Review of the Week is currently on hiatus, but it may return in the future if enough parties are interested and available.
Review of the Week (often shortened to RotW) is a site tradition that finds site staff and long-time members of the community looking over the review submissions during a given week and ranking the top three reviews in a thread on the forums. Critiques are often provided for the top three reviews, and sometimes for other contributions during the period. There are a few points to keep in mind:
Currently, reviews from the preceding 7 days are considered, and the deadline each week is 11:59PM (PST).
In general, a different person will judge reviews each week, and there is a "Rota" that is listed on the forums so contributors know who will be judging reviews in a given week.
A judge's own reviews are not eligible for placement during the week that judge is active, but will typically be considered by the judge who ranks reviews the following week (except in cases where such reviews are inadvertently overlooked).
No single author may place more than once in the top three, but multiple works from that author may receive critiques at the RotW judge's discretion.
If three or more eligible reviews are not contributed during a given week, those reviews may be carried forward and combined with reviews submitted during a subsequent week.
Each week's winner gets a gold "Review of the Week" badge on the review and in the review archives, and joins the list of winners.
If you submit a review that places in RotW, or if you receive a critique you find helpful, you are encouraged to post a response to the forum thread. Judging reviews is often a thankless, time-consuming task, but it can be a lot of fun for the community when people participate with enthusiasm.