This thread has been mirrored on the mainsite here: https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/forum/t-14210136/tag-request-thread-rework-ii#post-5095144
This is a proposal to revisit certain elements of the tag approval process, including tag standards and the general process of approval. This is a follow-up thread to an earlier thread posted by Rounderhouse, although adjusted to account for input the Tech Team received from the Community and to cover a few other areas of the tag approval process.
This proposal contains the following four points of note:
- Change the process of approval to be more codified and clear for both staff and users who are applying for tags.
- Add an exception to the rules surrounding collapsibles long posts in the forums for the tag approval thread specifically.
- Codify and set article/author minimum and recommended counts for every tag category, as well as define if each category can be requested.
- Define the limits of authorial autonomy when it comes to tags.
Section 1: Codifying the Approval Process
This section, technically speaking, does not require any staff approval and could be put forward by the Tech Team as is. However, we are bringing this up at this time to better explain the process, and make things clearer.
The first change is that the two currently existing tag request threads — the Character Tag Thread and the general Tag Thread — will be condensed into one, singular tag thread. Character tags will no longer have a different approval process under this proposal, and will therefore not need a separate thread.
The second change is who can approve a tag. Currently, the general Tag Thread requires an Operational Staffer on the Tech Team, while the Character Tag Thread requires a Junior Staffer from Tech. This will be changed to discussion by the Team, rather than singular staff members. We currently already use this as the standard for tag approvals, with them discussed by the team as a whole, rather than approved by individual staffers. This sets this expectation in place, and requires us to discuss them rather than approve on an individual basis.
Thirdly, the acting staff member will be required to post a reasoning for why the tag was rejected as a reply to initial request. We currently have been doing this for years, but this has not been officially codified and we are not required to do so. In the interest of transparency, we will be making this a requirement.
Section 2: Collapsibles and Long Posts
This section asks to make tag requests exempt from the rules requiring long forum posts to be placed in a collapsible. The Tech Team uses collapsibles in the thread as a visual short hand to help us organize the thread to see if we have approved or rejected a tag — we will be asking users to not put their tag requests in a collapsible. However, there is currently a rule that will mandate they do so — so we need this rule changed in order to actually ask users to not put tag requests in collapsibles.
Section 3: Article/Author Minimums and Recommendations
This section goes over how many articles and how many authors are required for each tag approval. Many of these tag categories do not have previously defined minimums — these categories have been marked with a ☆ to indicate the minimum for them is brand new. More information on each category can be found here. None of the changes in this section will be applied retroactively.
Regarding the difference between minimums and recommendations, and when they will be used: We will generally tend to use the minimum for new and rising content, and the recommendation for older and stagnant articles. We will always prefer the recommendation and users giving articles that meet the higher benchmark. This is under the idea that new and rising content will eventually meet the recommendation, and a tag approval will help it reach that point. For older articles, it is less likely that they will get more additional articles. The Tech Team reserves the ability to deny tag that meet minimums but do not pass the recommendations for concerns of notability.
As an example: when the vikander-kneed tag was requested, it met the minimums but not requirements. All of the articles for it were under three months old. It then later went on to easily meet the requirements, and was likely helped by the tag. In contrast, a tag for an the author avatar of an old, retired staff member that happens to have 5x3 is unlikely to ever get another article that would qualify for the tag — would likely be rejected for low notability.
In cases where there is no author requirement, the article count is high enough that it is unlikely that one or two authors alone would generate such a volume of a single, new type of content. Therefore, if a single author does meet such a requirement, we can feel comfortable to recognizing that.
- ☆ Top Level, Major Page and Content Markers
- No author or article requirement.
- Additional Information.
- Users are allowed to request such tags, but such tags must be useful.
- This tag will be approved on a case-by-case basis and more stringent than other tags.
- It is not anticipated that any tags in either of these categories will ever be proposed, but users will be allowed to propose them, if they think that there is an applicable tag.
- ☆ Object Class
- 25 articles minimum.
- No author requirement.
- No additional recommendation.
- Additional Information.
- -J articles are not counted against the 25 article minimum.
- The previous standard we had use for this was the same as the attribute tag, however, upon consideration this was deemed somewhat low. Object Class tags are paired with what we officially recognize as an Object Class and has many additional benefits beyond being a regular tag, such as listing the tag on all relevant guides. As such, we want to reduce how often Object Class tags are approved. This raises the Object Class minimum to a difficult but achievable goal.
- SCP Attributes
- 15 articles minimum.
- No author requirement.
- This is unchanged from current standards.
- Groups of Interest, Tale Series, Characters, Locations:
- 5 articles, 3 authors at minimum.
- Recommendation of 10 articles by 5 authors.
- GoI Format
- Users are not allowed to request tags of this category.
- Additional Information:
- (This is a distinct category from Groups of Interest tags.)
- Tags of this category are created automatically upon a GoI Format that corresponds to a GoI with a tag being created, or a tag being approved for a GoI that already has a format that was tagged _other.
- As a note, the name of this format is slightly outdated: location and character tags can also also get a "GoI Format" tag.
- Canon
- 10 articles by 5 users.
- No recommendation.
- Additional Information:
- Given that a tag allows a canon to be listed on the Canon Hub, this will help to limit how many new canons are added to that page. We are using a hard minimum without recommendation to help in this goal.
- ☆ Staff Process
- Users are not allowed to request tags of this category.
- Additional Information:
- This tag may be requested by staff members to assist in their duties.
- It does not require either an article or author requirement.
- ☆ Event
- This section will be placed under the authority of Community Outreach, specifically the Contests Team.
- They are to create at least new tag in this category for every contest, with the ability to create more as needed.
- Users wanting to get a tag for an Event or Unofficial Contest should contact Community Outreach for approval, and then communicate this to Tech to actually process the new tag and add it.
- This section will be placed under the authority of Community Outreach, specifically the Contests Team.
Section 4: Defining Authorial Autonomy
We currently allow authors to veto tags based on content they are responsible for initially developing. This has been set as a hard limit — if the author says no, the tag is blocked. However, this is unpopular and we currently believe that this runs counter to the ideas of the tag system as a whole. Therefore, we are proposing a system in which authors are allowed a veto, but the Tech Team can override the veto if the tag reaches a 20 by 5 standard. This number shows a strong interest in the content and a clear benefit to the tag, but allows us to respect authorial autonomy.
Users are allowed to veto an inclusion an article of theirs being included in a tag request and receiving a new tag when it is an appropriate category. This reduces the article and author count of the proposal.
This is relevant for tags in the Canon, Groups of Interest, Tale Series, Characters, Locations categories. Other categories are not covered under this clause.
This discussion will run for one week. This thread is open to staff of all levels.
Below this post is the intended first post, containing the rules, for the new combined tag thread.
can I get some nice "no signatures on my forum"
sigma-9 css machine broke
understandable have a nice day