I seem to have ran out of time to formulate a concise response, so my hurried draft proposal is what I have to offer here. I hope this rather ranty response can maybe offer some insight on why I put my faith in the current system and how it can be built upon to make it more assessible to aspiring future contributors.
Here is my proposal that (1) maintains the status quo, while (2) attempts to improve upon the user experience for all users of the site:
(1) Create even clearer, more accessible guidelines for what is considered "acceptable art" in the How to upload guide. Provide visual examples. Also provide visual examples of content explicitly deemed unacceptable to the site. Yes, I've seen the examples posted already for bad anatomy. Those are obviously (and humorously) bad to anyone, but I think a few better examples of some more borderline cases needs to be showcased instead. Show exactly what kinds of styles are desired in the drawing of faces, what kinds of "bad anatomy" are permissible. Explain that the difference in what can be deemed good versus bad---in most categories---can be generalized by order:score and order:score_asc tags, respectively.
(2) Automatically flag an aspiring uploader's account for promotional review at defined minimum upload and time limits. Create automated alerts telling the user of pending reviews to their account and any action taken by the moderation team (like for the current promotion notice). Create a counter and, if possible, stats that are visible to said user on their profile page that indicate where promotion (or demotion) could be going.
(3) Assign even more approvers to the queue. Ones that pledge commitment to reviewing all of its contents with regularity. Pull approver rights from any level below Moderator that cannot or will not perform said duties, but allow for reinstatement should they so desire and can demonstrate willingness to do so.
(4) Automatically mark a user's account for inactivity over time. This should not be a demotion or demerit in any way, but simply serve as a flag for any reviewer not to waste their time reviewing an inactive user. Set an arbitrary inactive time for, say 3 months since any last activity, be it posting, commenting, tagging, or even logging in. If a user becomes active again, automatically re-mark it active. The purpose of this would be to clean up these generalized statistics reports that are being made.
My Views Regarding the Queue:
richie said:
But do you think these who don't have contributor privilege love it? But somehow they have to deal with that. All the time. And if by chance they have an ambition to be promoted then... they're in fact convicted to post only the best mainstream pics. Because if not then they can forget about it (as every single deleted post may cost you dearly)
The queue is a crushing obstacle that one must overcome to see the fruits of their labor make it past three days. I hated it then, and I still hate it now, because it is inconsistent in its standards besides its inconvenience. I find it outrageous that there are still only a few people (Provence claims there is currently only THREE?) that look over the whole thing. The fact that the vast majority of approvers randomly cherry pick through it for their favorite tags or themes completely undermines any form of robustness for objective approval criteria, and makes it a frustrating task for anyone trying to gauge what is right from wrong. Likewise, it is also unfair to ask more of our current approvers than what they put forward in their own personal time, because again, they are unpaid volunteers---with real lives---doing this for fun. The queue sets back everyone who has to deal with it when they want to upload, especially those (like myself) who value their own personal time. If I was forced to be subjected to the queue again-- be it for 1-in-5 uploads, or even 1-in-20, then I would have once again deal with my above grievances against it. I am serious when I say it would make me think twice about uploading and dealing with it over the long term. As a long-term, low-volume uploader, I hate wasting my time trying to figure out who approves what and hoping they decide to do their duties when I upload, because what I may have to share just not be popular with the other (semi-)active approves. That is why I am defending the status quo, with the aim to build upon personal feedback without crushing anyone's chances for that "top spot".
As has been stately repeatedly, that under the current system, no one is above the rules. Approvers set the minimum bar for the standards of the site. The placement of that bar is fuzzy and subject to endless debate. Posting your first few pictures here is hard. The community is harsh and unforgiving, and there is an increasingly discouraging trend among Gold+ users to engage in down vote brigades against seemly random posts, often without any explanation or reason. To that end, I see the mod queue as training wheels for grooming fresh uploaders to this site. If you want an unrestricted upload privilege, you should carefully look over the finer details of what you consider uploading. Barely making it by with Not One Of Us covering your ass is clearly not good enough. Many uploaders don't have the time nor the will to post more than a handful of posts during the entirety of their time spent here. These people need to prove themselves by uploading art through the queue. They learn by experience that way. Those that post a lot of borderline quality artwork tend to become Builders without the unrestricted privilege. It is their prerogative if they wish to continue wasting their own personal time uploading crappy art that is bound for deletion. The current system is fair in rewarding those with the unrestricted privilege if they demonstrate long-term improvement on their uploads and maintain a commitment to uploading artwork that is well above the minimum criteria. In that sense, it motivates uploaders to strive for the best.
I acknowledge the existence of the double standard that exists between uploading ok art that would probably not past the queue, and art that people are too lazy to flag. It is an unfortunate side effect of human psychology stemming from laziness. Because of that, it is the job of the moderators to ensure that they hand out the unrestricted privilege only to the most deserving uploaders who have proven themselves to stand well above the minimum criteria in the quality of their posts. The admins here have already stated you may contact them personally and anonymously if you disagree with the content a contributor has been uploading. In return, I would expect a proper review of my recent uploads and a fair warning, either in DMails or in records if I were to start slipping up in my quality before suffering demotion. I strive to commit my uploads to my highest personal standard just to avoid the damn queue.
richie said:
So right now, to have succesfull contributing "carrer" at danbooru the system:
1. forces you to post the only very best and/or very mainstream pics while you're simple user
2. allows you to post virtually what you want when you're promoted, with very if close to none control
In my opinion this is sick, both points, especially if we consider that we never know if the persons who had passed user purgatory really have good taste and care for their uploads or is it because they was able to restrain themselves (but no longer than neccessary).
To remedy this - I've said it before but whatever:
1. approving other's posts should be considered as the earlier step in danbooru carrer. There should be lots of approvers recruited earlier from those who're getting lots of approvals from others...
2. the percentage system of autoapprovals with middle levels introduced as BrokenEagle98 has explained
3. if you really think there needs to be unconditional contributor, then this should be the last and toughest privilege available to obtain. For example for retired admins as a medal of honor.
I disagree with Richie that one should become an approver first, before earning their own right to self-approve. As a contributor with the unrestricted privilege, I personally feel duty-bound to be stricter in my selection criteria, so I'm sure I would be terrible at approvals, being that I set my own bar higher. I can't speak for every contributor, but personally, I tend to care less about what others want to upload, and instead focus on my own improvement. Under Richie's proposed system, if one was to rarely approve anything, they would unlikely get to the point of uploading the finer art that he so craves, due to slipping interest in contributing to the site!
Finally, I do not agree with some of the content permitted by some of our approvers, yet I put up with it. No offense to Apollyon, but while I do enjoy much of the content he finds acceptable---as demonstrated in his uploads and approvals---I find some of it distasteful, even grotesque. That said, he is ranked higher than me, but are Apollyon's tastes better than mine? Should his quality standards set the bar around here? What about Richie's quality standards? And I have to ask, where is the approver queue for approvals? Approvers are to be checked only by flagging? Oh but it is so ineffective.... We all bring different flavors of acceptable content here. No one is going to ever be in 100% agreement of what is right and wrong. I signed up as a member and grinded my way through the queue like every other contributor to get what I have. It's what I agreed on. I played by the book, and strive to continue, and for that, the website and I are enjoying the benefits of mutual trust. As a Builder, I care to share. As a privileged contributor, I care with care.
I'd like to remind you that (to my knowledge, with the exclusion of Albert) we are all unpaid volunteers here. The fact that anyone contributes anything should make make visitors to this site grateful for the countless man hours that are spent filtering and categorizing this themed art gallery to be convenient for their perusal, and not just another disorganized dumping ground on the Internet. I don't ask for thanks, but I am grateful for any and all acknowledgement that my sharing efforts don't go unnoticed. My motivation? Watching score and favorite counters increase; watching encouraging comments---totally unrelated to me---pours forth about a post's content, and noticing other websites cross-referencing any of the content on Danbooru. That started when I was still a basic member.
