Why does it take hours or sometimes days for a post or comment with embedded images to get approved?
AisforAndis-ING
Posts: 884 Ambassador
Multiple times over the past few months, Niantic has committed to hiring additional staff to pay better attention to this very forum, but yet as time has gone by and since Casey disappeared, it takes hours, or sometimes even days to get a post approved with an embedded image?
This policy of sending every post or comment with an embedded image to the moderation queue is extremely stupid, because images that are attached (using the paperclip button) instead of directly embedded into the post will get approved instantly without having to get filtered for moderator approval.
When sharing images to the forum, we have the option to embed them and have to possibly wait a day for the post or comment to show up, or we have to attach the image which provides a worse presentation for readers.
Images are a critical part of the wayfarer forum, as screenshots are needed in every category of the appeals section and are generally one of the best ways to provide examples to other users who are seeking advice or asking questions.
It is extremely frustrating to wait hours or days for a simple post or comment to be approved, especially when Niantic employees are active on the forum and seem to ignore this. Niantic, please either get better about checking posts in the moderation queue or remove the restriction on embedded images, which does not exist on other Niantic forums. If unpaid teenage reddit moderators can stay on the top of a moderation queue in a timely fashion, theres really no excuse for why it can't happen here.
Comments
I just want to point out the irony that this post got filtered for hours because I edited out a typo shortly after posting this several hours ago. The filtering is ridiculous.
Sometimes I've seen also that I post something and it's sent to review although the post doesn't include any image or it has been edited.
Weirdly, from what I can tell, the ingress forums don't need reviewing
You’re right @gazzas89-PGO Ingress Forum allows you to post an image without any moderation. Here and Harry Potter: Wizards Unite forums you need approval.
Want to add that i too hate this... Discussions change completely by the time your post with a photo get approved. Sometimes you lose your post for editing which is dumb because you can just repost the same thing... But annoying when it's a very long message and you have to go through your thought process again.
This exactly. It's been over 24 hours since I've posted something for approval but it is STILL NOT live. For a global, 24/7 game, Niantic staff definitely sleeping over the weekend.
And sometimes we don't even have a picture and it goes to the review queue. It's hard to understand, I have one pending right now and it doesn't have any pictures.
I added a question about this topic to the September AMA post. Make sure to give it a like and maybe we can finally get this resolved:
cc: @WheelTrekker-ING @gazzas89-PGO @PkmnTrainerJ-ING @Roli112-PGO @HaramDingo-ING @XiaoXinCN01-ING @aleprj-PGO
It's not just with embedded images. I had a comment not show up in the AMA for hours, so I assumed I'd clicked at the wrong place or something, and re-wrote it. Came in the next morning to find both notes showing up. Too late to edit. I'm sorry about that!
My first post dud initially appear in the thread - with an innocuous word censored. So I edited to add a space in it. Then the comment was gone, for hours. I thought: why didn't they tell us there are rules against trying to fix a censored term? Now I think: maybe it had to go thru a censor, who wasn't working until Monday morning?
I'm glad you linked it there, but asking for a Wayforum feature that @NianticCasey-ING reported to "looking into" years ago shouldn't need an AMA.
@NianticTintino any chance you can look into this sooner? Or maybe at least turn of the approval requirement for users with level 3+. It's been ridiculous at times and is frankly insulting.
Bump @NianticGiffard @NianticTintino
The forum definitely could use more moderation attention. Several fairly egregious violations have recently stayed up for hours or, in at least one case, days. Between that and the image and edit approvals, the demand exists.
Gonna keep bumping this until we get a resolution @NianticTintino
Also, so many things are posted here in the General forum, that should be in some other forum. If we had active moderation, they could move things to the correct forum quickly. Then the General forum wouldn't be so exhausting. So many posts we can't do anything about, then highlighted for each response. Ugh.
Raising this post from the dead because it's absolutely stupid that an "aspiring wayfinder" can just type outright expletives in plain sight can have that fester unmoderated whereas constructive images from established, long-time 5* wayfinders still have to go through moderation.
You moderate yourselves straight to tiredness because there is so much that doesn't even need to be moderated. You are creating useless, tiring work for yourselves. Moderate people's first posts that you're likely to just end up closing based on the content of the discussion.
I recently added one character to my existing comment and it went into review. But somehow a newbie can write "f*ckers" and it's posted without review and it's on the front page for one day for everyone to see. That's just not right
oh wow! this is an old thread. and they still haven't done anything about it. :')
This feature is so annoying. I'm always paranoid to correct a single spelling mistake in my posts because of the chance fixing a single letter will send it to edit limbo for hours or days.
I wonder if it’s an issue of trust? Agents on Ingress forums can post images, no problem. No moderation needed.
Wayfarers? Nah, can’t trust ‘em. No images without approval. 😆
Moderation happens faster Monday to Friday from 8AM to 5PM Pacific Time, on days that aren't holidays in the U.S. There is some moderation in non-business hours, but it's slower.
It's still ridiculous. But it was asked: why does moderation sometimes happen quickly, and other times takes a long time. So I thought I'd give what answer I have. Beware posting a picture on Friday night of a holiday weekend.
I agree that it's especially weird that you can have a comment or reply out there for a while - but when you edit, even a little edit - it disappears (waiting moderation).
It is indeed ridiculous.
The amount of times I have edit to change a single letter typo and then seen the post disappear and have to shout 'doh'.
Maybe is a limitation of the Vanilla forum software being used? Can filter new posts but can't filter edits? (Similar to word filters on submissions but not if you edit the submissions with that word in wayfarer after)
So might be to stop people posting something that passes then editing to something bad, moderating edits could be a workaround.
Allowing users with x amount of posts, maybe over x amount of time would be beneficial to give moderators less work and allow regulars less hassle.
If users are restricted to X amount of posts a day, then maybe just an X amount of posts = no auto moderation.
Either option stops troublemakers spamming lots of posts to reach the amount needed.
Incidentally I edited a post today just after posting it and it didn't disappear. So assume something has changed
If I edit something a buncha times in the first few minutes, it disappears into review. Like: no, I meant to say THIS. No, I meant to say THAT. No, it was better how I first worded it!
I can post a comment without the approval process, but if I edit the comment to add one word it immediately goes into Review. Why?