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<  The Ministry of Magic  ~  I have a question (validated author question)

Ickle Firstie
Posted: Wed Aug 03, 2005 4:20 am Reply with quote
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I'd like to know how an author at Sycophant Hex gets validated. I noticed the difference when Deeble over at Ashwinder was able to update her "What E'er Therein Is Promised" like clockwork every other day. How does an author get to be a validated author? I'm assuming you have to establish some kind of track record on the site; can I get details, please?

Thanks,

I.F.
Metamuse
Posted: Wed Aug 03, 2005 4:53 am Reply with quote
Site Admin Joined: 28 Nov 2004 Posts: 475 Location: USA
Currently, an author can become a validated author by having very clean submissions, where the Admins can easily validate and not have to worry about anything within the story. We keep track of every submission, be it rejected or validated, and we make a note of it in a place that only Admins have access to. This helps us keep a track record - if the track record is 'excellent,' or we notice that the author is willing to work with us (making all required changes in a timely manner, for example) they normally have the higher priority in terms of future validated authors.

Admins will suggest an author, the other Admins - the majority of the time they are the Senior Admins - will look at the track record and either second the idea or tell us why they believe the author shouldn't be a validated author. The Admin Mistresses (Amethyst and Azazello) and Senior Admin Mistress (Estrilda) have the final decision as to who are the validated authors.

All of the Admins try to pay attention to whom always keeps a clean record with us, so they can be suggested for VA status. Unfortunately, it is easier to remember an author who submits more frequently than just once or twice a month, due to the sheer volume of submissions we handle per day.

Please let me know if this answers your question.

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MetaMuse
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Ickle Firstie
Posted: Wed Aug 03, 2005 5:32 am Reply with quote
Guest
That did indeed answer my question. I appreciate your thorough answer and prompt reply.

Kind regards,

I.F.

(who is going back to her computer to make some headway on her W.I.P. Wink )
Guest
Posted: Tue Dec 20, 2005 5:31 am Reply with quote
Is there any monitoring of validated authors to check they are still up to standard?

The reason I ask is I heard recently a certain author is validated, and their current WIP is full of grammatical errors, incorrect canon capitalisation, contradictions within the plot and just plain typos. It isn't just the odd error - they appear consistently throughout the story.
Metamuse
Posted: Wed Dec 21, 2005 1:50 am Reply with quote
Site Admin Joined: 28 Nov 2004 Posts: 475 Location: USA
Yes, we do have a system set up to check validated authors but with queues being full, staff being short handed and time being even less it's taken a back seat to working the stories in queue.

We try to keep up on the authors but realisticly that that is very hard.

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MetaMuse
Wannabe Admin, but the other Admins kick me out of the sand box to play with the technical and managerial aspects of the site.
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Guest
Posted: Sat Dec 31, 2005 6:38 am Reply with quote
Anonymous wrote:
Is there any monitoring of validated authors to check they are still up to standard?

The reason I ask is I heard recently a certain author is validated, and their current WIP is full of grammatical errors, incorrect canon capitalisation, contradictions within the plot and just plain typos. It isn't just the odd error - they appear consistently throughout the story.


There is a certain validated author (I suspect the one you are referring to) who is ALWAYS a featured author, yet makes a huge number of errors. I cannot believe it doesn't get noticed by admins reading her stories.
Guest
Posted: Mon Jan 02, 2006 4:09 am Reply with quote
Anonymous wrote:
There is a certain validated author (I suspect the one you are referring to) who is ALWAYS a featured author, yet makes a huge number of errors. I cannot believe it doesn't get noticed by admins reading her stories.


Yes, it sounds like we're on the same wavelength. Since an email was sent to the admins listing errors from two of the author's many error-ridden chapters over two weeks ago with no response or even acknowledgment, I can only conclude that they have noticed and simply don't care.

It's certainly not a good reflection on the site at all, and if I was an author being asked to make corrections on my own work, I would be very frustrated indeed when such blatant and obvious mistakes are consistently overlooked for others.

The assurance of good spelling/grammar etc is what drew me to this site in the first place, but now there seem to be different rules for different authors, and it comes across as unfair favouritism to me.
celisnebula
Posted: Mon Jan 02, 2006 6:40 am Reply with quote
Joined: 31 Dec 2004 Posts: 312 Location: USA
Anonymous wrote:

Yes, it sounds like we're on the same wavelength. Since an email was sent to the admins listing errors from two of the author's many error-ridden chapters over two weeks ago with no response or even acknowledgment, I can only conclude that they have noticed and simply don't care.


I think perhaps you are forgetting the time of year it is. The queues are back up, and the voluntary administrators are struggling with a dearth of other things the holiday season brings, besides the SH site.

All authors are subject to the rules, and I am very sure that your email to the administration is/will get all the attention and concern that it deserves. However, you must realize that you will not be privy to the correspondence between the site and the said author – and believe me, that is one thing I am very thankful over, I appreciate that my foibles aren’t aired out in public.

As an author here myself, I do know how hard the administrators try to help authors post the best work possible. The newer guidelines help the queues move faster, sometimes allowing work that isn’t 100% ready for the public to be posted with the hopes that the author will make the suggested changes in a timely manner. Most authors are very quick about it, but sometimes things do get in the way, and the changes that are need might have to wait a bit of time.

Have you perchance, sent an email to the author? I know I personally prefer to have a private email from someone if they notice something that I might have missed or made a mistake over – I want my work to be the best it can possibly be, so that is always appreciated.

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Metamuse
Posted: Mon Jan 02, 2006 8:52 am Reply with quote
Site Admin Joined: 28 Nov 2004 Posts: 475 Location: USA
I do know which author you are talking about.

I also was able to reply to the email that was mentioned here just tonight. I apologize for the delay.

Now as with a concern of quality, it does need to be noted older stories are not held to the same rules we apply to chapters currently submitted. As for any recent chapters, the admins will look into those.

Thank you for your concern.

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MetaMuse
Wannabe Admin, but the other Admins kick me out of the sand box to play with the technical and managerial aspects of the site.
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Guest
Posted: Tue Jan 03, 2006 7:05 am Reply with quote
celisnebula wrote:
I think perhaps you are forgetting the time of year it is. The queues are back up, and the voluntary administrators are struggling with a dearth of other things the holiday season brings, besides the SH site.


Like I said to metamuse in my email to her, I understand it's a busy time of year and the admins have lives outside the site. I was just disappointed not to even receive acknowledgement of my concern (until I posted about it here, at least) - an auto-reply stating the issue will be looked into as soon as possible is very simple to set up, and it's good PR, especially at this time of year when things do tend to back up.

celisnebula wrote:
Have you perchance, sent an email to the author?


I sent them a list of some errors I had noticed, and they were very happy (and surprised) to hear about them. They seem to have been corrected... at least the one in the summary! The thing I found strangest was that the author's last story was impeccable - I know this one is being re-written from a while ago, but the contrast in quality between the two was just glaring.

Metamuse wrote:
Now as with a concern of quality, it does need to be noted older stories are not held to the same rules we apply to chapters currently submitted. As for any recent chapters, the admins will look into those.


Thank you for emailing me back. The recent chapters, unfortunately, have just as many errors in them as the earlier ones, which is why it struck me as strange, along with it being a featured story, which doesn't set a very good example of the level of quality expected on the site. Confused

I suppose it's not fair to exclude earlier stories from the chance of being Featured just because the site requirements were different back then, but to a new reader/author who wasn't around when the requirements changed (and therefore doesn't know about the dual standards), it could be a bit disheartening.
Guest
Posted: Sat Jan 07, 2006 9:27 am Reply with quote
Anonymous wrote:
Yes, it sounds like we're on the same wavelength. Since an email was sent to the admins listing errors from two of the author's many error-ridden chapters over two weeks ago with no response or even acknowledgment, I can only conclude that they have noticed and simply don't care.


Perhaps we aren't talking of the same person, I only got a very terse reply when I (politely, I assure you) pointed out very basic typos that a spell-check should pick up. It certainly made me wonder.

Perhaps she was having a bad day when I emailed her, who knows.
Metamuse
Posted: Sat Jan 07, 2006 5:02 pm Reply with quote
Site Admin Joined: 28 Nov 2004 Posts: 475 Location: USA
You are welcome to email userhelp anonymously with the information and the admins will take a look at it. Things have begun to settle down for me a lot so I can devote more time to other things now for SH.

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MetaMuse
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