Pitchfork is beta testing user reviews and comments as it approaches 30

Pitchfork is going full midlife crisis mode, experimenting with user-generated content, adding comments (when much of the web is moving away from them), and dropping absolutely deranged best-of lists. Like most of the media industry, Pitchfork has struggled in recent years as audiences have shifted towards influencers on social media and advertising revenue has dried up. Its new ploy to maintain relevancy seems to be trying to become Rotten Tomatoes, but for music.

Pitchfork has historically been a one-sided affair. While it ran the occasional reader poll, there was no way for readers to directly voice their opinion on the site. If you thought that Jet’s Shine On deserved better than a 0.0 (first off, you’re wrong), there was no way to let the author know other than shouting into the void of this new thing at the time called Twitter.

Now the site is considering letting users comment directly on reviews and give albums scores of their own. And then those scores will be averaged up into a single reader score for each album. The post announcing the test explains it quite succinctly:

In addition to commenting, you will also have the opportunity to add your own score to an album review using Pitchfork’s rating system. This score will be shown next to your comment and will be aggregated with other readers to form a “reader score†alongside Pitchfork’s official score. One album review, our score, your score, followed by some comments.

Can’t wait to find out what the first Pitchfork 10 / reader zero is!

Original Source: https://www.theverge.com/news/804749/pitchfork-is-beta-testing-user-reviews-and-comments-as-it-approaches-30

Original Source: https://www.theverge.com/news/804749/pitchfork-is-beta-testing-user-reviews-and-comments-as-it-approaches-30