are simple; they can go into any review no matter the context. They are effective; just by adding these two words, your subject will feel much better. They are underused (although I have no direct evidence to support this). So what are these magic words?

Thank you.

It might help to put some context around them, but doing so–explaining what you are thanking your subject for–will dramatically improve your review.

Thanking someone for writing a review is another underused thing in the feedback process. A judge has taken the time to give you feedback from an event. It should take you approximately 0.1% of the time to thank them for their feedback. I’ve taken to posting my thank you on their Facebook wall with a few follow up comments about the event itself or feedback on the feedback (it never stops!) Hopefully, this adds to the general feel good of the thank you as other people take notice and “like” the fact that the person wrote a review. With reviews being such a solitary activity, we could use a little more public interaction and encouragement like this.

Riki Hayashi

Regional Judge

Blacksburg, Virginia, USA