REVIEW: Approval System [Feedback wanted]

I would rather all feedback be given privately, but keep the approval list.

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That's how I think it's done best. The approval list should serve as a tool for announcing and drawing attention to the new approvals, and noting which RPs have been denied, without perhaps giving a reason (although I don't suppose anyone ever felt ridiculed by that practicality). I feel that all the reasons to why the RP was denied should be listed privately in a PM to the member. Perhaps addressing them directly with the shortcomings of their thread in a more sizable message of feedback would help them improve in a better way than the display of a few words in the Approval thread would.

That's only my suggestion, though; I don't see any major problem with how things are being handled right now.

I would rather all feedback be given privately, but keep the approval list.

Although a little edit would be better. I would rather have only approved RPs appear in the [Check your RP thread.] Those denied RPs, for one reason or another, should only be kept between the GM/s and the mod/s. I don't know about other players but I tend to be biased towards RPs who are accepted on their first try instead of RPs being accepted because of some huge things on their first submission.

Aside from this though, like the criteria and everything, I think everything is fine.

I hate to sound... rude or gruff or anything, but I can't help but think that if people paid more attention to the rules they wouldn't really have to worry about being embarrassed in the approval thread. If you go through the majority of the declined RPs are from people who didn't take the time to actually give the rules a good read.

If it's really a problem you could always just list the RP and not the user, I don't think many people pay much attention to that thread unless looking to see if they themselves were declined for some reason so I don't think we should expect the mods to add even more to their plate by sending more detailed reports to declined GMs via private messages.

I won't kick up a stink about it if the method does get changed, unless it is totally ineffective which I doubt would happen, but I'm perfectly comfortable with the system we've got now.

To put it bluntly, why change something that isn't broken?

No matter what way you do something, there is always going to be someone who disagrees with that method. I don't see the necessity for the thread to change since there hasn't really been a major hick-up with the thread during its previous years of running. If it had/has been an issue, why is it just this one person bringing it up this one time?

Also it's easy enough for a general member to criticise what Mods do and offer up a solution that requires more work on the Mods' behalf. These are people who have jobs/schooling/social lives too and take time out of these to run the RPC, etc. Dumping more workload onto them seems pretty unfair in my opinion.

From looking at his history, the guy doesn't even seem to post in the RP Corner, so does he really have the right to be able to criticise something in the RPC that has been working well enough for the majority?

TL;DR: It's an unnecessary change and the guy seems like he's pointing out an issue to up his post count. I'm against it, but support the Mods in any decision they choose.

revlis said:

To put it bluntly, why change something that isn't broken?

No matter what way you do something, there is always going to be someone who disagrees with that method. I don't see the necessity for the thread to change since there hasn't really been a major hick-up with the thread during its previous years of running. If it had/has been an issue, why is it just this one person bringing it up this one time?

Also it's easy enough for a general member to criticise what Mods do and offer up a solution that requires more work on the Mods' behalf. These are people who have jobs/schooling/social lives too and take time out of these to run the RPC, etc. Dumping more workload onto them seems pretty unfair in my opinion.

From looking at his history, the guy doesn't even seem to post in the RP Corner, so does he really have the right to be able to criticise something in the RPC that has been working well enough for the majority?

TL;DR: It's an unnecessary change and the guy seems like he's pointing out and issue to up his post count. I'm against it, but support the Mods in any decision they choose.

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I think he does have the right to criticize - we shouldn't take it personally, just because he's not part of our sub-forum. All feedback should be considered valid, because, as it turns out, the process may be improved. It's true, that it works just fine as it is now, but where's the harm in an attempt to make it even better?

As for the mods having real lives to attend to, I understand and respect that, but for how much extra work are we talking about, exactly? There are three mods in the RPC, if they each take turns at approving threads and sending feedback privately to the GMs of the RPs which have been denied, the workload shouldn't be so significantly large, and the pay off would be definitely worth it. I am not talking about a fully fledged review on the failed RP, just the input of a few reasons to why it cannot be approved and a suggestion on what to look into - which is already happening, more or less. Helping people shouldn't be considered a bother.

The Prince of Sweet Sorrow said:

I think he does have the right to criticize - we shouldn't take it personally, just because he's not part of our sub-forum. All feedback should be considered valid, because, as it turns out, the process may be improved. It's true, that it works just fine as it is now, but where's the harm in an attempt to make it even better?

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I completely agree. There is little harm in attempting to make it better just like there is little harm in leaving it the way it is. Both viewpoints have their positives and negatives.

The Prince of Sweet Sorrow said:

As for the mods having real lives to attend to, I understand and respect that, but for how much extra work are we talking about, exactly? There are three mods in the RPC, if they each take turns at approving threads and sending feedback privately to the GMs of the RPs which have been denied, the workload shouldn't be so significantly large, and the pay off would be definitely worth it. I am not talking about a fully fledged review on the failed RP, just the input of a few reasons to why it cannot be approved and a suggestion on what to look into - which is already happening, more or less. Helping people shouldn't be considered a bother.

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Again, I agree. This is an easy solution that would spread the workload between the Mods so that there isn't such a large workload for any one them. In the same token however, if this is what they're already doing (more or less) then is there really any need to change what suits the many to what suits the few?

Helping people shouldn't be a bother, it should actually be fostered to strengthen a community such as ourselves. But in the long run, will this actually benefit the community as a whole? People shouldn't be afraid to fail, because that is where learning stems from (Learning from our failures). And with a community, if people are able to see where such a person is failing, it is possible for them to step in and help. Keeping things behind closed doors (via PMs) will serve to increase this fear of failure in lieu of social embarrassment and won't allow the opportunity for this community to grow through mutual aid.

Edit: It shouldn't just be up to the Mods to aid these people. We, the RPC Community should be there to help as well.

I'd actually like to ask a specific question here: Have you ever personally been bothered by feedback you have been given through the accept/deny thread?

It's sort of weird if the people talking here haven't really had any trouble themselves and only try to imagine what trouble could arise.

Doctor said:

Have you ever personally been bothered by feedback you have been given through the accept/deny thread?

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I've submitted very few RPs in my years here, and I'm fairly certain that none of them have been denied (that I can remember), so my answer to that is no, no I have not.

But on that note, if we were to keep the list of who's accepted/denied, but start sending the reasons for denial over PM, I think it would become more embarrassing to have just a few simple mistakes like forgetting to add a rating, unless small errors like that remained in the feedback thread. What I mean by that is if something's denied, people are going to wonder why it was denied, and while some people might usually assume that it was a small mistake that called for the denial, others might generally assume the opposite, which can potentially be damaging.

In general, though, the feedback shouldn't be seen as an embarrassment; feedback and constructive criticism are tools for us to use, and when they're public some friendly bystanders might give you a helping hand. The slightly ruder people who become rather judgmental about a roleplay being denied initially are going to be just as much so if they don't know the reasons, though I'm not sure if we have many, if any, people like that around here. There's probably a few in the bunch, statistically speaking.

And, if we're being honest, I do enjoy looking at the feedback thread and reading through what's been accepted/denied, including reasons for denial. It's certainly interesting to see some roleplays and usernames pop up that I've never seen around before nor ever see again, which isn't uncommon, lol.

So I'm definitely in favor of keeping the system the way it is. It's a difficult set of rules to abide by or anything.

Doctor said:

I'd actually like to ask a specific question here: Have you ever personally been bothered by feedback you have been given through the accept/deny thread?

It's sort of weird if the people talking here haven't really had any trouble themselves and only try to imagine what trouble could arise.

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To answer your question, no I have never ben bothered by any of the feedback I have received on that thread. Admittedly I have never had an RP denied either I don't think. Even my terrible first attempt at a role-play was accepted because it followed the rules.

If you don't read the rules and then get embarrassed by being denied, it's nobody's fault but your own. I apply the same logic to myself, if I ever get denied I'll just improve on what needs fixing and try again.

Thank you for your feedback so far everyone - whether you're a regular, new to the RPC or a lurker who is interested, please drop your vote in the poll or post your thoughts.

The poll is due to end on February 1st.

Nakuzami said:

But on that note, if we were to keep the list of who's accepted/denied, but start sending the reasons for denial over PM, I think it would become more embarrassing to have just a few simple mistakes like forgetting to add a rating, unless small errors like that remained in the feedback thread. What I mean by that is if something's denied, people are going to wonder why it was denied, and while some people might usually assume that it was a small mistake that called for the denial, others might generally assume the opposite, which can potentially be damaging.

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Just a note - if this was to happen then it wouldn't say 'xxxxx- denied', we would simply only update the thread with approved roleplays and PM individuals to tell them their thread was denied, with the respective reasons.

For small fixes, we often approve but ask/tell the GM to edit the info on ASAP - for instance with ratings.

I'm content with the current system personally. I feel like we have a friendly enough atmosphere here at the Roleplay Corner that new players honestly shouldn't have to worry about embarrassing themselves. That being said, on top of making the mods' jobs a bit harder it would also make my job slightly harder as an Roleplay Corner Mentor in that I wouldn't have readily available information on why an RP was denied to use when helping the same members prone to making mistakes that get them denied.

These aren't insurmountable obstacles by any stretch of the mind so I really wouldn't mind if feedback became private if a lot of others are concerned about that.