The following thread is a purview notice regarding a recent string of vehement behavior from Voct to members of the Critique Team. As a result of these behaviors, the following PM was sent, barring
Voct from future Reviewers' Spotlight features:
The Critique Team has discussed your feature selection. In addition to your behavior towards the staff member handling the features, the author in question is under investigation for potential AI usage. As such, the decision has been made to withdraw your feature.
A timeline of the events in question can be found below:
(Original PM sent by Zyn on May 28th, 2024)
Jun 1st, 2024 (Voct):
Most important question:
by when do you need my choice?
Jun 2nd, 2024 (Zyn):
Before June 23rd please!
Jun 2nd, 2024 (Voct):
And are there any criteria this needs to meet, other than "not been used before"?
Jun 2nd, 2024 (Zyn):
And are there any criteria this needs to meet, other than "not been used before"?
Technically there are no hard restrictions, though I do recommend the following:
- rating of at least +20
- posted to the site in the past 2 years or so
- positive comments in the discussion section
Jun 5th, 2024 (Voct):
Realistically, I'm not going to have my choice ready by the end of June. I've got a ton of reading to do for both the Hugos and the Auroras, and I have a novel that I'm processing for a client, and I've got a houseguest coming at the end of the month which means a ton of cleaning. Can you reschedule me to the end of July?
Jun 5th, 2024 (Zyn):
- Can you reschedule me to the end of July?
I can ask the rest of the team if this is alright; however, doing so would effectively remove one entry from next month's pool of Spotlight nominee slots (typically four per month, but if you were to take the last slot, there would only be three current Spotlights for the month of July). Most likely the answer would be no.
Would it be reasonable to pick something from the pages you recently upvoted? The scpper database should have a record, if a list would be helpful.
Jun 6th, 2024 (Voct)
Would it be reasonable to pick something from the pages you recently upvoted?
the list might be helpful, but probably not in conjunction with "from within the past few years".
Jun 6th, 2024 (Zyn):
- the list might be helpful, but probably not in conjunction with "from within the past few years".
Here is your scpper record: https://scpper.com/user/392303
Would you like me to go through your upvotes from the past four months or so, and find something suitable?
Jun 6th, 2024 (Zyn):
Slight addition for clarity: I would be giving you a shortlist of maybe 3-5 pages from your upvote history, and you can pick which one from those to feature for the Spotlight?
Jun 21st, 2024 (Voct)
- rating of at least +20
- posted to the site in the past 2 years or so
- positive comments in the discussion section
- hasn't been done before
and, i assume, not already very highly rated, like +200, and also not something that has my fingerprints all over it?
No, don't think I can get that done in this amount of time. I'm flattered you chose me, but I will not be able to make a selection. I formally ask that you not make a selection for me on my behalf. If you want me to have a front page entry, give me more lead time.
Also, don't do it in June or July.
Jun 21st, 2024 (Zyn):
- and, i assume, not already very highly rated, like +200, and also not something that has my fingerprints all over it?
High-rated is fine, ideally spotlights would showcase material that people will enjoy reading a lot/many people already have enjoyed reading.
Reviewer involvement with the writing is also fine, as it's a good example to up-and-coming reviewers of what they can accomplish.
- No, don't think I can get that done in this amount of time. I'm flattered you chose me, but I will not be able to make a selection.
There is precedent for this; the current feature will simply carry over until the end of the month. Your name will still be listed in the archive as a recipient for this month's features, and will not have an associated feature.
- I formally ask that you not make a selection for me on my behalf.
Staff never picks Reviewers' Spotlights for reviewers. If you can let me know where you heard that misinformation from, I can address it so no further confusion occurs.
- If you want me to have a front page entry, give me more lead time.
- Also, don't do it in June or July.
As Reviewer Spotlight is chosen on a monthly basis, taking into account a reviewer's activity in the previous given month, the most lead time we can give is one month.
Jun 22nd, 2024 (Voct)
Actually, go with 8045.
Do you want a quote or a brief description or what.
Jun 23rd, 2024 (Zyn):
- Actually, go with 8045.
Okay, I've made a note of the feature selection.
- Do you want a quote or a brief description or what.
If you would like to provide a blurb for the feature to use, you may do so. Generally, the spotlight just uses a sentence from the first part of the work, or the first line of the description in the case of an SCP article.
Jun 24th, 2024 (Voct):
- Staff never picks Reviewers' Spotlights for reviewers. If you can let me know where you heard that misinformation from, I can address it so no further confusion occurs.
a) Zoobeeny, but
b) I genuinely forgot that this had already been addressed, sorry
I do apologize for any hurt feelings
As well, I'm a little disconcerted that the choice of one of Jorge's articles has contributed to the revocation of my spot, as not only is it a genuinely good article, but- as a result of my interactions with him - I believe him when he says he did not use generative AI tools to produce any of his works.
Oh well. Good luck with however things turn out.
The following is a separate interaction from Jun 10th, 2024
<Voct> I've been notified that I've been selected to have the Reviewer's Spotlight feature at the end of this month. There is no way I will be ready to select anything unless I abandon other projects that I refuse to abandon. I would like this to be postponed until next month.
<Voct> I've been told that if I don't supply a choice, one will be made for me; I formally object to this notion.
<Voct> "Pick something from Skipper" - most of those are ones that are already quite highly rated or are old or have already been spotlit or have my fingerprints on them
<Zyn> Hello
"I've been told that if I don't supply a choice, one will be made for me; I formally object to this notion."
As far as I recall, this is not what I asked.
If my memory serves, what I asked was if you would consider selecting from a pool of your recent scpper upvoted pages.
<Voct> "I've been told", which is to say someone on #site19 said that a few minutes ago. If it's a misrepresentation of the situation, okay.
<Zyn> I don't think it was ever stated someone would be picking for you.
However, we cannot just postpone the feature until next month, and I explained the reason for that.
<Voct> I have deadlines.
<Zoobeeny> That'd be my fault. I was under the impression that if no article was chosen by the time the feature was due, then staff would pick an article, not for the user, but would instead attribute the decision to staff similar to how the Featured section works from time to time.
<system> Zoobeeny changed nick to ZooBusy
<Voct> I genuinely value this project, and I don't want to cause problems, but sometimes I just do other things without looking at the wiki for several weeks. What would you have done if I hadn't responded until after the scheduled date?
<Zyn> We would have kept your name on the Spotlight listing, and whichever entry was third would have their feature up until you responded, if ever
that was done in the past at least once; you can look at the Spotlight archives to see exactly which month it occurred in
@Zoobeeny ah, okay. That makes sense
Next time please check with me to confirm. We never have staff pick for Reviewers' Spotlight.
<Voct> I'll look at the Spotlight archives when I have time, which will not be for a while.
<Voct> I want to do this properly, which will take time that I do not currently have.
<Zyn> If you don't have the time, you don't have to pick the feature.
However, we cannot reserve a spot for you next month, as that would effectively be taking it away from another reviewer.
One way it could potentially work is if you receive a nomination next month as well and have a feature in mind by then, in which case you can take one of the four slots no problem (though we generally try not to give back-to-back features)