Back in 2009, I finished a multi-year, three-phase project of re-writing all of the 1,000+ Filmtracks reviews published prior to April, 2004. This project eliminated most of the lousy commentary I had written and replaced donated reviews with my own (for uniformity). It was not a very popular process with Filmtracks' readers despite the significant improvement in the quality of the completely new reviews for that existing coverage. Because of reader discontent, I chose early 2004 as the point where I would stop those revisions.
Two and a half years later, and looking back at the reviews untouched since 2004 and 2005, it has become apparent that a fair number of those reviews are clearly inferior to the standard that defines the site's quality of writing today and during most of the prior re-write phases. Thus, I decided to spend a couple of months revising (or completely re-writing, when necessary) all reviews written between April, 2004 and October, 2005. This fourth phase of re-writes includes 98 major revisions to reviews that were newly published during that period and slight revisions to the 46 previous re-writes that had been part of the first phase. While nobody wants to fathom the prospect of re-writing the previously re-written reviews again, these revisions mostly consist of proofreading.
The good news is that all 98 of the major re-writes in this phase are already done. Some of the changes are substantial, adding between 300 and 2,000 words of new content to each one. Several include additional albums or fresh discussion of rejected music for those entries. Of the 46 prior re-writes in need of proofing, 24 are done as well, leaving only about a week of work left before this entire phase is complete. These lesser revisions add anywhere from 50 to 200 words of new content to the reviews.
Unlike some of the previous phases of re-writes, it has been my intent to continue normal coverage of brand new scores while tackling these revisions. They will debut in the On Cue section of the home page starting November 7th with the most significant revision of the entire lot. Reviews with 500+ words of new content will each receive their own On Cue entry thereafter. Then the lesser revisions will be revealed in groups, a new format to expedite their announcement. All new coverage of scores is expected to pick up once again in frequency after this process is finished.
At some point in the future, look for a fifth phase of re-writes to address slight revisions to the reviews written between October, 2005 and January, 2006. This amounts to only about 40 reviews and would conceivably take only a couple of weeks to complete. By 2006, the quality of the reviews began consistently meeting or exceeding the minimum standards by which today's new reviews are coordinated, though it never hurts to go back and proofread the content periodically.
Thanks for your patience and acceptance of this process. I realize that the re-writes aren't popular, but the site is better because of them.
Christian
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