Ah this is a good perspective too… And I agree that pacing approvals to avoid screwing over any particular story is a big part of the calculus too. Especially when trying to approve stories in a way that serves both the author experience and the reader experience. I’ve definitely paced and batched approvals in the past, just trying to give every story at least some time at the top of the front page before the next batch goes through.
On the other hand: there’s also something depressing in seeing a growing queue of 12+ stories, some of which have been sitting there for over three days… and then watching someone ignore all those stories, skip the line to approve their own, and then log off.
I need to reiterate this happens rarely—and also, we are all volunteers here. We do have full-time lives… Someone who can only approve occasionally is still volunteering their time to help the site run smoothly. It’s always appreciated! And I agree that it is definitely better for an approver to handle their own story’s approval, rather than make it extra work for someone else. It still helps.
But I like your approach of approving at least a couple of stories alongside your own, when publishing your stories—I guess it’s really just about a sense of paying it forward when loading up the approval screen…
I’m excited for this update, Martin! I was thinking about it yesterday, and realizing how useful it could be… so it’s exciting to realize it’ll happen at some point down the line. But please do take your time—I know things are really hectic on your end right now!! We’ll still be here when things calm down. You take care of yourself first. That’s what’s most important!
I find it quite strange that authors can approve their own stories. From a quality perspective, I would be happy for an independent eye to run over my story and agree it’s in the spirit of the “rules”, even if its a volunteer.
But if there are other safe guards in place, then it’s a non-issue.
What’s stopping me becoming an approver purely to approve my own stories and not contribute anything else to the wider GKS community/site… then all authors would sign up to be approvers just to bypass this step
In theory I’d agree with you. But in fact, being an approver always require a base level of trust in that person from my side anyway.
And what’s even more important: It’s not like a potential abuse would go unnoticed. If an approver would start to approve (or disapprove) stories with malign intent, it would be open to see for everyone.
In fact, the reason why I implemented this stricter procedure for approvals was that readers complained about certain story elements. If an approver would self-approve his own story which violates our rules, we’d learn about that quite quickly.
As somebody who can approve stories, I rarely approve my own stories, as I prefer somebody else gives them a final check over (much to Martin’s protestations )
I only occasionally approve other stories as it’s not the original reason I was given the access (it was originally for tag sorting), but if i see a big queue and I’ve got some time, I will give the queue a quick scan and see if there are any stories that interest me and aren’t too long.
In an ideal situation the queue would be dealt with in a First In First Out order, but the way I see it, is if I can approve one or two shorter stories, then thats one or two less stories for the other approvers to handle.
I mean, it’s a little bit “I am the law, mhuhahaha” but if human nature has proven anything it’s two things; People are flawed, and, someone has to be the law (LOL), Oftentimes you gotta go with whoever you might get — who will do it — and who has the least-worst attitude and capacity for it.
By the same token, if we changed rules that say approvers couldn’t approve their own stories, I’d be content with that I guess (It’d just be more work, for a group of people already fending off getting snowed under at any moment). I mean, if we wanna talk approval stuff, how about approvers also comment on and rate the stories they approve?
They’re reading it anyway, yeah? Who would ever say no to one extra rate and comment?
As an author, I’d be glad of the boost; one nearer the ratings threshold. But as an admin (with approval privilege) I can see how it would increase workload, i.e., We wouldn’t just be reading to approve, we’d be reading to criticize and rate kindly to do right by both the author and potential readers (and not just getting through the paragraph asap with absolute impartiality except for the submission rules.)
Also, I say this, I’m probably statistically the laziest approver of all the staff.
I approve my own things as an Approver, too, to avoid other people having to read my (as we all probably know) 10 000 word stories . And it does feel like one less story to approve.
By the same token, I try to take on reading the longer stories in the queue that seem to be taking more time to approve.
The order of approval already isn’t that strict because we have stories in different languages or stories with themes that certain approvers won’t read.
Beyond adding more approvers, I don’t super feel like the system is especially broken and it feels more or less fair, like it all comes out in the wash.
For the reasons listed above by other people, priority approval does seem like a bad idea except maybe if the criteria is something more stringent with maybe an application process or something? Maybe you only get priority approval if your story doesn’t have certain themes or edge cases?
I was thinking about it yesterday, and realizing how useful it could be… so it’s exciting to realize it’ll happen at some point down the line. But please do take your time—I know things are really hectic on your end right now!! We’ll still be here when things calm down. You take care of yourself first. That’s what’s most important!
)
. And it does feel like one less story to approve.