Fake "Mario" games for Wii, and moderation issues.

[FistyDollars]

Would whoever keeps submitting a bunch of romhacked versions of New Super Mario Bros. for Wii please cut it out? I'm just going to submit them for deletion if they get added.

Also, would the rest of the moderation team please try and do a better job at filtering out games that shouldn't be added? I had to recently weed through a bunch of games that I specifically remember personally rejecting, but were added anyway due to moderators accepting anything that seems vaguely legitimate. Come on guys, if you're not sure, and can't be bothered to check, just hit the Skip button, instead of automatically just accepting. 

[dionymnia]

Do you remember any of the games you rejected and still got added? I try to be pretty conscientious about adding new games (I like the Skip button, since I might not always be sure), but I worry!

[FistyDollars]

The most recent one is "4x4 World Trophy" for Sony PlayStation. There was no entry for it in the db, but googling it would have revealed that it was the European release of Test Drive Off-Road 3, which already was in the db. Biohazard 1, 2, and 3 were approved by others despite my rejection, because no one bothered to see that they were the Japanese names of the Resident Evil series. These are just a couple off the top of my head. There've been quite a few.

[FistyDollars]

I guess my point is this: for most pre-Xbox 360/PS3 consoles, the odds are VERY good that upwards of 98% of all games that existed for that system already have entries in the database. So if someone is submitting a game for that system, there's a high chance that they've overlooked an existing entry. When you see a new game submission like this, be wary. If you're not sure, skip it. We're not foolproof, but we've been doing this for a good while, and we're building on the backs of TheGamesDB, who did it for a fair amount of time.

 

By the way, there is a game from the 8/16-bit era that I've deliberately left un-deleted, just to see if anyone ever catches that it doesn't belong (and also because selfishly, I like it a lot). So far, no one has.

[Cebion]

That's why I said we need internal comments passed from moderation to moderation. So the mods don't miss that.

But it's of course no excuse in the first place...

[dionymnia]

I agree. In fact, I remember accepting the addition of 4X4 World Trophy - it was one of the first moderations I did, and then when I saw the deletion change come through, it made me realize that I needed to be a little more watchful of alternate names for additions like that.

I do think that there could be some use in having the internal comments logged in some way, to give an indication of potential problems. I recognize, however, the concern about moderators being swayed by those comments rather than making their own assessments, kind of a "herd" mentality. If we can trust that moderations are being done in good faith and due diligence, then passing the comments wouldn't be as needed. It's quite a pickle!

[SentaiBrad]

I do believe @Vlansix is working on something like that. It doesn't help that LaunchBox doesn't see the alternate names yet, but it will get there. Just remind the user that it's an alternate, and that the artwork and name can live on the entry that already exists. Don't be afraid to link out to the Guidelines as well. There should also be, or soon to be, in-line Guidelines as well, so Guideline rules will be available during moderation and when adding or editing games.