CANABLOGS: Checking the LAMB's pulse with a LAMBScores addendum

There's been something bothering me for a long time with LAMBScores.

When I first started it, I would put up the scores relatively quickly - maybe a few days after the film was released. This was met with derision from a few folks (or at least one), and I was asked to push it back to a week, then two. It's now at four.

I don't know about you all, but I tend to read/see most about a certain film with a week of its release - either from viewing and reviewing it myself or from reading other's reviews, which normally come within that time frame.

I understand the desire to include as many people in on the party as possible, and I know that all can't produce a review within a few days or a week (hell, I barely do anymore), but I think there's something to be said for freshness and relevancy.

With all that in mind, I've decided to add a new/related feature that would be LAMBScores partner - it will show the major films released over the weekend with a list of submitted reviews and it is NOT replacing LAMBScores; the user-submitted scores will continue to be posted in full after their allotted weeks in theaters. The end result, hopefully, is that the LAMB is seen as a aggregating source for the best of movie blogging and a great resource if you want many fresh takes (from bloggers with a shared interest and whom travel in many of the same circles as you, which is key) on a given film or films.

The logistics of doing this for 300+ sites without requiring much work from you all has proved to be a bit of a quandry. What I've ended up doing is this: I added every available LAMBs' RSS feed to my Bloglines account. At the beginning of each week, I will search amongst those feeds for reviews from LAMBs that have written them.

I had thought that that process would be enough to suffice, but I came upon an issue when I realized that not everyone uses a 5-star/lamb rating system, if they use any at all. Even on my own site, I don't use a numerical system, so how was I suppose to translate other's reviews into LAMBScores, especially if I were to come across a site that assigns nothing resembling a grade to a film.

My solution is one that I should have thought about long ago - one that I think would be a good idea regardless of this new LAMBScore addendum. Why not put the word "LAMBScore" and the corresponding score image at the bottom of a review? That way, I can simply do a search for, say, "Inglourious Basterds LAMBScore" and receive a complete, accurate list of reviews with applicable scores. All you have to do is add a bit of code at the end of your reviews and BAM - simultaneously, a stronger sense of community and a concise list of LAMB reviews for the latest releases are achieved.

Below are the images and code for all of the available LAMBScores. Before you see 11 sets of images/code and worry that it's cumbersome and/or that you'll never remember all that code, keep in mind that the code for all is exactly the same save for the final bit of the image's name, and my naming structure is fairly simple, as you'll see.

For an example of how this looks in action, see this review that I've retroactively added a LAMBScore to. If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions, let me know.

So, if you'd like to take part in this, simply add the following to your reviews, effective today:

1. The word "LAMBScore" (all one word; if it's not, I won't find it)
2. The appropriate code from below

CANABLOGS

Checking the LAMB's pulse with a LAMBScores addendum

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