How do you become a reviewer?

Without dragging this out into a public process, the best advice I can give to you or anyone- show an ability to cover news and also produce well written reviews/editiorials. The News staff highly value both abilities. Show that you can write a well constructed and balanced piece. Understandably the site isn't too big on serving as an open mic soap box.
 
To reinforce what HellCat just said, we tend not to recruit new staffers for the News until you've become an established member on the forums, with a solid track record of finding news, commenting on news well, or representing yourself well in talkback threads.

Also, the usual path through the News starts with daily news and/or reviews. Almost nobody gets recruited just to do opinion pieces.

-- Ed
 
More often than not, that seems to be the case, but I don't believe that HellCat, Lord Dalek, or 90'sCartoonMan are mods.

Just so I know, are there any plans to allow guest reviews?
 
Being a mod is like being taught to shoot a gun but never shooting it. I have neither been given a gun nor have I been taught to use one.
 
I'm TZ News's Reviews editor, so I guess I can make some kind of "official" statement.

If you're interested in being a reviewer, you can send me a PM inquiring about a position. I will ask for at least one sample review (depending upon how that one sample strikes me, I might ask for another). If the sample(s) suggest the writer is thoughtful, intelligent, and able to write coherently, I might give the writer a probationary position or ask him or her to join the staff outright.

But I also take the member's "temperament" into account. Staff members have to work together, and it is extremely unlikely that I'll offer a position to anyone whose public behavior is rude and offensive. (That doesn't mean that reviewers have to agree with each other; it only means that they be able to discuss their differences in a polite and professional manner.) This kind of thing, I'll note, is a pretty good way of ensuring you will not be asked to join.

Not all news staff are mods, but many are, because mods have already demonstrated their professionalism. Staff members are often mistaken for mods because their names are bolded, but all staff members (whether mods or not) get their names bolded.
 
I admire anybody who has the gravitas to write reviews on websites such as Toon Zone. All one has to do is look at how Jacob has been treated these past few weeks and you can tell that the job is quite demanding in more ways than one. Not only do you have to be able to put forth insightful opinions, you also have to put your name on the line and risk being attacked and bullied by those whom disagree with you. Jacob held true to his beliefs and he defended his viewpoint in a professional manner; that?s classy and I don?t believe that many people on this website could do the same.

I used to write reviews, if you could call them that. I got my start on TVTome and I continued writing them on TV.com back when it was created; I had over six-hundred and fifty reviews, which was hundreds more than the next closest individual. Unfortunately, it dawned on me one day that my reviews were horrible. I ultimately left TV.com and went to other websites, where I wrote several more reviews, but my confidence was never quite the same after that. There was a time where I was seriously contemplating an effort to become a reviewer on Toon Zone, but I don?t believe that I have the moxie.

Maybe I will one day.
 
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