Auto-Approve Descriptions

[Cireth]

I've been waiting since Halloween for some of my descriptions to go through. Not kidding.

 

Something needs to be done about this and think auto-approving is the way to go.

 

If someone writes something nasty and someone sees it they will be reported and punished appropriately as with names.

 

Simples. Please do this!!!

[RainDear]

I definitely agree that something has to be done, but I do not like this idea. I would prefer description mods. TJ was taking applications for description mods at one point, but for some reason it didn't go anywhere. Perhaps now with more interest in this subject would be a good time for him to try again.

[Fuzzbucket]

I really can't see anything against auto approval with a few restrictions - maybe they are auto after 10 OK ones. And it does need to be clear that they are not an actual part of the site but are something users do. But names work fine so....

[dragongrrl]

I really can't see anything against auto approval with a few restrictions - maybe they are auto after 10 OK ones. And it does need to be clear that they are not an actual part of the site but are something users do. But names work fine so....

I like this idea, but still think a threshold of 10 is too low. 25 would be my minimum, and 50 might be better.

 

Even at a level of 50, I think the amount that would drop off the current queue would be significant, since many of those with previously approved descriptions are very prolific and quite wonderful writers. It would allow our active writers to continue writing without adding to the queue, significantly lightening the load for the mods.

 

I don't know that the division idea is necessary. Maybe.

[Obscure_Trash]

Just my periodic post that, as a mod, I prefer auto-approval over any of the other suggestions for moving along description approval. It's hard enough to keep active mods in all other areas - we'd have the same issue with descriptions, too. xP Auto-approval after a few accepts would be okay, but I've seen rejected descriptions that are okay and vice versa. A report button may be easier overall.

Edited June 17, 2015 by SockPuppet Strangler

[Lurhstaap]

Just my periodic post that, as a mod, I prefer auto-approval over any of the other suggestions for moving along description approval. It's hard enough to keep active mods in all other areas - we'd have the same issue with descriptions, too. xP Auto-approval after a few accepts would be okay, but I've seen rejected descriptions that are okay and vice versa. A report button may be easier overall.

I second this. Auto approve is the rule on 99% of sites in the same industry/category. There simply are no good reasons not to do it here. The objections against it are things other sites manage to deal with just fine without falling apart so I see no reason it should be different here.

[Esko]

I can see how this can be abused, but I like this idea. It is so frustrating to check all the time and see my dragons not having a description yet. I have so so many ideas swirling in my head, but the amount of time it takes to show the world it just...ugh e.e

[angelicdragonpuppy]

I don't really like the idea of auto-approve to be honest, but something definitely needs doing about the current situation. I actually much prefer the idea of user-mods for descriptions only, partly because I enjoy reviewing and partly because tbh I like seeing comments on my descriptions. But maybe having auto-approval after say 15-20 descriptions approved would be good? And then achieving description mod status at 40-50 descriptions written, with no reports made against you? A combination approach basically.

 

And separating them obviously from the official site descriptions seems like a very good idea whatever happens.

I also really enjoy seeing comments on my descriptions (why write 'em if no one reads 'em, after all), so I understand the feeling--but I think a better solution would be to institute some type of permanent way to comment on descriptions (which could be turned off if desired). That'd be even better than the current system, since you wouldn't have to check all the time to see if there are new comments before you lose them, and it'd be a nice way to give descriptions a bit more focus on the site than they currently have. Personally I like the idea of a library, where we could also merge in the dragon encyclopedia and possibly a trading section (imagine a "trades wanted" bulletin board), scroll stats, site-wide records, and other goodies--but I suppose that's wishful thinking atm. >___<

[beacker1160]

As someone who has had descriptions pending for more than half a year (possibly even a whole year for several), I firmly support either having auto-approved descriptions or user-mods for descriptions. Given the hundreds of descriptions flooding into the queue every day just to be backlogged for extremely long lengths of time, it's evident that placing the burden on site moderators to go through every single one before it's shown is not a realistic expectation.

 

Many people have given up on writing descriptions due to this backlog (some have permanently), which is devastating to the creative potential of Dragcave. We need a better system in place to handle descriptions, and auto-approving after a certain benchmark is one of, if not the most, promising solution to this problem.

[Obscure_Trash]

Bump because I am all for this.

 

If people are worried about how bad descriptions might look on us, just make it clear they're user submitted by auto-prefixing them with "Owner Notes" or something. ^^

 

I would like a better in-cave report system, but I know of several reported bad names now that haven't been taken care of, so if people are really that worried about bad descriptions, I'd rather just remove descriptions all together and alleviate the worry. >_> (Although I'd prefer to not have to do that.)

Edited October 29, 2015 by SockPuppet Strangler

[Zephyr_Drake]

I approve! I have a tone of unapproved descriptions that have been sitting around for ages, and some that apparently have not gotten any screen time because they have no approvals or rejections or anything. Just too many in the system I guess.

[HeatherMarie]

Bump because I am all for this.

 

If people are worried about how bad descriptions might look on us, just make it clear they're user submitted by auto-prefixing them with "Owner Notes" or something. ^^

 

I would like a better in-cave report system, but I know of several reported bad names now that haven't been taken care of, so if people are really that worried about bad descriptions, I'd rather just remove descriptions all together and alleviate the worry. >_> (Although I'd prefer to not have to do that.)

I think if this suggestion goes forward, a better report-*handling* system really needs to be in place. My concerns at the beginning of this thread still stand: We'd end up with tons of non-description descriptions, lots of song lyrics and "cl**k my eggs" and that sort of thing. Requiring a certain number of "approves" may not do anything if friends go around approving each other's "descriptions". If some sort of auto-approval is to happen, there must be a way to report stuff *and* have it actually be dealt with.

 

Personally, I don't describe my dragons. Except for a dragon that is very special to me, I described her on the 10th. I know, because of the backlog and mods not having time, it will probably take months and months to get approved. So personally, I want *some* change that will make my description go through quicker. But I'm still concerned about the issues I just mentioned.

Edited October 29, 2015 by Marie19R

[Fuzzbucket]

Bump because I am all for this.

 

If people are worried about how bad descriptions might look on us, just make it clear they're user submitted by auto-prefixing them with "Owner Notes" or something. ^^

 

I would like a better in-cave report system, but I know of several reported bad names now that haven't been taken care of, so if people are really that worried about bad descriptions, I'd rather just remove descriptions all together and alleviate the worry. >_> (Although I'd prefer to not have to do that.)

I'm with you. Marie - I think a simple report button would do. And if descriptions say c- my eggs - well we don't have to DO it.

 

I doubt if there would be huge numbers of reports, so mods could cope, and spamming reporters could be blocked from reporting at all.

Edited October 29, 2015 by fuzzbucket

[xeyla]

I'd like this feature made as well. I stopped describing my critters since it's not being approved anymore, or its taking waaaay to long. I don't want to bug any mods about approving stuff, since they have their own jobs to do as well.

[Aquenee]

I haven't made any descriptions in ages. A lot of people are saying auto-approve with like 5-20 descriptions already approved... Thing is, I generally write dark descriptions. Last I checked, I have 137 descriptions approved on my dragons.

 

These include:

- An alt sweetling who creates candy that Valentine's dragons can eat, but will kill other dragons. He lures hatchlings into eating his candy. And another alt sweet who steals his candy and does the same thing with it.

- A gay masochistic pink dragon. Granted, I've toned it down to "he enjoys getting harsh bites from this other pink dragon" but I think the point gets across. Now that I think about it, I have a variety of these sorts of dragons, including a BBW who touches every toxic dragon that walks by.

- A Swallowtail who does nothing by laugh at frozen S1s because they'll never be able to fly.

- A thunder dragon who led hatchlings into the lair of a murderer.

- A "scientific" Ice who would kill hatchlings in order to dissect them and learn about dragon anatomy. He even had a black marrow mate that would pick at the bones he was finished with.

- MANY Ices that basically worship that mr. scientific up there and do the same/similar thing he did.

- An Ice that knows she is evil and violent.... so she kills her own children because she fears they'll grow up to be evil and violent.

- Another Ice that basically restrains dragons and holds them in captivity until they starve to death. Yeah, my Ices are kinda really evil.

- An Ice that deep freezes dragon's heads and then smashes the ice. Crunch goes dragon heads.

- An Ice (surprise!) who has been restrained underground for all of her life by her cruel human owner who only rarely feeds her scraps (what no that isn't me why would you say that.)

- Multiple descriptions that don't directly state, but reference suicide as a way of leaving the hellish evils that take place in my cave. Most of the descs that reference this do have a resolution that pushes the dragon away from those thoughts, though. (EG I have a stripe somewhere that decided life is worth living once he found a mate and had hatchlings)

- A heartseeker who would find "mates" for lonely frozen hatchies, by leading them to my various Icey murderers instead.

-They aren't too bad, but I do have an entire set of Deadly Sins dragons.

- Although I think it is hilarious, I have two male duotones, each of them with a homosexual head and a heterosexual head. And of course, the two homosexual heads love each other, leaving the heterosexual heads to go "wait what, oh god, what do?"

- A zombie that uses a magi and an arsani to make female dragons love him and trap them in his cave.

 

 

 

Basically, I write a lot of questionable descriptions. Despite knowing the description rules, it's really nice to have comments, both from users and mods, that let me know if I might be getting a little too dark and such. I try to be very careful about my wording, but I would hate if I had a description auto-approved and later get into some trouble if it's a bit too much.

 

Honestly, seeing more desc-only mods would be great. And if the auto-accept idea comes to pass, it'd be great if people had the option to send descs to the long-wait line if they want the proper feedback, like I do :3

[Fuzzbucket]

If you want comments, why not ask in the description advice thread? If we have mods, in a couple of years they will be gone and we will be back to square one. Auto approve is a permanent solution.

[dragongrrl]

I have fallen off on reviewing descriptions, just because of the amount of appalling dreck I was wading through. I couldn't add all the corrections that some needed in the space that was allotted. Some were written by people with no idea of what it means to describe. Some were written with no idea of what constitutes a sentence. We also have some truly wonderful writers, and I've watched some really grow over time, but the queue is such a wide range of delight and horror.

 

I really feel for the mods, but there needs to be a bar, a minimum requirement for any auto-approves. I think twenty approved descriptions would be a good level, allowing the prodigious writers to avoid the queue, giving the beginning writers and those who are struggling with English some support, and weeding out those who just want to spam the system.

[Mirhana]

Given the amount of descriptions I reject while reviewing, I'm not for an auto-approve for all users, but would love to see an auto-approve for users who have a lot of already approved descriptions.

[Ace1362]

I personally think that they should have a filter of words or symbols you can't use. I have tried multiple times to put innocent little descriptions and I have never seen them approved.

 

Ex/

This little Hatchling stumbled into the cave lost, I just couldn't bring myself to turn him/her away.

 

Now is there anything wrong with this description no nothing at all.

 

I've tried this one too

 

Ru'arn seeks to spread his blood far and wide but never to surrender his freedom to any one mate. This dragon has made it his goal to sire as many illegitimate children as possible(Would prefer to use the word *** but apparently that filter exists already)

[Fuzzbucket]

I personally think that they should have a filter of words or symbols you can't use. I have tried multiple times to put innocent little descriptions and I have never seen them approved.

 

Ex/

This little Hatchling stumbled into the cave lost, I just couldn't bring myself to turn him/her away.

 

Now is there anything wrong with this description no nothing at all.

Actually - yes there is. We are not allowed to write in the first person, so that "I couldn't bring myself" will have prevented it, even if it wasn't just a queue thing.

 

But I cannot see an issue with autoapprove. It could be made clear that they aren't part of the OFFICIAL site, and if they are boring etc - so what ? Don't read them ! Offensive ones can be reported and their writers blocked if necessary.

[Shin'a'in]

What about implementing something akin to what Neopets has done where anything of any sort of profane nature causes the entire bit that's been written to get wiped after the "Profanity Meerca" has pointed out the word(s) causing the issue in question thusly making it so that the person writing the name/description has to rewrite it so that no offensive material can be found within?

[skwerl56767]

I kind of like this idea, but other users have made some very good points(such as a bunch of people voting up a bad description because they think its "funny" or "cool"), so taking some of it into consideration(don't have time to read through the entire thread), maybe the staff just need a bunch of help? We users already have the ability to vote on descriptions, so perhaps the staff could instead focus their time on recruiting a bunch of trusted members that have the ability to approve/disapprove of descriptions in the same way? These members would only be able to have those moderators powers, absolutely no others, and they would be selected by the staff themselves for this responsibility. All they would really be would be Description Moderators.

 

Maybe it could work? There might be a whole bunch of flaws with that idea that I haven't thought about yet... Concerning the original concept behind this thread, other than making the positive votes ridiculously high in order for a description to auto-pass, I'm not sure how some of these things can be solved.

 

On the topic of grammar/spelling, there are quite a few factors to take into consideration but I think as long as something is legible(you can read through it rather quickly without pausing and thinking "wait, what?") it can pass so there isn't a whole bunch of nitpicking going on. It's understandable that younger kids, foreigners, etc. would have a harder time with English, but obviously you want people to be able to read your descriptions without feeling like their brains are being extruded from all of the errors in it. Though I also know that submitting a description with errors or something like that in it would be awfully embarrassing to come back to, so maybe on top of that descriptions could be edited? I'm not sure about editing though... even if whether or not that already happens. I do name all of my dragons, but I keep forgetting that they can have descriptions so I never tried it. Editing them in general might just be a horrible idea.

[Obscure_Trash]

Given the amount of descriptions I reject while reviewing, I'm not for an auto-approve for all users, but would love to see an auto-approve for users who have a lot of already approved descriptions.

I'd like to see your reasoning expanded upon. Because I also know how many and the type of rejects I've done, and I still support this.

 

-With auto-approve, the guidelines would either be loosened or gotten rid of completely (with the caveat of "must be appropriate same as names"). No one to mod the descriptions, no reason to have guidelines.

-Users could either report descriptions like they do names now or we could finally get a report button as necessary.

-We add a little blurb that makes it clear these are user descriptions not officially backed by the site. Heck, user descriptions could even also be put as a read more or in a differently colored box or in gray text.

 

We users already have the ability to vote on descriptions, so perhaps the staff could instead focus their time on recruiting a bunch of trusted members that have the ability to approve/disapprove of descriptions in the same way? These members would only be able to have those moderators powers, absolutely no others, and they would be selected by the staff themselves for this responsibility. All they would really be would be Description Moderators.

 

Again, I prefer this over description mods because mods eventually fall away. They become busy or uninterested or inactive. Descrip mods may help at first but modding is a lot of pressure. It's easy to get burned out. And going through mod apps, actually making a decision, and TJ going through and changing their cave status takes time. I just don't think it's a good, long term solution. But you can post your own support for the idea in the descrip mods thread in suggestions.

[Fuzzbucket]

I kind of like this idea, but other users have made some very good points(such as a bunch of people voting up a bad description because they think its "funny" or "cool"),

With autoapprove, this wouldn't happen because no voting would be needed. And I say again - why does it matter if some descriptions are silly. As long as they aren't foulmouthed, racist or hate-crimes, and it is clear they are not TJ's responsibility - as in calling them "Owner's description" - modding of any kind can be restricted to dealing with reports.

 

@ Sock - sure, but A|LL members fall away in time. I am about to PM all the people I have outstanding IOUs to as at least three seem to have vanished from the face of the game - to take just one example.

 

Autoapprove is a PERMANENT solution that could if needs be be tweaked later if there turn out to be unforeseen issues.

Edited December 10, 2015 by fuzzbucket

[Obscure_Trash]

@ Sock - sure, but A|LL members fall away in time. I am about to PM all the people I have outstanding IOUs to as at least three seem to have vanished from the face of the game - to take just one example.

 

Autoapprove is a PERMANENT solution that could if needs be be tweaked later if there turn out to be unforeseen issues.

That's what I said. =o So I agree, lol.