How can we contribute to the Launchbox Games Database? Beta & Moderator Signups!

[Jason Carr]

Alright! I've opened up moderation for everyone in this thread whose forum email here matches their registration the LaunchBox Games Database. If your email doesn't match, hit me up here with your gamer tag and I'll hook you up.

[Jason Carr]

Also, one more thing I wanted to mention...we've changed the list of image types to be much more extensive: Advertisement Flyer - Back Advertisement Flyer - Front Arcade - Cabinet Arcade - Circuit Board Arcade - Control Panel Arcade - Controls Information Arcade - Marquee Banner Box - 3D Box - Back Box - Front Cart - 3D Cart - Back Cart - Front Clear Logo Disc Fanart - Background Fanart - Box - Back Fanart - Box - Front Fanart - Cart - Back Fanart - Cart - Front Fanart - Disc Screenshot - Game Over Screenshot - Game Select Screenshot - Game Title Screenshot - Gameplay Screenshot - High Scores

[CADScott]

Wow that is great, so many image types, the LaunchBox DB is going to be amazing!

[SentaiBrad]

Yea we spent some time recently and came up with a list of images that would be best to separate out. An added bonus will be the option for Image Ordering to show certain images first then go down the list to fill in holes. I was looking at MAME, and a lot are missing flyers, which I prefer, but I would want screenshots of the title screen to fill in the holes, but there were 14 Screenshots of various parts and not all related. So it might be a bit more confusing but we hope in the long run it will be more beneficial.

[Jason Carr]

Yeah, I think this will really help to improve things across the board. I still need to tweak LaunchBox to support all the various image types, but that is planned for 6.0. We definitely have some stuff in the moderation queue (79 data items at current) so help us moderate, guys! :)

[CADScott]

Would it be possible to add a way to see at a glance what images are missing from items in the database? I would love a way to generate a list of games missing, for example, back of box art so I can then go and find those images to complete a whole lot of games at once. At the moment it is very much a touch a game to see the issues with it process, which can be very slow, and it is easy to miss items.

[CADScott]

Jason Carr said Yeah, I think this will really help to improve things across the board. I still need to tweak LaunchBox to support all the various image types, but that is planned for 6.0. We definitely have some stuff in the moderation queue (79 data items at current) so help us moderate, guys! :)

How does the moderation queue assign to people, my queue is currently empty.

[SentaiBrad]

CADScott said Would it be possible to add a way to see at a glance what images are missing from items in the database? I would love a way to generate a list of games missing, for example, back of box art so I can then go and find those images to complete a whole lot of games at once. At the moment it is very much a touch a game to see the issues with it process, which can be very slow, and it is easy to miss items.

I would think that might be easier to do in LaunchBox, but Jason would have to really chime in there.

[SentaiBrad]

Mines empty too, but I may have approved or rejected all I can.

[Jason Carr]

Yeah, if your queue is empty, it just means that you've already approved or rejected every change yourself. So the remaining items are either changes you've entered yourself, or they're changes that need additional moderation from someone else.

[Jason Carr]

Good idea on finding missing data, @CADScott. We'll look to do that here at some point, though of course we need to finish up editing, moderation, and LaunchBox integration first.

[Jason Carr]

One example of a change in moderation is changing the title for "Arctic Active Rail Playing Game" to "Arctic". It's been moderated 11 times by 11 different people (lol). However, we can't agree on whether to accept the change or not, because some people prefer to keep subtitles like that while others don't want them. So it's been approved by 6 people and rejected by 4 people. Changes are only ever approved or rejected once the approvals are three greater than the rejections, or the rejections are three greater than the approvals at any one time. So that change in particular brings to light our need for some standards and rules. ;)

[Jason Carr]

Looking further, it looks like people are being extremely picky when approving or rejecting changes, which is great. That's exactly what we want, because it means we can achieve extremely high quality with the data. We won't have the problem of items sitting in the queue for too long once we add a lot more moderators, as changes won't take near as long to get approved or rejected. Going forward we're going to add an automated system where you gain moderator status automatically after a certain number of approved changes. This way you to have to prove that you are capable of making quality contributions, while also allowing us to grow the moderator base so that everything is truly community-moderated.

[SentaiBrad]

Jason Carr said One example of a change in moderation is changing the title for "Arctic Active Rail Playing Game" to "Arctic". It's been moderated 11 times by 11 different people (lol). However, we can't agree on whether to accept the change or not, because some people prefer to keep subtitles like that while others don't want them. So it's been approved by 6 people and rejected by 4 people. Changes are only ever approved or rejected once the approvals are three greater than the rejections, or the rejections are three greater than the approvals at any one time. So that change in particular brings to light our need for some standards and rules. ;)

I'm fairly certain we talked about it, and those who chimed in had agreed. We had easily a dozen or so replies on this. However, I will go ahead and draft up something now.

[Jason Carr]

Sounds good, Brad. Yeah, I know that there was lots of discussion on setting up some rules, but I don't think anyone ever put anything concrete together. (I could be wrong, though.)

[CADScott]

Thanks @SentaiBrad, that would be great, many of the items I have moderated have really been questionable in the changes that have been made, and we should have a set of standards for formatting of titles especially. Most of the issues seem to come from sub-titles, and games with odd naming conventions such as Alien 3, which is written with the 3 as a superscript on all box art. Personally I feel the games title should be written as it is on the box, but then this becomes a bit odd for games such as the previously mentioned Arctic: Active Rail Playing Game, I would prefer this to be named Arctic, as the "Active Rail Playing Game" appears to be a sub heading on the box art. I really don't have an issue with whatever naming is selected, but I would like a standard to be decided on and enforced.

[SentaiBrad]

What we discussed previously, and what I am aiming for with the guidelines: What the box says is what the box says. Accuracy and historical accuracy above all else. Obviously Aliens 3 is a unique case, and in that case I think we should allow that to be a regular 3 for scraping purposes. If it's going to throw of the scraping process and make the user have to jump through extra hoops I would say I would rather that be a regular 3 personally. Subtitles I think should be include though.

[CADScott]

I have one little nice to have suggestion for the database, which would be a way to see the items that I have added for submission, and the status of each addition. So for example, under my account a menu item of my submissions, and whether they have been approved or rejected. Ideally I would like to see how many approvals and rejections an item has received, but that is just a very nice to have.

[Jason Carr]

That's actually in the works, Scott. I started it but had to move on because it was taking more time than I expected and isn't the biggest priority. So I'll get back to that soon. :)

[SentaiBrad]

Yea being able to check on item's we've approved and have added I think Jason has planned actually. I think I brought that one up to him too... we talk so much I seriously forget these things. xD That is great though. It can't work for games previously added before moderation and additions, but users being attributed for adding games, adding images and editing entries would be nice to. Maybe a Badge or Achievement system in the long run to encourage additions. Potentially even the ability to have other users "approve" or Thumbs up the current metadata. That could encourage correct data being attained. Badges or Achievements can be rolled in to all aspects of this for more encouragement.