Weekly Poll: Wallpaper Moderation
Stirring the pot
Monday, February 25, 2008 by Zoomba | Discussion: WinCustomize News
One of the most controversial galleries on WinCustomize is, without a doubt, our wallpaper section. In the past 90% of all work submitted was rejected out-right. Now, more is let through, but still the vast majority is placed on a user's personal page instead of the main gallery. This has met with mixed reactions from wallpaper artists and users alike. Some do not like the relaxed requirements, claiming that it has ruined the quality of the gallery. Others contend that we're being too restrictive and driving away wallpaper artists to other sites such as DeviantArt, Interfacelift etc.
So I thought this week we'd put it to an actual vote. Let everyone voice their opinion on how they would like wallpaper moderation to be handled.
At the moment, moderators look at a wallpaper submission, and decide whether it's personal-page-only, or main gallery material. The general metric we use is if something would be rated a 5/10 or higher (or 2.5 stars), it's good enough for the main gallery, 4/10 and lower goes to the personal page. We only reject broken submissions, submissions with bad preview images, or rips.
So, is our new policy to send some items to the personal page, and others to the main gallery a good one? Is the 5/10 threshold an acceptable limit, or should it be raised or lowered? Vote on the poll, and share your opinion in the comments below.
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Reply #62 Tuesday, February 26, 2008 12:55 PM
It's interesting that in every post there will be at least one reply that is able to get to what is commonly called "the point". We don't all have to agree but I think Lantec got to the bottom line.
Reply #63 Tuesday, February 26, 2008 1:07 PM
Yea. I don't know. hehe.. I'm not quite as active anymore - so I can vouch only for times when I was really active.
Reply #64 Tuesday, February 26, 2008 2:00 PM
), it was the WC/SD desire to expand the acceptance level to make the site more friendly and encourage new participation. We were given many reasons for this and it was the desire to make it easier for people to participate in the community. At the time, there were many voicing negative reactions to this relaxed approval procedure. Is SD/WC second questioning itself concerning this decision ? Is this a real "vote"? or just getting a feel for the sense of the community ending with the joke line of "When I want your opinion, I'll tell you what it is".
Reply #65 Tuesday, February 26, 2008 2:14 PM
We're constantly evaluating our moderation policies and what can be done to make the site more welcoming to new artists, and more useful to users. Periodically I like to get a sense for where the community stands on any given issue. Wallpapers happen to be a current topic of debate behind the scenes in the Mod forums, and I thought it'd be a good time to toss the question out there to everyone else.
Am I going to do a 180 on policy based purely on the poll results? Of course not. What I am going to do is take the results into consideration as I continue to refine site policy, and work to attract more artists to WinCustomize in the future.
Reply #66 Tuesday, February 26, 2008 2:15 PM
I think the discussion around the polls are more useful in situations like this than the poll number themselves. I mean . .look at the numbers: 180 votes. As a percentage of the community (even if we refine down to active community) is tiny. Same with the members posting in this thread. I recognize all but one user on this page so far, one on page 2, and three on the first page.
So you are showing your opinion in the poll and detailing it here . . . but Zoomba will do what he thinks will get him a Stardock sponsored private island at the end of the day.
Me . . I want WC to grow. I want to attract new skinners (and wallpaper artists) and new users. I want WC to be open and welcoming. But I don't want it filled with crap either. Thus . . I opine the following:
- Personal pages stay and walls can be put there
- Walls are removed from the newest gallery unless the mods think they are exceptional
- Walls get their own section ("Newest Walls")
- Walls with a algorithm based on rating and downloads and comments may migrate to personal pages
Reply #67 Tuesday, February 26, 2008 2:17 PM
DAGNABIT!
Reply #68 Tuesday, February 26, 2008 2:22 PM
I think unmoderated would be a bad idea. But I do think I saw where someone mentioned earlier a second wallpaper gallery. Why not combine the two ideas and make a second wallpaper gallery for those wallpapers that in the current system would only go to the personal pages and then make it so that gallery is not included in the "Newest" and "Recently Updated" pages.
This way the people who dont want to wade through pages of "junk" wont be affected by it at all and those who are interested in checking out everything that is out there and want to form an opinion about it on their own are more easily able to do so without having to go through millions of personal pages.
And this will still let people know that their work, although good enough for themselves and maybe some others, is not quite what Wincustomize is looking for. And also, by watching the number of downloads and ratings these wallpapers in the new gallery get, it would give the moderators a chance to compare their opinions and choices with those of the community.
Reply #69 Tuesday, February 26, 2008 2:29 PM
Reply #70 Tuesday, February 26, 2008 2:39 PM
Reply #71 Tuesday, February 26, 2008 2:54 PM
Interesting. I never go there but rather just go section to section on the right side menu by category. That lets me see the newest things I am interested in by category without wading through things I don't care about. To each his own!
Reply #72 Tuesday, February 26, 2008 3:02 PM
It's all about growth for me.
Reply #73 Tuesday, February 26, 2008 3:12 PM
Reply #74 Tuesday, February 26, 2008 3:15 PM
I guess that's another interesting question:
Should we remove wallpapers from the "Newest" and "Recently Updated" pages, and allow them through unmoderated?
Reply #75 Tuesday, February 26, 2008 3:33 PM
Reply #76 Tuesday, February 26, 2008 3:49 PM
That doesn't fix the problem. What if no one rates a skin, or not enough people? What if someone has a bee up their bonnet and decides to rate everything a 1 and that is the tipping point? What if you have a pack of friends running around rating all of your stuff a 10 when it's really a 2? (this happens) It's too easy to game.
You still have the 100s of crap walls to sift through on the newest page before you get to a skin, cursor or icon. Someone spams 40 terrible walls (it has happened many times in the past), the Newest Skins page has just been rendered useless for the majority of users for the next X number of minutes/hours/days until the timer runs out.
This is the balance that must be struck. Wallpapers versus the rest of the content on the site. The only way we can just let the wallpaper section go wild is to remove them from all mixed-library list pages (top, new, updated etc.) but that kills visibility of a wallpaper.
Reply #77 Tuesday, February 26, 2008 4:01 PM
Reply #78 Tuesday, February 26, 2008 4:37 PM
What we all really look like:
Reply #79 Tuesday, February 26, 2008 6:02 PM
Three 'tiers'...or places accepted walls end up...
1. PP...anything an uploader wants to upload...must be set by him to 'pp' is not search-linked publicly...only accessible via the pp.
2. General Public gallery... anything submitted that mods deem acceptable as a wall. Must be submitted as 'non-pp'. If deemed not quite good enough it goes to pp. This section does not show up in 'New Uploads' but is accessible to all as being in Public Gallery [as they are now].
and
3. Moderator's pics....the select group, similar to how the 'heavy' moderation worked in the past....[best of the best -as deemed by the mods]. This bunch would show up in the Newest Uploads, along with the general skins, etc.
'3' would be critical opinion that some claim may be biased, but remember biased critical opinion is what made Picasso famous...I for one think most of his work is junk...
'2' means that perhaps more submissions would be easily/publicly accessible....
and
'1' means just about everything can be approved...provided it is wall-sized, non-porn, non-rip, etc....
Reply #80 Tuesday, February 26, 2008 6:16 PM
Oh you do not..
Your hair is much lighter
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Reply #61 Tuesday, February 26, 2008 12:45 PM
I'm not "choosing" to let others decide what I like......I "choose" to let others decide what's appropriate for the Wincustomize library. If they do a bad job, I can go elsewhere. If I so "choose", I can go to DA and wade thru heaps and heaps of garbage to find something I like. I "choose" not to have WC turn into the same kinda site. Even with moderation there are maybe 1 out of 10 walls posted here that "I" like.
exactly what the thread is for.........
edit: guess I was busy typing while Zoomba posted