the problem with approving plugins

[erionit]

Hello everyone Unfortunately, the reason for this post was the moderation policy. Everyone knows me as a creator of high-quality content who regularly releases new plugins and updates old ones. Surprisingly, I personally turned a blind eye to the problems that have arisen, probably, in the last six months or a year. Let's start with the moderation time. Before I write something bad, I admit that moderators are also human, and that they are essentially volunteers. but! It's one thing when my plugins with 500+ textures are approved for a month (everything is clear here, and I give credit to those who check these mega packs). It's another matter when plugins with 10-20 textures and simple code are waiting for the same amount. But this is just the tip of the iceberg of this problem. The essence of what the plug-in makers are unhappy about is that plug-ins are not approved for essentially stupid reasons. For example, flying pixels (this would not be a problem if plugins were considered faster), inconsistency in game graphics (I'm not talking about the wretched work of beginners, but about buildings with beautiful graphics that were not approved for some reason)
Regarding where the new moderation came from. I was one of those who was in favor of introducing new rules to the store. But in the end, this led to the fact that, for example, I have not been able to upload a plugin for a year(!) just because it is a remaster, and the building IDs were changed. Or many have not approved the plugin (or deleted them) for strange reasons.
Unfortunately, or fortunately) I almost did not encounter this, so I ask other plugin creators to describe similar cases
Regarding the store. It is unclear on what basis the plugins were highlighted in the approved plug-in makers section (or something like that). The plugins that appear there are often simply incomparable with those that are posted in the "new" ones. The question arises, how did this happen?
and a paragraph specifically for the moderators and creators of the game. I and our entire community love this game and spend a lot of time on it. We know that you have spent (and are spending) a lot of time creating new content, as well as improving what does not work perfectly. We also understand that in addition to good plugins, a lot of slag gets to moderation, but I hope that you are ready for a dialogue with those who do not just play TheoTown, but doing something more.

[Logvyn]

Indeed, there are many questions for moderation. For example, this is a very long plugin approved. My cathedral plugin (where 4 textures) was under approval for almost a month, but was rejected due to one flying pixel. Okay, I fixed it the next day, but it was pending for a few more weeks.
Why so long? Same story with the construction package for the Hetmanate, same story.
I might have made more plugins, but what's the point when the moderators don't want to approve them

[Kulche]

It's one thing when my plugins with 500+ textures are approved for a month [...]. It's another matter when plugins with 10-20 textures and simple code are waiting for the same amount.

Image/json count doesn't really have much of an impact on approval time. It's not hard to go over a few extra files.

I have not been able to upload a plugin for a year(!) just because it is a remaster, and the building IDs were changed.

Changing IDs means previously built buildings will simply disappear. This is not desirable behaviour unless you change something big like building size or other stats.

Regarding the store. It is unclear on what basis the plugins were highlighted in the approved plug-in makers section (or something like that). The plugins that appear there are often simply incomparable with those that are posted in the "new" ones.

Do you mean the 'featured' section? Some of them might've been automatically featured by an algorithm, not sure if that's exactly a great idea.

[erionit]

It's one thing when my plugins with 500+ textures are approved for a month [...]. It's another matter when plugins with 10-20 textures and simple code are waiting for the same amount.

Image/json count doesn't really have much of an impact on approval time. It's not hard to go over a few extra files.

I have not been able to upload a plugin for a year(!) just because it is a remaster, and the building IDs were changed.

Changing IDs means previously built buildings will simply disappear. This is not desirable behaviour unless you change something big like building size or other stats.

Regarding the store. It is unclear on what basis the plugins were highlighted in the approved plug-in makers section (or something like that). The plugins that appear there are often simply incomparable with those that are posted in the "new" ones.

Do you mean the 'featured' section? Some of them might've been automatically featured by an algorithm, not sure if that's exactly a great idea.

1) o, really? I don't understand
2) I understand, but it's better than the old buildings in the game because it looks like the new texture is deployed
3) yes. It's really strange algorithm

[FVI]

I'm having a similar issue. So far I've waited three weeks to try to upload a plugin, but it has been disapproved twice for poor texture usage efficiency, though, apart from that, it worked completely fine. Yet I have also found some plugins that have been approved that are almost twice as inefficient as mine, and some plugins that had to wait just less than a day, a matter of hours even to get approved. I get it's not ideal for the plugin to be inefficient, but all the work required to at least try to fix it, going to concern both the textures and the code, is not worth the space saving which I estimated to be not more than a few dozen of kilobytes.

[erionit]

I'm having a similar issue. So far I've waited three weeks to try to upload a plugin, but it has been disapproved twice for poor texture usage efficiency, though, apart from that, it worked completely fine. Yet I have also found some plugins that have been approved that are almost twice as inefficient as mine, and some plugins that had to wait just less than a day, a matter of hours even to get approved. I get it's not ideal for the plugin to be inefficient, but all the work required to at least try to fix it, going to concern both the textures and the code, is not worth the space saving which I estimated to be not more than a few dozen of kilobytes.

agree, do not forget that this is a hobby for us, and it is strange to reject a plugin due to non-optimization, which preserves a small part of the plugin

[Kulche]

that would be a viable argument if there was no moderation involved and theotown wasn't freemium