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Every now and then, reviewers need to be reminded that they can use Skip during review.

There is not really an encouragement to use Skip; it does not increase your review count (nor should it).

Maybe we could use Winterbash to temporarily encourage it, to remind users that Skip is always an option. If there is still some room for hats (some hats undecided / not yet drawn), then I would like to propose a hat that you get for skipping.

Just as an idea, it could be called "Skippy", look like a kangaroo, and you would earn it by skipping 10 review items during Winterbash.

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  • 18
    The only problem I have with this is that people will skip the first 10 review items to get the hat and then revert to their "normal" behaviour.
    – ChrisF Mod
    Dec 6, 2015 at 18:10
  • 2
    ...assuming Winterbash is happening the year...
    – Double AA
    Dec 6, 2015 at 18:11
  • 5
    @ChrisF Maybe we could use "Skip 10 reviews, but pass all audits in between".
    – Fractional Radix
    Dec 6, 2015 at 18:17
  • 1
    Then it starts to get complicated.
    – ChrisF Mod
    Dec 6, 2015 at 18:18
  • 2
    Maybe pass an audit and skip a review task in each queue?
    – bjb568
    Dec 6, 2015 at 18:36
  • I think the audits are doing fine job at reminding people they can skip. After failing one or two audits due to posts they're not sure about, they start using Skip more often.
    – Shadow Wizard Is Sad And Angry
    Dec 6, 2015 at 19:01
  • 3
    What about the sites that don't have audits? E.g. Arqade?
    – angussidney
    Dec 6, 2015 at 20:29
  • 3
    related: Additional requirement for Steward or Reviewer badge to help new reviewers learn about using “Skip” "awarded for 250 reviews and no less than 25% skip actions... fewer than 25% skips would block receiving a badge". Similar logic could be used for hat - particular amount of reviews and skips no less than 25% of this amount
    – gnat
    Dec 6, 2015 at 21:57
  • @ChrisF ...and that would be bad why? ("people will skip the first 10 review items")
    – gnat
    Dec 6, 2015 at 22:20
  • 3
    @gnat - because a) they shouldn't be skipped and b) they'll return to the normal behaviour (including robo reviewing) as soon as they've got the hat, never to skip another review ever again.
    – ChrisF Mod
    Dec 6, 2015 at 22:23
  • 1
    @ChrisF a) There is no shame in using “Skip” b) not all reviewers are robo, some don't skip simply because they don't know
    – gnat
    Dec 6, 2015 at 22:27
  • 1
    @ChrisF I can understand that. Still, I can't even imagine how skip can be harmful in any way
    – gnat
    Dec 6, 2015 at 22:30
  • 1
    @Won't It's a reference to an old TV show about a kangaroo. The kangaroo, named Skippy, is the title character.
    – Fractional Radix
    Dec 8, 2015 at 6:30
  • 3
    Just FYI: putting a bounty on this now is a bit of a wasted effort. The Winterbash hats for this year were decided last month. They're not going to change at this point. Try adding a bounty at the beginning of November next year to pop it on our radar.
    – animuson StaffMod
    Dec 12, 2015 at 6:45
  • 2
    @gnat I haven't really been following the hats thing this year, but I believe they've already been decided for the year.
    – animuson StaffMod
    Nov 23, 2016 at 0:59

3 Answers 3

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+25

I totally agree though users might just skip the reviews until they get the hat.

So let's lower the limit to one so users are reminded about the Skip option nor would the review system suddenly have a peak in skips all over the place. Skip is not often used and should be used whenever necessary. Or maybe add a another requirement to actually review some other amount of posts (say about 5 to 10) without Skip, whereas all audits must be passed or some other requirement I can't think of right now.

Following Werner's suggestion, the minimum could be 1 every 50 reviews.

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  • 2
    Something like at least X skips in at least Y review queues...
    – Werner
    Dec 18, 2015 at 1:34
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+100

I propose a slight amendment: award the hat for at least so many reviews in one or more review queues, of which so many percent are Skip. Skipping reviews is a good thing to encourage, but not as useful as actually reviewing. There are a few reasons why I think this proposal would be better:

  • It doesn't allow people to get the hat just by Skipping a bunch of reviews and not actually doing anything at all to help the site.
  • It makes people less likely to just mindlessly Skip a bunch of reviews to get the hat. Sure, they could do that and then mindlessly robo-review another bunch, but that would be more likely to get them review-banned, at least on sites like SO which have audits.

(An even more different counter-proposal would be to award the hat for at least so many reviews in one or more queues with an average review time of at least so much - make it a secret hat, so that people don't deliberately just wait a long time before clicking the button in order to get the hat, but will only get it if they're reviewing sensibly, not knowing the exact threshold. But I don't know how easy this would be to implement, and it's probably different enough from the original 'Skip' proposal to become a new proposal of its own rather than just an answer here.)

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0

One way to make this tricky and fun is to award a hat to a user who skips an audit question. It won't necessarily encourage good reviewing behaviour (but won't prevent it either), although it will achieve equally important goals:

  • remind people about "Skip" option
  • draw due attention to review queues
  • make reviews slightly less harsh around Christmas time
    (I bet people will argue it's a bad thing!)

Most importantly, it will feel like a fun guessing game, and not simply a rewarded assignment, which IMO that Winter Bash should be all about.

To prevent people from continuously skipping until an audit question shows up, we could add a requirement that the question preceding the audit should have been reviewed decisively.

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  • 3
    ...you are aware that most sites don't have review audits, aren't you?
    – Mark
    Nov 23, 2016 at 23:48

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