Freestate

@Jason Carr Let it be known that I'm not the only one reporting these issues. Please, let's bring some order to this, improve the database, and above all, give some recognition to those who have worked tirelessly for years without pay. It's in everyone's best interest; this isn't about egos.

I'm fed up with proposing modifications with detailed explanations of why something is being promoted, only to be met with responses that simply say, "No, don't insist, I'm not going to do it, pal." Since people committed to accuracy have had enough of so much arbitrariness and garbage, the moderation team has been filled with capricious parachutists. As soon as I logged back in, I saw: 1: Tons of fan media with no common elements or quality criteria, all regionalized. Downloading media is now a minefield where, in addition to the original media, an even greater volume of fan material is downloaded, with no way to skip it. Tons of fan boxes, logos, or cartridges are placed in non-fan categories, burying all the original material. 2: Names removed on a whim when they were added to avoid scraping errors. 3: 4K resolution screenshots when it was stated some time ago that it was unnecessary because a native PNG scales correctly. 4: Insistence on labeling everything as "world," including fan media and US or European art, exacerbating the unpredictability of downloads. 5: Names in regionalized non-Western alphabets, which completely disrupts the order; if Launchbox assigns a name in kanji, it makes the order untraceable for a non-native speaker. I personally find it hard not to use strong language because they don't pay attention to this. If there's one thing that sets Launchbox apart from other frontends, it's its integrated database, and the developers show very little respect by neglecting those who work hard to make it stand out.

@AstroBobGreetings, I'm writing this as a long-time moderator and contributor to the database, since its inception. I can't help but express a certain amount of sarcasm and considerable annoyance when you announce database improvements without first addressing issues that date back almost a decade. Frankly, when I comment on certain things, it feels like I'm preaching to the choir. There are certain aspects of the database and how the system works that need review and changes, not just now, but for a very long time. These are situations that should have been resolved, and I urge you to address them as soon as possible: A: Moderation and contribution cannot continue to be done solely through an informal system of three "OK" votes without any kind of updated instruction manual. The only reference provided was over a decade ago, and there are always conflicts among the moderators between those who want to be rigorous with the data and those who make shortcuts or shoddy work simply to suit their personal preferences. There's no control whatsoever; it's simply the pressure of whoever has the majority at the time something is submitted or moderated. B: Many of the problems arise because part of the community wants material tailored to their region and personal tastes across all media categories, even though there aren't specific categories for it. This has been exacerbated by the requirement to regionally tag all media, so many non-fan-art categories are overflowing with fan recreations, logos, 3D boxes, screenshots, cartridges, etc. I understand that some people want this, but without specific categories and with regionalization, it gets mixed up with the real media, causing users who only want fan-made material to receive massive downloads of something they didn't choose. It's one of two things: either fan-art categories are added for all media, or everything added to categories not enabled for it is deleted by default. On the other hand, I don't know what the point is of having regional tags if there are constantly battles where, according to the user's whims, they prefer that a piece of media be tagged as "world" or "Europe," even if it's from another region, just because they don't feel like setting region priorities in the application or because they prefer to assign everything to the same region to avoid complications (usually those who insist on "world" are the ones who want American art everywhere) or those who insist on "Europe/USA/Japan" are the ones who don't want to configure anything. What I see as the result of not addressing these issues and not valuing those committed to data rigor and quality media is that fewer and fewer people are contributing and moderating. Before, when I logged in on any given day, the average queues were enormous, and now they sometimes don't even reach a few dozen. Ultimately, those concerned with bringing order and clarity have grown tired of the stubbornness of a few prevailing over doing things properly. I see dozens of things that have slipped through: screenshots with 4K upscaling, arbitrary and inaccurate regional assignments, a lot of fan art labeled as official where it doesn't belong, useful names for avoiding scapping errors deleted, and above all, a lot of tyranny from those who, due to their personal whims, only want US material, altering main names and labeling everything as "world" or "USA"...

The problem with this image is tagging it as regional, it does not meet the design of a SNES USA box, it's a strange mixture between Pc Box Ratio and real box. It could be aproved without region. Also the same user is reuploading a false BOX SPINE tagged as USA, box spine is not a fanart category and the real USA SIDE SPINE is available. Tags are for use it correctly not something arbitrary, and Fanart is no exception, it is too common for certain users to use regional tags not precisely to satisfy their own tastes, incorrectly using the world region to favor usa and europe, or without considering that world means the same in all regions, or using it for fanart, or cases like the one you describe. If it doesn't imitate the style and size of a usa box it should be uploaded as regionless. I don't know why so much insistence and argument with this box that has a very uneven design and the poster category has already been created for boxes with this size and proportions. Also the image contains a peyorative word against canadian people, cannucks, seem more like trolling than a real contribution. It was removed several times because the user who uploaded it insists on labeling it as something it is not. The database has its limitations in terms of categories where media can be placed, and we do not have categories for all types of art. We always try to reconcile the desire of some users to upload their creations with the database being an orderly place and the categories being used correctly, but many users insist on uploading their creations anywhere and in any way, generating totally unpredictable downloads that then require a lot of manual screening work. This can be done by uploading fan media to categories not created for it, incorrectly regionalizing or multiplying the designs and the type of format of what they upload to infinity. No, it is not sustainable to accept everything uncritically if it does not meet minimum quality standards, both in form and in terms of respecting the labeling. If you look at other SNES entries, this is the general rule that has been applied, if its design is not congruent with the region it refers to, it is deleted or kept as regionless, in the same way that we avoid labeling as official what is not in the main categories.

I think it's more important to add fanart categories for box 3d and clear logo in addition to creating a reconstructed category for the carts. Many users insist on adding fan creations in the two mentioned categories, which causes that when any user assigns region priorities the downloaded media is unpredictable, mixing fan creations with authentic media. On the other hand, presenting good looking carts for the cart categories is very difficult, so it's usual to reconstruct them using templates, but since there is no category for reconstructed there is always the possibility that some user will reassign them, and having real photos mixed with reconstructed cartridges is not optimal. The fanart cart category can be used but that also ends up mixing reconstructions with fan creations. Please add those three categories. Fanart Box 3D, Fanart Clear Logo, Cart front Reconstructed. The lack of them has created many problems in moderation for years and a lot of extra work.

I think I have explained in detail that the problems of competition between criteria when moderating and contributing content is because the criteria have not been updated or expanded since the initial lax draft, and the database still needs features that have been requested for years. I can perfectly understand the challenge that this represents at the programming level or that the developer simply does not care or like to get involved. What I do not find acceptable is that at this point moderation and contribution continues to be a wild field where the troll actions of a newcomer matter as much as the work of hundreds of hours of people who really take the community seriously to keep everything in order. I do not know how to ask for it now without it falling on deaf ears that it would be appropriate for the most veteran users and those with more participation to be able to share their proposals for improvement and the problems they have encountered, to be able to agree on criteria and to expand reforms to the rules to add media moderation. For my part, it's not that I want any medals or to be the freak guardian of any dungeon, but I think it's very frustrating to continually see these battles of criteria, ambiguities, and that any dispute or difference of criteria is resolved by seeing who is more stubborn or when the moderators are more distracted to sneak in your stuff.

Personally, I don't know what to do or say anymore. Without taking credit, I have to say that I've worked my ass off offering thousands of hours of work searching for and restoring covers and moderating, trying to make the launchbox database something minimally organized and of quality despite its shortcomings. But it has been proven over the years that the database and the quality of the media that is uploaded is something that either due to personal tastes or laziness is something that the developers barely touch or are interested in to the extent that would be necessary, in my opinion. Both the contributions and the moderation always end up being a war between rigorous users who make an effort and dozens of capricious or lazy users who upload and/or approve anything thinking only of their personal whim. There is no meritocracy, there is no dialogue or improvements... the database lacks adequate categories to upload the tons of fanmedia that many users insist on uploading when it is not even complete in terms of real media. I have already opened multiple tickets, I have made requests for dialogue and improvements in the forums and it is always preaching in the desert. And when you really get angry because you see that the free work you do in favor of the entire community is not respected and you raise the tone, what you get is either a sanction or the matter being closed falsely. If there were no rigorous users, the database would end up 100% invaded by custom fanmedia boxes with USA style and their logos on practically all platforms, even if they are digital platforms that did not come from Japan, arcade or whatever... there are users who do not care that the media available is real, they only want their custom box with an American design and they push again and again without any regulation... the latest has already been to start adding steamgrid style covers... which I think would be great... if we had some way to separate them and there were no "smart guys" who insisted on labeling them as real boxes or from real regions. It really kills me to try to download a custom box that's consistent with the real ones and see poster-style boxes that have nothing to do with them. The latest disaster? A user uploading custom boxes that look like real ones in the arcade section. The fanart section? He doesn't give a damn, he does his thing, with a bit of luck lazy users will approve it and he'll get away with having boxes and not having to worry about changing the import options in the app.

Sadly, some notifications in moderation that seem like trolling, end up being counter-trolling due to abuses of the database by other users. As I have told you, there are users who selfishly fill and approve the fanmedia database in all categories, driven by a personal need for all their media to be in North American format, making it impossible and unpredictable to know what type of data and of what quality you download. It is normal that some users get fed up and request deletions without giving reasons because they are tired of seeing the same things. In my opinion there are too many botched jobs in the database and very little effort to provide consistent, real and restored art by many users. For example currently the majority of SNES carts are located in the fanart cart category only because a user had a personal crusade to remove the restorations that I mostly made using a generic template. Since there is no RECONSTRUCTED category for carts I had to move them to fanart cart but other users there are really busy uploading fudges from USA cartridges and you have to upload them regionless if you don't want to have unpredictable downloads when you select regional priorities. It's infuriating. There should have been separate categories for all types of fanmedia years ago because there are users who want to customize their experience 100% and their insistence on forcing their art entry without having the proper categories in the database and some shortcomings in the download configuration turn everything into chaos.

The only available categories for fan art boxes are fanart box front and fanart box back. Many users are stuffing normal categories with tons of fanmedia, and the problem is that downloading fanmedia must be transparent and optional to the users not a mixed chaos. That user is right when he says that just picking a regional priority you can't know if you're downloading real art or fanmedia if some users insist on stuffing non legit media in normal categories. Please use the categories with acuracy. And yeah, it's not necesary to have fanboxes with a flattened and distorted image or poor quality. Fanmedia is optional not something mandatory, some entries are ridiculous with 5, 6 or 7 fanboxes with slight diferences and not overall quality.

There's no point of keeping separate. Launchbox itself gives the oportunity of keep merged the different regional versions or keep separated, and all the data was added, included extra alternate naming, clear logos of the brazilian versions to avoid overlapping. IIt is disheartening that at this point, after so many years and thousands of hours contributed to the community, despite having given solid reasons, the final decision depends on 3 users who click ok just because potatoe, because they are fed up or because another external page does not any relationship now turns out to be the maximum criterion. I myself have been a user of mobygames and gamefaqs and they had duplicate entries and I was the one who corrected them, they are not the holy grail. And there's enought proof looking at videos that thery are the same games with minor changes. What annoys me is that we had the same ridiculous discussion years ago over a more extreme case. The first snes fighting ranma that in its American version changed all the graphics, in the end people were convinced that it was the same game, but I had to listen to everything, and it was not pretty.

We must respect the correct fields to make the media download transparent to the user and predictable. i understand that some users twist the rules by personal interest or as woraround to solve tha lacks of database (we need extra fields) or the app ( option to download fanmedia if nothing legit is available an only in that scenario). My choice is to be orthodox and if it is fanmedia only accept it if is located in the correct field. I understand waht are you saying about the size of logos, again is a workaround due to lacking of options in database and app, maybe we must promote a build in image compression method inside launchbox to just addthe highest quality available and make the size compression an option for the users or create new fields like clear logo HD, because some themes or pause/start themes use logos at full screen size. Jason is asking for suggestions is up to you

That`s why i´ve mentioned Ranma ½ Chōnai Gekitōhen and Street Combat or The German/Spanish regionalization of We're back called Hugo. The original games were made by NCS and Kaneko respectively. Irem distributed the ranma game in USA changing all the graphics into something horrible and took credit of the full game when esentially it's just a regionalization without more alterations. The same happens with Hugo of Gameboy, Kaneko isn't mentioned in the box. But that does not mean that they are exclusive developments, what happens is that the respect to appear as the creator of the original work and respect its integrity decades ago was light at best to put it mildly. It happened with games and it happened with movies or anime, where the person who bought the rights was thought to be acquiring rights not only for distribution but also for the complete work, finding all kinds of aberrations in terms of changes, editions, names, etc. I have even mentioned anime productions such as Macross and I can also mention some of the first studio ghibli films such as Nausicaa where the distributor, in addition to cutting parts, changed names and even removed it as A PRODUCTION OF... erasing any trace of its Japanese origin and the actual study. If we have even discovered the work of some game development studios many years later through interviews because the producer or publisher did not allow their name to appear. The Brazilian versions of known master system games as if they were games entirely produced by tectoy is an example of the abuses of that time and of a market as peculiar and closed as the Brazilian one.

Certain. Very interesting what you say. Regarding the resolutions, at least in screenshots it would be very interesting if they were locked to the native resolution of the console and to PNG format, I am very bored of seeing beastly and absurd upscalings. With the logos it depends, because there are themes that use full screen logos, perhaps the best thing to do would be to put a field for the basic logo and another for the hd logo as they do in screenscraper at least for the videos, where I also get bored of the emumovies and API detection failures despite having contributed thousands of alternate names with the intention of using them recursively. I hope that once and for all the database receives improvements that have been necessary for years, I'm tired of seeing how contributors and moderators have to do workarounds for the missing fields and continually fight for things that people want to add and don't have a place specific for it.

well, we are acepting tons of crappy romhacks in the database... if there's interactivity and was released as game, it's valid for me. The gameplay of some FMV games of the 90's it's not much more complex than just choose a path.

My choice is just keep separated the hacks. Aftermarket and homebrew most of the time are legit and good elaborated games, the overwhelming amount of hacks with minor alterations it's something that in my opinion drives me mad.