Pre-proposal: Overhaul the character approval system

[covaithe]

Background: The current system of character approvals is broken. Despite heroic work by a small handful of inhumanly persistent individuals, the queue is getting farther and farther backed up, and more and more people are having to wait for approvals before getting XP awards. That sucks. Some good work happened in this thread, but nothing ever came of it. I've been thinking about it off and on ever since, and I think I've stumbled across a solution.

It turns out that Wikia has a simple permissions system built in. There are four categories:

1. Founder: the person who created the wiki in the first place. I think this is L4W Facilitator, but it might be Fragsie. This person can do anything; in particular they can add and remove people from the other security groups.
2. Bureaucrats: These are admins, but they can also make new admins.
3. Admins: Can protect pages so that they can only be edited by other admins. They can also "semi-protect" pages, so that you can only edit them if you've logged in to Wikia.
4. Everyone else.

So here's what I suggest. I think it's close to being ready for proposal, but I thought I'd ask for some feedback first.

• Judges be given the bureaucrat status
• Create a position called "senior reviewer". These people be given admin status. Judges can add senior reviewers as they see fit, though they are encouraged to discuss it with other judges first. Senior reviewers are encouraged to suggest candidates.
• Here's the big one: Characters require two approvals, at least one of which must be from a senior reviewer. The other can be from anyone. No judge required.
• Make a wiki page called Approved_Characters or some such. It's locked; only admins (i.e. senior reviewers and judges) can edit it. For each approved character, it should contain the character's name, a link to the sheet, and the level they were approved at. You are approved if and only if your character is on this page. The rest is just tracking the review process.
• Make a wiki page called Review_Requests or some such. It's semi-protected; anyone who is logged in to Wikia can edit it. It contains two sections: "Needs senior review", and "Needs two reviews". In order to submit a character for review, what you do is edit this page and add a link to your character sheet to the bottom of the "Needs two reviews" section. No need to email anyone; people who care to be notified of new review requests can subscribe to this page.
• When someone who isn't a senior reviewer wants to help with reviews, what they do is look at the first character sheet link in the "Needs two reviews" section that isn't waiting for a response to comments and review it. If it needs changes, describe them on the character sheet as we do now, and on the Review_Requests page, note that you requested changes. E.g. add "Changes requested by covaithe" after the link. If the character sheet doesn't need changes, move it to the bottom of the "Needs senior review" section.
• When a senior reviewer has time to do reviews, they look at whoever's at the top of the "Needs senior review" queue. If they don't approve, they proceed as described above. If the do approve, they take that character off of the queue and edit the Approved_Characters page.
• When a reviewer asks you to make changes to your page, they will edit the page. That will send you an email notification (assuming you've subscribed to your character sheet page). You make the changes, then edit the Review_Requests page and remove the "Changes requested by covaithe" bit, and maybe put "fixed" there instead or something.
• Un-sticky the old official approved characters thread and let it die
• Update the charter and the new player docs to reflect all this

I think this improves things in a couple of ways. It makes the queue publicly visible, so people can easily see where they stand in the queue. It makes it possible to have character reviews without judge involvement, but still keep the idea that at least one of the reviews is from someone trusted. It greatly reduces the role of email in the approval process; so less "I'm not sure if the judges got my request" posts.

What do you guys think? I'm especially interested in opinions from people who are currently active in reviewing characters. Does this work for you?

 

[covaithe]

I just checked, and L4W Facilitator is indeed the founder, and we do still have the password. So it's actually possible to do all this.

 

[Son of Meepo]

I like it.

Furthermore, I've been making it a habit to look over the sheets of fellow players and provide approvals when I join a game. I've been playing 4e since its release and feel I have a superb grasp of the rules.

So if anything does come out of this proposal, I'd like to submit my name for consideration as a senior reviewer.

 

[TwoHeadsBarking]

I am a fan of any change if it that means I won't feel obligated to approve every character. My concern though is that eventually we'll just end up in the same situation we're in now: not having enough "special" reviewers. But if nothing else, I like the more wiki-based system. And not requiring judge reviews means there's a chance that my own characters might get approved. That has a certain appeal as well.

 

[FourMonos]

Despite heroic work by a small handful of inhumanly persistent individuals....

First of all, I don't think it can be said enough that we all appreciate all the hard work of the judges. You guys are awesome and it can't be said enough times.

As someone who sporadically reviews sheets, this would help a lot with moving things along.

I also think Meepo has it right, we could use some other reviewers to help lighten the load on the judges.

 

[WEContact]

I know I'm new here, but I've been immersed in 4e since it was released as well, and I'm very capable with the system. I'd be glad to spend time being a second reviewer, though I do need some practice with Wikia itself.

Under the current system I can't do much to help, but under this proposal I would be able to lend a hand. I like it for this reason.

 

[TwoHeadsBarking]

Under the current system I can't do much to help, but under this proposal I would be able to lend a hand. I like it for this reason.

Just in case it's unclear, under the current system only one approval needs to come from a judge. Anyone can give the second (which doesn't need to be second, chronologically speaking). It's difficult for non-judges to figure out who needs approval, but a good rule of thumb is everyone needs one.

 

[BenBrown]

I think decoupling the review process from the mailing list might help speed things up. While it may make queueing a bit off, we can always come on here and complain.

 

[Iron Sky]

I volunteer to be a senior reviewer. Or a judge if we need more of those.

 

[garyh]

I really like your idea, covaithe, and would definitely vote for it as you've outlined.