Moderator Guidelines and Contributor Rules

[Robin55]

3 hours ago, Mr. RetroLust said:

Glad you like them bro  Got 5.099 images left to manually upload lol it's an insane hobby we have. When there are multiple images for one category and/or region they will simply have a -01 and -02 etc. behind the image filename when scraped to your pc, launchbox/bigbox then randomizes the images to show.

Hi @Mr. RetroLust I assume it's the Arcade Boxes you made that you are uploading? You should ask @Jason Carr to clear out all my old 3D Boxes for the Arcade that I uploaded a long time ago. I'm fine with it, Yours are far better. It would also mean you could use the plugin to add your boxes and you should get through them much quicker.

[Mr. RetroLust]

20 minutes ago, Robin55 said:

Hi @Mr. RetroLust I assume it's the Arcade Boxes you made that you are uploading? You should ask @Jason Carr to clear out all my old 3D Boxes for the Arcade that I uploaded a long time ago. I'm fine with it, Yours are far better. It would also mean you could use the plugin to add your boxes and you should get through them much quicker.

Hey pal! Thanks for the tips, I am hesitant to use the plugin as I saw too many duplicate images or mistakes that where made with it, on the other hand I haven't tried it myself yet, do you need to use the plugin with a complete library of the games in your launchbox or can you use it directly with a folder of images and the website database? I also have missing flyers and other artwork to upload. I have deleted the complete mame list I had as I thought I wouldn't have to use it anymore lol so I only have my own collection left which is a trimmed collection so not sure I can use the plugin. The way I do it now is really secure as I see now that the names of the database entries are quite different from the image filenames many times as well, needing human brain to sort them instead of Ai/plugin/script so to speak, though it will take me quite some time to do it this way. Is that possible @Jason Carr to remove his boxes or would you also delete any other image in the 3D box category that way? I don't mind overwriting the boxes from now on, if the moderators are ok with it though. Thanks again for everything @Robin55! 

[Robin55]

It will of course always be that more secure to add them without the plugin, and no you can't add them from a folder as far as I know. But yeah just overwrite my boxes.

[Jason Carr]

21 minutes ago, Mr. RetroLust said:

Hey pal! Thanks for the tips, I am hesitant to use the plugin as I saw too many duplicate images or mistakes that where made with it, on the other hand I haven't tried it myself yet, do you need to use the plugin with a complete library of the games in your launchbox or can you use it directly with a folder of images and the website database? I also have missing flyers and other artwork to upload. I have deleted the complete mame list I had as I thought I wouldn't have to use it anymore lol so I only have my own collection left which is a trimmed collection so not sure I can use the plugin. The way I do it now is really secure as I see now that the names of the database entries are quite different from the image filenames many times as well, needing human brain to sort them instead of Ai/plugin/script so to speak, though it will take me quite some time to do it this way. Is that possible @Jason Carr to remove his boxes or would you also delete any other image in the 3D box category that way? I don't mind overwriting the boxes from now on, if the moderators are ok with it though. Thanks again for everything @Robin55! 

Sadly I don't have any tools to mass-remove Robin55's boxes. But I'm definitely good with the upgrades/replacements. Thanks Lust.

[neil9000]

25 minutes ago, Jason Carr said:

Sadly I don't have any tools to mass-remove Robin55's boxes. But I'm definitely good with the upgrades/replacements. Thanks Lust.

Im sort of sad to see them go, as they are what i used for a long time, as @Robin55 knows, so thanks for all the hard work there, it really was appreciated. I have to say though, i'm now using @Mr. RetroLust ones instead, so if they are available on the database then thats great.  

[Robin55]

Thanks @neil9000 it did take a long time to upload them alright! But Lusts boxes are far better.

[Mr. RetroLust]

I have the same sad feeling and the knowledge now how much work has gone into it, but didn't want to be seen as a softy about it lol They will still be available through Emumovies, so all work is not lost and still a choice to be have 

[Thanatos_Prime]

6 hours ago, Mr. RetroLust said:

Glad you like them bro  Got 5.099 images left to manually upload lol it's an insane hobby we have. When there are multiple images for one category and/or region they will simply have a -01 and -02 etc. behind the image filename when scraped to your pc, launchbox/bigbox then randomizes the images to show.

Wowzers, thank you for doing this and for the information, this will certainly change how I'm doing things and make my input a little less frustrating for others. Thanks again.

[Mr. RetroLust]

7 minutes ago, Thanatos_Prime said:

Wowzers, thank you for doing this and for the information, this will certainly change how I'm doing things and make my input a little less frustrating for others. Thanks again.

And thank you for moderating brother! Your question did provoke a thought for me though; When I upload a flyer with for example german text I will (if I dont forget) mark it as german, even though the game itself doesnt have to be german so it can be a bit unclear indeed. The whole arcade section can be a bit confusing, I saw someone reject a box for Astro Boy (if I remember the name right) as it had Wily Tower as a title on the front and spine but in fact it was one of many different region names so the box was for the correct entry. Most confusing one is Bomberman, bomberman in japan, dynablaster in europe and atomic punk in the US. I just hope the mods will trust my homework lol

[Mr. RetroLust]

Phew, I just finally finished uploading and replacing all 3D boxes, added loads missing flyers, artwork and logo's, added color corrected flyers, added missing games to the database, corrected info etc. I think in total an amount of 5500 images added/replaced. @Jason Carr Maybe you like to feature it for a next release so people know there's loads of new images to be scraped for arcade/mame if you like. Now I'll be taking a week rest before continuing the arcade cabinet 2.0 project.

[rlm82x]

Question about images - it's been almost a year since I last participated so am a little rusty. Unfortunately the guidelines document (Google Drive link) seems to have been deleted so can only ask for guidance here . My moderation queue has a lot of Spectrum cassettes that someone has obviously spent time creating. I don't know whether it's right to approve them regardless of the effort put into them, they are definitely out of proportion (squashed in horizontally - I'd say about 25%). I have 'skipped for 24hrs' three times so can only assume others are doing the same as they are still in the moderation queue. Here's an example and I appreciate a view on this (respect the creators efforts and approve, or respect quality and accuracy and reject):

[neil9000]

3 minutes ago, rlm82x said:

Question about images - it's been almost a year since I last participated so am a little rusty. Unfortunately the guidelines document (Google Drive link) seems to have been deleted so can only ask for guidance here . My moderation queue has a lot of Spectrum cassettes that someone has obviously spent time creating. I don't know whether it's right to approve them regardless of the effort put into them, they are definitely out of proportion (squashed in horizontally - I'd say about 25%). I have 'skipped for 24hrs' three times so can only assume others are doing the same as they are still in the moderation queue. Here's an example and I appreciate a view on this (respect the creators efforts and approve, or respect quality and accuracy and reject):

Well this is a personal opinion here, but i say allow them if there are no cassette images for those games. While i would personally prefer them in the correct aspect ratio ideally, i would still take a image of that ratio over having no image at all. So if there is already a good correct image i say reject it, but if the game doesnt have any cassette image at all i would say that these ones would be preferable to none at all.

[rlm82x]

4 minutes ago, neil9000 said:

Well this is a personal opinion here, but i say allow them if there are no cassette images for those games. While i would personally prefer them in the correct aspect ratio ideally, i would still take a image of that ratio over having no image at all. So if there is already a good correct image i say reject it, but if the game doesnt have any cassette image at all i would say that these ones would be preferable to none at all.

Thanks Neil9000, that was my gut feeling too. Having a Mod agree makes me happy to do that.

Do you know if the Moderators Guidelines are going to be re-added? I've seen a few instances of things I've rejected [based on the 'add new game' hint guidance] still get through (eg, changing [Genesis] Madden NFL 96 to Madden 96, or changing an earlier release date to the NTSC-U date); this is why I took a few weeks off last time (those few weeks turned into a year though). I bookmarked them all and checked later, reversing the changes (giving explanations in my change submission for other moderators to make their decision on), but it does seem that there are more people (on average) approving database changes without verification ?

[neil9000]

6 minutes ago, rlm82x said:

(eg, changing [Genesis] Madden NFL 96 to Madden 96,

Those should be added as a additional name not replacing the original name.

 

7 minutes ago, rlm82x said:

changing an earlier release date to the NTSC-U date

The database is US based in nature so the US release date would make sense to me, the Earlier release (which of course is usually JAP) should be added to games with a different Japanese name in my opinion.

[rlm82x]

Agreed on the title/alternative title.

I'm obviously confused about this GamesDB. When you hover over the question mark for release date when adding a new game, it states that it should be the earliest date it was released; I had thought the guidelines used to make a point that this wouldn't necessarily be the US release date and should be the earliest. The closest to a country bias the database had (regardless of where unbroken software is based) was when selecting the main title of the game if different in every region - this, to my recollection, was the only time a bias towards a US dataset was in effect. I also thought that we weren't to add as different games for international releases, rather add them as title variations?

From what you've said, has this changed (or have I always misunderstood)?

Does this mean I am accepting/rejecting incorrectly (as these data-points aren't subjective)? Would appreciate guidance as I've made a lot of changes over the last few years in complete contrast to what you say and will happily go back through my history and reset them all to the US release data points, remove alternative Jap/EU titles I added and add them again as separate games if that is where the database is now heading. Sorry if I've been doing this wrong all this time.

[Belgarath]

The earliest date should be used. No disrespect to Neil but he's a forum mod, he doesn't moderate the database as far as I know.

It's definitely not seperate entries for seperate regions, unless that the changes are so great it could be treated as a seperate game but even that's subjective.

[neil9000]

2 minutes ago, Belgarath said:

The earliest date should be used. No disrespect to Neil but he's a forum mod, he doesn't moderate the database as far as I know.

It's definitely not seperate entries for seperate regions, unless that the changes are so great it could be treated as a seperate game but even that's subjective.

Yep fair enough, i am a moderator on the database also, but i dont have time to participate much as i have my hands full with the forums.  

[rlm82x]

1 hour ago, Belgarath said:

The earliest date should be used. No disrespect to Neil but he's a forum mod, he doesn't moderate the database as far as I know.

It's definitely not seperate entries for seperate regions, unless that the changes are so great it could be treated as a seperate game but even that's subjective.

Thanks Eternal Man ?

1 hour ago, neil9000 said:

Yep fair enough, i am a moderator on the database also, but i dont have time to participate much as i have my hands full with the forums.  

Sorry for going off on a tangent then! Cheers

[Thanatos_Prime]

On 4/29/2019 at 6:15 AM, neil9000 said:

Well this is a personal opinion here, but i say allow them if there are no cassette images for those games. While i would personally prefer them in the correct aspect ratio ideally, i would still take a image of that ratio over having no image at all. So if there is already a good correct image i say reject it, but if the game doesnt have any cassette image at all i would say that these ones would be preferable to none at all.

I eventually rejected the cassette images. They were submitted as real cart images, were squashed looking as mentioned as well as having the template itself look malformed (the top cuts should be laying flat on the top of the cassette ) and were uploaded for a bunch of games that already had media images. Someone had obviously put a bunch of time into them, so that's unfortunate and I felt a bit of a hypocrite declining them while simultaneously approving a bunch of SNES boxes, also purported to be real box fronts where the user was "fixing the Nintendo seal to the correct one", but that was my choice.

[Belgarath]

The amount of fake images masquerading as real images in appalling. I expect a lot of people don't really care as their main focus is making LaunchBox look pretty, but for a proper gaming database (which is what the LaunchBox one is meant to be) it's not right. Jason added several fanart image types for the database, so if you're going to upload something like that then please mark it properly.

Thanks Thantatos for rejecting those.