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Cat

SuperContributor
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Contributors: First v Equal

Cat|4760d ago |Blog Post|14|

When I first became a Moderator on N4G and went to work in Pending I followed a "First takes precedence" policy, approving the first accurately submitted news story on a topic. Some time ago when I was still a News Admin Dusty told me that this approach wasn't necessarily consistent with how they intended the Guidelines to be read, and that the original intention was for submissions in Pending to be considered equally and approved based on their relative quality. So I was wrong, and we switched. It was a big adjustment, took a little time to catch on, but it's a policy our regulars are familiar with - for better or worse.

Well, we've given it its fair shake. There is no perfect system, but we think this particular policy works less perfectly in practice than the "first" policy did. The competition on N4G coupled with sheer volume makes it impractical, unmanageable, and more susceptible to exploit than "first". So, we're switching again. From this point forward preference will be given to those submissions hitting pending first.

A couple points:
- All N4G Guidelines (like Sourcing and Editing) still apply. For example, if a submission is "first" but with the wrong source, it shouldn't be approved. http://n4g.com/site/newsgui...

- How to tell order of submission: the 6 digit number in the submission URL

- Do not create a placeholder submission. This means that if you create a submission on N4G before the NPD releases, or one that links to a blank page that "will be updated" it's a no go. C'mon, members always notice this stuff, you won't get away with it so spare yourself the misery - and the restriction.

- This does mean that if there are two submissions in Pending submitted correctly and yours is the later one it should be reported and failed as Duplicate. There is a duplicate title checker that pops up when a title is entered, pay attention to this to see if the same story has already been submitted.

- Submissions can be edited, moved or deleted without notice at the discretion of staff - so make sure that submission is a good one, because it can be replaced by a better source!

In conclusion, here's a video of Anaconda rasslin':

SmokeyMcBear4760d ago

thats not wrestling, thats rassling.

Cat4760d ago

The edit has been made :)

Nate-Dog4760d ago

Thing is though most of the main articles that hit the top page with new news about games (say the incidents we had with some of the Uncharted 3 news and trailers a few weeks or months ago) do the placeholder thing but with a really poor article (half the time that isn't even an article, I can't tell you how many times I've seen articles that have 2 or 3 lines on something but still get approved), make sure they get their approvals, and then later decide to update the article with the info that articles that are submitted just about 5 minutes later already have but are reported. I know it ain't easy to check everything but it does happen quite a lot and it's sad to see people making an effort with smaller sites and with news and submitting it later and then being ignored because someone else put in barely any info or effort but pressed "submit" earlier and quicker because they made a half-assed attempt at it.

JL4760d ago (Edited 4760d ago )

If you notice that happening, report it to us and the issue will be looked into. It would be even more helpful if you could provide proof (ie screenshots) and then offenders will definitely be taken care of. That's something that won't be tolerated under this rule.

Nate-Dog4759d ago

Cool that's good to hear. I usually actually end up reporting more articles than approving (don't know if that's a good thing or not... :P ) but if I ever manage to catch anything like that from now on I'll make sure I do that. Cheers.

JL4759d ago

Don't worry. As long as you're reporting accurately, then it's no big deal. In fact, having more reports than approvals probably means you're reporting accurately (as a majority of submissions just aren't submitted right at first).

Back when I was even more active in the pending section I did far more reporting than approving. I'm sure you can find some people around that will testify to that and still hate me for it lol

Aclay4759d ago (Edited 4759d ago )

"Back when I was even more active in the pending section I did far more reporting than approving. I'm sure you can find some people around that will testify to that and still hate me for it lol"

LMAO. Yep, there was a few times I was thinking to myself, "come on gimme a break" when I first started to submit articles on FilmWatch.

I was just initially surprised at the amount of tags that needed to be added to certain stories (like the tag of the Movie Actors and such), but I know the ropes of Filmwatch a bit better now.

You'd definitely report a lot, but of course, you were just doing your job as a Mod. :)

JL4759d ago

lol Yea I know. Just my job, though. I know it can be a bit rough initially getting the hang of it, so I always try to be lenient (ie not dishing out restrictions or anything and making sure to try to explain why the correction needs to be made).

Glad you hold no grudge over it ;)

Max Power4760d ago

Finally! It never made sense to me that the articles that were first were pushed back, and I believe I complained as much on the suggestion thread in to forum.

cyborg4760d ago

this will prevent many users to exploit the system and get their submissions approved, even if they've submitted later.

The Hunter4760d ago

I like to see this blog post also on 11x2 (and other newsboiler sites) Its always better to point this out, also because there was problems about this in the past on 11x2 http://11x2.com/user/blogpo... (highlights cheating).. :)

Really helpfull!

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