Critter Critique Site

[Wayne Mack]

Anyone use this? https://critters.org/index.php

It looks like an interesting premise, but I am a little bit leery of getting overwhelmed with requests to read and write critiques. How often does a member get a request to submit a critique? I am willing to do some critiques in exchange for critiques of my stuff, but I do not want to get sidetracked from my own writing.

Anyone got some feedback on Critters?

 

[Jo Zebedee]

I found them mixed at best. Critique Corner isn’t bad though

 

[JS Wiig]

I’ve been writing critiques there for the last couple weeks. It seems like a pretty good site to me. One critique a week is generally what is required, which is about two hours of reading and writing for me. The request list comes out every Wednesday and the critiques are due the following Wednesday. Just pick one from the list of around ten or so. Judging by the other critiques I’ve read, it looks like some pretty good quality feedback.

I look forward to start submitting short stories there in a month or two, and plan on using a request for dedicated readers when I have a novel ready.

 

[Finch]

I have been a member for years, now non-active. Originally it was just Science Fiction but it was decided to expand the range of submitions. That would be fine and dandy, but you need to be a member of each group separately. You're committed to writing so many Critiques, for each group you are in, so it can easily run away from you if you're not submitting critiques all the time. The number of submitions you need to submit is based on a percentage . So one a week is a 100% . You can increases your percentage one week and miss a few until it goes down . If it falls to low , your in trouble. I prefer the system used by Scribophile. You can critique anything you like when you like and earn points when you do. You need to spend your points to submit your own work. Having said that , the groups on Critters are quite small , so you get know some of the submitters and exchange critiques on a regular basis. Reading new stories and writing critiques is posabley the best way to improve your own writing , so as long as you can put in the work it is valuable resource.

 

[AlexH]

I have a couple of friends who've had success from Critters which has led to professionally published short stories. I signed up but decided I would find having to critique so many stories overwhelming, especially given I'm a slow reader. I receive four e-mails from Critters a week, but unsubscribing from the e-mails seems too convoluted to bother!

I tried Scribophiles (which is similar) and found I was putting much more effort into the critiques I gave than the overall value of the critiques I received back. I appreciate people have different levels of critiquing ability, but some people seemed to get their friends to upvote their critiques even if they weren't helpful - like one critique of my story was voted in-depth when it was anything but. Anyway, that critique is no longer online, and I also received very helpful critiques on Scribophiles, so it wasn't all bad. I just don't think that kind of setup is for me.

It's also worth noting that (if you haven't done it before) critiquing stories is likely to improve your own writing.

 

[mosaix]

Anyone use this? https://critters.org/index.php

It looks like an interesting premise, but I am a little bit leery of getting overwhelmed with requests to read and write critiques. How often does a member get a request to submit a critique? I am willing to do some critiques in exchange for critiques of my stuff, but I do not want to get sidetracked from my own writing.

Anyone got some feedback on Critters?

I used them for a while, but about three years ago I seem to remember that they arbitrarily removed any members that they could identify as being resident in the E.U. As they couldn’t be bothered to make changes to their website that would comply with the E.U. privacy legislation. Disappointing.

 

[Finch]

I used them for a while, but about three years ago I seem to remember that they arbitrarily removed any members that they could identify as being resident in the E.U. As they couldn’t be bothered to make changes to their website that would comply with the E.U. privacy legislation. Disappointing.

It is true, Critters exclude residents of the EU. I don't know if that has been updated for the UK. But you don't give them a postal address and if you have an email address that doesn't have the ending . UK. Add a little fib, and you're in.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

It is true, Critters exclude residents of the EU. I don't know if that has been updated for the UK. But you don't give them a postal address and if you have an email address that doesn't have the ending . UK. Add a little fib, and you're in.

That doesn’t take away from Mosaix’s post - GDPR is not difficult to put in place. Also, without it, I don’t think I want my data on the website.

 

[mosaix]

It is true, Critters exclude residents of the EU. I don't know if that has been updated for the UK. But you don't give them a postal address and if you have an email address that doesn't have the ending . UK. Add a little fib, and you're in.

UK email addresses were excluded as well but my email address wasn't identifiable as such so I wasn't affected. Still, I was irritated by their somewhat dismissive approach to personal information so I stopped using them.

 

[Venusian Broon]

I tried this website years ago. It was a tremendous amount of work for very little gain. Bucket loads of (usually very long) stories to crit - with a pretty onerous deadline system that really punishes you if you start to slip - and when you eventually got your turn to get crits, I found most weren't up to scratch. So bascically all a bit Meh. So I gave up and chalked it up to experience.

Invest time and effort to find a writing group with people that you know, trust and admire. I know there isn't really a tried and tested mechanism to do this and it takes time, but being part of the community here is a solid base to start with! The informal writing group I'm in here is full of fantastic writers that I've learnt huge amounts from. Also lots of support and a barrel of laughs.