Descriptions Change

[brairtrainer]

Dragon descriptions right now take a while to get through the que, but when they were getting approved quickly writers were frustrated because they couldn't see the comments left on them.

 

So here is my suggestion-

 

Once you enter a description a mod will not have access to approve it for 24 hrs. They can get in to reject it at any time so that people who are reviewing descriptions can still report bad ones that are waiting to be approved.

 

After 24 hrs a mod can approve it. This will not help backlog so much as when the backlog is gone writers can still get comments and then get it approved in a timely manner after that.

 

Pros:

-more time to see comments

-less asking for mods to go slower

 

Cons:

-does not help backlog

 

Note from Sock Puppet Stangler

If we went with this, I'd prefer not to be able to *see* the description at all for the first 24 hours. We've never actually had one that was bad enough we had to get it it right away.

 

 

If I get more people who are of the same mind set I'll add this to the suggestion but I for one believe there needs to be some sort of protection if there is ever (heaven forbid) a description that calls for this

 

 

Edit: This can stand alone as its own idea or it can be added to help mods circumvent 24 hours on descriptions that absolutly need it.

 

Have a flagging system that when three users flag a description it jumps to the top of a mods que to be rejected or approved. If a user flags descriptions that are regularly approved (50-85% start precentage) then that user losses the right to flag for x amount of time or permenantly (to be decided by TJ09 or mods)

 

Pros:

-gets rid of descriptions that are inappropreate

 

Con:

-inappropreate is subjective

 

Another idea: Allow for comments to be seen after approving for a limited time (time for this has not been discussed)

 

Pros:

-Allows writers to see comments after Mod has approved

-Mods can maybe leave a cheery note

 

Cons:

-TJ09 said no to a permenant version of this idea and may say no to this as well

Edited December 16, 2012 by brairtrainer

[angelicdragonpuppy]

No thank you. I like to see comments, too, but the ability for descriptions to get approved quickly means far more to me (although approval within 24 hours doesn't happen often, heh <X'D).

 

There's been some suggestions made to keep comments around for a user's personal viewing even after a description has been approved... I'd favor that much, much more than this.

[brairtrainer]

No thank you. I like to see comments, too, but the ability for descriptions to get approved quickly means far more to me (although approval within 24 hours doesn't happen often, heh <X'D).

 

There's been some suggestions made to keep comments around for a user's personal viewing even after a description has been approved... I'd favor that much, much more than this.

The problem with keeping the comments around is the space it takes up in the system according to TJ09.

[angelicdragonpuppy]

The problem with keeping the comments around is the space it takes up in the system according to TJ09.

Hm, really? I have trouble believing that text takes up that much space, but if TJ himself said so... X'D

 

Even then, it's a question of what matters more: getting a description approved quickly, or having a chance to see the comments. I imagine people care more about the comments because they want to see other's reactions to their work rather than because they're looking for feedback, seeing as the mods are providing their own type of 'feedback' (by approving or describing). So again, while I really do enjoy seeing the comments (who doesn't like having their ego stroked? X'D), I still find getting descriptions approved quickly to be the much more valuable thing.

 

Not to mention that it is REALLY rare nowadays for people to complain about descriptions getting approved too quickly, haha. You'd have to fail to check in for like a week to miss comments at the current rate... ^^;

[brairtrainer]

Actually not really I had some descriptions wait around for about two weeks, and that was only because I happened to be in the irc when lady lyzar was going through descriptions. It was quick a few months back but there were requests to slow it back down and now there is a small backlog

 

I'm thinking that by adding something like this that unless there was a huge amount of descriptions sent in on the same day that it would allow for the best of both worlds.

[CNR4806]

Hm, really? I have trouble believing that text takes up that much space, but if TJ himself said so... X'D

I have 139MB of IRC chat log (which is plain text) and I'm not even on the IRC that often or that long. Ask Thuban about hers, she keeps track of YEARS of her IRC history.

 

If comments stay even after description approval it will become an unacceptably huge pile of data sooner or later.

Edited November 11, 2012 by CNR4806

[angelicdragonpuppy]

I have 139MB of IRC chat log (which is plain text) and I'm not even on the IRC that often or that long. Ask Thuban about hers, she keeps track of YEARS of her IRC history.

 

If comments stay even after description approval it will become an unacceptably huge pile of data sooner or later.

But... there's already a ton of text saved on DC. Every dragon has a general description, then a lot of them have names, and then of course there's the descriptions themselves, which are often much, much longer than any comments left on them...

 

Considering that not even everyone writes descriptions, I just fail to see how keeping around the few small comments made on the comparatively small number of dragons that get described would somehow kill the system. If things were set up so that only approvals with added comments were kept, then that load would be cut down even more...

 

And--I'm certainly not a techie, but if I can toss a 2,000+ page RP document around on my slow old computer like it weighs nothing, then I just seriously question how much data text takes up.

Edited November 11, 2012 by angelicdragonpuppy

[brairtrainer]

But... there's already a ton of text saved on DC. Every dragon has a general description, then a lot of them have names, and then of course there's the descriptions themselves, which are often much, much longer than any comments left on them...

 

Considering that not even everyone writes descriptions, I just fail to see how keeping around the few small comments made on the comparatively small number of dragons that get described would somehow kill the system. If things were set up so that only approvals with added comments were kept, then that load would be cut down even more...

 

And--I'm certainly not a techie, but if I can toss a 2,000+ page RP document around on my slow old computer like it weighs nothing, then I just seriously question how much data text takes up.

I've wondered that too, but TJ has already said no to the previous idea which is why I proposed this, and until he says otherwise I'm showing this as a viable option

[CNR4806]

But... there's already a ton of text saved on DC. Every dragon has a general description, then a lot of them have names, and then of course there's the descriptions themselves, which are often much, much longer than any comments left on them...

 

Considering that not even everyone writes descriptions, I just fail to see how keeping around the few small comments made on the comparatively small number of dragons that get described would somehow kill the system. If things were set up so that only approvals with added comments were kept, then that load would be cut down even more...

 

And--I'm certainly not a techie, but if I can toss a 2,000+ page RP document around on my slow old computer like it weighs nothing, then I just seriously question how much data text takes up.

Unless the site is ridiculously-poorly coded, which I don't think is the case, the general descriptions are shared among all items of the same type and does not consume as much space as unique plain text (e.g. names, descriptions) does.

 

And while the approved description thread doesn't list SO many dragons, you have to remember that a lot of DC players pay zero attention to the forum, so the actual number of descriptions (and by extension, comments) is much greater.

 

For more specific technical information though, I'm afraid you'll have to ask TJ.

[Thuban]

Heh, someone mentioned my logs... My first hard drive fail lost 7 years of chat log data (multiple IRCs, and ALL of my chat client logs) and the newest one... I only lost three years of data.. the rest was all backed up but not accessable to me right now.. not that this has anything to do with the topic.

 

 

As for Descriptions: for the most part.. its a pretty safe bet to say if you put a description in.. its going to be a little bit before its approved. A quick look at the queue shows we are rather far behind on them as it is. I'm not as comfortable dealing with those as some of the others are, I pretty much only look at descriptions if someone asks me to look at theirs. So on that aspect, I dont quite think theres a need to limit when a mod can put them through. When they were keeping up, yes i could see a need for it.. but right now, its pretty far behind so its probably not needed right now.

[StormWizard212]

I don't think that delaying the time to get a description approved is the right way to solve the issue of people wanting to see their comments. Even if it is delayed, what if a lot of comments came at 20 hours in? You still probably wouldn't see them.

 

I think a better way to go about things would be to have the comments available for a little while after the description has been approved, but only for the user. Once they log in and actually view the page with the comments on it, they'd go away. That way, it wouldn't matter how long you take to log in, you'd still be able to see them when you did, and then they'd be gone, like usual.

 

I'm not saying I support doing this though, I just think it'd be a better solution to the issue of people not being able to view their comments after approval. I don't think I can really make an informed decision on this as I don't know an awful lot about descriptions, since I've never done them before, but I just wanted to offer up an alternative solution.

[brairtrainer]

Stormwizard would you mind if I added your idea to the first post? I like it better than my original idea but I think it has been shot down by TJ but would like it as an option to what I put up

[Obscure_Trash]

If we went with this, I'd prefer not to be able to *see* the description at all for the first 24 hours. We've never actually had one that was bad enough we had to get it it right away.

 

Perhaps descriptions aren't visible to mods for the first 24 hours unless we search by username. That way users who want to request fast approval can but anyone else can have a chance to see comments.

 

Of course, keeping the comments even after approval would be more idea (unless you had one you really wanted to delete, lol). =p

[brairtrainer]

I will add the comments after the the approval for a certain time period, however in previous threads TJ left posts saying that the approvals can't remain there indefenatly, because the system requires that stuff leave to hold everything.

 

Moddifying OP now.

 

Edit: done

Edited November 19, 2012 by brairtrainer

[Obscure_Trash]

If we went with this, I'd prefer not to be able to *see* the description at all for the first 24 hours. We've never actually had one that was bad enough we had to get it it right away.

 

Perhaps descriptions aren't visible to mods for the first 24 hours unless we search by username. That way users who want to request fast approval can but anyone else can have a chance to see comments.

*poke*?

[brairtrainer]

Added your quip to the first post Sock as well as my thoughts on it, but I'll further elaborate here.

 

You said yourself in the Description Approvers thread that you've run across descriptions with inapproprate content or gory content. If the mod can't see a description within 24 hrs no matter what then that causes more people to see that description which may upset people and it just is plain against the rules.

 

If we had a no matter what 24hrs then I'd like to see a flagging system that if a description gets three flags (which are only to be used for inappropreate descriptions) then it moves to the front of a mod que as an urgent check. If there is no problem with the description a mod can approve it right then and there.

 

Problem with this system is that people could flag good descriptions to get them approved faster, you'd have to come up for a punishment for users who just flagged things willy-nilly. I have no idea what that punishment would be which is why I'm not advocating this system.

[Pokemonfan13]

The "punishment" for flagging good descriptions would be removal of the flag option. If more than x percent [50? 30?] of your flagged descriptions were approved by the mod your flag button goes away. Kinda like the boy who cried wolf. x3 A low percentage of non-agreement triggering it is fine, since it's supposed to be used for the inappropriate descriptions that need to be removed from the public eye. Anyone who uses that on a description that is just fine shouldn't have the option since they're not using it properly.

Edited December 16, 2012 by Pokemonfan13

[brairtrainer]

The "punishment" for flagging good descriptions would be removal of the flag option. If more than x percent [50? 30?] of your flagged descriptions were approved by the mod your flag button goes away. Kinda like the boy who cried wolf. x3 A low percentage of non-agreement triggering it is fine, since it's supposed to be used for the inappropriate descriptions that need to be removed from the public eye. Anyone who uses that on a description that is just fine shouldn't have the option since they're not using it properly.

With that noted PF would you like me to add this to the top and get rid of mods being able to go in and reject descriptions under 24hrs and only allow them to be seen if flagged?

[Pokemonfan13]

I'd personally say with a flag system only let them be seen if flagged [unless searched by name]. After all, any that truly are inappropriate would get flagged.

[Obscure_Trash]

Okay, well, I'll say that in DraDeWriMo we did get complaints about spammy or whatnot descriptions. However, unless there's a username on the dragon's page, I can't find specific descriptions like that, anyway, and will either have to hope enough users are downvoting it that it shows up as the most negative or go through every description for the breed of dragon it is until I run into the description. And like the slaughter/rape one - as I said, that one had rave reviews about how well it was written, so it's not like things that need downvoted always get downvoted. If we had a flagging system for really inappropriate descriptions, then this would work to allow mods to get to it right away, but not only do we not have a flagging system, I think it's rather subjective to determine what is inappropriate enough to be flagged and what just needs rejected. o3o

[brairtrainer]

Added flagging with a note SPS and PF.

[brairtrainer]

bumping this as descriptions are now being reviewed in force

[brairtrainer]

another bump