Been Quite Some time since Something was Last Updated

[CuriousUserX90]

All's done well with me now, but there's something I couldn't help but notice. Games that had trivia posted to the past year have remained blank without their boxart and wallpaper being updated into them (eg., Zoo Tycoon 2 and Dr. Seuss' ABC), except for those that Staff have been contributing trivia to like Twilight Princess HD. Some like Mario Party DS are only part done with only the Boxart.

[Antwan]

In all honesty, it looks like the site has slowed down a ton. It definitely needs some new helpers, but even then, the amount of trivia submissions they have to go through still grows massively, I bet. It's a daunting, endless task and it seems like nobody wants to take up the call.

Incidentally, it's been a very long time since I came back here. I do apologize. Life just... whooshes past you, I guess.

[ZpaceJ0ck0]

In all honesty, it looks like the site has slowed down a ton.

Yup, can confirm this. The site is not as a it used to. I think they are three different reasons that could explain this:

1. They have bussy lifes: they have full time jobs, families, college and/or another bunch of real life thingos.

2. They got bored of VGFacts (Aka people change)

OR

3. As you mentioned it, life just... whooshes past you.

It definitely needs some new helpers, but even then, the amount of trivia submissions they have to go through still grows massively, I bet.

I am example of this. By the time I wrote this post I have 71 pending submissions, the last one was submitted on August 30th. I stopped submiting trivia since them because I realized that the more trivia I submitted, the more time it will take for my previous submissions to be accepted.

It's a daunting, endless task and it seems like nobody wants to take up the call.

I won't lie, if the opportunity ever presents to me, I would gladly offer myself as a volunteer! :)

[gamemaster1991]

It's a daunting, endless task and it seems like nobody wants to take up the call.

I won't lie, if the opportunity presents to me (if ever), i would gladly offer myself as a volunteer! :)

Same. I asked to be a helper back when it started, but was turned down. I'm still willing to help where I can.

[CuriousUserX90]

In all honesty, it looks like the site has slowed down a ton. It definitely needs some new helpers, but even then, the amount of trivia submissions they have to go through still grows massively, I bet. It's a daunting, endless task and it seems like nobody wants to take up the call.

Incidentally, it's been a very long time since I came back here. I do apologize. Life just... whooshes past you, I guess.

Pokemon Sun & Moon and Pokken Tournament have had their boxart since they had a submission for that game recently (I'm only referring to the boxart not the banner).

[Matthew Neuteboom*]

Is there anything we can start doing to get this site back up and running? Unless I am mistaken, approvals have basically slowed to a crawl. Maybe some are still going through, but I've had about a dozen trivia waiting in the queue for a few months now.

The reason I ask is because I want to get back to regularly submitting to the site. There are a lot of games out there I'm dying to document. However, it seems pointless to submit new trivia if it's going to sit in the queue for eternity.

I'm willing to volunteer myself as an approver if that is what it takes. I am an avid writer and have done professional editing as a side-gig in the past. If there is a form to fill out somewhere to apply as an approver, let me know.

This is not an accusation against the admins or approvers - I do believe they are doing their best to maintain the site. :) As someone else said, life whooshes by sometimes. But I would definitely love to see the site back at its previous level of activity. I really enjoy contributing to this site and would like to see it flourish again.

[Petie]

Hey Matthew! I'd love to see the site return to its former glory as well but that's been a much more difficult process than expected. When it first launched, Dazz and I handled all of the submissions and it was manageable when there weren't hundreds of them. As time went on though, they started stacking up and we had too much to do maintaining the network as a whole to really devote any time to the queue so we brought on a bunch of people. The problem is that the job is tedious and it's difficult to find people with both enough knowledge about video games to have at least an idea what to look for when fact checking and, almost more importantly, a strong grasp of the English language. This combination has made it nearly impossible to find a staff that can and will consistently manage incoming submissions.

You would appear to fit that bill though and while there is no formal application form, this post certainly works. If you're still interested after reading this and what comes below, please PM me and I'll get you set up.

Originally, I'd discuss the basics of the process one-on-one but I think, at this stage, it makes more sense to have it all out in the open so people who might be interested can know what they're getting into. Dazz wrote up a good overview in the staff forum which you can refer to for more details but basically, there are a few important points you need to address with each submission:

1. Does it make sense? You may need to edit or in some cases rewrite trivia. English is not everyone's first language and not everyone writes with the same factual style that we require.
   
2. Does the source check out? There are a number of sources that automatically disqualify a submission - Wikipedia, Mobygames, a random and unsupported forum post, etc. Obviously, we can never be completely sure of a source but do your best to validate it.
   
3. Are we making new pages? There's a color-coded system at play here but the other important thing to remember is to make sure a slight typo or lack of searching isn't going to create a duplicate entry on the site - always double-check.
   
4. Attachments. Make sure the attachment is relevant. Sometimes, people submit random images just for the sake of attaching something. Remove them if they don't contribute to the trivia.
   
5. Approval. If everything looks good, approve it. Doing so will place it into a queue of unpublished trivia. For the most part, there is never a reason to manually publish something form that list - the site takes care of that automatically at set intervals. If the trivia is no good, either edit it to make it good or reject it and explain why (with either the included reasons or a custom one using the "Other" option).
   
6. Tagging. This is optional but preferred if you can do it. If a submission already has tags on it, make sure they're relevant. If it doesn't, feel free to add them but they're not required to approve and can be added later.
   
7. Images. Game box art should be relatively easy to handle. Banners are a bit more involved and require Photoshop and a template we'll provide if you're feeling up to it. Banners require high-quality images though so slapping anything on the top of the page is worse than leaving it blank.
   

That's the basics, for the most part. If there are any questions or if anyone has any additions, let me know.

[Matthew Neuteboom*]

PM sent.

That's almost exactly what I suspected was happening - too much work to go around and too few hands to help out. You and the other admins probably have enough work dealing with site maintenance and the other sites on the network. Plus, it's no surprise that enthusiasm tends to wane when it comes to tedious work.

Well, I'll help out in whatever small way I can. This will definitely give me something fun to do during my down time at work. Hopefully we can get the wheels turning again.

[Psychospacecow]

If we're having more people going down the listings, how long do you figure it'll be until submissions are unfrozen?

[Petie]

A while yet - there's still over a thousand queued.

[ZpaceJ0ck0]

So, let's assume that someone who is really active on the forums becomes a staff menber. The only thing that said person is able to do is to going down the trivai listings? Said menber is no longer allowed to post and interact with the people on the foums?

[Petie]

What gave you that idea? Site staff are still members. Nothing is stopping them from posting or interacting on the forums.

[ZpaceJ0ck0]

What gave you that idea? Site staff are still members. Nothing is stopping them from posting or interacting on the forums.

Oh, it's nothing, really. My question was mostly because of the sheer amount of trivia submissions.

[Psychospacecow]

Maybe something akin to the tiers Resource has could be implemented. Instead of approval, maybe have a "flag for approval" so there is still overview in case whosoever it was that is "approving" screwed up.

[ZpaceJ0ck0]

Maybe something akin to the tiers Resource has could be implemented. Instead of approval, maybe have a "flag for approval" so there is still overview in case whosoever it was that is "approving" screwed up.

Your idea sounds a bit confusing, could you please explain?