Here's my 2 cents on this whole silly matter.
I didn't mind Battuta's review at all. I thought it was a little over the top, but hey, that's Battuta for you.
It's my experience so far that there's 3 types of people who download campaigns. First, people who follow the author's work. Who here would instantly download a campaign from Blaise Russel or Darius? Or even... another JAD.
Second, people who download every campaign. Some people will play anything, even Shivans Attack 45, or NeoNeoVasudan Rebellion Chapter 18. It's not that they have poor taste, its just that they
love playing new campaigns. Third is people who have a more selective taste. They don't want Shivans Attack 45, they want something new. Or maybe they just don't have time to play every campaign, they need to find out which ones are worth their time. They're the hardest to crack.
That's where people like Battuta and everyone else who posted in the thread come in. If someone reads the glowing reviews of Ravana Terror II, they might think "This might be worth checking out". I've had a couple of people tell me "After what Battuta said about your campaign, I'm going to try it". On one hand, I wished they didn't need his recommendation to play new campaigns, but I can't complain. It got more people to play it so I'm happy. The world isn't perfect, everyone does not play every campaign.
If a new guy unsure of a campaign comes into a thread and nothing but spoiler tags, he's obviously not going to read them. So why would you hide a review in there? Even if you say "Review starts here" and spoiler it, the new guy could take it to mean its a spoiler filled review. It's that sort of thing that will leave the new guy without any sense if the campaign is good or not. Result, campaign probably ignored.
Now I like the good reviews, I don't care if they go into point by point detail or just "I loved it". I'm happy to have made your day. I find myself enjoying the reviews from the low posters a bit more than from the regulars, I feel so privileged to break their lurking habits.
And I don't mind any bad reviews either, as long as they go into a bit more detail. It's hard to learn from your mistakes when people won't point them out (I've already heard your cries of "too many messages during battle", don't worry). I think either review should be in the release thread, plain text, no spoilers or anything.
So tl;dr: Any review, even if its over the top or slagging it mercilessly, is great for the players and the FREDder.
