by Chris Poirier
April 9, 2009

Hi all,

WFG has grown a lot since we opened—far more than I personally expected it to, to be honest—and, as a result, some of our original goals just aren’t proving realistic.  Originally, we had set out to review every listing in our database.  However, unfortunately, this has proven an enormous demand on our time, and, as a volunteer organization, it just can’t continue. 

So, effective immediately, we will no longer be attempting to review every new listing.  Editorial reviews will now be done just like member reviews—at our individual discretion.

In order to facilitate this change, we have made a few important changes to the site software.  First of all, new listings will no longer have to wait for an editorial rating before being sorted into the rankings.  From now on, we are going to assume that the average new listing is, well, average.  As such, all new listings will be treated as if they were rated around about “worth a look” (3 stars).  With sufficient member recommendations and readers, they can move up in rank and get in on the Featured Listings system, too.

The editorial staff will still be checking out every listing, but we won’t be spending as much time with most of them, as we won’t necessarily be writing reviews.  Instead, we’ll rate stuff when appropriate, and concentrate our reviewing efforts on those listings that we think will be of greatest interest to our readers.

The new site software, especially with this change, puts a lot more power in the hands of our members.  Your ratings, recommendations, and bookshelves play a large role in how the site operates, and we encourage you to participate.  And, if you are looking for something to review, we’ve added a page were you can see all completely unreviewed listings.

Okay, so that’s it.  Thanks for reading.

Chris.